D&D General why do we have halflings and gnomes?

[steeldragons]

I mean in media in general even very d&D inspired fantasy the halfling and gnomes get left out alot.
plus the more realitic takes on them are identical to yours the small folk hid or get used as slaves.

no great cultures to call on for them nothing like a history of months.

Well, for that, mostly, you can point the finger at the Tolkien estate. Since any D&D legit rendition of a Halfling, with hairy-topped feet, country gentleman, or even (probably) shadow-lurking rogue, is going to be seen (and potentially sued) as an infringement on the copyright and intellectual property.

Gnomes...eh, they get used sometimes. The D&D cartoon of the 80's, for example, used little, bearded, gnomish people (though I don't know if they were ever identified as gnomes, but they were definitely not the D&D -or even tolkien- imagination of dwarves. I don't think elves, even, ever had so much as an appearance in the cartoon. There was a sprite... once, I think). The aforementioned fantasy film classic, Willow, had a very gnomish portrayal of some of the "Pech" people. I think the Wizard of Oz's "Munchkins" always struck me as having a very gnomish feel to them (though at the time of the book's writing, or filming for that matter, D&D was some decades away). "Time Bandits," the Smurfs, the little folk in the film "Legend" had a very Gnome feel to them (I don't recall if they were ever identified as "dwarf" or "gnome" in the film). Various incarnations of Snow White (particularly those newer "Huntsmen" movies) have had very gnome-like renditions of the "Dwarf" characters, I think.

Have there been many RECENT media appearances by small folk in fantasy works? Have there been distinctly "D&D"or "Pathfinder" projects, 3-4-5e materials? No. None of that. Mostly because the fantasy oxygen of the past couple of decades was entirely consumed between LotR (and blech Hobbit trilogy) and Harry Potter. Then Hollywood fell into a Superhero-Comic Books black hole (not that I'm complaining. Love them!) That "Merlin" tv show was doing ok for a minute. Some other television or Netflix things that are more knights/kings/castles and battlefields -"Vikings," "Black Sails," "The Outlaw King," and the like, that either go for a "historic" type of fantasy from our actual Earth, or if in a fantasy world, as "real" a world as possible. So, there hasn't really been anything D&D or even "magic land/medieval medium to high-fantasy" for a while. "The Witcher," and "Game of Thrones" were probably the most D&Dish: one heavily uses "sorcery is real" and one was centered around dragons and undead. Apparently, there's something now call "Cursed" in Netflix that's doing pretty well (I'll have to check it out.), another retelling/reimagining/umpteenth version of Arthurian legend. Given it's Arthurian I wouldn't expect to see gnomes or halflings in there...but certain faerie folks, maybe. I have no idea how "sorcery/magic is a real thing" the series goes.

Long story long, it's all the Tolkien Estates' fault.

 

[Oofta]

I now want to make a world that has an empire run by halflings. The big races could be their slaves, seen as inferior because they're big and clumsy, and thus easy to keep track of.

 

[Charlaquin]

I mean in media in general even very d&D inspired fantasy the halfling and gnomes get left out alot.

I don’t think any more or less often than other common fantasy races do. Writers like to make their fantasy settings stand out, and removing or reinterpreting a common race is one way of trying to accomplish that goal.

plus the more realitic takes on them are identical to yours the small folk hid or get used as slaves.
no great cultures to call on for them nothing like a history of months.

So? They don’t need great cultures to be interesting. In fact, the lack thereof is part of what sets them apart. You may not find them interesting because of that, and that’s fine. But a lot of people do, so clearly your assessment that “authors don’t find them as inspiring” is wrong. You don’t find them inspiring. Don’t project your disinterest onto others.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Dragons like snack food, too.

 

[tetrasodium]

A lot of people have mentioned the cliche tolkein with serial numbers filed off elves & dwarves negatively, but that's another area where looking outside FR really opens the door to new & interesting societies.

In darksun you have dwarves that shed the mines & beards for other stuff & elves that are mostly nomadic herders or raiders but extremely different which elves of athas gets into. Someone better versed in darksun than me might be able to summarize the relevant groups better than I.

In eberron dwarves were always pegged as different but not really well described beyond some scattered hints till rising came out. Now they have the dwarves of house Kundarak who are basically bankers & security folks who will be happy to charge you to secure your home & possessions with the latest in wards vaults & so on as one group. A second & distinct group are the dwarves of

Spoiler: The Mror holds

Spoiler: There be no Tolkein here

Then there are the dwarves that are just regular people who have a lot in common with the other regular people of whatever city country or whatever they live in. A Karrnathi farmer who happens to be a dwarf prpbably has more in common with a karrnathi ogre elf or human who happens to be a smith than a dwarf from the mror holds or a house Kundarak dwarf not from Karrnath.

