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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 4047069" data-attributes="member: 32164">That's true. Without Tolkien's influence, we have only a vaguely defined notion of a &quot;little people&quot; race that's hard to separate from elves, if you just look at folklore. And when you look at folklore alone, since Tolkien basically invented the terms &quot;halfling&quot; (as well as &quot;hobbit&quot;), you have to look at all the races of &quot;little people&quot; in folklore whether they're called 'wee folk,' 'faeries,' or even 'elves' or 'gnomes' in a particular myth. Now, since D&amp;D has elves, sprites, leprechauns, brownies, gnomes, et cetera, it's very important to find conceptions at odds with how D&amp;D portrays those races. In other words, if a particular story features short &quot;elves,&quot; that's at odds with the D&amp;D portrayal of &quot;elves,&quot; and could work as an archetype for &quot;halflings.&quot;The hardest work comes when you are trying to decide how to differentiate halflings from gnomes. Since halflings now wear shoes and cast magic, the only real &quot;distinguishing feature&quot; between them and gnomes is the latter's beards and their almost uncomfortable fondness for burrowing mammals. Differentiating the two is essential to make them both work. Making one race more &quot;fey&quot; or &quot;mysterious&quot; would be a definite step toward better distinction. And since I think gnomes work better when they're more mysterious, I like playing up that angle for gnomes.Interestingly, that leaves the role of &quot;clever opportunist&quot; for halflings. Essentially, because they're not as &quot;powerful&quot; as the other races, halflings get by on their wits and personality. Strangely, that works pretty well to describe Tas, Frodo &amp; Sam, Regis, Willow, and dozens of other &quot;halflings&quot; that have shown up in various stories.And I can think of a lot of different personalities that fit with the general vibe of &quot;clever opportunist.&quot; It also works with the typical portrayal of the &quot;little people&quot; regarding the &quot;big folk&quot; as slow - both physically and mentally.Furthermore, if you give halflings a metabolism like that of a hummingbird, they can still have their love for many meals without being portly. So we get the best of all worlds. Traveler/merchant is one thing they gravitate towards, because it's one way for them to be opportunistic.Anyway, that's what I plan to do with &quot;halflings.&quot; And I like the change of making their average height closer to four feet than three. And for the record, in my campaign dwarves will be only slightly taller.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 4047069, member: 32164"] That's true. Without Tolkien's influence, we have only a vaguely defined notion of a "little people" race that's hard to separate from elves, if you just look at folklore. And when you look at folklore alone, since Tolkien basically invented the terms "halfling" (as well as "hobbit"), you have to look at all the races of "little people" in folklore whether they're called 'wee folk,' 'faeries,' or even 'elves' or 'gnomes' in a particular myth. Now, since D&D has elves, sprites, leprechauns, brownies, gnomes, et cetera, it's very important to find conceptions at odds with how D&D portrays those races. In other words, if a particular story features short "elves," that's at odds with the D&D portrayal of "elves," and could work as an archetype for "halflings." The hardest work comes when you are trying to decide how to differentiate halflings from gnomes. Since halflings now wear shoes and cast magic, the only real "distinguishing feature" between them and gnomes is the latter's beards and their almost uncomfortable fondness for burrowing mammals. Differentiating the two is essential to make them both work. Making one race more "fey" or "mysterious" would be a definite step toward better distinction. And since I think gnomes work better when they're more mysterious, I like playing up that angle for gnomes. Interestingly, that leaves the role of "clever opportunist" for halflings. Essentially, because they're not as "powerful" as the other races, halflings get by on their wits and personality. Strangely, that works pretty well to describe Tas, Frodo & Sam, Regis, Willow, and dozens of other "halflings" that have shown up in various stories. And I can think of a lot of different personalities that fit with the general vibe of "clever opportunist." It also works with the typical portrayal of the "little people" regarding the "big folk" as slow - both physically and mentally. Furthermore, if you give halflings a metabolism like that of a hummingbird, they can still have their love for many meals without being portly. So we get the best of all worlds. Traveler/merchant is one thing they gravitate towards, because it's one way for them to be opportunistic. Anyway, that's what I plan to do with "halflings." And I like the change of making their average height closer to four feet than three. And for the record, in my campaign dwarves will be only [i]slightly[/i] taller. [/QUOTE]

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