Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Stout and Hairy?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 8286610" data-attributes="member: 3285"><p>The appearance of halflings in <strong>Dungeons & Dragons</strong> have come a long way since their hobbit roots from<strong> Lord of the Rings.</strong> If the latest stew from <a href="https://amzn.to/3bYBkni" target="_blank"><strong>Heroes' Feast</strong></a> is any indication, they didn't stray too far.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]137432[/ATTACH]</p><h3>Chicken-Something Dumplings</h3><p></p><p></p><p>So first, let's be clear: this is a stew. A chicken stew. The dumplings go with it.</p><p></p><p>There's reference to a secret ingredient to the stew, but it's the same secret ingredient to many of the <strong><a href="https://amzn.to/3bYBkni" target="_blank"><strong>Heroes' Feast</strong></a> </strong>recipes that makes it taste delicious if not particularly healthy. The secret is generous pats of butter.</p><p></p><p>I've always been a fan of stew and my wife is fond of dumplings with any stew she makes, so this meal wasn't far off from what you might make at home (sans the generous butter perhaps). It's tasty enough that my whole family enjoyed it, even my son who isn't fond of stew.</p><p></p><p>The theme of halfling dishes seems to be "comfort food" which might explain their original portly appearance, but you wouldn't know that from the most recent incarnations of the halfling in D&D.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]137433[/ATTACH]</p><h3>The Halfling Diet</h3><p>There's a few lines from Peter Jackson's <strong>The Fellowship of the Ring </strong>movie that sums up hobbits quite well:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Of course, you wouldn't know that hobbits eat that much to look at the movie versions of Merry and Pippin, and that's something of a concession to modern tastes of what heroes should look like. But for the inspiration of hobbits, we have to go back further to a tale <strong>Lord of the Rings </strong>author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien read to his children, <strong><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2008-12-16-know-your-lotro-lore-the-origins-of-hobbits.html" target="_blank">The Marvellous Land of Snergs</a>:</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>These two sources, <strong>Babbit </strong>and Snergs, are significant in how they helped form hobbits. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(novel)" target="_blank"><strong>Babbit</strong></a> created the complacency and bourgeois life of folk who longed to belong to respectable society, as well as the threats of youthful impulse and adventure that can uproot such a life. <a href="http://www.tolkiencollector.com/snergs.htm" target="_blank">And in Snergs</a>, Tolkien had his physical prototype, a race of short, thick-set, helpful people. These two elements together make for a jolly group who are fond of friends and food, and it shows in their "fattish stomachs." If hobbits seem unlikely heroes, that was the point. They would become even more unlikely in D&D<strong>.</strong></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>[ATTACH=full]137434[/ATTACH]</strong></p><h3>The D&D Halfling</h3><p>In the original edition of D&D hobbits were included along with ents and balrogs. As co-creator of <strong>Dungeons & Dragons</strong> Gary Gygax himself <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121007050950/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv-4.html#post1026737" target="_blank">explained on EN World</a>:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And just like that, hobbits became halflings. By Third Ediiton, <a href="https://roguish.wordpress.com/2018/05/20/halflings-through-the-ages-and-dd-editions/" target="_blank">halflings didn't look much like hobbits at all</a>, but rather small humans. Most emblematic of this change was the iconic rogue Lidda, who didn't look anything like the hairy-footed hobbits. The trend continued into Fourth Edition until Fifth, whereupon halflings took a turn from hairy-footed and barrel-bodied to narrow-feet and large heads.</p><p></p><p>They're still not fat, though. Given their very strong association with Tolkien's works, tabletop gamers seem to have a love/hate relationship with the race. None of my players ever played a halfling in four decades of gaming, although I did have plenty of NPCs.