broghammerj said:
Najo, I am going to pick on you a bit. Not for the sake of personal attack, but just for a point of discussion. Did you specifically ban them? All the gnome haters have come out and said they never use them which is fine. I just want to know if I sat down at your game table and said I want to play a gnome, would you let me?
I am going to guess the answer would be yes, I could play a gnome. Why? Gnomes despite their uncommon use fit into most fantasy tropes. I have a feeling that many DMs don't like the idea of a demon or dragon related creature running around as PCs. That would be something you have to ban. Banning is a lot different than saying they don't exist in my game because no one uses them.
I don't consider this picking on me, you are asking a fine question.
If the campaign setting I was running or creating had gnomes in it (like lets say ebberon) I would allow you to play one. An exception would be if the gnomes were only antagonists like the orcs in LOTR for example (say they were totally evil gnomes or something, cursed or corrupted). if a concept for a non-evil could be convincing then I would let you play that even.
But if the gnome was not in the world I created or was running (like in Dark Sun) and its presence would hurt the feel of the campaign because its sterotype doesn't fit the feel of the setting, I would not allow it.
Gnomes are a specific idea that only fit in games that allow for them, for example:
A world that has a joyful, mountain or underearth dwelling race that is fey like (i.e. the original folklore behind dwarves).
A world with tinkers and their psuedo-science contraptions.
A world rife with illusionary magic and fey like glamours that needs a hidden and secretive race that embraces these things.
These feelings go contray to the grittier, dark style or sword and sorcery style of fantasy I prefer. Gnomes open the door for a level of comedy and goofiness that often doesn't fit in my campaigns. Even when they are played serious, they embody those elements above and those things often don't fit in the campaigns I have ran.
Now, I don't think gnomes don't have a place in fantasy. But most of their roles are filled by dwarves (underground dwellers), elves (fey glamour), halflings (tinkers types and small folk).
Likewise, the are not found in LOTRs. Which is why they don't fit as naturally with the other races. Imagine a army of gnomes waddling up to the battleline, ready to fight Sauron's minions. Imagine a party of gnomes ambushing the orcs at weathertop and scurring off with Frodo. Its pretty silly.
Bottomline: I think the GM decides what is in the campaign they are running and then the players pick from those options. If the players have good ideas that can add to the campaign, then GM can consider them, but ultimately the GM decides what is going on in the world, what the plot lines and goals are and how the player's concepts fit into those plans. They do the work, they get to play god.
