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

[Szatany]

I could stomach if they renamed dwarf to dwarv. Dwarf would be a popular nickname given to dwarves by humans, since their real name is similar to "dwarf" word and they are short.

 

[Cam Banks]

I would be happy to see 'sidhe' replace elf.

We couldn't count on people pronouncing that correctly. I'm sure you'd get folks saying it as "sid" or "siddy."

Cheers,
Cam

 

[WizarDru]

The only reason halflings are called halflings and not hobbits is because of fear of (potential or actual) intellectual property complaints from the Tolkien estate.

There's nothing 'potential' about it. The Tolkien Estate threatened a lawsuit if TSR didn't stop using extensive references to various intellectual properties and trademarked words, such as 'hobbit'. Hence the Sixth printing of the OD&D book suddenly lost Ents, Hobbits, Balrogs and references to the Nazgul, replaced instead by Treants, Halflings and Balors. This was especially important as the Tolkien estate would license the rights to these appear in an RPG later. Iron Crown Enterprises survived for years mostly on that license.

Elves, dwarves, faeries and most D&D creatures have mythological antecedents, but hobbits were original to Tolkien and the D&D halfling was originally a direct copy of them. Changing their names would be counter-productive and offer no appreciable improvement in the game. Calling this a 'sacred cow' would be like calling the name 'bastard sword' a sacred cow. Certainly you could find another name...but why bother?

 

[Vradna]

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.

Certainly true. If you can get a hold of RA Salvatore's first editions of the Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver and Halfling's Gem (under TSR), you will see that the spelling of the alloy in those books is 'Mithril' (Check the last sentence in the book of tCS). When the books were republished after D&D changed hands to WotC, 'Mithril' was changed to 'Mithral' to avoid future IP violations and also to trademark their own IP.

*Anecdotally, 'Treants' were also named 'Ents' in the first copies of D&D, but were also removed for the same reasons as the word 'Hobbits'.

*Githyanki were originally ceated by George RR Martin (though different to how they appeared in Fiend Folio all those years ago) George wasn't aware that the name was taken in vain until relatively recently.

*Drow are wizened goblin-types that live beneath the earth in some myths and legends.

*Anakin Skywalker's story is closely mirrored from the Mabnagion's 'Peredur' (I know, it doesn't relate, but I wanted to throw that in!)

I'll stop now.

 

[Ranger REG]

We couldn't count on people pronouncing that correctly. I'm sure you'd get folks saying it as "sid" or "siddy."

Can't be any worse than trying to pronounce a name like Siobhan.

Oh, and sidhe is pronounced "Shee."

 

[WhatGravitas]

In fact that's been one major aspect in the last revision of our (German) language: The spelling for foreign words was officially changed. Not a change that was generally well received by the populace.
E.g. words with Greek origins no longer use 'ph' but 'f', as in dolphin -> dolfin (German: Delphin -> Delfin).

And some still refuse to use the new spelling. Because it looks stupid. Sorry, just something that always toggles my rant-box on. Now back to your usual thread.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Gentlegamer]

*Anakin Skywalker's story is closely mirrored from the Mabnagion's 'Peredur' (I know, it doesn't relate, but I wanted to throw that in!)

Which character from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain stories would he be analogous to?

 

[Hairfoot]

We've always called halflings "Hobbits" at my game table. I say, if you want to rename a race, go for it. Nobody is going to show up at your door and demand that you cease and desist immediately.

Given the tenacity of the Tolkien estate, that's only because the technology isn't good enough yet for them to hear you.

 

[Fedifensor]

Well, you could always call halflings by their other D&D name...
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...kender.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, you could always call halflings by their other D&D name...
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...kender.

Kender is not a name. It's a disorder.