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?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Yes. Halfling lore for each edition is different.

The mechanics ARE lore when it comes to mechanics for in-fiction things, the lore matches the mechanics and vice versa.

No Max. Different mechanics don't mean different lore. Halflings have been depicted as supernaturally lucky in AT A MINIMUM 3rd, 4th and 5th edition, and problably in 2nd edition, since that is where most DnD lore tracks back to. But 3rd edition was still over twenty years ago, so that's plenty of time to call out the trope.

Any relevance that comic offers is curiosity only. Halfling luck isn't going to increase, not be expected to increased, based on a minor comic book.

It doesn't need to increase, because the narrative is ALREADY THERE. the comic book was an example of the narrative that ALREADY EXISTS. Not the mechanics, the narrative.

Sure, but Wulfgar doesn't rage like the mechanics show. He has the power of plot which invalidates the crazy stuff that he does. Same with halfling luck. That it touches on something that the game does doesn't make it something that players can or will expect to show up in the game.

Right, how could anyone expect that their super strong barbarian, who we say is super strong, would do something a super strong barbarian could do. That's just silly. You just seriously don't get how people's expectations work, if you believe this.

Cool. Then no race is as brave as the halflings. The loxodon are peaceful, which while it has similar mechanics to the halfling ability, isn't bravery because the lore is different.

Not at all. How many of the seven have the lore "bravery" attached to the mechanic?

As far as I know, as I haven't gone through all the races, they are still uniquely braver.

Look. All I'm claiming is that as a race, halflings are braver than other races. This is fact. I don't give two shakes of a fairy tail what happens in an adventuring group as that has zero bearing on a racial ability.

So now it is that they are braver not because they have advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition, but because they have an ability called bravery. You care nothing for how that impacts the game, you care nothing about if it makes sense. Halflings are brave because they are brave and have an ability called Bravery.

And since this is now the level of discourse. I'm done. I will not be responding to you again in this thread.

 

[Faolyn]

Well, let's see, how could I have gotten that idea? What did you say two posts ago?

I compared out-of-character information (that fear and Frightened are different things) with in-character information (that halflings are believed by people in the world to be braver because they don't know that fear and Frightened are different things).

However, this entire post of yours did prove that there is zero point in talking to you. You are willfully misunderstanding and possibly out-right trolling, and I'm tired of explaining the same things over and over again. So goodbye.

 

[Faolyn]

And, hey, I frequently see lots of posts on Reddit about playing all sorts of other races. Guess what, confirmation bias works both ways.

But, again, you're not quite reading what I'm writing. I never said that there was no support. Nor did I say that no one plays halflings. both statements are easily disproven. What I DID say was that so few people play halflings that they could be removed and it would make virtually no difference to the broader hobby because the broader hobby doesn't play halflings. But, because halflings are in the Core and especially in the SRD, every single supplement has to include a bone or two for halfling players because those are supposed to be one of the most commonly played races -that's why they are the Core 4 SRD races.

But they aren't.

Which is why I'm saying that it's time (and frankly long past time) that the PHB actually reflects what is being played. Which means opening up the PHB to some new ideas and see if they might gain a bit more traction with players in the same way that Tieflings and Dragonborn have. Which might mean that a couple of iterations down the line, the PHB line up of player races might be entirely different than it is now, or it might be very similar to what it is now, or it might be somewhere in between.

But, staying the course just makes the PHB less and less relevant as time goes on.

This is literally just your opinion, though: that they're not being played, that they're bottom of the barrel, that nobody cares about them. It is not an opinion that has any facts backing it up, though, and it goes against known facts, which is that hundreds of thousands of people play them and that they are in, by your own admission, every single setting and source book.

It is far more likely that the 6e PHB will contain more races than it currently does. As someone else pointed out, lineages take up less space than races do, and there's nothing that prevents the 6e PHB from adding twenty or forty pages to its length to accommodate them all, which means that there's going to be plenty of opportunity for new races to gain traction while still keeping the halflings for all those people who like them. And those people who don't like them can continue to not play them, like they've always done.

 

[Hussar]

Oh hey @Faolyn I absolutely agree that this is just my opinion. Sorry if I gave any impression to the contrary.

 

[bedir than]

lineages take up less space than races do,

Aren't there only 3 lineages?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Is this another "the mother of giants slept around" bit of the lore? Because I don't remember the Goliaths being mentioned as part of the Ordning. I know classically the Firbolg rejected the Ordning, but I don't remember ever seeing where the Goliaths fit into that stucture (other than being lesser than everyone else, because they are shorter than everyone else)

I think there is a brief mention of goliaths alongside ogres and trolls under "and the Allfather also made..." in one of the AL adventures, and that's it. Veberg and other small giants can presumably be lumped into this "odds and sods" category too.

