D&D General My Problem(s) With Halflings, and How To Create Engaging/Interesting Fantasy Races

[Don Durito]

Well, PC's are exceptional no matter what race they are from. They are the superheroes of the D&D setting, saving the world from gnolls, mindflayers, devils, etc.

As for Men, Elves, Dwarves, etc. they seem to spend a lot of time fighting themselves and each other, building empires and fighting over them.

It's just that the halfling peoples aren't interested in power or empire building. Which sort of begs the question of how they are able to carve out these little idyllic agrarian communities without doing that. But maybe that's just it; they win the game by refusing to play. When war comes into their valleys, you can expect resistance... But unlike Men, Elves and Dwarves you never hear about a great halfling necromancer trying to take over the world, or a halfling wizard accidentally opening some gate to hell, or a halfling warlord going to war with his kin. They just don't do those kinds of things that end up putting the world at risk...

That's because the secret halfling ninjas assassinate the troublemakers in advance.

 

[Oofta]

That's because the secret halfling ninjas assassinate the troublemakers in advance.

Shh. The first rule of secret halfling ninja assassins is that you never ever talk about secret halfling ninja assassins!

In fact ... hold on, I think I just heard something be right ba

 

[Hussar]

I will say Critical Role is pretty huge. They are actually ongoing (third season got started recently), they have books and comics, an animated series in the works and a charitable foundation.

In fact, the show got big enough that a bunch of professional voice actors started making it its own company.

Now, it doesn't have the international reach that decades of FR novels do. I first found Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms in my school library and as you say, it is everywhere. However, I think that the FR novels have been declining in quality for a while, and are on the decline, while Critical Role is on the rise. How they will end up is anyone's guess really, but CR is certainly shaping a large part of the DnD audience and market today.

Oh, I don't doubt that Critical Role is pretty huge. I totally get that. But, CR doesn't have about 50% of D&D players playing in it. Forgotten Realms does. Granted, I'm not a big Realms guy. Don't know the lore, have never (or almost never, I think I read one of those Cadderly novels way back when) read any of the books. Did play the hell out of Baldur's Gate though.

But, come on, let's be serious here. There's no way that Critical Role is as broad reaching as Forgotten Realms.

 

[Bolares]

But, CR doesn't have about 50% of D&D players playing in it

Where does this numbers come from? I've always been under the impression that homebrew worlds are the most played worlds... Heck, in a lot of languages the FR were barelly published....

 

[Crimson Longinus]

But, come on, let's be serious here. There's no way that Critical Role is as broad reaching as Forgotten Realms.

Google trends seems to disagree.

Strange recent spike in FR search results though. Might be the movie.

 

[Minigiant]

FR is the biggest source for lore as it's WOTC's most pushed setting. And FR is less a setting but a reservoir for supplements and splat books.

The FR Halflings are just the PHB halflings with specifics, a unimportant backstory, and a pantheon. And the PHB halflings are LOTR hobbits with the specifics scrubbed off.

Sure many might not have a problem with PHB halflings but humans tend not to buck trends. So it would be hard to see or know who worldbuilds enough to run into problems.

I mean Halfling lore is just a bundle of plot devices and writing shortcuts. Because Tolkien made hobbits a bundle of plot devices and writing shortcuts.

 

[Bolares]

Google trends seems to disagree.

Strange recent spike in FR search results though. Might be the movie.

The surge may also be the Magic set. But I think this search (and the argument) is somewhat skewed. We should be arguing if EXANDRIA not Critical Role is more popular than the Forgotten Realms. There is a difference between the setting and the show...

 

[Hussar]

Since we're playing with Google, I just googled Critical Role LLC's net worth. Google pegs it at about 2.87 million dollars. Certainly very respectable. Not going to argue with that at all. For comparison, Ed Greenwood's net worth is 1.3 million dollars. R. A. Salvatore is estimated at 8 million (although another site pegs it at 15 million for what it's worth).

How much you figure Forgotten Realms is worth?

 

[Gammadoodler]

Sorry, I'm not sure what conclusion you're drawing here. Are you sayin that CR is as widely known as Forgotten Realms?

That if you stacked up all of Salvatore's worldwide sales of his entire book collection (not all of which are even D&D related) for his entire career, the same audience could be covered by as few as 5 episodes of CR (maybe fewer) and as many as 30.

And if you took a peak week for a recent high-profile video game, it would equate to a low viewership week for CR.

So yes, the odds of a player being "somewhat familiar with the CR setting are higher than for FR, in my opinion.

 

[Gammadoodler]

The surge may also be the Magic set. But I think this search (and the argument) is somewhat skewed. We should be arguing if EXANDRIA not Critical Role is more popular than the Forgotten Realms. There is a difference between the setting and the show...

That's kind of the point. What media would you point to that people would know that includes the realms?