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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8702805" data-attributes="member: 6877472">If you are a person who thinks Halflings are boring and bland, you're entitled to that opinion.  And it's probably folly to think you could be convinced otherwise.However, I think you're missing an important point when it comes to creating characters in a setting.  Where they come from, what their backgrounds are, is not the most interesting thing about them.  It's where they are going.Even the Ur (and outdated) examples of Tolkien point this out.  Bilbo was a middle aged rich guy who loved maps, smoking, and eating.  He was a confirmed bachelor who lived in a great big house.  By Halfling standards, he was extremely well off.  He didn't have to work or hold down a job, nor did he have a family to support.Gandalf conspired to change all that, because he felt Bilbo had more potential than to be a rich idiot with no day job.  And through adversity and hardship, he saw more of the world than any other Hobbit ever had, found hidden depths within himself, and was able to retire again, satisfied that he'd lived a live well lived.Frodo was the adopted ward of said rich idiot (I'm getting a Batman/Robin vibe now, lol), and he was all set to become Bilbo 2.0, had not the One Ring entered his life.  The adversity and hardships Bilbo faced were nothing compared to what Frodo had to deal with, and in the end, it left him scarred and broken.  He was never a great hero, but he too had become much more than he had started out as (and in some ways, less, too).Samwise Gamgee was an assistant groundskeeper.  He had simple dreams and simple desires, but he was strong and unbelievably loyal to his friends.  By the end of his story, he was a hero, he had proven to be the bravest of all his kind, and he went from a simple guy who loved plants to a noted and celebrated historian.In all three cases, their origins ultimately were a small part of their stories, the trajectory of which brought out their hidden greatness.And that's what, to me, Halflings represent.  Hidden gems.  Diamonds in the rough.  Untapped potential.  You look at them and say "what can a Halfling do?".  And then they go out and prove the answer is, literally, anything.To merely dismiss them as "boring and uninspired" strikes me as lacking in imagination.  They are the quintessential Hero from humble beginnings.  Luke Skywalker, strongly evoking the literary "Hero's Journey" starts off as what?  A farm boy who dreams of adventure, but for a singular chain of events, would probably never amounted more than just another man trying to eke out an existence on a harsh world.All any character, of any race, needs, is that push, to drive them to become more.  And Halflings have all the tools they need to survive adversity.  A little bit of luck in dark places, the ability to hold their ground against supernatural terrors where others may falter- these abilities might not seem exciting, but racial abilities don't have to be- your character is not their race, their class, their ability scores, their feats, or their equipment.  At some point, they are infused with a spark of life that makes them more than the sum of their parts.And I still find those traits more interesting than "I can make a club in an hour" or "I can hold my breath good!".</blockquote>

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