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

[Hussar]

Where are the elves?

Sigh.

I answered this already.

I cannot do a quick scan of mentions of elves because words like themselves come up. Same with elf.

But, are you seriously claiming that elves don't appear in WotC adventures?

 

[Hussar]

"Ghosts of Saltmarsh: Notes that halflings are common in the area and that there are several halfling villages (25% chance that any village or manor found by the party is a halfling village or manor). A halfling bandit. A halfling druid. A halfling merchant. A halfling councilmember. a halfling veteran who's the agent of the town's bailiff."

That's four named halfling NPCs plus says that a quarter of all villages are halfling villages.

Winston, a halfling bandit who runs a store.

Ferrin Kastilar, a halfling druid who has a frog animal companion.

Bellis Bellweather, a halfling councilmember/cheese shop owner.

Merrick, a halfling veteran who works for the bailiff.

Do you have a copy of the book that doesn't include these characters? Did you just not read what I wrote?

In comparison, I counted six named elves, four named dwarfs, four named gnomes, two named half-elves, and zero tieflings or dragonborn, either named or unnamed. Everyone else is human.

So, in a 256-page module, halflings are equally as important as dwarfs and gnomes, more important than half-elves, and almost as important as elves.

So you were saying?

Speaking of reading, you couldn't find a named teifling in Ghosts of Saltmarsh? Who owns the Iuz trading mission then? Could have sword that she was a tiefling.

And, AGAIN, you're focusing on ONE MODULE. Try looking at all the modules and come back and talk.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But, are you seriously claiming that elves don't appear in WotC adventures?

They don't appear in some WotC adventures - there are no named elves in Saltmarsh town, there are no elves (who aren't undead or drow) in the whole of Rime of the Frostmaiden. Just as halflings, and every other PC race ever*, don't always appear. There are dozens of playable races, statistically they are going to not appear far more often than they do appear. "appearing in the adventure" has no connection to "is a player character".


*And that includes humans. There are no humans in Rrakkma for example.

 

[Oofta]

They don't appear in some WotC adventures - there are no named elves in Saltmarsh town, there are no elves (who aren't undead or drow) in the whole of Rime of the Frostmaiden. Just as halflings, and every other PC race ever*, don't always appear. There are dozens of playable races, statistically they are going to not appear far more often than they do appear. "appearing in the adventure" has no connection to "is a player character".


*And that includes humans. There are no humans in Rrakkma for example.

But ... but ... that doesn't support the narrative!

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, you guys are picking some serious nits here. After all, while elves might not appear in the TOWN of Saltmarsh, there are NUMEROUS elves, in the adventures. Heck, the very first adventure has a sea elf that plays a recurring role in two more adventures. Never minding that the head of Burle (in the same chapter as Saltmarsh) has a half-elven captain. But, hey, keep telling me how elves play no role in the module.

But, hey, keep spinning things to fit.

My point was looking at the MODULES as a whole, not cherry picking individual chapters and then making claims.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, you guys are picking some serious nits here. After all, while elves might not appear in the TOWN of Saltmarsh, there are NUMEROUS elves, in the adventures. Heck, the very first adventure has a sea elf that plays a recurring role in two more adventures. Never minding that the head of Burle (in the same chapter as Saltmarsh) has a half-elven captain. But, hey, keep telling me how elves play no role in the module.

But, hey, keep spinning things to fit.

My point was looking at the MODULES as a whole, not cherry picking individual chapters and then making claims.

You are the one cherry picking. It's easy to cherry pick adventures with elves in, and it's easy to cherry pick adventures without elves in. Because some adventures have elves and some don't. Some adventures have halflings, and some don't.

But it is still completely irrelevant. If there is a PC of that race then that race has an important role in adventure, irrespective of what NPCs are standing around town with exclamation marks over there heads. Because PCs are always important.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As an exercise, GoS named and stated NPC races (not including humans or not-playable):

Chapter 1: dwarf 1, tiefling 1, halfling 1, half orc 1, half elf 1
Chapter 2: sea elf 1
Chapter 3: lizardfolk 2, sea elf 1 (the same one)
Chapter 4: dwarf 1, half orc 1
Chapter 5: elf 1
Chapter 6: locathah 1, lizardfolk 2, triton 1
Chapter 7: halfling 2, elf 1, gnome 1
Chapter 8: elf 1, half orc 1

Dragonborn are playing Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Book

 

[Hussar]

You are the one cherry picking. It's easy to cherry pick adventures with elves in, and it's easy to cherry pick adventures without elves in. Because some adventures have elves and some don't. Some adventures have halflings, and some don't.

But it is still completely irrelevant. If there is a PC of that race then that race has an important role in adventure, irrespective of what NPCs are standing around town with exclamation marks over there heads. Because PCs are always important.

Cherry pick? WTF?

I showed, pretty clearly, the number of instances that the word halfling appears in EVERY WotC module except for Rime of the Frost Maiden (because the, erm, clearly copyright violating anyflips weren't searchable). The MOST TIMES that halflings appear in any WotC module is 18. Dwarves appear well over a hundred times in a single module. Elves? I don't know, but, who cares? It's not like elves aren't being played. We KNOW that elves and dwarves are both very popular with players.

If your character is race X, and race X does not appear anywhere in that adventure, then race X is not very important to that adventure. I mean, this is pretty basic stuff.

But, yeah, this is getting ludicrous. I tried bowing out of this dumpster fire of a discussion before but got dragged back in because of repeated misrepresentations of my point. And, now, oh goody, I'm wasting time and brain cells repeating myself endlessly because folks are far more interested in winning than honest discourse. I'm done. Unsubscribing to the thread because, well, I've said my piece and there's no point to this anymore.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If your character is race X, and race X does not appear anywhere in that adventure, then race X is not very important to that adventure. I mean, this is pretty basic stuff.

So, you are claiming that PCs are not very important in an adventure?

It's not like elves aren't being played. We KNOW that elves and dwarves are both very popular with players.

My current party has two halflings, one dwarf and zero elves. If I was the sort of idiot that assumed that all tables had the same preference as mine I would conclude that elves where not being played.

 

[Mind of tempest]

So, you are claiming that PCs are not very important in an adventure?

My current party has two halflings, one dwarf and zero elves. If I was the sort of idiot that assumed that all tables had the same preference as mine I would conclude that elves where not being played.

true but we did at one point have some data on what was being played at tables which show halflings to be as low as the one book wonders, halflings had nearly 50 years to inspire people and they do not seem to catch on so either they just do not matter to people or someone is not doing their job properly in making people care about them.