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

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Don't forget that winged elves (called "avariel") appeared in the oft-maligned PHBR8 The Complete Book of Elves (affiliate link).

That's right. I think they probably got buried along with most of the rest of that book, with only the bladesingers crawling out of the grave.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Does anyone who wants halflings to have more/better lore have concrete examples of that? I know everyone has grievances with each other, but that doesn't really address the base issue and what the OP was theoretically originally about.

What would you do to make halflings worth adding to your campaign/playing? (If it's "nothing, they're good," that's fine -- we don't need to revisit how the people who think otherwise are terrible people with bad haircuts.)

 

[Garthanos]

I love winged humanoids ever since the Elric of Melnibone stories...

 

[Micah Sweet]

I SO want stats for this for my Candlekeep Mysteries book.

Elves sustain their long lives by devouring the histories of other races. I LOVE that idea.



I have no problems with that.

If it wasn't clear before, I have zero interest in "tradition". Changing things does not bother me in the slightest, usually. And certainly refusing to change things simply because that's the way it was done before is the bane of existence.

I would point out though that @Chaosmancer has claimed that I "went further". Not really. My point has always been that the PHB should reflect what people are actually playing, not what a handful of grognards think it should be. The fact that the newer races, like tiefling and dragonborn immediately shot to the top of the list is evidence, I believe, that people are not all that interested in the "Tolkien" races anymore. Folks are ready for D&D to embrace ALL fantasy, not just fantasy written the better part of a hundred years ago or more.

Yes, I accept that Tolkien and Howard and the greats of the genre are all owed a great debt of gratitude. I get that. Totally agree. We wouldn't be where we are today without them. But, that gratitude shouldn't mean that we must never change the game and must remain tied to the choices Gygax and Co made fifty years ago for what to include in the "standard races". The genre and the hobby has changed in the intervening 50 years. We cut our teeth on Tolkien and Howard. Todays gamer cut their teeth on Rawlings and Martin.

Martin doesn't really have much to do with nonhuman races, unless you count the Others (clearly antagonistic monsters) or the Children of the Forest (virtually extinct and the stuff of legend).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Todays gamer cut their teeth on Rawlings and Martin.

I'd go further: Today's gamers cut their teeth on the Harry Potter movies and the Game of Thrones TV show, both of which differ from the books (especially in the case of GRRM) and many of them haven't read what was thought of as the geek canon even a decade ago. They have a very different framing for fantasy, largely informed by videogames and television, and it's no more correct or incorrect than us old farts wanting to see magic look more like it did in A Wizard of Earthsea (my wizard school novel as a kid).

 

[Hussar]

Maybe? Or maybe it's just the way the wind is blowing when they gather the numbers? I'd like to have seen a ranking of all races, I'm curious where genasi are now.

But you may be on to something, half-elf, tiefling and half-orcs are all to a certain degree outcasts that don't fit in anywhere. It's a pretty common sentiment for younger people.

And, really, to be completely fair, we're all operating on very limited information. Presumably WotC has information over time of what races are being played. I'd love to see that.

 

[Don Durito]

I'd go further: Today's gamers cut their teeth on the Harry Potter movies and the Game of Thrones TV show, both of which differ from the books (especially in the case of GRRM) and many of them haven't read what was thought of as the geek canon even a decade ago. They have a very different framing for fantasy, largely informed by videogames and television, and it's no more correct or incorrect than us old farts wanting to see magic look more like it did in A Wizard of Earthsea (my wizard school novel as a kid).

But what about computer games and anime? D&D and mainstream fantasy have really drifted along way apart.

 

[Yaarel]

you assume elves sweat, they are far more likely to do temperature exchange by a sub subconscious magical process.

That is what the Prestidigitation cantrip is for! The 5e wording for this spell is awkward, but then I interpret "clean" maximally to include shave and haircut, plus Legolas-level immaculateness.

 

[Garthanos]

than us old farts wanting to see magic look more like it did in A Wizard of Earthsea (my wizard school novel as a kid).

With you on that one... though there are elements of the other sources floating around in this old noggin and I also appreciate the newer stuff as well.

 

[Hussar]

Martin doesn't really have much to do with nonhuman races, unless you count the Others (clearly antagonistic monsters) or the Children of the Forest (virtually extinct and the stuff of legend).

Agreed but missing the point. I mean, Howard has very little to do with non-human races too yet we always seem to point back to him for inspiration for D&D. My point is that, as @Whizbang Dustyboots noted, the inspirations for the PHB were done in the 1970's and drawn from what was popular in fantasy at that time. It's 50 years later. There have been more fantasy novels written in the 21st century than were written in the 20th. By a pretty wide margin. What some 25 year old gamer draws on for inspiration is pretty different from what some 50 year old gamer does.