Gnomes and Halflings

[DrSkull]

The world seems to be divided into three camps:

Those who like Gnomes

Those who like Halflings

and

Those who can't figure out why we have both Gnomes and Halflings in the game.

I am a confirmed Gnome partisan. I play a lot of Gnomes, and when I DM there are a lot of troublesome Gnome NPCs running around.

I am at a loss to figure out why people like Halflings. They are so cute and happy. Gnomes on the other hand are gloriously irksome to all who surround them. There's artistry and pizzazz to Gnomes. Halflings just sneak around and steal stuff. I guess there's some munchy-appeal to Halflings, they've got a lot of "cool bonuses" so I guess I could see a power gamer going for one.

The people I just don't understand are those who lump gnomes and halflings together. The only thing they have in common is that they are small.

 

[alsih2o]

i think halflings are attractive because of the ramantic gypsy/theif aspect, nomadic, a tendency towards a self sustaining group... the represent the "free and wild" side wihtout the aloofness of elves.

 

[JohnClark]

I play gnomes all the time as well, because I think my personality is more like that of a gnomes than any of the other races, plus I love the little lympics.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

I always picture halflings being more content with their spot in life- ambition is just a foreign idea to them.

They exist to enjoy life.

Gnomes on the other hand... are often not in my games.
They are culturally useless and no one in any of my groups has ever played one.

FD

 

[Crothian]

For some reason I've found that gnomes and halfings seem to make better NPCs. It might be no one's really player ether race well, or something like that. I have nothing against either race.

 

[Chrysoula]

I like halflings. But I also don't think of halflings as all 'cute and happy', either. I also don't think they're all rogues, or at least all thief-rogues.

So, uh, why do I like them? Well, still working that out. I guess what I currently like is /my/ halfling, who is laid-back, but kind of serious. But I've drawn up her family as happy, cheerful gardeners (flower-farmers?) in Tethyr, who consider her a black sheep and would like her to come home and 'settle down'.

I don't know. I am very glad 3e halflings are no longer hobbits, and I like the new look, and I like Dragonlance kender, but I also like halflings NOT being kender. And I dislike the dirty scummy thieving/cute little halfling images. I figure, in countries with a large proportion of halflings, they have to live like anybody else. They can't ALL be happy-go-lucky kleptomaniac wanderers, or else they'd just be kender...

I originally chose a halfling to play in an attempt to break myself out of the human/half-elf mold; I chose 'neutral' as an alignment to break myself out of the 'generic good' mold (I'd always played neutral good before, until I played a lawful good high level wizard. Roleplaying out some decisions she made and having to actually think them through in terms of her alignment was such a blast I decided to be a rebel again . And the halfling godawful size/race bonuses were very attractive. ;-)

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I never saw the appeal of either race...but I must say that 3e has screwed the halfling up, so in my game they are still as they were in earlier editions. Hairy feet and all.

 

[Chrysoula]

Salutations,

I always picture halflings being more content with their spot in life- ambition is just a foreign idea to them.

They exist to enjoy life.

Gnomes on the other hand... are often not in my games.
They are culturally useless and no one in any of my groups has ever played one.

FD

I think of gnomes like dwarves. I think they're interesting and I may play one someday, and like dwarves, I think their predilictions are more culturally ingrained than the halfling ones
....
(my halfling just had a conversation with the local dwarf smith, terribly offended that he called her 'human'. She couldn't get over it. He pointed out that humans and halflings were very similar by dwarf standards and that no doubt she felt like all non-halflings were similar as well. which started her brooding, *sniff sniff*, dwarves and gnomes have places /all theirs/ whereas halflings mostly live in other people's homelands. Even their /own/ country is, um, questionable. I have a theory she may end up involved in the halfling hearth goddess's search for a true halfling homeland.)
...
where was I... oh yes, culturally ingrained-- dwarves and gnomes shape their own self-images, whereas halfling self-image is shaped by living among a whole bunch of people who are bigger than them, slower than them, and invariably either dismissive or patronizing of them.

And yeah, I think halflings can be ambitious-- again, I'm thinking of that halfling goddess who has a Plan. I like the idea that the halflings' time is yet to come.

 

[Psion]

Gnome camp here. I find Gnomes interesting. A touch of magic, mechanically inclined. I am converting one of my Gnome nation IMC to a "steampunk" nation. I'm already getting images of steampunk airships sailing round the world, mad gnome tinkerers in metallic body armor, and so forth!

Halflings... I have a single halfling shire on my world (they came across tagging along with a human exodus from another world.) Mostly so people who like the durn things for whatever reason can play them.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

And yeah, I think halflings can be ambitious-- again, I'm thinking of that halfling goddess who has a Plan. I like the idea that the halflings' time is yet to come.

Heh, I see what you are saying, but in every campeign I run I mix up the races.

In my current one-
Elves are like the restoration-era irish
The halflings like the restoration-era scottish
and dwarves.. restoration-era italian- plotting families and all

In one of my last campeign-
Elves were a communist isolationist nation
Dwarves were a republic caught between a war of 5 other races
and halflings their displaced genetic-cousins (like neanderthal to man).

I find odd roles for many of the races in each campeign, but gnomes never ring any bells for me. I could use them in place of any of the races above, but they just don't fit the image in my mind.

If a player ever expresses interest in running a gnome, then I will have to consider it. Of course, with 3rd edition- my players are pretty happy to just play humans.

FD