Gnomes

[Lord Pendragon]

My campaign world is a cosmopolitan city-based game, where the races are more like ethnicities than truly separate societies. They do have some racial tendancies, though, derived from their historical roots. Gnomish society was originally agrarian, so the bulk of the gnomes in my world are farmers and herders of some sort, concentrated mostly in the Cornlands of Avail.

That doesn't mean there aren't individual gnomes who go against this inclination. In the previous incarnation of my campaign (which took place in a different city than the current one,) one of the city's greatest underworld figures was Jimmy the Nose, a vicious gnome crime boss who was anything but silly. And the only things he farmed were marks.

 

[Dorchek]

In my group we've changed gnomes to fit a more magical niche. Instead of the +2 to Con you can apply the plus to Int, Wis, or Chr.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

All of the above:
Hill dwellers
Forest dwellers
Illusionists
Tinkers
Druids
Urbane denizens of the city in the clouds

Like all the races, there are several distinct gnomish cultures.
I had one player who ran an annoying gnome, and now nobody else will touch one. Oh well.

 

[The Shaman]

All my gnomes are Gnostics.

Gno way!

The gnomes are my elves and dwarves .

This is exactly what got me thinking about this particular topic. I'm considering the same thing right now.

I was playing around with Fractal Terrains last night and came up with a world-map that I found intriguing. I was home from work today and started toying with the map and in a couple of hours I detailed a huge amount of information - amazing what a map can do for your creativity sometimes.

Anyway, I started thinking about races. When I left off work on my last HB setting, I decided on no elves or dwarves, that gnomes would be the fey folk of both mountain and forest. I wanted them to be rather sinister, actually - instead of stories about goblins, mothers keep their children out of the forest by telling them tales of boys and girls abducted by gnomes, and adventurers spins yarns in the tavern late at night about the gnomes' illusory dragon and its horde that concealed a deep pit, a planar gate, and so on.

That's where I was headed, but now I'm torn between making my HB distinctive by changing the races or playing a 'traditional' D&D game - either way I have to decide on the gnomes however.

In the old days gnomes were as described in the 1e MM - wee folk of the hills and woods, illusionists, tricksters (but not in the huffing nitrox way they're presented in 3.x). After seeing what had been done to them in 3.0... ---> :\ ...I left them out of my game altogether.

Now I want them back but what role they will play remains to be seen...

This is a fascinating thread BTW - I love it when the depth and breadth of the creativity of ENWorld is on display!

 

[LoneWolf23]

Who here is familiar with the webcomic "Tales of the Questor", by Ralph Hayes? It's featured people, the Rac'Cona Daimh people, are pretty much how I imagine Gnomes as being..

-Living in harmony with the land, but are actually rather civilized and sophisticated people.
-Beings in tune with magic, capable of seeing and manipulating it, but with a rational, scientific approach to the practice of magic.
-A race of gentle, peace-loving creatures who nonetheless are very well-equipped when it comes to protecting themselves and their loved ones ("There's no such thing as an unarmed Rac'Cona!").
-Clever, cunning people who can, and have outsmarted even the mightiest of would-be invaders (like Sauron the Bloody Idiot, who was tricked into leading his army to their doom into deep bogs)

Go on and check out Tales of the Questor, then tell me you don't think those Rac'Cona Daimh and their culture would make a good model for Gnomish culture...

 

[Krieg]

This seems to make the rounds now and again...

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=104492&highlight=gnomes

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60898&page=1&pp=20&highlight=gnomes

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72684&highlight=gnomes

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91216&page=1&pp=20&highlight=gnomes

...and to reiterate my gnomes, posted in previous threads...

This topic seems to make the rounds periodically, so I'll add my .02 again.

In my campaign Gnomes are a fantasy parallel to some of the difficulties faced by Jews in Medieval Europe.

They are a people that have lost their homeland so long ago that they no longer have knowelege of exactly where it lies. They were forced from their land in the shadows of prehistory.

