RPG Evolution: The Trouble with Halflings

Over the decades I've developed my campaign world to match the archetypes my players wanted to play. In all those years, nobody's ever played a halfling.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

So What's the Problem?​

Halflings, derived from hobbits, have been a curious nod to Tolkien's influence on fantasy. While dwarves and elves have deep mythological roots, hobbits are more modern inventions. And their inclusion was very much a response to the adventurous life that the agrarian homebodies considered an aberration. In short, most hobbits didn't want to be adventurers, and Bilbo, Frodo, and the others were forever changed by their experiences, such that it was difficult for them to reintegrate when they returned home. You don't hear much about elves and dwarves having difficulty returning home after being adventurers, and for good reason. Tolkien was making a point about the human condition and the nature of war by using hobbits as proxies.

As a literary construct, hobbits serve a specific purpose. In The Hobbit, they are proxies for children. In The Lord of the Rings, they are proxies for farmers and other folk who were thrust into the industrialized nightmare of mass warfare. In both cases, hobbits were a positioned in contrast to the violent lifestyle of adventurers who live and die by the sword.

Which is at least in part why they're challenging to integrate into a campaign world. And yet, we have strong hobbit archetypes in Dungeons & Dragons, thanks to Dragonlance.

Kender. Kender Are the Problem​

I did know one player who loved to play kender. We never played together in a campaign, at least in part because kender are an integral part of the Dragonlance setting and we weren't playing in Dragonlance. But he would play a kender in every game he played, including in massive multiplayers like Ultima Online. And he was eye-rollingly aggravating, as he loved "borrowing" things from everyone (a trait established by Tasselhoff Burrfoot).

Part of the issue with kender is that they aren't thieves, per se, but have a child-like curiosity that causes them to "borrow" things without understanding that borrowing said things without permission is tantamount to stealing in most cultures. In essence, it results in a character who steals but doesn't admit to stealing, which can be problematic for inter-party harmony. Worse, kender have a very broad idea of what to "borrow" (which is not limited to just valuables) and have always been positioned as being offended by accusations of thievery. It sets up a scenario where either the party is very tolerant of the kender or conflict ensues. This aspect of kender has been significantly minimized in the latest draft for Unearthed Arcana.

Big Heads, Little Bodies​

The latest incarnation of halflings brings them back to the fun-loving roots. Their appearance is decidedly not "little children" or "overweight short people." Rather, they appear more like political cartoons of eras past, where exaggerated features were used as caricatures, adding further to their comical qualities. But this doesn't solve the outstanding problem that, for a game that is often about conflict, the original prototypes for halflings avoided it. They were heroes precisely because they were thrust into difficult situations and had to rise to the challenge. That requires significant work in a campaign to encourage a player to play a halfling character who would rather just stay home.

There's also the simple matter of integrating halflings into societies where they aren't necessarily living apart. Presumably, most human campaigns have farmers; dwarves and elves occupy less civilized niches, where halflings are a working class who lives right alongside the rest of humanity in plain sight. Figuring out how to accommodate them matters a lot. Do humans just treat them like children? Would halflings want to be anywhere near a larger humanoids' dwellings as a result? Or are halflings given mythical status like fey? Or are they more like inveterate pranksters and tricksters, treating them more like gnomes? And if halflings are more like gnomes, then why have gnomes?

There are opportunities to integrate halflings into a world, but they aren't quite so easy to plop down into a setting as dwarves and elves. I still haven't quite figured out how to make them work in my campaign that doesn't feel like a one-off rather than a separate species. But I did finally find a space for gnomes, which I'll discuss in another article.

Your Turn: How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

 

[Faolyn]

Is it a lie if they honestly believe it? Dictionary.com defines "lie" as "a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth. "

If they honestly believe a lie of their own telling, then they're an entire race of people with delusional psychoses, which is not really appropriate as a PC race.

And if they don't believe their lies, then they're a race of pathological liars, which is also not really appropriate as a PC race.

Neither of these make for a logical non-supernatural race, not even even by D&D terms. Those are the kind of traits you'd see in faeries or demons.

Kender can give items away just as easily as a human.

Do they? Because I never see them written as people who give freely. Instead, they're written about as takers. If kender truly don't understand personal property, then they'd give away things a lot more readily than a human, who does.

Let's look to history for this one. The colonizers of the Americas and the Native Americans had different understandings of owning land. The Europeans have an understanding as we do now. The indigenous peoples thought that land belonged to everybody. (And I may be misremembering this some.)

Point is, two peoples who are as intelligent as each other, yet who have different views on the concept of land ownership.

Europeans and Native Americans had two very different cultures, separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years of different cultural development. This is true.