The elves of eberron break down into a few distinct groups & I'm not going to get into an exhaustive list when there are better places to start that, but the most distinctive ones are the mark of shadow (house Phiarlan & Thuranni), the Aerenal, & vaelenar elves. The two mark of shadow houses split for political reasons during the last war (think ww1/ww2ish) but are similar groups of folks who specialize in magical hollywood type stuff... oh yea spying & sometimes assassination too. The Aerenal elves have a continent sized nation & very much have an ancestor reverance thing going on except they do it by keeping the most important ones around through a special type of undeath powered by willing sacrifice & positive energy called deathless. The Vaelenar elves are pretty much one part mongol hoard riders one part klingon one part mercenaries & also revere their ancestors but in a different way that involves trying to relive the life of one.

D&D has versions of every race that don't describe like a gaggle of Tolkein extras, you just usually won't find them in FR.

 

[Michael Linke]

Every single culture actively discourages adventuring. It's an insanely dangerous thing to do. It's always been for mavericks, those with little to lose, or those who have a huge point to prove.

In my setting, at least, lords actively encourage adventuring because offering the occasional bounty is cheaper than keeping standing armies on constant patrol.

Both elves and dwarves (as written in D&D) are culturally disinclined to become adventurers. Elves out of an aversion to mixing with "lesser" races, dwarves out of a strong culture of responsibility to family and clan. Indeed, the vast majority of the population of any fantasy world is disinclined to adventure - worlds have far more farmers than they do adventurers.

That means pretty much all* adventurers are misfits and outsiders, who band together because they have more in common with each other than with typical members of their own race.



*There are a smattering of exceptional races, such as tabaxi, for whom adventuring is normal, and some who, like half elves, half orcs and tieflings that are born outsiders and have little choice.

Consider the type of setting the original editions of D&D described. Societies with early renaissance technology recovering from some unspecified dark age, expanding civilization into dangerous wildlands full of monsters that would raid the borderlands if you let them. In that kind of setting, the local governments would probably do everything they could to encourage adventurers. It would be not unlike early US efforts to encourage pioneers to settle western territories, especially given older editions' transition toward land-ownership and domain management at higher levels. If the campaign's rulers are doing a good job, adventuring is the MOST socially acceptable thing someone could do. I guess where rulers aren't doing a good job, cynicism would set in and turn people off to the idea.

Modern D&D, on the other hand (other than 4th edition) seems to prefer settings with strong, established governments and mostly civilized maps, so in that sense, i could see adventurers being treated as troublemakers by governments in the modern D&D play-style.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Gnomes are basically elves that are actually interested in the world around them.

(Seriously, when you think of a normal day in the life of an elf, what do you imagine them doing beyond staring moodily into the middle distance? Or humming gently while staring wistfully into the middle distance?)

 

[Michael Linke]

Gnomes are basically elves that are actually interested in the world around them.

(Seriously, when you think of a normal day in the life of an elf, what do you imagine them doing beyond staring moodily into the middle distance? Or humming gently while staring wistfully into the middle distance?)

Telling the young races what the world was like "back in my day" with literally no context.

Like, if you think about LotR, the events of the second age were thousands of years ago. The elves just happen to have been alive at the time it happened. Imagine being a general trying to prepare your european country's defense in World War II, and some elf shows up to tell you how really, this whole conflict is because of a war that happened in ancient Rome, and the only way to win WWII is to find Julius Caesar's necklace and throw it in Mt Vesuvius.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Telling the young races what the world was like "back in my day" with literally no context.

Like, if you think about LotR, the events of the second age were thousands of years ago. The elves just happen to have been alive at the time it happened. Imagine being a general trying to prepare your european country's defense in World War II, and some elf shows up to tell you how really, this whole conflict is because of a war that happened in ancient Rome, and the only way to win WWII is to find Julius Caesar's necklace and throw it in Mt Vesuvius.

"Can someone please keep Elrond out of the liquor cabinet???!!! We're trying to win a war here."

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

"A gnome with a crossbow can't be a serious menace at all!, are you kidding?"

Tywin Lannister​

* Little humanoids in action-live productions need more FXs and this means spending more money, but the things can be different with cartoons and CGI animation.

* How many times have you played a no-typecasted rogue halfling or illusionist gnome? (and not only that ranger halfling from the comic "the order of the stick") Can the gnome in the tabletop game to be decen no-illusionist spellcasters? When a halfling or gnome PC wearing a medium or heavy armor?

I imagine halflings with child faces, like the flaxen intruder (human berseker from Magic: the Gathering/Throne of Eldraine), with a piece of cuteness and beauty, but not too much to be the wet dream of those pervent people who read hentai about lolitas.

* I miss the springgans, the evil cousins of the gnomes with the power to change their size, as the duergars. Half-springgans as PC race could be good barbarians.

* What about to change the class features about heavy and medium armour with other feat for little PCs? for example a swashbuckler or an archivist (divine spellcaster without armor).