After untold decades of wandering, they came to settle in human controlled lands. In the beginning they got along well enough with the humans with which they found themselves living. They were willing to take many of the jobs that the larger folk were loathe to perform. In time, through hard work & thriftiness they began to acquire wealth & some small measure of power.

As their fortunes rose, so did the jealousy of those humans who needed a scapegoat for their own failuers in life. They found an all too easy target in the small newcomers. Soon Gnomes began to face prejudice & persecution. The fact that the Gnomes followed a different spiritual path than their human hosts did them no favors either.

In time the Gnomes were forced from their homes or faced pogroms at the hands of the humans. Those that remained were forced into seperate districts in the city (ghettos), limited in what trades they could undertake (so as to not challenge human monopolies) & found their individual rights severely curtailed.

But the Gnomes were survivors, they weathered the storm of prejudice & in time even found prosperity again. The ghettos became safe-havens for the small folk & those humans foolish enough to go after gnomes on their home-turf found the ghettos to be virtual strongholds as well.

Today in most human cities the gnomes still live in ghettos, but in many this is by choice as much as by force. Their faith is strong & their Clerics' magic stronger yet. They control much of the trade between cities, have a virtual stranglehold on the precious metal/stone market (through shrewd treaties with the Dwarves who refuse to deal with anyone else), and count the finest jewelers & gemcutters among their number.

While in most lands gnomes are not allowed to hold public office or manorial property, they still wield a great deal of power & are a force to be reckoned with (although that power is primarily subtle & behind the scenes).

Despite the security that they are slowly gaining for themselves, many gnomes still dream of once again finding the lost promised land that they still call home.

Recently there is a slow but steadily growing interest in the newly discovered lands beyond the sea....

 

[A'koss]

Heh, I think my favorite gnomes were these lawful evil, saw-toothed cannibals I used to run in one of my older games. They were highly magical, intelligent and posessed the haughy air of 17th c. courtiers. They held a kind of twisted Victorian Age-style court with Dispater presiding as their patron. Gnomes were often go-betweens between the Arch-Devil and his followers (or potential converts... ) on the mortal planes.

Cheers!

 

[Ibram]

Like Halflings and Dwarves Gnomes are the decendents of a now extinct race. That race, know to scholars as Proto-Dwarves, had a very segmented society. There were warrior clans, builder clans, priestly clans, noble clans, and arcane clans. Though most clans had some cross over the study of arcane magic, a dangerous persuit, was restricted to three clans.

After many generations the arcane clans begain to tire of the restrictions placed on them by the High Kings. Seeking the freedom to persue their research two of the clans left the kingdom for a new land.

With the restrictions lifted the two arcane clans set about performing great magical experiments. One clan even began to tamper with Dark Magics; unwittingly leading to the enslavement of their race at the hands of Isperdom, an ancient and malicious entity. This was a great blow to the other arcane clan, which quickly placed restrictions of its own upon the research that could be conducted. Over time that clan became the race known ans Gnomes.

Of the clan that remained behind there is little information, few if any escaped the destruction of the Proto-Dwarf kingdom. As such the modern races of Mountain Dwarf and Hill Dwarf have little in the way of an arcane tradition. The Halfling race, which is a decendent of the Mountain Dwarves, make little use of arcane magic (despite exposure to it in their travels).

Among humans and elves who have little or no contact with the Gnomes there is little distinction between them and their cousins.

 

[derelictjay]

I love gnomes personnally. In my campaigns gnomes have always been some form of power broker, whether in information or magic. Which incedently is a reason I took to the Eberron campaign setting. And every campaign I've ever DMed (with the exception of Dark Sun) has had a gnome NPC in it, whether he was a villian or a patron, there was always at least one. Oh yeah, it's not uncommon for me to pick the gnome as my character, still haven't taken advantage of the Bard as favored class yet, as I tend to DM.

 

[Jdvn1]

Which Races of books are Gnomes in? Stone? It's threads like this that make me want to read up on them to see if I can get more used to a race.