D&D 4E Rename the races in 4E? Why halflings and not hobbits? Dwur not dwarf...

[RPG_Tweaker]

That made me think of this.

Thank you so very much for that link.

 

[shilsen]

I think it would be an unnecessary change and wouldn't add anything relevant to the game, but it wouldn't bother me in the least. I don't care at all about what the game calls things and tend to judge them on the actual mechanics, so even if the PHB has them named Short Hairy Race, Tall Pointy-Eared Race, Short Thin Race, etc. it wouldn't affect me.

 

[Nifft]

"Halfling" -> "Li". Intuitive, and trademark-free!

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ranger REG]

Exactly. As an aside I've been wondering why we have 'mithral' in D&D. Is 'mithril' also a trademarked term?

You do realize you spell them differently here, right?

I don't think "mithril" is trademarked. You'll have to ask the IP owner.

 

[Ranger REG]

Apparently the 4E Halflings will have some sort of luck abilities, so I'll just call them Leprechauns.

Only if they start sprouting rainbow from their behinds should you call them the L word.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've seen no interest in re-naming two races Dwur and Olve.

There's probably interest in renaming the halfling to hobbit, but IIRC didn't humans often refer to hobbits as halflings in the book? It seems to me that "halfling" is just Common for hobbit (and hobbits would call each other hobbits) and TSR/WotC can't actually say hobbit for fear of being sued.

 

[Gloombunny]

You do realize you spell them differently here, right?

Uh, that's the entire point of his question. D&D calls it "mithral", with an a, even though we all know it's really mithril, with an i. I can only assume that's for trademark reasons.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

I can only assume that's for trademark reasons.

Probably weird Gygaxian reasons.
Wikipedia: Mithril

 

[Gloombunny]

Wow, so there's not even any justification for misspelling "mithril". That makes it doubly dumb!

 

[Remathilis]

Wow, so there's not even any justification for misspelling "mithril". That makes it doubly dumb!

Probably just an adamantine/adamantium style "its kinda the same, but not really" move. Or Gygax spelled it wrong and it stuck (see: Lolth/Lloth).