How you go from A to Z skipping everything in-between amazes me. I tried to understand what your problem is. With halflings, that is. Because I don't know. Which I've said repeatedly. Then you take umbrage at a comment that did not mention you, was not directed at you. You say that it's not because they aren't violent. It's not because they don't have kingdoms (I think, not sure). How am I supposed to know what you think? You never answer my questions. What I asked was simple "You say halflings aren't important, but what would make them "important"? Conquering nations? Being fierce warriors? Creating items in the DMG, practically all of which are directly related to adventuring and making combatants more effective?" I mean, sorry if you never said halflings weren't important ... but the rest of it was a question trying to understand your opinion not a freakin' accusation.
When have you ever "shown" me anything other than saying "no your wrong"? When have you explained to me what you do think? Did I miss it? I'm human, it's possible. I've scanned some of your responses and all I gather is that "they don't have lore" and you don't like the lucky or brave features. At least that's what I understood, because once again I'm not sure. Is that it? Can you ever just once give a simple 100-200 word response saying what the problem is?
But go ahead. Just say I'm wrong, making unfounded accusations, don't ever give a straight answer. I'm used to it.
A comment not directed at me? Both of those posts you quoted and were responding to me. And, before you asked those questions I had already, around three times, posted what I thought would be a perfectly fine rewrite for halflings. Making them a race of diplomats and lorekeepers, a race that people call on to act as a third-party and arbitrate between people. A race that is often found on the road or the river, traveling from one place to the next, and acting as the glue that holds the civilized races together.
I also would like them to have a better origin story than "we were found exactly like we are". The origin myth mentions Yondalla had a vision for them, what was it? It mentions she raised some of them to godhood for their deeds, what deeds? Expanding upon that lore would help immensely in making it feel like it mattered instead of like it was tacked on.
And I've said these things, multiple times. And sure, you may be thinking "That doesn't sound that different from the halflings that exist. In fact, it could be exactly like that". But, the key difference is stating it explicitly. Making it canon that this is what halflings do, rather than making vague statements about how they get along with everyone. And, you will also note, that all of those things people keep accusing me of. Of wanting a war-mongering race, a conquering race, a race full of edge and darkness... is nowhere to be seen.
And yes, I took your "questions" as a criticism, because the same things keep getting lobbed at me as criticisms. Again, and again, and again, even when I have stated that that is not what I am interested in. That that is not what I am advocating for. Heck, I was literally the only one to respond to
@Whizbang Dustyboots asking for people to give a version of halflings they'd be happy with. And somehow, people seem to be unaware of that.
@Chaosmancer since you keep throwing around accusations, I thought I'd share my home campaign writeup on halflings and how I use them. Sticks pretty close to PHB lore.
But first, why I like playing them:
I play them as cheerful and almost unaware of danger. They're friendly and like making friends, very outgoing (I'm an introvert by nature, I like playing different personalities). While they may come across as happy-go-lucky, they have no issues with combat.
My campaign writeup:
There are different groups of halflings. Some are nomads and traders, tinkers specializing in detailed work called the Renai. Most people enjoy when the Renai visit because of their cheerful nature, compassion and general good nature. Occasionally local artisans secretly object to the competition and spread rumors of them being thieves passing off shoddy workmanship.
In the city, halflings happily do work that others may consider beneath them such as chimney sweeps, rat catchers and the like. They literally find small places to live, being happy in attics and back alleys, making use of small unused spaces and making them remarkably comfortable.
Other halflings live quiet lives in peaceful countryside, happy to pay taxes for someone else to have the hassle of running the government. Their homes tend to blend into the countryside and when they need fences for livestock, it's most likely to be a line of thick brambles that may not appear to be a fence at all. Bandits and ruffians rarely bother them because they have little value but are fierce in the defense of their homes and those of their allies if necessary.
Visitors to a halfling's home are welcome as long as they behave but people will notice that while the furniture is well made and maintained, it's fairly minimal. Decorations are as likely to be dried flowers from last summer as a mural painted by a child. Expensive items or displays of wealth are rarely if ever seen even among those halflings that in different communities would be wealthy. The most expensive items most halflings own will likely be something related to a hobby or a musical instrument, but even those are likely to be made by hand.
Pretty simple. Can you explain in 500 words or less why you don't like halflings?
I do not like canon halflings because they do not connect to the world at large. They end up either acting and playing the role of humans in human cities, except that they are shorter than normal, or they end up in places like the Shire completely divorced from the rest of the world. Much of their canon write up seems to ignore anything happening outside the borders of a halfling village, and many of the things described seem like they are meant solely for the entire race to be viewed as innocent children. While I have nothing wrong with innocent characters, the idea of the entire race being infantilized like that and needing protection from the other races rubs me the wrong way. It doesn’t feel like halflings are equals in the world, they feel like they are lesser whose survival is all because of luck and the protection of their bigger and stronger neighbors.
I find it very difficult to have things like “Lucky” or “Brave” show up in actual play. Lucky is a feature that only comes up on the player-side, by rerolling a 1. This means that in every instance a die does not roll a 1, halflings are not lucky. This is a problem, because luck is repeatedly touted as a defining feature of the race. I could also make random rolls be because the halfling was “lucky” but that runs the risk of alienating a player by making their character seem like they have no skill, only luck. I also can’t just have random acts of good luck happen to the halfling character, because that creates an imbalance and seems like favoritism in the party.
Brave, as I discussed, is the same way. Either I must actively look for ways to make the rest of the party not brave, or the halflings bravery is not special amongst the party members. Hawkeye is not particularly brave when fighting beside Black Widow, they are equals in that regard. So too is the halfling character not particularly brave when compared with their companions who are also usually brave heroes. It is the cowardly or cautious player that is more memorable, rather than the brave ones. This creates the same problem as with lucky, either I must take this common trait and have it be non-special, removing something from the halfling, or I must force the other players to be less brave, so that the halflings bravery can shine.
Finally, I find this list of traits, friendly, outgoing, curious, innocent, “salt of the earth”, honest, earnest, ect to be a very poor list to make them different. This describes many characters, and a lot of it describes gnomes or farmers in general, and that makes it hard to say that a halfling is a unique member of the party because they are friendly or curious. And since their place in the world is so vague and niche, their personality following is much harder to handle.
^^ That is 497 words. I summarized a bit, since you mentioned you had issues with me not having an easy time with their traits I had to include that, and I didn’t even get to mention their gods and religion, but you did give me an arbitrary limit to lay out everything. And If I missed anything, I’m sure I’d get docked for that when I brought it up later because I “didn’t mention it before”.
