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

[Bolares]

Every PC halfling is a rejection of this.

Why is this a Issue? I find it completely ok for NPCs to be the type and PCs to be played against type. To me it seems the halfling was created to support well the story of the hero that abandons their roots to pursue destiny... That's what Bilbo did anyway.

 

[Hussar]

Given that races are human traits turned up to 11 let's try

"Hollywood Celebrities are a glamorous people of otherworldly grace, living in the world but not entirely part of it. They live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires glittering with artificial light, where soft music drifts through the air and gentle fragrances waft on the breeze. Humans love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world."​

Do all humans map to elves? No more than they do to halflings. Are elves some aspects of humans turned up to 11? Either nobles or celebrities? IMO yes, absolutely.

Well, if Hollywood celebrities existed in our D&D games, I might see your point. But, there's also the difference of scale. Hollywood celebrities are what, a tiny, tiny sliver of humanity. As in certainly not representative of people by and large.

OTOH, the halfling description directly maps onto the vast majority of humanity through most of human history. That you could find a tiny, tiny slice of humanity that might fit into the description of elves is not really the issue.

To put it in RPG terms. You took a very narrow race from a really, really obscure setting and then tried to extrapolate it onto the base game. I'm looking at the base game only.

All that aside, I gotta admit it does fit to a bloody T. That is actually quite impressive. As an additional thought though, it does highlight just how alien elves really are. If the closest thing to an elf is a Hollywood Celebrity, then elves really are pretty darn alien.

 

[Hussar]

Why is this a Issue? I find it completely ok for NPCs to be the type and PCs to be played against type. To me it seems the halfling was created to support well the story of the hero that abandons their roots to pursue destiny... That's what Bilbo did anyway.

It's an issue because none of the other races are set up this way? You don't look at the dwarf description, then reject everything that it says, just so you can make your character. Note, you HAVE to reject pretty much everything it says about halflings just to make a viable PC. If the description of the race is only there to tell players what not to do, that's not very well done.

To put it another way, there's nothing wrong with playing against type. That's fine. It is, however, kinda wonky if EVERY PC must be played against type in order to work in a group.

 

[Bolares]

It's an issue because none of the other races are set up this way? You don't look at the dwarf description, then reject everything that it says, just so you can make your character. Note, you HAVE to reject pretty much everything it says about halflings just to make a viable PC. If the description of the race is only there to tell players what not to do, that's not very well done.

To put it another way, there's nothing wrong with playing against type. That's fine. It is, however, kinda wonky if EVERY PC must be played against type in order to work in a group.

Hmm, I think I get you now. But I don't know how WotC could fix it without changing the expectation we have with halflings. Halflings are just hobbits that don't get you sued by the Tolkien estate, so the base race kind of has to have that description...

 

[Neonchameleon]

But, then you slap into the issue I brought up before. Every PC halfling is a rejection of this. A PC rarely lacks ambition. And, "simple, fufilled and happy" doesn't generally describe a PC. So, basically, the halfling writeup is everything a halfling character won't be.

You assume nothing happens in a character's life. "Simple, fulfilled, and happy until..." would be a better description - for example the last halfling character I ran for was "simple, fulfilled, and happy until they got lost and fell through a portal - and now they've ended up here surrounded by these maniacs". The one before that was "Simple, fulfilled, and happy until the orcs burned down their home."

 

[FrozenNorth]

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.

You know, this may be part of the issue here. It is tough to define something by what it isn’t than what it is.

Just like saying something is more human than human is itself a paradox.

 

[Bolares]

"Simple, fulfilled, and happy until..."

This is a great description of Veth, the halfling in the last campaign of Critical Role. She was all that, until something terrible happened to her. Then she adventured to fix that problem, and in the middle of it discovered that she was not only great at it, but also loved the adventuring life...

 

[Neonchameleon]

Well, if Hollywood celebrities existed in our D&D games, I might see your point. But, there's also the difference of scale. Hollywood celebrities are what, a tiny, tiny sliver of humanity. As in certainly not representative of people by and large.


OTOH, the halfling description directly maps onto the vast majority of humanity through most of human history. That you could find a tiny, tiny slice of humanity that might fit into the description of elves is not really the issue.

The thing is that the elves aren't just Hollywood celebrities; Hollywood celebrities are just the most obvious manifestation in the 21st Century. I could have done something similar with e.g. ninteteenth century members of Society. The glitterati. The people followed by gossip columns.

All that aside, I gotta admit it does fit to a bloody T. That is actually quite impressive. As an additional thought though, it does highlight just how alien elves really are. If the closest thing to an elf is a Hollywood Celebrity, then elves really are pretty darn alien.

Most cultures have their own groups that map pretty decently to elves - and whereas far more people map to halflings than elves when you look at actual societies the elves there are get lots of stories written about them. They're the people who can afford and seldom repeat their tailored clothes and other symbols of beauty us halflings can't afford - and have learned to wear them to best effect. They're the people who live among lights (or even in a city of lights) because they can afford it. They live longer than humans because they have the best doctors and they've the time for art and music and the money to hire teachers.

Elves, like halflings, are pretty much a universal archetype for a segment of society.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Then again, at your "AND" you admit that there are halflings specific stories, that you desire to destroy.

Someone posted that people who disagree with them about halflings want to “destroy” them! Everyone take a drink!

 

[Oofta]

Someone posted that people who disagree with them about halflings want to “destroy” them! Everyone take a drink!

Rewriting them from the ground up to be more like other races and completely changing their identity does effectively destroy them. Others want to remove them from the PHB because they don't like them.