D&D 4E 4E Halflings unrecognizable from Tolkien hobbits

[Doug McCrae]

I don't see 4e halflings as that different from hobbits. It's been a gradual process of evolution.

Tolkien's hobbits are rural and comfort loving. Bilbo is an adventurer and a thief - he steals Gollum's ring and a dragon's cup. The hobbit protagonists in LotR are brave. There's a connection with thievery and a love of comfort - the thief doesn't want to work for a living. 1e halflings are tough, resistant to magic and poison like Tolkien hobbits, and make good thieves. Kender are insanely brave kleptomaniacs, the thief hobbit dialled up to 11. 3e halflings are tough (like 1e halflings), brave (like kender and LotR hobbits) and make good thieves (like 1e halflings and Bilbo). They are described as wanderers in the flavour text.

4e halflings are wanderers (like 3e halflings). Tolkien's hobbit heroes did their fair share of wandering too, even including river journeys. They are like gypsies. Rightly or wrongly, gypsies are often associated with thievery. 4e halflings will presumably still be good thieves, which takes us back to Bilbo and all other halflings from 1e->3e.

 

[DJCupboard]

Not that I am reversing my position, but the riverboat angle did come from somewhere with a tie to traditional halflings/hobbits: Tolkien's shire hobbits were deathly afraid of rivers and boats. It is blatant reversal in what I can only guess is an attempt to further distance them from their Tolkien roots.

Nonetheless I still find it nifty. And the vistani parrallels is something I intend to play with to some degree or another.

 

[Mercule]

Alas, this never worked too well for Gully Gnomes.

I've long-since come to the conclusion that no race from Dragonlance should be exported elsewhere. Whether kender, tinker gnomes, or gully gnomes, they always end up being annoying in another setting (probably because they edge that line, already, in DL).

I wasn't really picturing gully gnomes, though. I was thinking a race that is still quite intelligent. Not scavengers, so much as near-symbionts. They are known to be great sneaks, thieves, spies, etc. are are not trusted, accordingly. But, the services they provide are just too valuable -- besides, there's never any proof.

Halflings are merchants, fences, thieves, scouts, spies, even assassins. Think of the "heroic" jester role -- the king's spymaster, adviser, and cleaner. That's the role halflings would play. But, with the persistent feeling that the halflings are getting the slightly better end of the deal.

I guess it'd be a bit like Zilargo or the Unified Gnome Theory, but without having an actual homeland or ruler. Halflings aren't operating in this way under orders from some council or king. Nor is there a concerted effort to stick together (in a larger sense -- local communities would probably stick together) and build a secret empire, or even just keep the big folk at bay. Halflings work like this instinctually and culturally because it's how they learned to survive as a race.

Those who live in human cities have a vested interest in seeing the humans thrive, while those who live with the elves want to see them thrive. Even Nyrond halflings vs. Furyundy halflings would be vested in their realms. Opposing groups of halflings would still fight one another. They're just sneaky about it.

 

[Robert Ranting]

I just realized where I had heard the whole "fantasy boat-gypsies" archetype before.

4e Halflings are the Gyptians from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, only short. Of course, that wouldn't be the first time WotC has given a nod to Northern Lights / The Golden Compass in their books. Anyone remember the panserbjorne wannabes in Frostburn?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Hehe, perhaps I'm just a little annoyed because halflings took the cultural role that I gave the Selkies years ago in FFZ.

Halflings should stay on their own side of the line!

 

[Mallus]

I replaced halflings with a race of Abolitionist monkey-men who know kung-fu for my 3.0 homebrew and haven't looked back. Does it really matter how halflings are described in the core books? We've all read Tolkien, so we're perfectly capable of describing them as Bagginses and Brandybucks on our own.

Frankly, removing the last vestigial traces of LotR from D&D (a process started long, long ago with the addition of Kung-Fu monks and killer Jello cubes) strikes me as a good thing. D&D was never really particularly Tolkienesque --though some people choose to run it as such, and more power to them-- and it's good thing the designers are acknowledging that openly and "moving on".

 

[BadMojo]

I'm not real concerned with how halflings are reworked for the PHB. I do hope that they don't mess with Forgotten Realms and Eberron halflings too much. I absolutely love the dino ridin' Eberron halflings and would hate to see them go through some kind of weird retcon thing. I don't think they have an abudance of rivers on the Talenta Plains...

 

[DJCupboard]

killer Jello cubes

For some reason this filled me with the vison of Bill Cosby riding into battle on the back of one of these babies, brandishing a spoon with vengeance, so thank you.

Back on topic -- You know, you make another good point about the Tolkieniness of prior editions - and even when I reminesce about my old Tolkien clone games, I don't know, outside of naming conventions, how Tolkieny they really were.

They way more mirrored hack fantasy that tried to ape Tolkien (a major subgenre in its own right), which is usually characterized by Tolkien races and names with modern concerns and tropes replacing the abstract concerns of true Tolkien and usually, mal-adjusted, slightly immature main characters.

 

[EATherrian]

I just realized where I had heard the whole "fantasy boat-gypsies" archetype before.

4e Halflings are the Gyptians from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, only short. Of course, that wouldn't be the first time WotC has given a nod to Northern Lights / The Golden Compass in their books. Anyone remember the panserbjorne wannabes in Frostburn?

Heck, for an actual D&D example, we have the Rhenee in Greyhawk. They also are a surly and suspicious lot, so we get the most negative gypsy stereotypes right out of the way.

 

[Wolfspider]

I do have a question: I wonder how many teenaged lovers of fantasy even KNOW what hobbits are? I wonder if the consumer market is so small on that point that they're not a majority? If so, it makes perfect sense to replace them with something closer to the public image of a short near-human race is, assuming the new look is it.

I dare say that the Lord of the Rings films were popular enough that most teens know what a hobbit is these days.