Halflings: An Identity Crisis

[Bishmon]

I'm currently wavering between trying to make island-living, naval halflings really appealing to my players as a core race, or just dropping them and putting in something already interesting, like minotaurs.

 

[Zarithar]

Last I checked, Frodo Baggins wasn't buying RPGs. When he does, then the Lord of the Rings will have a place in WotC market research. Until then, the opinions of real live gamers count for infinitely more. If having hobbits in the game were so important to those gamers, it would show up in WotC's surveys. I suspect they discovered just the opposite: Most players may love the Lord of the Rings, but they don't want to play Frodo. Gimli, yes; Legolas, yes; Aragorn, absolutely. Frodo, not so much... possibly because in a group that includes Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn, the guy playing Frodo is apt to feel like something of a wuss.

I at least find 3E halflings to be vastly more appealing than the Tolkien rip-offs of earlier editions. The change from 3E to 4E is not nearly so big, but I still consider it an improvement.

I may be going wayyy out on a limb here, but I think it is safe to say that a large number of gamers also enjoyed the LoTR films and novels (and the characters within)

 

[Klaus]

...aaaaaand you lost me.

Ditto.

 

[Zarithar]

Hobbits are just peasant humans who are half as tall as normal humans. And they were meant as stand-ins for Tolkien's children. A nice community of little child-like people going on an adventure with big adults, magical elves and grumpy dwarves. Hobbits/Halflings will always be in an identity crisis, and I'm sure that we can expect those Halflings to change in 5th edition anyway.

No, The Shire was in fact a stand in for the idyllic, romanticized version of British country life. The Hobbits were idealized British country folk. No nonsense "salt of the earth" types. There was nothing childlike about them. They were simply isolationist and distrustful of outside influences, and enjoyed the comforts of a simple life. How is that "childlike" ?

 

[Dausuul]

I may be going wayyy out on a limb here, but I think it is safe to say that a large number of gamers also enjoyed the LoTR films and novels (and the characters within)

That's what I said. They love the Lord of the Rings. But most of them don't want to play Frodo (or Sam, or Merry, or Pippin, or Bilbo)... particularly not when they would be constantly overshadowed by Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn.

 

[Wormwood]

No, The Shire was in fact a stand in for the idyllic, romanticized version of British country life. The Hobbits were idealized British country folk. No nonsense "salt of the earth" types. There was nothing childlike about them. They were simply isolationist and distrustful of outside influences, and enjoyed the comforts of a simple life. How is that "childlike" ?

Agreed---Hobbits were not childlike.

Boring as the day is long, but definitely not childlike.

 

[Wormwood]

particularly not when they would be constantly overshadowed by Legolas, Legolas, and Legolas.

FIFY

 

[Zarithar]

Agreed---Hobbits were not childlike.

Boring as the day is long, but definitely not childlike.

See, I respect that opinion. It's one thing to simply not like them or playing them... but my point is that there were many that did. Thinking back to my old AD&D groups, we generally had 1 or 2 folks who played a halfling (typically a thief). I myself do not like playing elves, but I get the lore and see how it fits in, and understand their appeal to many players.

 

[Woas]

I'd of rather seen the effort put into gnomes and drop the halflings. At least gnomes are real.

 

[Counterspin]

You do market research on people, not books, and I'll bet my biscuit that the changes to the race slate are the result of that. I of course have not data, but neither does the other side of the argument, so on we go. I myself don't care about halflings, or gnomes for that matter. And you can throw what Tolkien thought on that pile too.