Rejecting the giant gods would certainly be consistent with the goliath culture as presented in RotFM. One might hypothesise that goliaths and firbolg where once one people, with the firbolg settling in the forests and developing an affinity with nature, and the goliaths settling in the mountains and developing an affinity for stone.

But WotC seem to have a giant-focused sourcebook in the works, I expect goliaths to feature prominently.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Aren't there only 3 lineages?

Current count stands at about 30.

 

[Maxperson]

No Max. Different mechanics don't mean different lore.

That isn't what I said. I said that each edition has different halfling lore. This is a fact. I also said that mechanics and lore match, so mechanics are lore. This is also fact. Those are two different statements, both of which are facts.

Halflings have been depicted as supernaturally lucky in AT A MINIMUM 3rd, 4th and 5th edition, and problably in 2nd edition, since that is where most DnD lore tracks back to. But 3rd edition was still over twenty years ago, so that's plenty of time to call out the trope.

No. Not 1e or 2e. Not one mention of luck in the 2e halfling write-up. Further, there's not one mention of luck in the 3e halfling write-up, either. It mentions a daring that other races can't match(bravery), and a +1 to saves because they are capable(skill) at avoiding mishap, but no luck or fortune at all.

It doesn't need to increase, because the narrative is ALREADY THERE. the comic book was an example of the narrative that ALREADY EXISTS. Not the mechanics, the narrative.

Not it's not. A bit of luck every once in a while isn't the same as what that comic portrayed.

Right, how could anyone expect that their super strong barbarian, who we say is super strong, would do something a super strong barbarian could do. That's just silly. You just seriously don't get how people's expectations work, if you believe this.

Tell you what. Next time you rage go ask your DM if you can suddenly drag a massive boat out of the water. I'll bet you will rightly be told no. Raging doesn't increase your strength in 5e by even a single point, nor would it increase it by that much if it did. You get advantage on the strength you had before you started raging, but that doesn't add any extra pounds of lift.

So now it is that they are braver not because they have advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition, but because they have an ability called bravery. You care nothing for how that impacts the game, you care nothing about if it makes sense. Halflings are brave because they are brave and have an ability called Bravery.

:sigh: An ability called bravery that gives them advantage on saves. The lore informs the mechanic and vice versa. Halflings are braver because they have a mechanic that gives them advantage on saves that is called bravery. Loxodon are not braver even though they have a similar mechanic, rather they are calmer because they have a mechanic that gives them advantage on saves.

And since this is now the level of discourse. I'm done. I will not be responding to you again in this thread.

Alrighty. But you could at least get my arguments right before you claim they are at some low level of discourse and stop responding. It's okay not to want to continue discussion, but it should at least be for the right reasons and not fiction you made up.

 

[Hussar]

This is literally just your opinion, though: that they're not being played, that they're bottom of the barrel, that nobody cares about them. It is not an opinion that has any facts backing it up, though, and it goes against known facts, which is that hundreds of thousands of people play them and that they are in, by your own admission, every single setting and source book.

It is far more likely that the 6e PHB will contain more races than it currently does. As someone else pointed out, lineages take up less space than races do, and there's nothing that prevents the 6e PHB from adding twenty or forty pages to its length to accommodate them all, which means that there's going to be plenty of opportunity for new races to gain traction while still keeping the halflings for all those people who like them. And those people who don't like them can continue to not play them, like they've always done.

To be 100% @Faolyn, I do think you're probably right. This is the most likely course for the next release of the PHB. A couple of more races to round things out and maybe a streamlined race presentation to save space.

I would note though, just to be 100% clear, people not playing halflings isn't because they don't like them - at least, that hasn't been my experience. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything negative about halflings, like, ever. Maybe kender I suppose, but, PHB halflings? Naw. The problem IME, is that they are just completely overlooked by players who are looking for something that fills that niche but isn't so bland. At least, that's how it seems to me. Like I said, I've seen lots of kobold and goblin and now an owl kin PC's since the release of 5e, but, virtually no halflings. Again, not because anyone dislikes halflings, but, instead because it appears that other options appeal more.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Well, now this? This I agree with. Race, so often, just doesn't really matter for a lot of players.

Although, that being said, I generally find, and maybe this is just me, that when players move away from the sort of bog standard PHB races, then race matters a lot more. So, when someone plays a kobold, you KNOW they are a kobold. Or an orc. Or a minotaur. Or, in my current campaign, a dream of an aboleth that has come to life.

It's largely the standard PHB races which are almost always interchangeable.

No one forgets my centaur is a centaur. The elves are only elfin when a racial feature gets applied (so for the high elf, never, for the sea elves, in the water)