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

[Mercurius]

You mean the tomorrow's halflings?

Sure, they could be, but given the perennial popularity of part-demons or good-demons or morally ambiguous demons in media, like back certainly well into the 20th century (Marvel brought in the good-guy superhero "Son of Satan" in 1973 for example, and Nightcrawler, who obviously isn't actually a demon but equally obviously is one of the key inspirations for Tieflings, is one of the very most popular mutants), I would be pretty surprised. I think their most likely fate is to get so overplayed in the present that they slightly decline with "the next generation". We see no sign of part-demons slowing down in popularity as a broad media concept.

Dragonborn I admit I am a little surprised by but I think they hit three notes D&D is otherwise lacking:

1) Scaly race (not necessarily in the Furry-variant sense). Some people just want to be the lizardman or whatever, and this guy is right here in the PHB.

2) Draconic fantasy as a PC (without having to pick a specific kind of sorcerer). Breath weapon is spot-on for this.

3) Strength race that isn't ugly, short or ignoble (there are loads of alternatives now, but again, not in the PHB).

Plus people have always liked dragon-people - I remember back in 1990 when I found the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG (not to be confused with the choose-your-own-adventure books the system derived from), and Out of the the Pit, and I really wanted to be able to play the dragon-man race in the latter. It was still a mistake not giving DBs tails though, I swear to god.

Definitely agree.

I think it starts with the very first 2E setting is Taladas, in 1989, which includes, as default, not "ask your DM" or anything, playable lizardmen, goblins, ogres, and minotaurs, and has a setting which features dwarves who hate the underground, elven steppe-barbarians going full Mongol Horde, kender who are depressive and not thieves, elves who aren't clever, nor have a superhuman culture, and mostly run around a jungle dodging degenerate mind-flayers, tinker gnomes who aren't incompetent, and all sorts of other trend-breakers.

Then we have Spelljammer in 1989, Dark Sun in 1991, and Planescape in 1994, as you say. Indeed there are fairly few 2E settings which could be termed in any way traditional beyond the continuations of the Forgotten Realms and hilarious repeated failed attempts to "Make Greyhawk happen!".

I can't remember, was Taladas before Spelljammer? Either way, they were the same year. And if we want to broaden to other RPGs, the first "weird" setting was probably Tekumel, although I suppose Glorantha could qualify. And then you have Talislanta and Jorune (science fantasy) in the 80s.

I still have my Titan setting book - for the Fighting Fantasy adventure books.

Anyhow, I do hope that if they bring back Dragonlance, they do the whole world. While Ansalon worked for the novels, Taladas made Krynn a much more interesting campaign world.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Quotations about hobbits from Tolkien's private letters.

Letter #17

I cannot think of anything more to say about hobbits. Mr Baggins seems to have exhibited so fully both the Took and the Baggins side of their nature.

Letter #131 footnote

The Hobbits are, of course, really meant to be a branch of the specifically human race (not Elves or Dwarves) – hence the two kinds can dwell together (as at Bree), and are called just the Big Folk and Little Folk. They are entirely without non-human powers, but are represented as being more in touch with 'nature' (the soil and other living things, plants and animals), and abnormally, for humans, free from ambition or greed of wealth. They are made small (little more than half human stature, but dwindling as the years pass) partly to exhibit the pettiness of man, plain unimaginative parochial man – though not with either the smallness or the savageness of Swift, and mostly to show up, in creatures of very small physical power, the amazing and unexpected heroism of ordinary men 'at a pinch'.

EDIT: By "the smallness or the savageness of Swift" I think Tolkien means the Lilliputians from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726).

Letter #178

[The Shire] is in fact more or less a Warwickshire village of about the period of the Diamond Jubilee [1897]

Letter #180

The hobbits had been welcomed. I loved them myself, since I love the vulgar and simple as dearly as the noble, and nothing moves my heart (beyond all the passions and heartbreaks of the world) so much as 'ennoblement' (from the Ugly Duckling to Frodo).

Letter #246

He [Sam Gamgee] is a more representative hobbit than any others that we have to see much of; and he has consequently a stronger ingredient of that quality which even some hobbits found at times hard to bear: a vulgarity – by which I do not mean a mere 'down-to-earthiness' – a mental myopia which is proud of itself, a smugness (in varying degrees) and cocksureness, and a readiness to measure and sum up all things from a limited experience, largely enshrined in sententious traditional 'wisdom'.

Letter #281

Hobbits were a breed of which the chief physical mark was their stature; and the chief characteristic of their temper was the almost total eradication of any dormant 'spark', only about one per mil had any trace of it. Bilbo was specially selected by the authority and insight of Gandalf as abnormal: he had a good share of hobbit virtues: shrewd sense, generosity, patience and fortitude, and also a strong 'spark' yet unkindled.

That last part, about “spark”, is where D&D halflings differ most from Hobbits. In D&D, most halflings have it, and it’s fairly common for it to be expressed adventurously in a halfling’s youth.

 

[Krachek]

It's both good and bad. Getting rid of species-wide alignment is of course a pure plus, but removing mechanical widgets that are tied to the lineage, (ASIs, skills, tool and weapon profiencies etc) makes differentiating the lineages mechanically harder. If lineages are to be more customisable, then it would make sense to get rid of subraces as a rules concept. Instead of having seven thousand different predetermined splats for elf subraces, you just have one flexible elf lineage that you can customise to represent whatever subgroups that might exist in the setting.

Maybe it will be time to open up racialized god, and let them be worshiped by multiple race based only on the credo they promote. It could be nice to see eladrin worship Lolth in search of favor for power or retribution.

 

[jayoungr]

Just saw this video, which seems relevant:

 

[Mind of tempest]

Just saw this video, which seems relevant:

how so?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What the hell, WotC? Get off of my gnomes!

 

[Crimson Longinus]

View attachment 138293
What the hell, WotC? Get off of my gnomes!

I'm not even sure what that is asking. Like if one really likes dragonborn as a concept, but thinks that their rules in PHB make crap job of representing them, how should they answer? Presumably some sort of 'dissatisfied'. And how would WotC tell that apart from someone being dissatisfied with the dragonborn because they hate them and want to get rid of them?

 

[jayoungr]

how so?

It's relevant to how a basically contented, pastoral folk like classic "hobbit" halflings can produce player characters, and how players can enjoy playing them. I particularly like the parts from about 1:45 to 3:03:

Point #1: The character's background mostly just has to be fun for the player--that's the most important thing.

Point #2: Adventurers are at least a bit extraordinary compared to commoners, even at level 1.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not even sure what that is asking. Like if one really likes dragonborn as a concept, but thinks that their rules in PHB make crap job of representing them, how should they answer? Presumably some sort of 'dissatisfied'. And how would WotC tell that apart from someone being dissatisfied with the dragonborn because they hate them and want to get rid of them?

There are follow-up questions about subraces and the abilities.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Maybe it will be time to open up racialized god, and let them be worshiped by multiple race based only on the credo they promote. It could be nice to see eladrin worship Lolth in search of favor for power or retribution.

And why not? I'm always a fan of the Warhammer gods this way - where Esmerelda of the Halflings has her holy week celebrated by almost everyone in the Empire because her chief devotion is pie eating, where the Bretonnian Lady of the Lake is in fact a Wood Elf goddess using Brettonia as a meat shield while empowering those humans, and where there are numerous gods between different pantheons who may or may not be the same people in the way real world polytheistic pantheons may or may not have shared gods (see Jupiter/Zeus and the rest of those pantheons).