Halflings -- what version (if any)?
- Thread starter Akrasia
- Start date
Raven Crowking
First Post
How about halflings as a minor race inhabiting an isolated island? They use stone tools, and have fire, but no metal gear. Hey, you could make their arms longer in proportion than a human's too.
I think I'll stick them on Flores Island in my campaign world....
RC
I think I'll stick them on Flores Island in my campaign world....
RC
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
I don't have much use for any incarnation of halflings:
* I don't much like Tolkien's worldbuilding - it impresses me greatly, but it's not what I want to read and it's certainly not where I want to set or play games. So hobbit-style halflings are inherently dull, to say nothing of my distaste for their culture (let's just say that the Oxford Don and I disagree pretty strongly on "what is best in life").
* Third Edition halflings are pretty flavourless. While individual settings give them a distinctive racial or cultural character (I like Eberron's treatment, for example), they don't have an inherently compelling reason to exist in the core rules. Before I'm accused of being unfair, let me state that I hold that opinion of most of the core races, elves especially included.
* While I wouldn't be happy with any but the most experienced and mature roleplayer portraying one, I don't much dislike kender (though I may be biased, considering that Dragonlance was virtually my introduction to the hobby). I don't think that Third Edition halflings even have the shallow and potentially grating flavour that kender have, though.
I've never created a setting with halflings in it, and I'm not very likely to do so in the future - examples such as Eberron besides, I don't see any reason to rehabilitate the race by giving them a cool culture when I could just give the same culture to a more interesting race. I suppose I don't see much potential in the idea of a halfling - no edition of the game has ever really given them a default spin I was even vaguely interested in.
* I don't much like Tolkien's worldbuilding - it impresses me greatly, but it's not what I want to read and it's certainly not where I want to set or play games. So hobbit-style halflings are inherently dull, to say nothing of my distaste for their culture (let's just say that the Oxford Don and I disagree pretty strongly on "what is best in life").
* Third Edition halflings are pretty flavourless. While individual settings give them a distinctive racial or cultural character (I like Eberron's treatment, for example), they don't have an inherently compelling reason to exist in the core rules. Before I'm accused of being unfair, let me state that I hold that opinion of most of the core races, elves especially included.
* While I wouldn't be happy with any but the most experienced and mature roleplayer portraying one, I don't much dislike kender (though I may be biased, considering that Dragonlance was virtually my introduction to the hobby). I don't think that Third Edition halflings even have the shallow and potentially grating flavour that kender have, though.
I've never created a setting with halflings in it, and I'm not very likely to do so in the future - examples such as Eberron besides, I don't see any reason to rehabilitate the race by giving them a cool culture when I could just give the same culture to a more interesting race. I suppose I don't see much potential in the idea of a halfling - no edition of the game has ever really given them a default spin I was even vaguely interested in.
Psion
Adventurer
I like 3e halflings, but not because they bear any great resemblance to Kender (which are annoying beyond all get-out -- 3e halflnings mention no garbage about considering all possessions yours or any other "justifying larceny as cute" sort of rubbish.) Rather, because they resemble the version of halflings I came to know and love, the BECM D&D halfling:
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