Dark Fantasy with the standard races?

Korgoth

First Post
In my recent Zothique thread (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=188074) I proposed excluding everybody but humans because that pretty much goes with the setting in question. And it seems to me that a lot of "Weird Tales" or "Dark Fantasy" style settings would be set up in that way.

Has anybody done a Dark Fantasy world using the standard PC races, and if so how? Halflings in particular seem like a difficulty: they're awfully cute little pipe-smoking scamps. Can they have a rightful place in a Sword & Sorcery style world? That is, without changing them fundamentally: not desert cannibals, dino riders or mini-Romany. I mean, old-fashioned halflings. Maybe it's just plain impossible.

Also, I'm familiar with both Dark Sun and Midnight. The former is S&S but has a distinctly non-traditional take on the races; the latter is more of an anti-Tolkien than a real S&S in my opinion.
 

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If your halflings are hobbits, it's very easy to put them in a dark fantasy setting: Make them the victims of the setting, a sign that once, things were better. Having a few SMALL and well-hidden enclaves of the Way It Used to Be also would help set off the rest of the setting even more.
 

Korgoth said:
In my recent Zothique thread (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=188074) I proposed excluding everybody but humans because that pretty much goes with the setting in question. And it seems to me that a lot of "Weird Tales" or "Dark Fantasy" style settings would be set up in that way.

Has anybody done a Dark Fantasy world using the standard PC races, and if so how? Halflings in particular seem like a difficulty: they're awfully cute little pipe-smoking scamps. Can they have a rightful place in a Sword & Sorcery style world? That is, without changing them fundamentally: not desert cannibals, dino riders or mini-Romany. I mean, old-fashioned halflings. Maybe it's just plain impossible.

Also, I'm familiar with both Dark Sun and Midnight. The former is S&S but has a distinctly non-traditional take on the races; the latter is more of an anti-Tolkien than a real S&S in my opinion.


I think Halflings nee Hobbits would fit right in - maybe not as main protagonists but definitely they would fit the role of terrified villagers. Your adventuring group stops for the night in Breeshire and are watched with great suspicion by the insular and taciturn halflings who are suspicious of all "big folk" ever since the Bad Event(TM) that has since enshrouded the countryside in an air of horror.

Adventurers from such a borough would probably be of a "devil-may-care" type who perhaps lost someone dear to them to The Horror(TM) and are either out for revenge or at the very least trying to comfort their own folk by going out to face the danger and (hopefully) coming back alive.

I could see the party coming in to town at dusk; maybe a prepatory adventure or encounter that they'd discuss with the strangely quiet little folk and when they mention the treasure they'd won or monster they'd met and killed or what-have-you, the general reaction in the place is "Ye did WHAT?!" followed by stony silence if not an ushering to the door (or to their rooms if you don't want to make the halflings too cold) with some useful bits offered by the inkeep or the aforementioned neer-do-well (in the eyes of hobbits, anyway) types.

 

While most dark fantasy does focus on humans being alone in a hostile, dark world, some settings have made the standard races work in a darker sort of world.

For example, the D20 campaign setting Dark Legacies by Red Spire Press (www.redspirepress.com). Its basically a future setting of Earth where the world was sent into Hell and has re-emerged a few millenia later after demons have scoured the Earth and new halfbreed races have developed (essentially elves, dwarves, etc). Its very well done and fabulously illustrated, and has a very dark gothic feel to it where humans have gained the upper hand and some hope for the first time in thousands of years. Its sort of S&S, combined with a post-apocalyptic feel.

My favorite dark fantasy setting that is published is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2. The standard fantasy races exist (dwarves, elves, halflings) in a very humanocentric world at roughly the early Renniasance level. The non-human races are explored pretty thoroughly in the WH literature, and have very non-human mindsets (dwarves are primarily concerned with clan and family honor and bear grudges for thousands of years, elves are cold and aloof to humans to the point of detached cruelty sometimes, etc). Chaos is a constant threat in the Old World, both through the obvious (invasion of chaos hordes, beastmen), and from insidious internal threats (mutants and the perversion of chaos cults and dark pacts with the Ruinous Powers). Life is very hard and brutal for most people, and large areas of the world remain uncivilized. Someone once said WH is like starting out thinking you're playing D&D, but only later realizing its more Call of Cthulhu (except Chaos is more aware of humanity than creatures of the Cthulhu mythos are). I guess you might call it S&S with a healthy dose of intrigue and madness. Great stuff.

I've also run a homebrew dark fantasy campaign using AD&D/D&D rules for the last 15 years set shortly after humanity comes out of a dark ages. Its somewhat similar to midieval Europe circa 1100, with warring feudal lords and few national identities. Very little exists in the way of written records before the dark ages, and for some reason few people have any idea what actually happened- a major empire collapsed and its outlying provinces fell into anarchy and barbarian invasion, but there are hints something darker and more terrifying might actually have occurred. Non-human races do exist- dwarves are sometimes allies of humanity, but mostly stay locked in their holds, and seem fearful and tight-lipped about the past. Elves are faerie creatures, and are not available as PCs- they are the failed attempt by the fey to create human-like creatures, but they don't possess souls, and are resentful and cruel to humans. Halflings exist, and they are mostly like hobbits- small cousins of humanity that cling to humanity for protection, but they are also mechanically adept (clockwork tech mostly). Orcs and goblinoids exist- mostly they are barbaric raiders, but some legends exist that tie them to lost tribes of humanity in the far north that were changed somehow. Magic can be dangerous to the caster- sometimes resulting in the subtle changing of the caster's personality and more rarely his body as his learning progresses. Many arcane casters fall into madness after particularly harrowing mystical experiences. I tend to run more investigative and suspense oriented adventures, with the occasional foray into S&S (exploring ruins and seeking clues about the past)- in feel its a lot like the movie The Name of the Rose. When I started this campaign right after high school, it was a big switch for all of us- we were used to typical D&D high fantasy, and wanted a change. After 15 years the game is still going strong, and as our tastes of changed, we've developed the world and its mysteries and found a big thrill in just exploring the world (and even as the DM, things still surprise me when we game- I'll have an on-the-spot inspiration that really works out being cool).
 

