Got Hobbits?

[BroccoliRage]

I run a game of 3.5 utterly contaminated with hobbits. I cannot stand the 3.x visualisations of them or the DL kender.

The only bad thing that's ever come from me sticking with my JRR-derived vision of these wonderful creatures was the one and only time I logged in to the chat rooms here, a few years ago. As I logged in, one person asked, "How long has everyone been playing?" At the same time, someone else asked, "Does anyone here call their halflings hobbits?"

In an atempt to answer two questions at once, I said that I had been playing for twenty-four years and that my campaigns' halflings had always been hairy footed hobbits. I was promptly attacked as being someone with a superiority complex. Suffice to say that I logged off without replying and have never logged back in since.

I have a problem with 3.x halflings. Ever since JRR's estate demanded that references to hobbits disappear from D&D, designers have been trying to preserve the character of the race while side-stepping copyright infringement issues with skin deep cosmetics. For anyone not brought up on Tolkien or a fan of Tolkien, that's fine. But I think that demand was one of the meanest (and most shortsighted) the Tolkien estate could have made. The whole point of The Lord of the Rings was to create a mythology. What is the point of going to all the effort the author went to, only to deny people the opportunity to reference it elsewhere?

Long live the hobbits in their holes in the ground. Whenever I DM, they will prosper.

the interesting thing about the whole tolkein estate deal is that they have a Middle earth role playing system now. and all it really is is D&D....

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

We've been calling and playing them as Hobbits with the race's background straight from Tolkien. I understand the JRRT estate's position on having the term removed from the rule books, but they'll never extricate the term 'hobbit' from the hobby itself.

 

[BroccoliRage]

Dude, that is totally my style of playing and I have been using 3.X for five years now running just such a game (you can check the sig for a link to the story hour).

5 years, 10 levels, about 2 more sessions to go before the campaign ends.

if you runa good 3e campaign all the more poewr to you! in fact i salute you for doing something i just cant do.
my problems with 3e run a bit deeper. i dislike the idea of "feats". seems silly to me. it seems a bit Draon ball z or some other bad anime in fluenced (if you doubt me, just think of KA! ME! HA! ME! HAAAAA! ::everything goes to hell:.

i meant no criticism of the people who play the game in its new form, my criticisms were aimed towards the system.

 

[Ranes]

the interesting thing about the whole tolkein estate deal is that they have a Middle earth role playing system now. and all it really is is D&D....

Indeed.

With apologies to everyone for going a little off-topic, my gut reaction to feats was similar to yours. However, I did not associate them with anime - which I utterly detest, by the way. My initial reaction to 3e was similar to my reaction to D&D in '78, which was, "Naaah." But I must confess, I have been converted.

To everything except the halflings...

 

[BroccoliRage]

Indeed.

With apologies to everyone for going a little off-topic, my gut reaction to feats was similar to yours. However, I did not associate them with anime - which I utterly detest, by the way. My initial reaction to 3e was similar to my reaction to D&D in '78, which was, "Naaah." But I must confess, I have been converted.

To everything except the halflings...

heh heh..its really my fault were so off topic, i went off on a rant. i guess i dont want to convert because
A i have a 3e to 1e conversion book (unauthorized of course)
B my group tried it and disliked it.

no disrespect to those who play 3e, ive just got problems with it. for instance the 1/2 cover, 3/4 cover, and what not...youre either covered or not.

thats just one aspect. i remember when a greatsword and a twohanded sword werent the same thing, a great sword referred to the ceremonial weapons of german knights. im just too stubborn.

 

[Sejs]

Nope, I ain't got no Hobbits.

I've got Hin. Got plenty of them. Some of 'em are homebodies. When they go to seed they can get rather dumpy lookin'. Most of 'em are more or less proportionate in their own way.

No Hobbits to speak of, though.

 

[Thorindale]

The d20 Blackmoor Campaign setting has both: Halflings that look like the halflings of old (i.e., hobbits) and the Docrae (similar to the kinder-esque 3.x halflings).

 

[diaglo]

Got 'em.

Still refereeing OD&D(1974)

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

(Is new to 3.5, but still has this to say, meant as humor)

Bah, who needs Bilbo Baggins?
We have Lidda. SHE would have learned old Smaug a lesson or two.

Thorin Oakenshield, you got cheated! Never trust a Wizard. Always shop at the 3rd Edition Store for the best Halfling Rogues.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Of course. Even when I was running a 3.0 game I had hobbits. Don't like the mini-elf concept of 3.x at all.

Lets not make this an edition war. You can have crappy races in any edition of D&D.