So, about those halflings...

[HeinorNY]

My first D&D character was a hobbit. I want them back. IMO they have more interesting personality traits which are much better and challenging to roleplay.
I don't like funny mini-humans with dreadlocks.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Internesting. Which site?

DeviantArt. I found them while I was skimming the fantasy section for Dragons to use and checked them out briefly. Wasn't until I saw some of the new line-art on the 4e page that I recognized the similarities in style(the guy does stuff mostly for Euro RPGs). Looking for them again now, but it's a huge pile to look through, when I find them I'll link to it.

 

[Celebrim]

My first D&D character was a hobbit. I want them back. IMO they have more interesting personality traits which are much better and challenging to roleplay.

I agree, but I don't ever get the impression that people want alternatives to the Tolkien 'Hobbit' because they want something more challenging to role-play. Rather, I think the driving force in Halfling redesign is to deliver more of the 'kewl'. Imagining yourself in the role of an adventuring portly hairfooted tweed-wearing country squire just doesn't have the same ego boosting properties as the alternatives.

I think what you have going in the D&D experience is largely the same attraction of modern vampires, larger than life action movie heroes, wuxia, anime, and comic book superheroes. I think that they are tapping into that most powerful ancient pagan experience - the notion of the bad-ass demi-god, particularly one that can violently impose his will. Essentially, this is all Hercules worship in a different form, and 'the Frodo' and all his cousins is most emphatically the anti-Hercules. So what the good professor was going for just runs completely counter to the majoritarian attraction of gaming, and his vehical is ill-suited to it. Naturally, its going to be scorned and abandoned in favor of something that brings more of the 'kewl'.

I think in the long run you are going to see Halflings go the way of gnomes and be dropped from the PH because they just don't bring the 'kewl' like tieflings, vampires, werewolves, warforged, and even elves (the problem with elves being that they so overtly bring the kewl that it makes people uncomfortable conscious of thier motivations).

 

[Celebrim]

I think those are great points to make, but the PHB will feature one type of halfling to dominate the 4E world, so it's a matter of taste, not anthropology.

I think that if gaming designers had more the tastes and backgrounds of anthropolgists, we might get very different sorts of races than we normally get. But they don't, and for the most part neither do gamers.

The basic problem with all the D&D races is that they are people with bumps on thier foreheads (see Star Trek), and that in order to meaningfully distinguish them from humans you have to put a hat on thier heads. The net result of this is usually an entire race with basically no personality diversity (distinguishable only by whether they are the good honorable type or the bad dishonorable type, or in other words alignment), and an entire culture which is at most as diverse as a single human subculture (for obvious reasons, often feudal Japan).

Personally, I'd love a compaign in which adventurers get to encounter pockets of diversely-evolved races, but the homogenous tendencies of fantasy worlds mean that races get defined along quite narrow lines.

As race is its biology. So long as the race has basically the same biology as humans, you'll end up with 'planet of hats' syndrome. But generally, gamers aren't interested in exploring subtle human biological alternatives even if they have the imagination for it. For example, the overriding attraction of playing elves has never been to explore what it's like to live as a race that's in biological slow motion, but rather to play a human that's smarter, more graceful, more attractive, and overall sexier than humans. While you might get some lip service to the contrary when you bring the topic up, most gamers don't look at elves and say, 'Wow. I can explore the concept of mortality from the perspective of someone who has concrete evidence of the transientness of existance.' Rather, what you get is, 'Look, Grey Elves have a +2 bonus to Int, Dex, and Comliness. That's kewl.'

 

[HeinorNY]

I agree, but I don't ever get the impression that people want alternatives to the Tolkien 'Hobbit' because they want something more challenging to role-play. Rather, I think the driving force in Halfling redesign is to deliver more of the 'kewl'. Imagining yourself in the role of an adventuring portly hairfooted tweed-wearing country squire just doesn't have the same ego boosting properties as the alternatives.

I think what you have going in the D&D experience is largely the same attraction of modern vampires, larger than life action movie heroes, wuxia, anime, and comic book superheroes. I think that they are tapping into that most powerful ancient pagan experience - the notion of the bad-ass demi-god, particularly one that can violently impose his will. Essentially, this is all Hercules worship in a different form, and 'the Frodo' and all his cousins is most emphatically the anti-Hercules. So what the good professor was going for just runs completely counter to the majoritarian attraction of gaming, and his vehical is ill-suited to it. Naturally, its going to be scorned and abandoned in favor of something that brings more of the 'kewl'.

I think in the long run you are going to see Halflings go the way of gnomes and be dropped from the PH because they just don't bring the 'kewl' like tieflings, vampires, werewolves, warforged, and even elves (the problem with elves being that they so overtly bring the kewl that it makes people uncomfortable conscious of thier motivations).

