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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8708337" data-attributes="member: 6801228">Ah, I should have scrolled down before posting my last reply. Apologies. Good organizations exist. They exist to do good and they exist made up of people with goodness in their hearts. They go out and help people in a variety of ways. Are making halflings the goodest of good people who always want to help a problem? In so much that this is their defining feature? Yes. Not because halflings can't be good, or because good people can't be flawed, but because it puts halflings on a pedestal. I may not like alignment, but I recognize that the key defining thing DnD has used to differentiate good and evil is a simple question of selfishness versus helping other people. Dwarves care about crafting, and that is something we have decided is inherent to dwarfness and their crafting of tools or buildings can be done to help people, or not to help people. Elves are deeply into magic, and that magic can be used to help people, or not to help people. Humans are ambitious and driven, and that drive can be used to help people, or not to help people. But if halflings help people, if that is their defining trait.... helping people can't be used to not help people. And so, unlike the other major races who can use their defining traits in different ways, halflings are directed towards a single path. They will always help people, and that makes them better than other people. Sure, a halfling might be a drunk who cheats on his wife, but he'll always help those in need, while a human who is a drunk who cheats on his wife probably doesn't. Halflings always have one of the most redemptive traits we give out. Caring for other people. And that is why it is a world-building problem. Not because good people can't exist. Not because good people can't be flawed. But because saying that has a race you are predisposed to good is a bad thing to do in world-building. This isn't about halflings being fractionally more likely to be part of good organizations (which again, hilarious that this is our route for the most well-known thief and mafia race in the game) but is about defining the race based on a trait that is inherently selfless and good.</blockquote>

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