The kender basically don't have a culture, however. Their write-ups say that they're effectively too chaotic for any, and their only true society is the nuclear family. They don't even have the ability or desire to maintain an extended family. They have no laws of their own, no social mores, nothing. Each kender does whatever they heck they want to do. If they have any cultural elements at all, then it's elements they've appropriated from others. Meaning, humans, elves, dwarfs, gnomes, etc. All races they lived near to and interacted with fairly often over the course of however long these have been in existence on Krynn, as opposed to having been separated by them for, as I said, thousands of miles and thousands of years.

There is no logical reason why they shouldn't have realized centuries ago that other people don't like it when you take their things. So they either can't understand or they simply don't care, both of which would likely make them sociopaths.

No magic about it, contrary to the first Heroes of Krynn article for Unearthed Arcana.

That was an exaggeration. But having it be completely non-magical makes it even more illogical that these supposedly innocent, kindly beings are able to taunt people so horrifically to the point that, as "All About the Kender" says (in Dragon #101), full-scale riots have happened as a result of their taunting. How angry do you have to be able to make people, plural, for there to be a full-scale riot?

So kender, as written, are some combination of delusional, pathological liar, kleptomaniacal, sociopathic, anarchal, and/or vicious hecklers that aren't fit for even impolite company. That we're all supposed to find charming because of reasons.

So while many of the problems that come with kender are because of the players, those players are playing the race as they were written to be.

 

[Faolyn]

Somebody could publish in the next year a new webcomic about halflings surviving a zombie apocalypse as a mixture of epic fantasy and parody of D&D stereotypes and zombies movies, and then halflings would become more popular. Or a webcomic as parody is magical girls and isekai when a human woman in the new world becomes a female halfling (or reincarnated because druid's spell was cheaper than the true resurection).

Halflings have played a fairly important role in Yet Another Gamer Comic for a very long time no. Sadly, that comic probably isn't itself popular enough for it to have a major impact on halfling culture. If anything, Belkar from OOTS has had a bigger impact.

 

[Minigiant]

Halflings have played a fairly important role in Yet Another Gamer Comic for a very long time no. Sadly, that comic probably isn't itself popular enough for it to have a major impact on halfling culture. If anything, Belkar from OOTS has had a bigger impact.

There's a reason why you don't see halflings in many media outside of D&D save for maybe 1-2 characters or a mention.

Halflings as Hobbits don't integrate with many setting. Tolkien wrote Hobbits for a 4 good race setting. So outside of those, hobbitish haflings are minor. People who love halflings as hobbits tend to be old school and run monoculture, low race, hard good-evil settings.

Halflings as Kenders are just an excuse to play a child with the rights of an adult or an annoying character.

Halflings as how 5e depict them are 75% there to be important in many settings. They just need to be tied to the world a wee bit more.

Somebody could publish in the next year a new webcomic about halflings surviving a zombie apocalypse as a mixture of epic fantasy and parody of D&D stereotypes and zombies movies, and then halflings would become more popular. Or a webcomic as parody is magical girls and isekai when a human woman in the new world becomes a female halfling (or reincarnated because druid's spell was cheaper than the true resurection).

In fact this doesn't happen. Fantasy media is quick to take D&D style elves, dwarves, orcs, and even dragon people and drop them in new setting with new twists. This rarely happens to halflings and theymight get a mention just to get a "oh and he's a halfling" character.

Warhammer has halflings in their fntasy setting as a minor mention and a pair of units in a unsupported faction. They aren't in 40k nor their fantasy reboot unlike elves,, dwarves, and orcs.

Halflings are hard to use as they lack anything specifically unique and the unique combination of traits are not strong enough in crunch or fluff to find a niche within setting affairs and character creation.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Like bravery stealthiness, and luck?

name adventures who are not brave.
elves already have that plus cat people and bugbears(why are they called bugbears they not particularly bug-like in any way)
how do they have luck? it is not something genetic and luck magic is not really a thing.

There's a reason why you don't see halflings in many media outside of D&D save for maybe 1-2 characters or a mention.

Halflings as Hobbits don't integrate with many setting. Tolkien wrote Hobbits for a 4 good race setting. So outside of those, hobbitish haflings are minor. People who love halflings as hobbits tend to be old school and run monoculture, low race, hard good-evil settings.

Halflings as Kenders are just an excuse to play a child with the rights of an adult or an annoying character.

Halflings as how 5e depict them are 75% there to be important in many settings. They just need to be tied to the world a wee bit more.


In fact this doesn't happen. Fantasy media is quick to take D&D style elves, dwarves, orcs, and even dragon people and drop them in new setting with new twists. This rarely happens to halflings and theymight get a mention just to get a "oh and he's a halfling" character.

Warhammer has halflings in their fntasy setting as a minor mention and a pair of units in a unsupported faction. They aren't in 40k nor their fantasy reboot unlike elves,, dwarves, and orcs.

