Halflings: An Identity Crisis

[Dausuul]

I cant argue with any of that, but I really do hate the fact that Blood Elves are the most popular Horde race.... :\

*shrug* People like their alter egos to look impressive and/or attractive. In tabletop RPGs, I've seldom seen anyone play an ugly male character (barring non-humanoids), and I don't think I've ever seen anyone play an ugly female character. Even when a female PC has a Charisma of 6, it's never because she's ugly, she's just obnoxious or shy. And as for height! Everyone is a friggin' giant. 3E elves are supposed to average around 5' to 5'2", as I recall, but all the elf PCs I see are 5'6" or taller.

Elves are popular because they are beautiful almost by definition, and even in worlds with "short elves," they're tall enough that you can have a human-height elf without it being utterly nonsensical. Halflings, gnomes, and dwarves are short, and people don't like playing short races. When you add in the fact that Tolkien-style hobbits are both short and fat, and that their racial shtick is "professional chef," it's like somebody deliberately set out to create a race people wouldn't want to play.

 

[EATherrian]

Funny you should mention IH and Conan, because I'm pretty sure the next campaign I run will be one of the two (more likely Conan). Well, if I ever finish the Ptolus campaign I'm running...

Or maybe Game of Thrones when that game makes its return. It's by far the most dangerous world I can imagine playing in, at least early on. There should reasonably be no magical healing and almost no magic of any kind. It's a world I really want to run, but I imagine it would have a mortality rate similar to Call of Cthulhu.

 

[EATherrian]

Complete agreement.

I hate kender but I agree that if they want to take halflings to a whole new realm of lore they should just rename them and be done with it.

 

[Wormwood]

I hate kender but I agree that if they want to take halflings to a whole new realm of lore they should just rename them and be done with it.

Kender > Halfling.

Tcho Tcho > Kender.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

If they changed the name of halfling to kender, I wonder how fierce the outcry would be. I also wonder if people would get over it after a while. In addition, when future editions roll around and people who never played the game before read it, will they ever notice halfling was even used? Could it become an antiquated term like "fighting man" or "magic-user"?

 

[Wormwood]

If they changed the name of halfling to kender, I wonder how fierce the outcry would be. I also wonder if people would get over it after a while.

Nerd rage is generally loud, hysterical, and short-lived.

 

[vongarr]

If they changed the name of halfling to kender, I wonder how fierce the outcry would be. I also wonder if people would get over it after a while. In addition, when future editions roll around and people who never played the game before read it, will they ever notice halfling was even used? Could it become an antiquated term like "fighting man" or "magic-user"?

It would make me happy if they rename them to Kender. The only thing similar between 4th's halfling and 1/2nd's halfing is the name and short stature.

Give them wanderlust and kleptomania, and they are Kender.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

It would make me happy if they rename them to Kender. The only thing similar between 4th's halfling and 1/2nd's halfing is the name and short stature.

Give them wanderlust and kleptomania, and they are Kender.

While I think they should be called kender, 4e halflings don't seem like kleptomaniacs to me. It seems like they have wanderlust and curiosity, but don't necessarily want to take anything. YMMV, of course.

 

[sirwmholder]

...The dwarves and elves remain close to the Tolkien archetype... so why the drastic change in halflings?

I suspect it's a money issue over anything else. Halflings, having to be differenated from Hobbits due to intellectual property rights, have finally gained their own identity (or borrowed identity from Kender). There is nothing wrong with bringing back your furry footed Hobbit in house rules... that way D&D doesn't have to pay royalties to the Tolkien heirs.

William Holder

 

[arscott]

I absolutely oppose calling them Kender specifically because that would incourage Kleptomania and general stupidness on the part of the folks that played them (well, more kleptomania than is expected from the river-gypsy archetype they're drawing from).

There are few things worse than having someone try to roleplay a dragonlance-themed comic relief character.