</p><p></p><p>Judging by the meals in <a href="https://amzn.to/3bYBkni" target="_blank"><strong>Heroes' Feast,</strong></a> halflings may not have the best diet, but they're hardly the roly-poly rural folk of Tolkien's hobbits either.</p><p></p><p><strong>Your Turn: Are your halflings fat and hairy?</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="talien, post: 8286610, member: 3285"] The appearance of halflings in [B]Dungeons & Dragons[/B] have come a long way since their hobbit roots from[B] Lord of the Rings.[/B] If the latest stew from [URL='https://amzn.to/3bYBkni'][B]Heroes' Feast[/B][/URL] is any indication, they didn't stray too far. [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="hobbits3.jpg"]137432[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [HEADING=2]Chicken-Something Dumplings[/HEADING] So first, let's be clear: this is a stew. A chicken stew. The dumplings go with it. There's reference to a secret ingredient to the stew, but it's the same secret ingredient to many of the [B][URL='https://amzn.to/3bYBkni'][B]Heroes' Feast[/B][/URL] [/B]recipes that makes it taste delicious if not particularly healthy. The secret is generous pats of butter. I've always been a fan of stew and my wife is fond of dumplings with any stew she makes, so this meal wasn't far off from what you might make at home (sans the generous butter perhaps). It's tasty enough that my whole family enjoyed it, even my son who isn't fond of stew. The theme of halfling dishes seems to be "comfort food" which might explain their original portly appearance, but you wouldn't know that from the most recent incarnations of the halfling in D&D. [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="hobbits2.jpg"]137433[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [HEADING=2]The Halfling Diet[/HEADING] There's a few lines from Peter Jackson's [B]The Fellowship of the Ring [/B]movie that sums up hobbits quite well: Of course, you wouldn't know that hobbits eat that much to look at the movie versions of Merry and Pippin, and that's something of a concession to modern tastes of what heroes should look like. But for the inspiration of hobbits, we have to go back further to a tale [B]Lord of the Rings [/B]author and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien read to his children, [B][URL='https://www.engadget.com/2008-12-16-know-your-lotro-lore-the-origins-of-hobbits.html']The Marvellous Land of Snergs[/URL]:[/B] These two sources, [B]Babbit [/B]and Snergs, are significant in how they helped form hobbits. [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(novel)'][B]Babbit[/B][/URL] created the complacency and bourgeois life of folk who longed to belong to respectable society, as well as the threats of youthful impulse and adventure that can uproot such a life. [URL='http://www.tolkiencollector.com/snergs.htm']And in Snergs[/URL], Tolkien had his physical prototype, a race of short, thick-set, helpful people. These two elements together make for a jolly group who are fond of friends and food, and it shows in their "fattish stomachs." If hobbits seem unlikely heroes, that was the point. They would become even more unlikely in D&D[B].[/B] [CENTER][B][ATTACH type="full" alt="hobbits1.jpg"]137434[/ATTACH][/B][/CENTER] [HEADING=2]The D&D Halfling[/HEADING] In the original edition of D&D hobbits were included along with ents and balrogs. As co-creator of [B]Dungeons & Dragons[/B] Gary Gygax himself [URL='https://web.archive.org/web/20121007050950/http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv-4.html#post1026737']explained on EN World[/URL]: And just like that, hobbits became halflings. By Third Ediiton, [URL='https://roguish.wordpress.com/2018/05/20/halflings-through-the-ages-and-dd-editions/']halflings didn't look much like hobbits at all[/URL], but rather small humans. Most emblematic of this change was the iconic rogue Lidda, who didn't look anything like the hairy-footed hobbits. The trend continued into Fourth Edition until Fifth, whereupon halflings took a turn from hairy-footed and barrel-bodied to narrow-feet and large heads. They're still not fat, though. Given their very strong association with Tolkien's works, tabletop gamers seem to have a love/hate relationship with the race. None of my players ever played a halfling in four decades of gaming, although I did have plenty of NPCs. Judging by the meals in [URL='https://amzn.to/3bYBkni'][B]Heroes' Feast,[/B][/URL] halflings may not have the best diet, but they're hardly the roly-poly rural folk of Tolkien's hobbits either. [B]Your Turn: Are your halflings fat and hairy?[/B] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Stout and Hairy?
Top