I completelly agree with you. IMO that's exactly the reason some races are being dropped or heavily modified and that's a pitty. At least we will have them in MM or other supplements.
I think it's a great fun to play the accidental-hero kind of character that the LotR hobbits let me. In every setting I create, hafling ARE hobbits When they are lazy, they are lazy, but when they are brave, get out of the way!

 

[Perun]

I'm fond of both types, the "old edition" halflings and the 3(.5)e version, although I might be more inclined to play the old halfling (makes for a better comic relief character, something I kind-of specialise in ).

However, the actual appearance doesn't bother me (saying I'm playing a pudgy halfling of a subrace that has hairy feet and doesn't wear shoes is merely flavour -- even in the 1e/2e halflings didn't have any particularly Tolkienesque racial abilities), but the racial features do.

Their slow movement means they rarely, if ever, manage to escape something (this is a problems all Small core races, along with dwarves, have to cope with). Heavily armoured Small characters are much, much worse -- to the point where it's simply ridiculous to play one.
IMO, the Small races should move at the same speed as Medium races in combat (or in other situations where tactical movement is required), but their overland speed should be reduced to 2/3 of what a human could move.

Also, for a race that's supposedly made to shine in the role of rogue, they make the worst standard adventuring rogue/scout. Their lack of an ability to see in the dark (meaning they have to carry a light source in order to Hide or to sneak attack someone in the dark ) combined with their low speed (and thus their inability to run away from potential danger) really make for a poor rogue.

Regards.

 

[llamatron2000]

I like current halflings. There's a lot of things that hobbits have right, and there's a lot of things that kender have right.

3e halflings are a blend. Which is fine.

You still get a tight-knit race that is heavy on community, genealogy, and living comfortably.

You also get a race that is prone to suddenly wandering the hell off from the rest of the pack to go adventuring, utilizing their talents as small, inconspicous folk with big heart to overcome great challenges.

Hobbit fans, can you tell me that this -isn't- how Tolkien halflings would become if you were to uproot them from their homelands?

Kender fans, can you really be disappointed that you can play your little folk without them being ridiculously broken and friggin' ANNOYING!?

So I say keep them as they are. The only thing I don't like with the 3e halflings is their chaotic bent, and their BRAND NEW chaotic goddess of uber-munchkinism, and the gypsy vibe. I really -like- Yondalla, and the idea of valuing family, hearth, and home. Having a goddess of vengeance and luck and being painted wholesale as wandering thieves just isn't my cup of tea.

 

[The Human Target]

While mechanically the halfling of 3e is designed for adventure, I never felt that there was a reason to play one. They always came across to me as short humans. They don't have their own unique look, save for being smaller. Truthfully, I have never felt that the 3e halfling had an identity all its own.

I see where they took elements of other halfling-like races (notably kender) and implemented them. For example, they adopted the kender fearlessness to a degree since that stereotype is more inclined to adventure than a hobbit is. Yet the adventuring hobbit is not the average hobbit.

Does this mean the hobbit is the way to go? Well, not necessarily. The hobbit has a lot more flavor, but I can see there being intellectual property issues with the Tolkien estate, especially after the popularity of the movies.

I do think, though, that some efforts should have been made to keep halflings closer to their roots. Curly hair and hairy feet that don't need shoes being among them. And truthfully, I love the shire type of atmosphere. There could have been some development without treading too far away from their hobbity roots.

What I sort of envision as what the 3e halfling should have been is this great pic by Claudio Pozas:

Now, maybe he could have had the hairy feet (and perhaps he does under those boots!), but this looks like a halfling to me. While it is obviously influenced by its roots, it is modernized as well, providing a great archetype for the race.

Of course, from what I've seen of the 4e halfling art (and those nasty braids - blech!), I'm not quite certain I will like the 4e halfling.

To each their own, of course.

Not to pick a fight, but that picture just looks like a short human (dwarf) with pointy ears (elf.)

I do think 4E Halflings need to stand out of the pack a lot more (I pretty much think that about all the races.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would be extremely disappointed if 4e took such a massive step backward as re-introducing the tweed-wearing country squire as an adventuring race.

If most humans aren't adventurers, why does what a non-adventuring hobbit is like matter when it comes to the adventuring ones?

This complaint has never made a lick of sense.

 

[Aloïsius]

Hobbits are great in "Lord of the ring". But I hate them elsewhere. I want halflings, and I want them the antithesis of hobbits.
Something like "some legends say that halfling come from the shadowfell. What the truth realy is remain unknown however". (yup, birthright...)

And I don't want D&D facing IP violation problems anyway.