D&D (2024) No Dwarf, Halfling, and Orc suborgins, lineages, and legacies

[Yaarel]

Except they aren’t.

You can create an extremely religious character that is not Norse, Scottish, a warrior, a miner or an artisan that is recognizably a dwarf.

You can create a character that is conservative and tradition-bound that is not Norse, Scottish, a warrior or a miner or an artisan that is recognizably a dwarf.

Not that even suggesting that Scottish or Norse (let alone both) is one-note is kind of ridiculous.

The D&D Dwarf has little or nothing to do with the Norse Dvergr.


But a D&D Dwarf wearing a horned helmet and speaking with a Scottish accent is one note − while being a hidebound religious fanatic.

 

[FrozenNorth]

There are no obnoxious archetypes, only obnoxious players.

Eh, while I’m sure that a great roleplayer can create a reluctant hero that isn’t grating on the players that actually want to go on the awesome adventure, certain archetypes are more likely to cause friction in a group.

Characters that harp on how they don’t want to go on the adventure are one of them.

 

[CreamCloud0]

“Mr./Mrs. Reluctant Hero” is also an archetype that can be profoundly obnoxious in game. Shame that it is a traditional halfling archetype.

i think you could solve alot of the 'simple village life' and 'reluctant adventurer' aspects of halflings if you spread in a couple of lines about how 'the quietest lives tend to produce the most adventurous souls' and 'often even a well-settled halfling can abruptly gain a fire in their soul to drop everything and head for the open road'

how their curiosity and fearlessness can only be bottled up for so long and their nigh-supernatural luck kind of produces this underlying nature of being risk takers and adrenaline junkies just waiting to spring to the surface.

 

[FrozenNorth]

The D&D Dwarf has little or nothing to do with the Norse Dvergr.

Not going to disagree. I was simply quoting the previous poster.

 

[TwoSix]

i think you could solve alot of the 'simple village life' and 'reluctant adventurer' aspects of halflings if you spread in a couple of lines about how 'the quietest lives tend to produce the most adventurous souls' and 'often even a well-settled halfling can abruptly gain a fire in their soul to drop everything and head for the open road'

how their curiosity and fearlessness can only be bottled up for so long and their nigh-supernatural luck kind of produces this underlying nature of being risk takers and adrenaline junkies just waiting to spring to the surface.

I like this. It pretty much turns kender (minus the kleptomania, hopefully) into a random spiritual evolution of halflings.

It could even part of their society, to recognize the signs and encourage a halfling who has received "Yondalla's Spark".

 

[tetrasodium]

Except they aren’t.

You can create an extremely religious character that is not Norse, Scottish, a warrior, a miner or an artisan that is recognizably a dwarf.

You can create a character that is conservative and tradition-bound that is not Norse, Scottish, a warrior or a miner or an artisan that is recognizably a dwarf.

Not that even suggesting that Scottish or Norse (let alone both) is one-note is kind of ridiculous.

No they really are just differently shaded clonestamps. The tolkein "dwarf" stereotypical tropes are so monolithic that they make the inevitable death of every character to ever utter words like "when we get through this ... my girl back home "is positively uncertain. Even when I've seen someone start out attempting to play a dwarf a little outside The Hobbit/LOTR Tolkein mold they inevitably give up & accept the pigeonholed role they keep getting pressured into. There's only so many ways you can skin the output of a plot armored subterranean mining crafting beer drinking civilization that trains a majority population of blacksmiths instead of farmers shepherds & so on.

i think you could solve alot of the 'simple village life' and 'reluctant adventurer' aspects of halflings if you spread in a couple of lines about how 'the quietest lives tend to produce the most adventurous souls' and 'often even a well-settled halfling can abruptly gain a fire in their soul to drop everything and head for the open road'

how their curiosity and fearlessness can only be bottled up for so long and their nigh-supernatural luck kind of produces this underlying nature of being risk takers and adrenaline junkies just waiting to spring to the surface.

It would probably be easier & have a greater efficacy to shift away from Tolkein's hobbit IP & put more focus to the Wotc IP halflings of eberron & darksun.

 

[Hussar]

Aside from art, how do you explain them to your players? Are they well-versed in Asian mythology?

What I'm getting at is that these days most D&D players are fairly casual, and don't spend hours studying rulebooks. When they choose a species, they are generally basing their idea of that species on pop culture stuff picked up outside of D&D. So cat people are popular because most people know what a cat is like, and so on. If the player can't get a clear idea of what a species is like based on prior knowledge, they are unlikely to choose that option.

Except that "cat people" aren't actually very popular. As in the animal races don't even crack the top 20.

If D&D players "these days" (whatever that means) are fairly casual, then how do you explain Genasi, Goliaths and Aasimar being so popular? It's not like any of those races appear anywhere outside of D&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Except that "cat people" aren't actually very popular.

Taking into account that majority-casual players do not buy heaps of obscure soucebooks they are popular enough. I've seen two at my table.

how do you explain Genasi, Goliaths and Aasimar being so popular? It's not like any of those races appear anywhere outside of D&D.

Genesai are free on DDB, goliaths feature in Critical Role and Legend of Vox Machina (also Big Guy? what more needs explaining?), and Aasimar? Popular? Could have fooled me (despite being overpowered).

 

[Mind of tempest]

The difficulty with innovation is finding others in order to form a community that is dedicated to the SAME innovations.

If the community succeeds, it becomes a new normal and a new "boring".

true but that means you get to innovate even more so the only downside is the set up of the community

 

[Yaarel]

Except that "cat people" aren't actually very popular. As in the animal races don't even crack the top 20.

If D&D players "these days" (whatever that means) are fairly casual, then how do you explain Genasi, Goliaths and Aasimar being so popular? It's not like any of those races appear anywhere outside of D&D.

The Tabaxi including "catgirls" etcetera are among the top 20, immediately after the Aaracokra. (Their exact rank depends on what one considers a "species", such as "Half Elves" being part of the Elf species, and whether a "Lineage" counts.) The Aaracockra itself is a birdfolk and is 12th most popular (or 13th).

Meanwhile, the Dragonborn is a beastfolk that is one of the top of 5 most popular species (or is 6th).