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

[Mind of tempest]

No, this is England, we don't ask personal questions.

I would guess factors like small, lucky, inoffensive, cute and reluctant adventurer are the appeal.

dude this is England no one cares, just ask them and you get the winning move.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

dude this is England no one cares, just ask them and you get the winning move.

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to give an answer. Sometimes people just like things because they like things.

I would happily play a halfling myself if I ever got a chance to play, but I couldn't tell you why it appeals, it just does. I can tell you it has nothing to do with the lore in the PHB, or the Lord of the Rings. It's the appeal of being "the little guy" I guess.

Gnomes are too associated with lawn ornaments to share that appeal, but rabbit folk from the folk of the Feywild UA seem to tap into it.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to give an answer. Sometimes people just like things because they like things.

I would happily play a halfling myself if I ever got a chance to play, but I couldn't tell you why it appeals, it just does. I can tell you it has nothing to do with the lore in the PHB, or the Lord of the Rings. It's the appeal of being "the little guy" I guess.

Gnomes are too associated with lawn ornaments to share that appeal, but rabbit folk from the folk of the Feywild UA seem to tap into it.

two things just try asking them it may surprise you.
secondly, define why the little guy appeals to you?

 

[Gammadoodler]

So, I'm wrong because it might be possible to play DnD in Middle Earth... even though to my knowledge there is not a single officially supported setting for Middle Earth in DnD?

Tell me, how many of the most LoTR products for gaming have focused on hobbits as main characters? The last big thing I remember hearing on the video game front was... Shadows of Mordor? And, I never played it, but the main character and every single scene I ever saw on every advertisment never featured a single hobbit. It might be, and I know I must be incredibly arrogant for even considering this, that maybe Hobbits didn't fit the game they were making.

So, yeah, the books written had a specific role for hobbits. That role does not translate well into DnD. It simply doesn't, and instead of trying to prove that it somehow does, you resort to calling me names.

Man..I really don't know how to make this any clearer. There is no proof. You are wrong because you seem to think that there is proof

Fantasy settings are fantasy..
fiction..
pretend..
not real..
make believe..
imaginary..

Fantasy races are also fantasy..
fiction..
pretend..
you get the idea I hope.

The notion that there is a wrong way to make believe is silly.

And to be clear..I've not called you names. I've described your attitude as arrogant and elitist. And I've done so because I cannot figure out another way to reconcile how someone thinks they can objectively judge how people pretend things as if there is a right and wrong way to do so.

It's just nonsense.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

secondly, define why the little guy appeals to you?

It's not particularly surprising or heroic when the big strong powerful guy wins the fight. It's just what you would expect.

David Versus Goliath - TV Tropes

Broadly speaking, this trope is any climactic combat or competition where the hero is the underdog. More specifically, it refers to conflicts where the hero is much smaller in physical stature than the villain. The hero will usually win if he's …

tvtropes.org

Also, identification. In real life I am small, unathletic and unadventurous. I find halflings easier to identify with than big strong jocks. They are more like me.

 

[Hussar]

JFC. This is really scarping the bottom of the barrel. Elves have such great lore because Boots of Elven kind!

You are missing the point.

No one is saying it's "great" lore.

We're saying that it's lore. Full stop. It's something in the game that says, "Hey, here is something that makes Elves stand out" like Elven Cloaks and Boots.

You're the one who seems fixated on this notion of quality.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

You are missing the point.

No one is saying it's "great" lore.

We're saying that it's lore. Full stop. It's something in the game that says, "Hey, here is something that makes Elves stand out" like Elven Cloaks and Boots.

You're the one who seems fixated on this notion of quality.

I am the one fixating on quality on the thread which whole premise that people are arguing that the quality of halfling lore is objectively bad? Wow!

And these items have no lore, besides word 'elven' or 'dwarven' in the name. It is about as much lore than there being word 'Mordenkainen' in some spells. Yes, 'scarping the bottom of the barrel' was accurate.

 

[Oofta]

Not even going to acknowledge you were wrong... yet again, about what my position was. Just "tilting at windmills" huh?

Because I'm not wrong about the fact that I, and a lot of people, think halflings are perfectly fine the way they are.

You don't get to decide for everyone else that halfling lore is bad.

 

[Hussar]

Well, that was their overall concept in Middle-Earth. Cute little fellas who are endearing in their innocent ignorance of the world and deserve to be protected in their little pastoral paradise, so that the evils of the world don't despoil them.

Which, at the end, fails utterly as the Shire is pretty much destroyed by the end. Perhaps if they spent a bit more time engaging with the world and a bit less time sitting around doing nothing, they wouldn't have been harrowed.

I'm not sure I took the same message from the LotR that you did.

 

[Hussar]

Not following at all. Just stating that the impression I get is that halflings have bad lore because as a group they aren't particularly aggressive unless forced to defend themselves or their allies.

Who's saying the lore is bad?

What's ACTUALLY being said is the lore is non-existent.

There's a difference here.