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

[Yora]

yeah, that sounds well like a child, not a full human.

what kind of off-brand quantum logic, a thing either matters or it does not, by definition most people never do anything important thus this trait can't be the thing that defines a whole race as that would be like defining elves as the race with two eyes.

Yes! Exactly.
I think that's the theme Tolkien wanted to go for, with the whole Lord of the Rings story being a tragedy and lament for magic disappearing in the modern world.

 

[Mind of tempest]

To be clear, those "evils" are less "going to the big city and losing their innocence" and more "getting slaughtered by orcs."


I think the Yoda comparison above is a good one. Yoda's species doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the galaxy. Not only do they lack lore, but they don't even have a name.

Yoda himself, however, and a few other members of his species? Super-important.

you act like people do not want to know who they are plus Yoda is clearly a goblin, as he is ugly and a pure carnivore.

 

[jayoungr]

you act like people do not want to know who they are

People are curious, sure. But I thought we were talking about lore and worldbuilding. From a worldbuilding standpoint, Yoda's species has no history, no culture, no name, nothing.

 

[Vaalingrade]

People are curious, sure. But I thought we were talking about lore and worldbuilding. From a worldbuilding standpoint, Yoda's species has no history, no culture, no name, nothing.

IIRC, Tridactyls

But then SW is generally good about this because pretty much no race 'matters' there except where the Empire pretty much only hire humans because... well you know...

 

[jayoungr]

IIRC, Tridactyls

Nope, no official name has ever been given to them.

Yoda's species/Legends

The Jedi Master Yoda was the best-known member of a species whose true name is not recorded. Known in some sources simply as Yoda's species, this species of small carnivorous humanoids produced several well-known members of the Jedi Order during the time of the Galactic Republic. The name and...

starwars.fandom.com

 

[FrozenNorth]

Like seriously have you not read the Lord of the Rings? The concept is super clear and will definitely resonate with a lot of people even if it doesn't with you. (It is literally one of the core themes of the most popular fantasy novel ever.)

Disagree. This core theme does not come up at all in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It is perfectly clear logic in a thread where people complain about halflings not having important nations, institutions or affecting to the course of history as a species. That doesn't prevent individual halflings from being important. Like seriously have you not read the Lord of the Rings? The concept is super clear and will definitely resonate with a lot of people even if it doesn't with you. (It is literally one of the core themes of the most popular fantasy novel ever.)

name me a nation on this earth who has done nothing?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

name me a nation on this earth who has done nothing?

So is the complaint that halflings are too much like humans or that they're unrealistic because they aren't enough like humans?

 

[Gammadoodler]

name me a nation on this earth who has done nothing?

I mean this is a trap question. Someone names a small/not very populous country, say San Marino, or Lesotho, or the Maldives, and then you get to search the internet for a unique accomplishment you would have no knowledge of without Wikipedia. You then get to say this demonstrates how they've done "something" and then claim victory.

 

[Faolyn]

That's not a fair reading of the argument. Dwarves hardly have "insufficient" lore.

Insufficient or boring. You left out the second part of that sentence. I find dwarfs boring. And their lore is too involved and restrictive. You can't just use them anywhere; you have to either use them exactly like the book says, or completely homebrew new lore for them. And if we shouldn't have to homebrew lore for halflings, we shouldn't have to homebrew it for dwarfs either.

Clearly, because I don't like them or their lore, that means that they're a terrible race that needs to be reinvented or thrown out, right?