The Tielfling and The Gnome: On the Set of 4th edition

[Wormwood]

Also, what was that thing sitting beside her? It looked like a cross between a real halfling and one of those "little gray men" aliens (the eyes).

It's a gnome. You'll get used to it.

Bonus question: real halfling?

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

That's The Rouse

This needs Shaft music.

I don't like the way that the Tiefling's horns are so friggin' huge. I thought they said "most tieflings can pass for human"-- but all the pics I've seen of them they have bigger horns than a bison.

I thought the line was something like "from a distance, they resemble a human," indicating similar size and build.

 

[Rechan]

This needs Shaft music.

"He's one bad Medusa-" "Shut yo mouth!" "Just talkin' 'bout Rouse!"

 

[Mistwell]

I never laugh when the joke is predicated on someone else's pain. It's called empathy.

You really shouldn't take D&D that seriously.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I never laugh when the joke is predicated on someone else's pain. It's called empathy.

The gnome would laugh.

It's called hilarity.

I don't like the way that the Tiefling's horns are so friggin' huge.

OR their tails.

I've always been fond of DiTerlizzi's PS tieflings, like Factol Rhys over here:

Or the one from the PSMC.

But DiTerlizzi had a thing for drawing some pretty segsy fantasy girls (*cough*catlord*cough), so maybe it's just his flair for detail that I miss, as opposed to the "hulking weapons" of 4e's tieflings.

 

[Vigilance]

I think that was pretty not-funny and mean on WotC's part. It was deliberately antagonistic towards Gnomes, even though an established part of their customer/ player base likes Gnomes. I mean, it's one thing to make the business decision to not include them in the PHB, but why kick them while they're down?

Maybe they were assuming people had a sense of humor.

Just repeat to yourself "it's just a game, I should really just relax".

 

[Mortellan]

That gnome was freakin hilarious. Darn shame this was a promo for 4E, I'd love to see more of that gnome.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Bonus question: real halfling?

Those would be Homo floriensis from the partial skeleton found in Indonesia. They were by best estimates about the size of a 3e halfling. There was considerable uproar for a time over how to classify them and whether it was just an example of a microcephalic individual. But analysis of the intact wristbones indicated the skeleton could not belong to a modern human. These matched up with Homo erectus, indicating that like originally thought Homo floriensis is a sub-species of Homo erectus that underwent a process of dwarfism when isolated on the island. I'll scan the cover of Scientific American in for you and tack it to the end of the post.

Also I did think it was funny, didn't care about the Tiefling but yes the gnome was hilarious. Just that with the timing and all it kind of seemed like an intentional dig at all the people who were asking why they got rid of the gnomes. And if that were the case, well, it's kind of bad form.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I thought it was pretty funny, though I'm not really sure about the new gnome look. It would be hard to fit something that looks like *that* back in as even a non-standard player race. I mean, I don't imagine they're just obliterating gnomes from the game, so is Lantan is FR going to be populated by bug-eyed freaks?

Just as an example, the goblins of Golarion (Paizo's Pathfinder setting) don't look like the goblins in the Monster Manual. It's not necessarily the case that gnomes will have the same appearance in the Forgotten Realms as in the core rules.

 

[BASHMAN]

Bonus question: real halfling?

I just meant that it looks more like a halfling than 4e (or even 3e) halflings look like halflings. Except for those eyes-- those are part of its alien heritage...