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

[Umbran]

So your dislike of halflings stems from the fact that your a crap/lazy DM...

Mod Note:
Right. Insults. Those are so convincing!
Try another thread. You are done in this one.

 

[Mind of tempest]

If your argument is A=A, the task should work in either direction. It doesn't.

it is h=H but H/=h halflings should just get merged back in with humans and it would be fine.

 

[Bolares]

it is h=H but H/=h halflings should just get merged back in with humans and it would be fine.

...aaand now I'm lost

 

[Mind of tempest]

I don't know why TSR and WotC don't fill in the blanks in the Forgotten Realms. Based on the 2e and 3.X publishing schedule I thought that filling in the blanks was the whole point of the Realms?

we may never know.

 

[Mind of tempest]

...aaand now I'm lost

big H is human, little h is halfling.

 

[Gammadoodler]

big H is human, little h is halfling.

And it was shown that H=/=h.

 

[Cadence]

big H is human, little h is halfling.

You want subsetting not equality for what you're saying.

 

[Bolares]

Yeah if halflings can't take the place of humans in their description on the PHB... PHB humans can't take the place of the halflings. The problem here is we assumePHB humans are the same as us, so if we see ourselves in halflings we see PHB humans

 

[pemerton]

If all you need is a description of being "magical" and "otherworldly", they can be added in basically anywhere in the halfling description without changing the substance of the description one iota.

"Magical" and "otherworldly" are meaningless descriptors beyond lazy writer code for "you should be impressed."

Saying that something could be done doesn't mean that it has been done. (I think @Hussar said the same thing upthread.)

And I don't think "magical" and "otherworldly" are meaningless or lazy in the context of a D&D-ish FRPG. They're literal descriptions that establish fiction.

Now if nothing in play turns on the fact that elves are magical and otherworldy, that's a different thing: but its not a problem with the conception of elves, its a problem with actually taking backstory seriously in gameplay.

 

[pemerton]

The problem here is we assumePHB humans are the same as us

That doesn't seem a very controversial assumption! (Assuming us means humans in all their variety.)