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

[Krachek]

I think a got a solution.
You take a sharp blade and remove the two pages for the halfling in the PHB.
Nice job, clean, halfling doesn’t exist no more!
Be sure to put the two pages in a correct recycle bin.

 

[Faolyn]

I think that's a controversial claim! The game is one of shared fiction. Bad fiction can make the game unplayable; unpopular fiction can make the game unplayed.

True. But lore can also be much more easily ignored or changed than mechanics can.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

"Default" lore!?!? Oh, my. What a sad notion.

Um, yes, people are going to assume what they read in the PHB, DMG, and MM are the default? Don't know what's sad about that.

What's sad is D&D's middle ground waffling around in the No Man's Land between generic system and built-in setting. Most games these days either have default lore intertwined with the rules, or go of their way to emphasize their lack of it. D&D's refusal to commit in either direction hurts it thematically.

 

[Yaarel]

I simply disagree. Having fey origin doesn't really give me anything as a player or DM to latch on to. How does it affect their behavior or how they interact?

According to Mordenkeinens, the Trancing continues to connect them to their origins.

In any case, the lore helps them feel otherworldly.

I mean many of my ancestors are from Norway, but other than some interest in my heritage it doesn't really have any affect on who I am.

In the US, family origins matter less, but there can be a sense of fondness for and even affinity with.

Halflings on the other hand? Lucky, brave and nimble help me build an image in my head along with the rest of their lore. I find halflings more evocative than elves.

But it's just like, an opinion, man.

Fair enough. Each player makes the game ones own.

Not in 5e, but in 4e, I treated both halfling and orc as actual species of human, something like floresiensis and neanderthalensis, respectively, versus sapiens. But in 4e, both halfling and orc felt different enough to do this.

In 5e, the halfling is too homo sapiens.

 

[Yaarel]

So why can't humans have a related race, like giants do?

I just read this now.

Designers must be careful, because dividing up humans can become too much like reallife racism. But with caution, it can be done, but only if they feel significantly different from reallife humans.

 

[Aging Bard]

In my 1e type campaign, I'm working towards having the main races be more than rubber-forehead humans. I got stuff for elves and dwarves that I like. I'm made gnomes a partner race to the dwarves who live above ground, meaning that gnomes are seem more frequently than dwarves in my campaign. I admit, halflings are a bit flat as written. I'm working on them as being the practical ideal of druidical teachings. Halflings live naturally in a way that druids approve of. They live close to the land, make full use of it but care for it lovingly, and prioritize enjoyment of life and that work that enhances enjoyment. That might seem unserious to the more ambitious races, but to the druids, the halflings are doing it right, and tales of halflings and their ways feature in much druidical tutelage. Many a bardic song is sung in praise of the halflings, and while no elf would say so in public, they hold halflings in high regard.

 

[Oofta]

Um, yes, people are going to assume what they read in the PHB, DMG, and MM are the default? Don't know what's sad about that.

What's sad is D&D's middle ground waffling around in the No Man's Land between generic system and built-in setting. Most games these days either have default lore intertwined with the rules, or go of their way to emphasize their lack of it. D&D's refusal to commit in either direction hurts it thematically.

I take the opposite point of view. The general description in the PHB is a chassis on which to build my campaign setting and I'm glad they don't waste time and energy on it. That leaves rooms for different settings with different assumptions like FR, Eberron or my own home brew. The malleability of D&D is one of it's greatest assets, not a weakness.

 

[Bohandas]

also how common the hobbits never seemed to care about the world it seems most odd?

It didn't seem like they didn't care about the world, it seemed like they weren't even part of it. In any other author's work the people inhabiting a place like the Shire would have turned out to be ghosts.

In any case, I originally didn't like the idea as an origin even if it didn't have those issues. And I kind of liked the idea of them being a "found race" (did Iluvatar just have something too subtle in his song that the Valar missed it among the excitement about his first two children?).

Maybe they came from the same place as Ungoliant.

EDIT:
OK, here's what needs to be done to fix the halflings. We start elsewhere by getting rid of the drow elves, who also suck, and then we hive the Drow's lore and backstory to the halflings.

 

[Greg K]

"Default" lore!?!? Oh, my. What a sad notion.

If "The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist", WOTC's greatest trick may have been convincing many players and DMs that they need WOTC's story team and their lore in the defaut rules.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

In any case, I originally didn't like the idea as an origin even if it didn't have those issues. And I kind of liked the idea of them being a "found race" (did Iluvatar just have something too subtle in his song that the Valar missed it among the excitement about his first two children?).

I'm pretty sure that in Tolkien's work, Hobbits are an offshoot of Men.