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

[Mind of tempest]

I... don't think you're getting the joke and shall stop now.

can you explain the joke?

 

[Cadence]

If anyone wants to recreate my straw poll and post results....here was the 3 questions asked (and the bonus question).

1. How many race choices do you think are in the PHB?

2. Can you name the order those races are listed in?

3. Do you know why they are in that order?

Then I explain the concept of the "core 4"

4. Did you know that those 4 were different than the rest of the list?

Were any surprised to learn they all got which one was listed first wrong?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Were any surprised to learn they all got which one was listed first wrong?

We didn't get into the actual order, more that we establish nobody remembered the order very well other than humans towards the front.

If I had to assign them an emotional it would be indifferent towards the order things were laid out.

One person wasn't sure if half-elf was its own thing or just one of the types of elves.

 

[Cadence]

We didn't get into the actual order, more that we establish nobody remembered the order very well other than humans towards the front.

I have to confess I had to look it up again to see if the first four were alphabetical or if humans were first.

 

[Yaarel]

Gnomes are nerdy pranksters.

Halflings are stoners.

 

[Don Durito]

Then why are you advocating so strongly against it?

I'm not. Why would I care? Shuffle the deck chairs however you like.

 

[Don Durito]

That is incorrect. I specifically brought up the beginners’ box.

But to your more general point, the issue has always been that Halflings were a core race despite being less popular, less developed than tieflings, genasi, half-elves and dragonborn. The fact that halflings are in the BB is a consequence of being a core race.

Other consequences of being a core race: subraces in the PHB, more pages in the write-up, etc.

If you do a search in the thread to see how often “core race” comes up, I would venture that you would get several hundred hits.

Perhaps it has. I think I largely disregarded it as a rhetorical flourish "...and they're a core race too".

Because it seems so obviously trivial.

It also seems weird that people are now declaring that the problem is specifically that halflings are a "Core" race, when I remember pages on pages of argument that halflings need better lore and also Hussar arguing that they shouldn't be in the PHB at all.

But obviouisly I was imaging that.

 

[Yaarel]

Perhaps it has. I think I largely disregarded it as a rhetorical flourish "...and they're a core race too".

Because it seems so obviously trivial.

It also seems weird that people are now declaring that the problem is specifically that halflings are a "Core" race, when I remember pages on pages of argument that halflings need better lore and also Hussar arguing that they shouldn't be in the PHB at all.

But obviouisly I was imaginging that.

Since I entered the thread my position has been consistently:

• Halflings are way too Human.
• Halflings as a undeveloped lineage need to be pruned off from the core-four "common" races in the foreground.
• It is ok if Halflings are in the background among the "uncommon" lineages in the Players Handbook.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

No one cares about common/uncommon thing; it doesn't mean anything beyond messing up the alphabetical order.

 

[Yaarel]

No one cares about common/uncommon thing; it doesn't mean anything beyond messing up the alphabetical order.

I put common and uncommon in scare-quotes.

The designers use the frequency to assign which lineages are featured and which arent.

The lineages that are in the foreground set the tone for the setting.

The Halfling lacks enough development to set the tone for a setting. It is ok as a flat lineage in the background. But offers less for the rounded lineages in the foreground.