Oh Yeah.. Gnomes...

[Scribble]

Does anyone else think Gnomes are kind of the forgotten child of D&D?

Seems like you never hear all that much about Gnomes... They just kind of are... Do Gnomes figure prominently in any of your campaign worlds?

Maybe it's just me... I was designing my campaign world a while back, and after I settled on just about where to put the various "main" races... I realized I'd forgotten about the Gnomes.. I thought... "Oh yeah... Gnomes..."

 

[frankthedm]

I do not have any in the games i run. Dwarven R&D takes up any "tinkerer" fluff.

I don't like them much.

It was Adkinson that saved them when 2e became 3e. He is no longer at the helm of wotc and the mini department does not seem that keen on them. Thier time is numbered.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Gnomes with actual flavor:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041129a

 

[Dragonhelm]

I could take or leave the standard PHB gnome.

Luckily, I play in Dragonlance, where there's tinker gnomes. That gives them their own unique flavor, and so they are far from an afterthought.

 

[Scribble]

Gnomes with actual flavor:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041129a

Yeah... I was thinking about putting the gnomes in the "jungle" area of the world... Along with the drow.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They figure prominently in mine. My Midwood campaign has a human barony, a displaced dwarf population (same old story, a dragon took over their mountain) and a gnomish outpost hidden by illusions to blend into the forests.

When you clear the decks of all the other millions of races, the gnomes really shine and the players have really taken to them, even if they're playing humans or dwarves themselves. (So do the dwarves, for that matter.)

My gnomes are forest and animal-loving, but are led by a powerful illusionist. Every year, they give the children of the barony clever clockwork toys and there's a rumor that Wit's End is full of all sorts of clockwork automotons, but no outsiders have entered the mansion in a long time.

 

[Scribble]

They figure prominently in mine. My Midwood campaign has a human barony, a displaced dwarf population (same old story, a dragon took over their mountain) and a gnomish outpost hidden by illusions to blend into the forests.

I went the route of making Halflings displaced. Now they wander around as gypsies.

 

[SWBaxter]

Seems like you never hear all that much about Gnomes... They just kind of are... Do Gnomes figure prominently in any of your campaign worlds?

I try to find cool niches for 'em, but what features prominently in all my campaign worlds is the PCs, and IME most of my players ain't that happy with gnomes. One of the problems I have with them is their size (same with halflings) - I have three nephews, aged 4, 2, and almost 1, and the two older boys are now on the low end of the size range for gnomes or halflings. Makes it hard to suspend disbelief and imagine a gnome or halfling as any kind of threat when they're about the size of pre-schoolers. Admittedly the discovery of homo floresiensis has made that a bit easier to swallow, but I still plan to house rule gnomes and halflings up to the 4' territory, with Dwarves and Elves bumped a bit as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I find thinking of gnomes as ought-to-be-fey and playing up their innate magical abilities and different way of looking at the world helps. But yes, the default size of shorties in 3E does sometimes get a bit jarring.

 

[DethStryke]

I don't think gnomes and halflings get a fair shake in most campaign worlds. No one ever really concentrates on them, and the best "flavor" examples I can recall are Tinker Gnomes & the barbarian Halflings from Darksun (those buggers were hard-core!). While those are great examples, now ten(?) or more years after these have been out I find that people either forget them or recycle these two ideas. I find myself thinking of them as cliche even!

I think the descriptions given in the PHB (like some people above have noted) feel like someone decided on keeping them regardless and tried to fill in the blank of why at a later date. I guess their editors didn't like "cause I want them here" as a racial description.

As such, and because the descriptions always felt very bland and afterthought-ish, I have been trying to explore other possibilities and motivations for those two races. I've been considering some racial-based ramifications on how they would interact with other races on the whole. Alot of those considerations are topics that are against the rules of the board though, so I'll just leave it at that.

All that said, I think that's the real problem. Their descriptions are blah. They don't inspire me to include them in anything or base story concepts around them. Even Half-Orcs have more to offer from just their description than Gnomes or Halflings. No conflict given... that's the problem!

Humans are the exception to this, because people (obviously) relate to humans... our minds fill in the blank from real-life, history and works of fiction. The description could say "they're human. Nuff Said" and it would really be enough. You *know* humans already. The rest of the races need the special help.