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

[doctorbadwolf]

Or getting their fix on D&D products... I'm not addicted, YOU ARE!

lol yeah, or buying them cheap on DNDBeyond with a discount code and/or bundle discount, or on sale on amazon, etc.

I know very few groups that actually run an FR campaign, and vanishingly few who make any attempt to run a canon FR campaign.

 

[Bolares]

I know very few groups that actually run an FR campaign, and vanishingly few who make any attempt to run a canon FR campaign.

To be fair, the only FR campaign I'm running is a (paused while the pandemic is around) ToA game. It started before my "only eberron games here pal" rule started

 

[carkl3000]

Here is the thing though. If the argument was that they shouldn't be a monolith, I'd agree with that. But right now they ARE a monolith, and that monolith is something that your character's family is already breaking. Because they are important and known by the country he resides in.

By what people have told me, and insisted on time and time again, your character's backstory is also changing halflings too much, because this family became important and well known and halflings are supposed to be unimportant and fade into the background.

If there's no latitude to take a character type and play with it a little bit, that doesn't make for very interesting storytelling, does it? That's not changing halflings. You seem to have a really hard time differentiating between the role of a society or a group of people and the role of an individual.

But, as you noted, it doesn't take someone trying to become wealthy, successful, or important for it to happen anyways. And having halflings tied to something outside of their idyllic farm life makes it seem like they actually exist in the world, rather than just... randomly popping up out of nowhere and doing nothing.

I have never said that I think that halflings don't do anything. I'm not aware of anyone who has. I do think that they are generally content with whatever life hands them and don't seek greatness, but they may have greatness thrust upon them. And it's clear that they interact with the greater world. There are halflings all over the place.

This has never been about making every single halfling important, it has never been about giving them ambitions for wealth or glory, it is about making some halflings interact with the larger world without having to rely on them being a player character. About recognizing that in a world as dangerous as DnD, a race of people who just mooch protection off of humans and laze around in idyllic glades doesn't seem right. About looking at a set-up like "a halfling brewery supported by a country" and not think on some level "that's wrong, halflings aren't supposed to be important."

I don't think that anyone is suggesting that the only thing that all halflings do is "mooch protection off of humans and laze around in idyllic glades." I haven't seen anyone argue that it's hard to imagine human commoners surviving in the world because human commoners just mooch off of other humans and are lazy. Why can't it be that most halflings are farmers, shopkeepers, craftspeople, traders, tinkers, commoners, and content with simple things but that some number of them either 1) get the itch to experience something more grand, or 2) are for one reason or another compelled into a life of adventure when all they really want is to be back home. What is the issue with that?

 

[Yaarel]

Why can't it be that most halflings are farmers, shopkeepers, craftspeople, traders, tinkers, commoners, and content with simple things but that some number of them either 1) get the itch to experience something more grand, or 2) are for one reason or another compelled into a life of adventure when all they really want is to be back home. What is the issue with that?

The issue is, this is too human. And if there is nothing more to the halfling except this, then way too human!

 

[carkl3000]

The issue is, this is too human. And if there is nothing more to the halfling except this, then way too human!

I say they're more human than human.

 

[Bolares]

The issue is, this is too human. And if there is nothing more to the halfling except this, then way too human!

Don't all races represent some aspect of humanity?

 

[Oofta]

Don't all races represent some aspect of humanity?

Yep. But for some reason halflings are more human than every other sort-of-human humanoid race. According to some people.

 

[Gnarlo]

I say they're more human than human.

“If only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes!
…Knees, mostly; lots and lots of knees…”

 

[carkl3000]

The issue is, this is too human. And if there is nothing more to the halfling except this, then way too human!

What differentiates them is what they don't have. They don't build cities, or empires, or complex political structures, or big trading companies, or armies, or mercenary companies.

They're probably a lot less prone to guile and jealousy, but a lot more prone to complacency and laziness.

 

[Gammadoodler]

“If only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes!
…Knees, mostly; lots and lots of knees…”

Honestly, knees is a best case scenario. I imagine halflings get their fear resistance as a reaction to near constant crop-dusting.