D&D General Should Bearded Female Dwarves be the Default?

[Mind of tempest]

Agreed. I would posit that it would've been far less disruptive than, for example, the addition of Legolas.



Ultimately for my campaigns, I think it's a player's choice whether their dwarf woman is bearded or not. Heck, I had a player once that played a male dwarf that shaved his face entirely (shudders).

Do you mean like this?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If I recall correctly (and I might not, 25 years later), he was a total egg - no hair on the top of his head even.

Do you mean like this?
View attachment 152929

 

[Mind of tempest]

If I recall correctly (and I might not, 25 years later), he was a total egg - no hair on the top of his head even.

wow, that is rather undwarven did he have any in-character reasons for it?

 

[Laurefindel]

I'm not not concerned about what Tolkien would think. The artist is dead, both literally and metaphorically.

On the contrary, I think Tolkien is quite alive metaphorically. You wouldn't have to bring this up otherwise. Not that it changes anything about the first sentence of your post, however; nobody needs to concern themselves about what Tolkien thinks in D&D!

As for the OP, I've rarely heard about bearded dwarf females in such a way that wasn't about making fun of them (or similar dubious and cliché dwarven jokes/humour). Personally, I like my fantasy races to be relatable to people I play with, not alien-esque (humans in funny hats if you prefer), and that includes many of our societal standards (as flawed as they may be). D&D can be thought-provoking and a good outlet for change; just not its default mission.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

He picked the Pariah kit from the Complete Book of Dwarves, but in character he talked about how he thought beards were itchy.

wow, that is rather undwarven did he have any in-character reasons for it?

 

[HammerMan]

why do these things go in cycles... it has NEVER been the default for D&D, and I doubt it ever will be.

 

[Bluebell]

I have a particular fondness for bearded lady dwarves and would love it if they were more common. What are fantasy races, if not an opportunity to play around with a diverse range of human presentation?

That said, if I were playing with people who couldn't see it as anything other than a joke, I wouldn't bother. Do it respectfully or not at all.

 

[Oofta]

why do these things go in cycles... it has NEVER been the default for D&D, and I doubt it ever will be.

Yep. D&D is based on many sources, Tolkien is just one. There are lots of images of female dwarves in various sources but I can't think of one image in an official published book that showed a female dwarf with a beard.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I wouldn't mind if they had mullets.

Epic

 

[Maxperson]

The bearded female dwarf is from Tolkien and D&D brought that over early on. That said, even if dwarven females have beards, a female player of a female dwarf could have hers be beardless. There's no good reason not to make that exception. Even Tolkien made an exception. Elves in Middle Earth are beardless. All of them. Well, except for that one guy, Cirdan. He's the one elf with a beard. Apparently one of Tolkien's players wanted to be different.