How do you play a Dwarf?

[BookTenTiger]

I recently played in a three-year-long 5e campaign in which there were three dwarf characters (out of 6 characters total). We decided to all be cousins from different holds in the same big clan. It was fun to see how our takes on dwarves changed and evolved as the campaign went on.

One was a dwarf cleric who had served as a priest for Moradin for a long time, until his wife died in an accident and he decided to seek enough power (and diamonds) to bring her back from the dead.

One was a dwarf fighter who had been a soldier and merchant, but was publicly shamed for participating in the black market.

And my character was a young dwarf wizard who had stumbled upon a terrible secret about the clan patriarch, and was exiled.

One of the things we really wound up focusing on was time. Dwarves live for a long time. They are industrious, and focus on traditions. We liked the idea that dwarves get into this kind of zen-like mindset when they are living their daily lives, and years and years can pass through simple industrial contentment. Then something big will happen, and dwarven adventurers will suddenly start gaining levels, learning new powers, and changing the dwarven world.

We also played around with the way dwarves drink. When dwarves drink, they do so to build community, repeat their history in song and story, and reminisce about their long lives.

Finally, there was a strong focus on family and tradition. A lot of our choices were motivated by what would be best for our very, very big family, and on dwarven traditions. For example, in one adventure we found an ancient stone bridge high in the mountains, in great disrepair. The dwarves took a few hours to draw up plans on how they would return and repair the bridge to its former glory, as a monument to dwarven craft and ingenuity.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Dwarves have dog-like personalities. Elves are cat-like. Search your feelings. You know that I'm telling the truth.

(I mean, the opposite would just be weird.)

I could see Elves as harrying pack hunters who were eternally faithful and forgiving.

Likewise, it’s not difficult envisioning Dwarves as accepting affection on their terms ONLY. Also, judgey bastards waiting to push things off ledges- especially onto goblinoids.

 

[overgeeked]

I love playing dwarfs. My favorite race. I like the dwarfs from Warcraft and WFRP. Tolkein's dwarfs are okay, but Peter Jackson turned them into a joke. The Dwarves series of novels by Markus Heitz is great. The Complete Book of Dwarves from 2E is good. The already mentioned Races of Stone is pretty good. Dwarfs - Stone and Steel for WFRP1E is fantastic.

I've always seen dwarfs and elves as a dichotomy. Elves are the aloof and aristocratic layabouts while dwarfs are the hardworking grease monkeys working their butts off every day. Elves are the lazy and idle rich whereas dwarfs are the tough and resolute working class. An elf would rather turn you invisible than look at you. A dwarf will grab a pint with you. Elves are air and water and greenery. Dwarfs are earth and fire and stone. Love me some dwarfs.

 

[MGibster]

Also, judgey bastards waiting to push things off ledges- especially onto goblinoids.

Are you talking about dwarfs or cats?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Are you talking about dwarfs or cats?

In this context, yes.

 

[Reynard]

One of things that makes dwarves really interesting in their Tolkien roots is that they are an exiled and wandering people. Like elves, their Golden Age is long behind them, but unlike elves they do not still hold their own lands. Dwarves work for others to survive, and suffer all the indignities associated with that. It is why the hold on to their own culture -- their language, their names, their family structures -- so tightly. it is all they have left. Their loyalty to their friends and their reticence to make those friends come from the same deep well of internalized loss and sorrow.

If the dwarves of your world don't have that in their cultural background, you are stuck trying to figure out what to do with them, which usually emerged from some stereotypes about conservative blue collar Scotsmen.

In general, when I don't crib from Tolkien, I am inclined to hew much closer to their Norse mythic origins and make them Others. They aren't just short people. they aren't mortals, in the way we think of that. They are beings deeply tied to the Earth. I fall back on an origin myth I made up a long time ago and adapt it to a new setting: all the dwarves that have ever existed and will ever existed were all created at once by their god, and were woken by him (they all present as male but don't actually reproduce so aren't actually sexed) to work in his great forges and workshops. That god and the Goblin king went to war and both were killed. Unlike the fecund goblins, though, the dwarves have just continued to diminish over time. They are a people on the way to extinction and they know it, but there is nothing to do but fight and work until the day comes.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I have 4 kinds of Dwarven cultures in my world. The first are nomadic healers and tinkers who are on permanent pilgrimage between volcanoes (where they believe their gods live), the second are a mix of WoW's Wildhammer dwarfs and Korobokuru. The third are a combination of Warhammer's Chaos Dwarfs and the Charduni from Scarred Lands, and lastly there is a race of river traders who live on their boats alongside intelligent sea lions.

None live underground, but the river folk do come the closest to a Scottish accent.

 

[Celebrim]

Think about a culture where your family, community, and national identity are often much more important than your personal identity - say South Korea.

Now go a little bit more extreme than that. Dwarves lean into the group hard. They need community as much as they need food and drink.

Dwarves are half romantic knight-errant and half work-obsessed merchant. Although I greatly respect the insight that dwarfs are dogs and elves are cats, if you model Dwarf culture after an animal, they'd be sentient naked mole rats. I think it's best to play dwarves as if they were immune or almost immune to many of the vices that plague humans but having a few vices that go far beyond what is common in humans and the bad ones lean hard into those vices - greed, grudges, and obsession being common drawf problems. They also have a bit of inappropriate hyperfocus that can be disconcerting to anyone but their own kind, especially when it manifests itself communally. Dwarves are gruff because other dwarves are generally so compassionate and friendly that they don't need to exercise a lot of tact or sophisticated social strategies to get along. Everyone could be yelling at each other such that it sounds like an argument is going on, but everyone (at least everyone who is a dwarf) could be perfectly at ease.

However, on top of that, most dwarves that non-dwarves would actually meet are typically the weird ones (by dwarf standards). Afterall, normal dwarves are thoroughly engrossed in their own community and culture and have little time for dealing with anyone else unless it's business.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

It always comes down. To Diggy Diggy hole for me.

Work is a joyous experience filled with song.

Dwarves are a lot more diverse then the stereotypes would indicate.

Dwavern women are Queen bees crossed with mama bears.

 

[Tonguez]

. I fall back on an origin myth I made up a long time ago and adapt it to a new setting: all the dwarves that have ever existed and will ever existed were all created at once by their god, and were woken by him (they all present as male but don't actually reproduce so aren't actually sexed) to work in his great forges and workshops. That god and the Goblin king went to war and both were killed. Unlike the fecund goblins, though, the dwarves have just continued to diminish over time. They are a people on the way to extinction and they know it, but there is nothing to do but fight and work until the day comes.

thats really quite tragic