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?

 

[Bohandas]

You don't have to have wookies. Or space ships or energy rifles or any of the common tropes. That doesn't mean that if we're playing a Star Wars RPG that we should get rid of wookies just because some people think they're boring.

I did NOT say a Star Wars RPG. I said any space opera. The idea that we need halflings in a non-Middle Earth fantasy setting is equivalent to saying that we need wookies in a non-Star Wars space setting.

EDIT:
Or come to think of it, Star Wars is a fantasy setting in addition to being a space opera. So let me restate it this way, Saying that we need halflings in the D&D core rules because they're from an extremely popular fantasy setting, is no different from saying that we need wookies in the D&D core rules because they too are from an extremely popular fantasy setting.
Whereas in actual fact it would be lame and derivative to include those things because they're not only from those settings but also specific to them.

 

[Oofta]

I did NOT say a Star Wars RPG. I said any space opera. The idea that we need halflings in a non-Middle Earth fantasy setting is equivalent to saying that we need wookies in a non-Star Wars space setting.

EDIT:
Or come to think of it, Star Wars is a fantasy setting in addition to being a space opera. So let me restate it this way, Saying that we need halflings in the D&D core rules because they're from an extremely popular fantasy setting, is no different from saying that we need wookies in the D&D core rules because they too are from an extremely popular fantasy setting.
Whereas in actual fact it would be lame and derivative to include those things because they're not only from those settings but also specific to them.

Halflings are just as iconic to D&D as wookies are to Star Wars.

 

[Bohandas]

What halfling fans are saying is that halflings help us tell stories that aren't available through other races without playing counter-type. We want to continue to tell those stories through a supported race. We are inspired by the tales of Willow and Frodo and Nori and Poppy and Samwise and even Tasselhoff.

Tasselhoff was a kender

 

[Oofta]

To update my last response: after half a century D&D is it's own genre. They are just as much a part of that lore as wookies are to Star Wars.

I don't understand why we would limit D&D lore to non D&D sources.

 

[Lanefan]

Well I’d argue that a race that is popular with players is essential. Which is why I’ve argued that gnomes and halflings shouldn’t be in the PHB.

So, the species that are popular should be included so they can become more popular.

Not enough players find them interesting enough to play.

I’d rather the PHB actually reflect the game that is being played.

On a much broader scale, that's just the sort of thinking that got us into this mess.

Rule says x-restriction exists, for a reason (let's say it's the rule about spellcasting being very easy to interrupt). Players whine about it, and one by one each DM capitulates and makes casting easier. Next edition, due to its perceived popularity that easier casting gets baked into the design...but without a corresponding drawback to keep casters in check. Multiply this over all sorts of restrictive rules and the end result is a broken game.

Note, your mistake here is that you think this is because of a dislike of halflings. That’s always been the mistaken presumption. I have no particular feelings either way about halflings because I haven’t seen one played in about fifteen years.

Given that in 5e it appears various other species have crept up on Halflings and stolen their niche, this isn't surprising.

However, in my view it's those other invasive species that should go, leaving the Halflings' niche for Halflings.

 

[FrozenNorth]

More people watched Rings of Power in the past three months than watched all of those shows this year combined.

Sure, and maybe Rings of Power will usher in a generation of gamers who want to play legally-distinct hobbits. My point is that before Rings of Power came out this month, the most recent Middle Earth movie was from 2014.

I entered the hobby when I was 10. To those entering the hobby who are between 10 and 18, Battle of the Five Armies might as well be the movie “They live!”. Sure, they might have read the books, but bookish kids who like fantasy in 2020 are more likely to be into Harry Potter than Tolkien.

 

[Mecheon]

However, in my view it's those other invasive species that should go, leaving the Halflings' niche for Halflings.

The 'invasive species' have been around for decades now, they're not going away. They're 1E content.

Should Halflings be removed? Of course not, they've a history and a place in the game. But the problem is, you can't give them the niche of "They're the Small Ones" and expect them to stand on their own. Being small isn't a stand-out enough niche on its own, and that's their problem

Even in a hypothetical world you take out all of the other small races, people are just going to say "Bring them back". Because those other ones have their own niches. Gnomes are the Mythological Small Folk crossed with the Tinker. Goblins are, well, Goblins, their archetype is that ingrained its just their name. Kobolds are Eternal Underdog with Trap Maker. These each add their own flavour to just being smalll.

Halflings need more meat to their potatoes, but taking out other options, well loved options, isn't going to help anything. That'll just annoy fans of those

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure, and maybe Rings of Power will usher in a generation of gamers who want to play legally-distinct hobbits. My point is that before Rings of Power came out this month, the most recent Middle Earth movie was from 2014.

I entered the hobby when I was 10. To those entering the hobby who are between 10 and 18, Battle of the Five Armies might as well be the movie “They live!”. Sure, they might have read the books, but bookish kids who like fantasy in 2020 are more likely to be into Harry Potter than Tolkien.

Nothing about 5e is like Harry Potter, to be fair. Especially Strixhaven.

 

[jasper]

Also just..

Look, the "traditional" races are (if you remove half-species) are: Elf, Dwarf, Human, Halfling, Gnome. You can add Half-Elf and Half-Orc if you want, but there is your list. That gets us between 5 and 7 options

Add in Non-traditional races? Already published in DnD we are looking at nearly 60 options. It is far far far harder to get bored with that many options than it is with the base "traditional" races. Especially since, the traditional races have the added problem of not being novel. If I want a story of an elven mage, I probably don't even have to play one, I can find multiple books featuring elven mages as the main character. But a Changeling Barbarian? Okay, that hasn't been done very often.

67 RACES 54 AL LEGAL Of those37 Darkvision 32 AL Legal and as of my count last night 13 Classes, subclass 116 and 106 Adventure League Legal. I have did the math but You could multiclass in all thirteen classes I think before 10th using standard array and ASI.

 

[jasper]

Wow. So you'd rather just say "they're orcs, you can kill them," rather than "they're bandits who are orcs, you can kill them." Like, three extra words is too much effort?


.....

Too Much effort.