You could always have the Halfling homeland be invaded and conquered by the Forces of Evil (tm) - with most of them opressed like they were in the end of LotR (Scouring of the Shire), and some fleeing to the woods and hills to set up geurilla resistance (and let the Halfling Thief Ability bonuses shine!).
 

Personally, I'd just drop halflings.

Could you make them work? Yeah, probably. But why force it? Halflings carry a lot of baggage, IMO. They tend to invoke images that are Hobbit-ish or Kender-ish. Personally, I wouldn't want either in a dark swords-and-sorcery setting.

Heck, for dark swords-and-sorcery, I don't think I'd want elves, dwarves, and orcs, either. But that's just me. YMMV, as always.
 

Korgoth said:
In my recent Zothique thread (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=188074) I proposed excluding everybody but humans because that pretty much goes with the setting in question. And it seems to me that a lot of "Weird Tales" or "Dark Fantasy" style settings would be set up in that way.

Has anybody done a Dark Fantasy world using the standard PC races, and if so how? Halflings in particular seem like a difficulty: they're awfully cute little pipe-smoking scamps. Can they have a rightful place in a Sword & Sorcery style world? That is, without changing them fundamentally: not desert cannibals, dino riders or mini-Romany. I mean, old-fashioned halflings. Maybe it's just plain impossible.

Also, I'm familiar with both Dark Sun and Midnight. The former is S&S but has a distinctly non-traditional take on the races; the latter is more of an anti-Tolkien than a real S&S in my opinion.

How dark do you want to take it, hell, halflings could be canables. Maybe thats why there are no more humans, they were all turned into Mince-Meat Pies, if you want dark, then any race can fit you just have to twist it or tweek it. Take Elves, what if elves were like mixed with Pin Head from Hell Razor...totally warped breed of reality bending beings who hate mortals,and loath theirown existence since the one thing they miss is true purpose. Turn Dwarves into a slaving race, masters with the wip at all times...Dark is only as dark as you can take it.

dont play it safe, dont jump to using the Halflings as the scared town's folk..come on, be creative.
 

In the dark and in the cold, the heroes stand alone.

There's is a time of survival.

Instead of invention, there is only depravity.

Instead of enlightenment, there is only subjugation.

In the deep west, the peoples once known as halflings have had to adapt there natural tendencies towards surviving the the harsh whims of their overlords - cruel outsiders who do not exploit the small people so much for the resources of their territories, so much as for the dark pleasure of seeing a once carefree people turned to depression and sheer survival. The fields of the halfling homelands, once the place of berries and wildflowers, now get used for slop-fields for their opressors livestock.

In the forests the elves have tried to rebel against the same darkness that tramples the will of their smaller cousins in the west, but their kings and queens have given in to bribery. Theirs is a world of failing militias and forgotten magic. The once grand arboreal kingdoms, spoken of often in the myths of all peoples are now choked in cobwebs and swamplands.

The gnomes, once proud tinkerers and musicians, now toil to produce weapons of siege for their cruel masters and all but the occasional dirge is forgotten by even their most accomplished bards. They have no homes of their own, instead squating in whatever hovels their oppressors deem fit in whatever village or city their services are needed.

As far as anyone knows, the dwarves have largely avoided oppression by driving their society deeper underground. The once insular people have let themselves slip into a full blown zenophobic paranoia. To make matters worse, their recent delvings have awoken a new threat that had long slumbered in the deepest recesses of the Underdark - an ancient mindflayer colony stranded aeons ago when their planar magics had failed them.

The only race not greatly affected by the opression that plagues the other races is the half-orc population that was already scattered throughout human society. As an insult to the humans their new masters have placed the once oppressed half-orcs in what positions of power they had allowed the humans to retain. These new half-orc lords are mostly figureheads in terms of the power they wield, but this has not stopped them from cruelly gloating over their once oppressive relatives.

***

At least that's how I would do it.

~Dave~
 

For me the Tolkien races simply don't fit a Sword & Sorcery world of Dark Ages.

Gnomes and halflings are a no-no. Dwarves could be included, but rather as evil Norse Duergar. Elves could be the descendant of fallen spirit-beings, doomed to continue their decadence; and should also be a dwindling race. But then, I wouldn't portray them as "elves" bt something else like Norse Alfar, or Elenium's Styrics. Half-orcs could fit however, being born from tragic encounters between humans and orcs (renamed as Wendols for example) during times of invasions.
 

I think the S&S is more about the state of mind of the heroes, and what kinds of things they do rather than what race they are. There are certainly examples of non-human races in S&S (although they're usually stuff like man-apes or serpent people or something like that, and they're usually antagonists rather than protagonists) but I don't know that I'd say you can't have a definate S&S feel with hobbits, elves, and whatnot.

In any case--is there a reason why you're thinking of not just axing the halflings then?
 

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