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

[Garthanos]

But what about computer games and anime? D&D and mainstream fantasy have really drifted along way apart.

WoW has quite a bit of D&D in its Wizards and Druids and Warlocks oh my.

 

[Micah Sweet]

WoW has quite a bit of D&D in its Wizards and Druids and Warlocks oh my.

WoW has also been around for quite a while at this point, and its direct ancestors longer still. Not exactly the new hotness.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

But what about computer games and anime? D&D and mainstream fantasy have really drifted along way apart.

I think Zelda, Minecraft and Adventure Time are more foundational for today's D&D gamers as anything Tolkien, Howard or Leiber ever wrote.

If I were in charge of D&D, I would be leaning into that stuff rather than running away from it for the most part.

 

[Don Durito]

I think Zelda, Minecraft and Adventure Zone are more foundational for today's D&D gamers as anything Tolkien, Howard or Leiber ever wrote.

If I were in charge of D&D, I would be leaning into that stuff rather than running away from it for the most part.

And what inspiration do they provide for fantasy races?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WoW has quite a bit of D&D in its Wizards and Druids and Warlocks oh my.

WoW's warlocks predate the 3E warlocks and are largely about summoning demons. A good class and one that would be a good D&D class, but a very different take on the idea. (They're very close to EverQuest's necromancers, even down to turning their own health into magical resources, which is the main power for warlocks in WoW's Hearthstone spinoff.)

 

[Garthanos]

WoW has also been around for quite a while at this point, and its direct ancestors longer still. Not exactly the new hotness.

(Sure but seem unreplaced too) , and the Tolkein movies were pretty damn big but that too is no longer new hotness LOL

 

[Garthanos]

WoW's warlocks predate the 3E warlocks and are largely about summoning demons.

Really? did not imagine that Warlocks were that recent in DnD guess 17 years age of WoW ... sheesh when 17 years starts feeling recent

 

[pemerton]

it's no more correct or incorrect than us old farts wanting to see magic look more like it did in A Wizard of Earthsea

I don't think D&D magic has ever looked like A Wizard of Earthsea.

 

[Garthanos]

I don't think D&D magic has ever looked like A Wizard of Earthsea.

I felt Ars Magica sort of shot for the goal

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And what inspiration do they provide for fantasy races?

Zelda features elf-like figures that dress like Legolas (or Peter Pan) and are highly mobile, lightly armored heroes that have more in common with rogues or rangers than any other D&D classes. The Hylians are nominally humans, but pointy-eared. But they don't possess the kind of tree-worship that D&D elves often do, and don't have the Tolkein-derived end of the world malaise lots of other fantasy elves have. They're a young, vigorous race that lives in generic fantasy villages, although they are on the nicer, more cleaned-up side. (Compare to Diablo, where every place you go is squalid.)

Minecraft makes race largely irrelevant, but in so doing, it embraces an ethos that everyone is welcome at the table and it's what you do that matters. My daughter has played for weeks as a bunny person while my son runs around Minecraft and its knockoffs as a king. They do have several NPC races, some of which we'd called genetically evil in their behavior, while others are only hostile if you mess with them (although in one case, "mess with them" just means making eye contact).

Adventure Time, which is what I meant rather than The Adventure Zone, has a funhouse approach to races, similar to the wild and wacky Tales of Arcana Kickstarter, which allows you to play as pretty much everything. (Want to be a Santa Claus? OK, you can be a Santa Claus.) Even when it got focused on its own lore in later seasons, it was pretty wacky lore, with "Candy" being one of the primary elements in the post-apocalyptic world of Ooo.

A D&D derived from modern fantasy sensibilities would be wild, even wilder than anime-inspired tabletop games of the past, like Exalted.