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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3935307" data-attributes="member: 11760">It's the official version of 3E halflings in the biggest race write-up they got from WotC, in the &quot;extended core&quot; books. This is who 3E halflings are supposed to be by default.The Vistani gypsies in Castle Ravenloft were turned into Vistani halflings, complete with fortune-teller, for the 3E WotC take on the matter, so it's not just the one book, in any case.So it's random chance that they picked an ethnic group that has historically been persecuted -- including sharing space in Nazi concentration camps -- and has been singled out as untrustworthy thieves?First off, we don't have to assume they're wanderers. It's not by any means required of the race. Even if they are, you already came up with another alternative with no effort -- one which, incidentally, fits better into Races of the Wild and which doesn't share the same assumption of untrustworthiness (to &quot;gyp,&quot; someone, as every American child knows, is to cheat them).Secondly, the other races don't have a predefined trade. What's the profession that half-elves have? What is the racial business of half-orcs or elves?They didn't mix it up even a little bit and they narrowed in on a specific stereotype that, even today, alleges that real actual living people are, genetically or culturally, inclined to dishonesty and theft.I suppose we're lucky that, during the writing of Races of Stone, no one said &quot;hey, they have beards and love gold; how do you guys feel about dwarves wearing yamulkes?&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 3935307, member: 11760"] It's the official version of 3E halflings in the biggest race write-up they got from WotC, in the "extended core" books. This is who 3E halflings are supposed to be by default. The Vistani gypsies in Castle Ravenloft were turned into Vistani halflings, complete with fortune-teller, for the 3E WotC take on the matter, so it's not just the one book, in any case. So it's random chance that they picked an ethnic group that has historically been persecuted -- including sharing space in Nazi concentration camps -- and has been singled out as untrustworthy thieves? First off, we don't have to assume they're wanderers. It's not by any means required of the race. Even if they are, you already came up with another alternative with no effort -- one which, incidentally, fits better into Races of the [i]Wild[/i] and which doesn't share the same assumption of untrustworthiness (to "gyp," someone, as every American child knows, is to cheat them). Secondly, the other races don't have a predefined trade. What's the profession that half-elves have? What is the racial business of half-orcs or elves? They didn't mix it up even a little bit and they narrowed in on a specific stereotype that, even today, alleges that real actual living people are, genetically or culturally, inclined to dishonesty and theft. I suppose we're lucky that, during the writing of Races of Stone, no one said "hey, they have beards and love gold; how do you guys feel about dwarves wearing yamulkes?" [/QUOTE]

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