D&D General My Problem(s) With Halflings, and How To Create Engaging/Interesting Fantasy Races

[Mind of tempest]

It's interesting that genasi are so popular (7th place). They're the only race in the top ten that have never appeared in a PHB.

cool elemental powers but otherwise human.

I agree, D&D benefits from the popularity of Tolkien movies, where the Hobbit has a meaningful contribution to the Tolkien setting.

But. In the context of D&D settings, the Halfling Hobbit is too Human and contributes little or nothing to the design space.

It isnt that Halfling lacks glamor or weirdness. A cute lineage that likes coziness might be interesting in its own way. It is that the Halfling lineage is redundant with a cute Human that likes coziness.

variants better for settings have been done but mostly in asian MMOs for some reason maybe they found an audience out there?

I find Halfling is to one generation to what high fantastical martial arts is to one generation

which gen is which?

You could just as easily reverse that, to be fair. What would change if Dakaan was an ancient Halfling empire?

well, they would have a history for starters.

 

[FrozenNorth]

You could just as easily reverse that, to be fair. What would change if Dakaan was an ancient Halfling empire?

Stairs would be a lot closer together. Short jokes would be punishable by death.

 

[clearstream]

Not to derail, but I don't think that's quite right, because his views and way of life only partially line up with those of the hobbits, and he doesn't have every trait of theirs in an extreme form - or even many. Tom is basically, a straight-up return-to-nature utopian anarchist. He thus represents something more extreme than the hobbits, and which doesn't match up with the frequent small-minded-ness, xenophobia (not so much in the Fellowship hobbits, but certainly hobbits as a whole), and so on. He's lived free since the dawn of time, and he wants to continue to live free. Tolkien himself expressed strong anarchist sympathies (much as that may shock people). In letter 52 to his son, he specifically calls himself an Anarchist and also offers support for what would today be regarded as luddite terrorism (workers dynamiting factories etc.).

Sounds right. It may even have been Tolkien subliminally injecting himself into his world.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Stairs would be a lot closer together. Short jokes would be punishable by death.

For sure! And the food would be great!

 

[Krachek]

I agree, D&D benefits from the popularity of Tolkien movies, where the Hobbit has a meaningful contribution to the Tolkien setting.

But. In the context of D&D settings, the Halfling Hobbit is too Human and contributes little or nothing to the design space.

It isnt that Halfling lacks glamor or weirdness. A cute lineage that likes coziness might be interesting in its own way. It is that the Halfling lineage is redundant with a cute Human that likes coziness.

For design space hobbits don’t have to take any space. You can on the fly assume that there can be a small hobbits community between two kingdom, that they have not contribute to any political or warfare events, until that player decide to play a hobbit.

 

[Cadence]

For sure! And the food would be great!

One of the kids in the game I'm running for my 11yo and his friends is a halfling, so I mentioned food a couple times early and he jumped on it. The kobold they have traveling with them decided the halfling-prepared food was certainly worth giving up whatever (evil dragonborn led) dragon-cult-work he had been doing before and is very loyal, it got the halfling in as cook on the pirate ship they needed to become crew on, and it throws in lots of random background descriptive stuff.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I agree, D&D benefits from the popularity of Tolkien movies, where the Hobbit has a meaningful contribution to the Tolkien setting.

But. In the context of D&D settings, the Halfling Hobbit is too Human and contributes little or nothing to the design space.

It isnt that Halfling lacks glamor or weirdness. A cute lineage that likes coziness might be interesting in its own way. It is that the Halfling lineage is redundant with a cute Human that likes coziness.

I think a lot of people underestimate how big deal being small is (pun intended.) It definitely changes the feel of the species and being smaller than everyone else would affect how they behave and relate to the world. Personally If I wanted to play a halfling, playing (even a short) human that likes coziness* wouldn't cut it.

* Though I prefer my halflings to be more adventurous, inquisitive and kendery rather than hobbity homebodies. (I can do this with a gnome as well, as I said earlier, it doesn't really matter as they're so similar.)

 

[Tonguez]

I'll take halflings over 90% + of the PC races that have been introduced to the game after 1e including Aasimir, Tieflings, Dragonborn, Genasai, Shadar-kai- all of which I find uninteresting. Then agai, if I had my way, most of my campaigns would be human only.

Yeah I cut those too. I agree none of those are of interest too me. Ironically though where Halfling is too bland, the ones above are too specific for my liking,
But then I’ve done games where Elfs and Dwarf have been cut too,

 

[Yaarel]

For design space hobbits don’t have to take any space. You can on the fly assume that there can be a small hobbits community between two kingdom, that they have not contribute to any political or warfare events, until that player decide to play a hobbit.

When I think of a setting, I think in terms of "foreground" and "background". The foreground is the minimalist essence that defines the setting and sets the tone. The foreground includes which characters are the main characters, which lineages are the main lineages, which places are the main places. How do these fundamental elements of the story interrelate to each other? There is no room to waste space.

The background is different, any thing could be there out in the periphery.

The Players Handbook puts the Halfling front-and-center among the four lineages in the foreground. Compared to the Human, Elf, and Dwarf, the Halfling needs to be pruned to make the foreground tighter.

 

[Yaarel]

I think a lot of people underestimate how big deal being small is (pun intended.) It definitely changes the feel of the species and being smaller than everyone else would affect how they behave and relate to the world. Personally If I wanted to play a halfling, playing (even a short) human that likes coziness* wouldn't cut it.

* Though I prefer my halflings to be more adventurous, inquisitive and kendery rather than hobbity homebodies. (I can do this with a gnome as well, as I said earlier, it doesn't really matter as they're so similar.)

Sounds like "kids on bikes".