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

[Gammadoodler]

There is a separate issue as well with pointing to settings like Eberron or Dark Sun.

These settings are really not very popular overall. At least, according to WotC and others when they talk about this sort of thing. You've got hombrewers, you've got people who use the Forgotten Realms, and then, over there in the corner, you have everyone else. Sure, I'm sure that people have heard of Eberron. But the number of actual players? Very small. There's a reason that the Adventurers League stuff is all set in Forgotten Realms and, outside a couple of exceptions like Ravenloft, all the WOtC AP's have been baselined into FR. It's because we can at least sort of assume that D&D players will be familiar with FR stuff.

I mean, Dark Sun hasn't made an appearance in published material in ten years. And even then, that was for 4e and had 4e cooties all over it. Before that? Most current D&D players weren't even born when Dark Sun was first released. Never minding some of the even more esoteric settings like Birthright or things like that.

So, pointing to something like Eberron, which doesn't advertise the fact that it has halflings - that's certainly not the main draw of the setting- as a potential solution for those who want more halfling material isn't really fair. How would anyone even begin to think that, yeah, if I want an interesting take on halflings, I should pick up Eberron?

I actually wonder about many players would come to the table "familiar with the FR stuff". Especially with all the new players in the hobby.

I mean, where would that familiarity come from? TV? Movies? Books? What piece of FR content exists outside of D&D that would make such famiarity a safe assumption?

I submit that the reason the AL stuff is set in FR is that:

1. it has the highest tolerance for BS-ery with its general lack of focus, and
2. WoTC hadn't worked out the formal relationship with the CR folks when it was written.

 

[Hussar]

I actually wonder about many players would come to the table "familiar with the FR stuff". Especially with all the new players in the hobby.

I mean, where would that familiarity come from? TV? Movies? Books? What piece of FR content exists outside of D&D that would make such famiarity a safe assumption?

I submit that the reason the AL stuff is set in FR is that:

1. it has the highest tolerance for BS-ery with its general lack of focus, and
2. WoTC hadn't worked out the formal relationship with the CR folks when it was written.

Not sure what a "CR" folks are. Sorry, too many acronyms. Critical Role? Do you seriously think that Wildemount is even in the same zip code as Forgotten Realms?

Well, let's see. Several popular video games are set in Forgotten Realms - including several right now. There is additionally, a small mountain of Forgotten Realms novels out there in the wild, many of which top best seller lists. I mean, good grief, I've seen Salvatore translations in my small town library here in Japan. So, it's not too much of a stretch to think that there's a fair overlap on the Venn diagram of those who start playing D&D and those who have a passing familiarity with the Forgotten Realms.

I think that the reason that AL stuff is set in FR is because the AP's are set in FR. It all ties together in one very large marketing package.

 

[pemerton]

Isn't the Forgotten Realms just a label to be pasted over whatever generic D&D-ish fantasy story a person wants to tell? It's a trademark, not a literary achievement.

 

[bedir than]

Eberron, which doesn't advertise the fact that it has halflings

The cover features a halfling

 

[Chaosmancer]

'Need' is a strong word. You certainly could rewrite them. But a lot of people seem to like them as they are.

And this is kinda the issue with trying to improve something, appeal of which you don't get in the first place. Like if I'd try to 'improve' dwarves, there is a good chance that I'd accidentally make them unappealing to the people who currently like them.

Any one who likes the current version of why the Dwarves and the Duergar are at war is someone whose opinion I don't care about upsetting.

But, this is a funny shift from "what would you do if I said I didn't like dwarves" to "this is the problem, if you change things people might not like it" because not changing it ALSO involves creating something people don't like.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Well, then we can add that a lot of people think that adding layers of background information would make halfling lore worse. I think it's good that they don't have kingdoms, or a formal role in the broader society, or whatever else. They just do what they need to do to survive in the background.

Despite their simplicity, there's a lot of space there to create a rich and interesting character. Adding complexity to their racial history makes it a different kind of space. No matter how superficially different you make it from all the other histories of all the other races, it makes the space more similar to all the other character races than it was before you started tinkering with it, and therefore detracts from the game by removing what I think is a valuable niche for character creation.

A valuable niche of being commoners.... just like every other race has.

This is the thing I don't get. The "they are just everyday folk" argument seems to think that no other race includes any commoners at all. You realize EVERY "pure" race (as in not the planetouched) has commoners right?

Also, no one is asking for a halfling kingdom. But a broader role in society... yeah, they do kind of need that. Right now they are basically invisible as far as anyone world-building with them is concerned. And you guys love that, I get that. But... you can still have invisible halfling commoners alongside a section of halfling lore that hooks into the wider world.

Because right now... they are contributing nothing to the common good. And in a world with as many threats as DnD has, that is bizarre.

 

[pemerton]

Any one who likes the current version of why the Dwarves and the Duergar are at war is someone whose opinion I don't care about upsetting.

Why are Dwarves and Duergar at war?

 

[Chaosmancer]

A couple of ideas, both of which which would require rewriting some lore and mechanics:

All fey are resistant or even immune to charm when they're in the Feywild. It's just part of the magic of that plane. Only a few types of charm--say, those produced by mortal magic, or by aberrations and/or psionics--can affect a fey in the Feywild. As a result, spellcasters and aberrations are hunted down and captured whenever they enter the Feywild. On the mortal plane, fey lose that resistance (and those who were immune become resistant instead). Elves, because they naturalized themselves to the mortal plane, retain their resistance. Ditto gnomes, who are simply just more anti-magic than anti-charm.

Elves aren't really fey; they're exiles from the Feywild. Their resistance to charm is actually a magical effect all elves learn in order to protect themselves from the machinations of those fey who want to destroy the elves completely instead of letting them live in exile.

My current take on Elf lore follows this sort of pattern.

The elves were hunted for sport by dark fey way back when, until an Elf named Coreallon killed one of the fey hunting him, returned, freed his people and with a court of peers led them from the feywild. Their traits of charm resistance, sleep immunity, heightened perception, Darkvision and the wood elf mask of the wild is a result of their time being selectively made more and more difficult to hunt by the fey.

The High Elves were those elves who after the escape sought to learn magic alongside Sehanine.

The Shadow elves were a race of Fey spider-beings who offered the elves shelter. Their princess Aurashnee and others decided to go with the elves, taking on forms with black skin like their exoskeletons.

Giant Spiders and weaving are still a major part of elven culture, and I like the idea of elves taking the time and effort to make everything from homes, to bridges, boats out of giant spider silk.

Still ironing out some lore details, of course.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The cover features a halfling

Not my cover. I think the base cover does, but not sure how many people know the small guy on a dinosaur is a halfling

 

[Chaosmancer]

Why are Dwarves and Duergar at war?

In more recent 5e lore, the Duergar were psionically entrapped by the Mind Flayers and forced to tunnel until they died. Those that survived and reached the Mind Flayer colony were then enslaved for XXXXX years. Long enough to alter their biology and magic, but also enslaved by Mind layer who do that stuff all the time.

When they finally break free of the Mind Flayers control and flee back to their dwarven cousins with the help of Asmodeus, they are told that they failed to worship Moradin enough, and he outcast them, and they are banished from Dwarven Society for being evil and bad and working with devils.

The Duergar are the bad guys, and the dwarves painted as noble in their ability to condemn their wicked cousins... who were mind controlled into slavery and forced to abandon the worship of Moradin by, you know, being enslaved and mind controlled. And who took aid from the only people willing to help them escape eternal mind-controlled slavery.

It is one of the most blatant examples of blaming the victims I have ever seen, and sickens me.