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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FrozenNorth" data-source="post: 9300048" data-attributes="member: 7020832">But what does that actually mean?Let’s go back to the right-up of dwarves in the 2014 5th edition PHB.Its description of dwarves provides several hooks for DMs to create dwarven societies and for players to create dwarven characters.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Religious;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tradition-bound;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Warriors;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Artisans and smiths;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Organised in clans;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Associated with hills, mountains and mining;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gruff or stoic;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stubborn and prone to grudges;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prone to greed.</li> </ul>There is enough fodder here for quite a few different adventurers, that are quite different from each other.You seem to be hung up on an extremely restrictive conception of a dwarf.  Do female dwarves not exist?Is the problem that the archetypes aren’t new?  Some archetypes are classics for a reason.  You may as well rail against all characters for emulating “the hero’s journey”.  That doesn’t mean that all PC are the same.That criticism could literally be levelled against every single race in the PHB with only minor changes.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How do dark elves live in caverns far below even what dwarves colonize?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How do goblins, who don’t have dwarven artisanal traditions?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How are humans and halflings not extinct from the large number of deadly monsters everywhere?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Given that elves live for 900 years, how come we aren’t overrun with elves if each elf can have multiple offspring during their lifetimes?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How are humans able to reproduce with elves and orcs?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How do orcs maintain a raiding lifestyle with virtually no farming?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elves have hidden settlements.  How is it possible to have no evidence of agriculture and still maintain a stable population?</li> </ul>The stories resonate with the themes that have been identified as dwarf culture.  If dwarf culture is identified as highly religious and clannish, a dwarf that has turned his back on both can be developed in an interesting manner.Likewise, any PC can have an arc that is about living up to societal pressure.  But set that arc against a backdrop of a culture that is described as very conservative and traditional, and the society serves as a foil to the character.</blockquote>

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