Tell me about halflings in your world.

[jerichothebard]

The halflings in my campaign are loosely based on the Edori from Sharon Shinn's Samaria series (though physically smaller).

They are friendly, trusting, musical, pious, carefree, nomadic, drawn to bright colors and good times. They don't save for a rainy day because they don't see what's wrong with rain.

Roughly half their number roam the land on ponyback and wagons. The other half ride the sea (mostly the large, internal sea - like the Med). Each land-based clan has a counterpart ship or fleet roaming the waves.

They are known as the best sailors and riders in the world of Crescent. An individual halfling may spend half his life on the sea and half in the saddle, mixing it up year by year, or may almost never set foot on dry land, or on a ship.

They meet annually at a predetermined, but varying, coastal area town or harbor to sing, dance, trade, and carouse. Their clan social structure is so complicated that a member of another race could probably never keep track of it all.

Profession: Sailor and Ride are class skills for all halflings, regardless of class levels.

Most of the other races regard them with a little bit of suspicion, though they are also known for being honest to a fault - they usually don't see the point of lying.


sadly, no one in my campaign is actually playing a halfling.

oh well.

jtb

 

[jerichothebard]

Egads! Remind me to never play in your game. Is that set on the world of Kermit*?


*really obscure reference to _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ about a world with no night sky. At least, I think that's the name of the planet. Someone here will correct me if I'm wrong.

Krikkit. (I only remember that because I reread Life, the Universe, and Everything about three days ago.)


And there's no night sky in my campaign world - I took the dragonlance idea of stars = gods, and then killed off all the gods but the god of the sun and moon. i.e. no stars. The players really flipped out when I sent them somewhere (somewhen?) with stars... great moment, let me know that the players were really buying into my world.

 

[Tumbler]

The halflings of my homebrew are sea dwellers. They live on great floating rafts in an ocean that covers half of the world. They have some bonuses to con checks for holding breath. Their domestic animals are all aquatic, mostly cetaceans like we use dogs and draft horses, some fish thrown in. They mostly hunt and gather, but since their homes travel with them, they have some degree of written culture.

They trade for metals with dwarves, who operate submersibles in the great ocean.

 

[der_kluge]

That's Kricket you're thinking of.

See, I knew someone would correct me on that. Thanks.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, now I'm torn between the concept of a nomadic race, and a peaceful agrarian race. Maybe I'll introduce both.

That's exactly what I did

The Stayathome halflings are fairly hobbitish - if you find them in cities, they're bakers and tavernkeepers and laundresses, polite, respectable citizens... in the country they're farmers, peaceful and hardworking...

The Goneaway halflings are nomadic, wagoneer, gypsy types. Count your fingers after shaking hands, and then get your friend to count them just to be sure. Lock up your daughters. The Goneaways take shameless advantage of the Stayathome halflings' reputation for honesty, especially when dealing with someone who doesn't really know the difference...

-----

Another take on halflings I quite like comes from David Weber's Bahzell books... most halflings are considered cowardly and contemptible, but the Marfang Island halflings are generally thought to be the finest sailors in the world, and are respected for their bravery...

-Hyp.

 

[WayneLigon]

In the Greatwood campaign: Riverboat nomads. They follow the good fishing on the inland sea and the various rivers, migrating as the weather permits. They are famous gamblers, and many human games originated with halflings.

In the desert game: desert nomads. They are one of the few races to roam the trackless wastes and they serve as guides and cavaran masters. They were the first race to map the stars, and they practice a form of astrological magic that permeates every aspect of their lives.

 

[mythusmage]

Ki: Bonobos with a touch of Human

Dragon Earth: Some gods got together and decided that since God had his Humans, they would develop a sophont of their own. They found some Bonobos and went to work.

In both cases: Stay at home types with a talent for gardening, crafts, and erotica. (Evolved Bonobos, think about it.) Pretty much integrated into Human society, with a few Halfling communities here and there. A decided tendency to matriarchal clans.

 

[Benben]

My "Halflings" in my game world refer to creatures with the half-fey template. They're considered highly untrustworthy by humans and gnomes.

For the little guys that have similar stats to D&D halflings I have the Hsien.

The Hsien are my nod to Chinese culture circa the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era. Their religion involves ancestor veneration and a tremendous belief in balance of the 10,000 passions. They are strict vegans because they believe that animals are representations of passions and a person will become severely imbalanced when they consume that much passion-eneryg. (There is a black market for exotic meats.) The only exception is the death of a family member, beloved friend, or respected enemy--in this case the corpse is ritualistically consumed in the funerary rites. They are mostly an agrian culture and are only now trading with races across the great inner sea.

The Hsien due to where they live are very behind in metallurgical science. The clay of their part of the planet, however, when baked by the fires of native tree can create ceramics that are harder than steel. Hsien pottery is a hot commodity throughout the known world because of this.

There are three kingdoms of the Hsien. Wu Hsien is a philosophical culture based on the more magical aspects of Chinese Wuxia stories. Their pottery traditionally uses blue and white glazes to depict natural scenes. The kingdom of the Wei Hsien covers the aspects of the corrupt bureaucracy from Chinese stories. Eunuch Warlocks are plotting behind every corner and ninja is the favored class of the people. Their pottery uses white, reds, greens, and blues in complicate geometrical patterns. The Shu Hsien kingdom is on the verge of moving to a semi-democratic government. They have a strong magistrate system with harsh laws. Their pottery is usually black with metallic glazes (raku).

 

[CaptainCalico]

The halflings in my world have their own realm, a duchy positioned between the mountains (occupied by scatterd tribes of dwarvs) and the great plain (occupied by a kinfdom of humans). Fed by a large river this duchy is the fruitbasket of the continent, rich in fruits, berries, honey, dairy products, and the major cash crop: cocoa. (mmmmm, chocolate)

The halflings have a bitter and longstanding rivalry with the humans that has persisted over many generations. If asked both sides will point to many reasons: the halflings are matriarchal - the humans patriarchal, the halflings are polytheistic (a pantheon consisting of a Mother goddess and her four children) - the humans are monotheistic (one male lawgiver-type god), the halflings are agricultural (small family farms) - the humans pastoral (herdspeople). However the main reason is that the humans have wanted the halflings rish, fertile land for just about forever, and the runts keep fighting them off!

Due to their small size and proximity to the wild mountains the halflings have the only air force on the continent, medium-sized drakes that they have domesticed and use to rain death down on the human's land cavalry whenever they try to invade. Since their matrirachal society that men are only worth anything if they are willing to lay down their lives in defense of the Motherland they have a large and eager military, of which the Drakeriders are the elite. (Who needs medals? If you survive you get to father children!)

 

[VirgilCaine]

Last night, after reading the description in the MM of halflings, it occurs to me that they sound a lot like anarcho-capitalists.
They would ostracize any criminals within their midst, and so the halfling "wanderer" (=confidence err...halfling) is a common stereotype in some places IMC.