Halflings are hard to use as they lack anything specifically unique and the unique combination of traits are not strong enough in crunch or fluff to find a niche within setting affairs and character creation.

halfings are in 40k they are just known as ratlings.

 

[Hussar]

There was a 3k post last year about errata-ing halflings out of the Players Handbook.

Basically - some insisted that halflings get errata'ed out of the Players Handbook - so you would basically have to buy a splat book to play them - I forget the details.

As probably the biggest proponent of this, I would point out that this is VERY inaccurate. As in not even remotely right.

What was ACTUALLY suggested (and I believe I suggested it again here) was that halflings get bumped to the Monster Manual or a section of the DMG, similar to where we find Eladrin now. All the rules are kept. Nothing is lost, nor would you have to "buy a splat book to play them". However, that would open up space in the PHB for a couple of new races to see if they can gain more traction than the two "also rans" of D&D. My personal picks would be an anthropomorphic template race - something that lets you pick an animal and select a couple of traits that fit with that animal - and probably Warforged since Warforged seem to be a very popular option and fill one hell of a lot more interesting niche than either gnomes or halflings.

And for that, I got absolutely dog piled on and told that I hate halflings and gnomes and the only reason I would think this is because I hate gamers. It was rather bizarre to be frank.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's a reason why you don't see halflings in many media outside of D&D save for maybe 1-2 characters or a mention.

There are two reasons, the Tolkien association, and that they are faffy to do in live action.

Still, the Amazon LotR prequal has halflings, despite them not actually appearing in the Silmarillion.

Tolkien wrote Hobbits for a 4 good race setting.

I'm sure Tolkien didn't at any point think "I am creating a four good race setting".

So outside of those, hobbitish haflings are minor.

They are minor in Tolkien.

People who love halflings as hobbits tend to be old school and run monoculture, low race, hard good-evil settings.

Nope, my players are fond of halflings because they are cute, English, and they like the "Lucky" trait. And our settings are not monoculture, low race, or hard good-evil.

 

[Minigiant]

There are two reasons, the Tolkien association, and that they are faffy to do in live action.

Still, the Amazon LotR prequal has halflings, despite them not actually appearing in the Silmarillion.

Well that's because it's LOTR. That's my point.

I'm sure Tolkien didn't at any point think "I am creating a four good race setting".

No. He design each race to take up a specific culture and not overlap.

That's my point.

I could easily replace Halflings with cute, rural, English humans and they would be missing nothing but being small.

I could easily replace Halflings with Gnomes if I need small people with human colored skin. That's what Warcraft did.

Tolkien designed Hobbits with a purpose.

D&D designed Halflings for a few mechanics and cultures... then gave the same or similar mechanics to humane, gnomes, goblins, dwarves, elves, kobolds, and now harengon.

They are minor in Tolkien

Exactly. D&D took a minor race in another media, made it a major race without changing much, then preceded to lore creep and power creep it.

Halfling is probably the first example of lore creep in a game.

Nope, my players are fond of halflings because they are cute, English, and they like the "Lucky" trait. And our settings are not monoculture, low race, or hard good-evil.

I said "tend to be".

And how important or impactful are halflings in your settings? Do they have a unique niche or place that only they can occupy?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Tolkien designed Hobbits with a purpose.

Yes he did. But not because that culture was a necessary part of his fantasy world, from which they are largely absent. They are viewpoint characters, representing himself and the reader, who he imagined as working/middle class middle Englanders. They are small because his fantasy world is so much bigger (in a metaphorical sense) than everyday real life.

And how important or impactful are halflings in your settings? Do they have a unique niche or place that only they can occupy?

No races have a unique niche in my setting. That's the nature a high race setting. People are just people, irrespective of they are tall, short covered in fur, covered in scales, or whathaveyou.

 

[Minigiant]

Yes he did. But not because that culture was a necessary part of his fantasy world, from which they are largely absent. They are viewpoint characters, representing himself and the reader, who he imagined as working/middle class middle Englanders. They are small because his fantasy world is so much bigger (in a metaphorical sense) than everyday real life

And this is the main problem with hobbit like halflings.


If they whole race is tied to a culture you can't really alter and a physical chasis with few unique or impactful features, you don't have the freedom drag them into new setting or change them without making them something unrecognizable.

In contrast you can make 150 types of elves because their base haughty, long life, feyness, and gracefulneess still shines and offers new takes on them without removing the parts people like about them.

Stick Wood, High, Dark, Shadow, or Fire in front of halflings and you likely lose half their popularity.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

you don't have the freedom drag them into new setting

You can drop them into any high race setting, because no one needs to have a special culture or weird physical features, they might just have blue skin or a knobbly forehead.

Since high race is standard for D&D now, I would say that's a problem solved.