THREE elven races, plus half-elves ... but they say gnomes have no niche?!

[The Ubbergeek]

Because internal polls on Enworld are so reliable.

Polls on the web are worthless, as that guy's sig shown.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Unless of course you play WoW.

But what does WoW have to do with D&D? I don't get it...

 

[Klaus]

Cool art. However, only the one I quoted really says "gnome" to me. The rest, if you had told me they were halflings, I'd never have known different.



I would posrep you if I could.

That's because that image comes from my Core Races gallery, whereas most of the others come from the Oddballs gallery (odd race/class combos). I draw gnomes as described, with dark skin and light hair, and I tend to give them large ears, slanted green eyes and largeish noses. Halflings, OTOH, I portray as 3'-4' tall humanoids with the proportions of a human 10-year-old (so their heads are smaller than a gnome's.

 

[Hussar]

Hey Klaus, btw, I forgot to mention this before, but, your Gnome is the image I use for my Gnome Binder in an Eberron campaign. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Hussar]

Because internal polls on Enworld are so reliable.

Nope, not reliable, but, better than, "Oh, well, the guys I play with..."

At least it helps. Currently, I'm seeing that half orcs could have gotten the axe as well.

But, then, half-orcs actually have a schtick - "Hulk Smash!"

Gnomes don't have a schtick. They barely have a twig. Every other race has an archetype that's easily definable. Halflings can be either Tolkien or Kender, but, at least they are SOMETHING. What's a gnome? What can I point to in fantasy that says, "Hey, that's a gnome!"

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I was reading every post, and the answer came to me about two posts before I got to this one, which I now highlight, because it didn't get the attention it deserved:



Bingo! That's what I'm doing IMC. Of course, that hits all the right buttons for me, in ways that might not work for other people:

1. Gets rid of a name "eladrin" and puts a solid race that my players will actually want to play with the "gnome" name.

I think that's a valid approach, especially if you (and your players) don't care as much for the "spellcasting Elf" archetype but really like the Gnome.

I tend to assume that the designers (maybe due to market research?) decided that both elven archetypes - woodsy rangery-type and magical type - are important to D&D player. Especially since they _knew_ that a lot of standard settings contain both archetypes (especially Forgotten Realms with its elven subraces for every flavour). They didn't want to leave either out, and then noticed that the Gnome had no niche that would fit into the core rules. (I still think that the "techie/tinkerer" gnome is a cool niche, but it doesn't fit into the "pseudo-medieval fantasy" setting of the core. The "bardic"/"jester" approach might also work, but there is also a lack of a fitting class for this in D&D 4...)

 

[Driddle]

I tend to assume that the designers (maybe due to market research?) decided that ...

I would love to see some reference to actual market research, even a token attempt. My gut feeling is that the designers made changes entirely on personal observation sans bias confirmation.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Uh, wha?

Please explain?

If you'd mentioned the north pole and presents, that'd make some sense, but cookies??

And I sadly must agree that most newcomers would think of garden ornaments when they think of gnomes.

No, that are Dwarves to me. (In German, they are called "Gartenzwerge", which directly translated would say "Garden Dwarf") So, they even don't have that meaning to me.
(But the word "Gnom" exists in German, too.)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I would love to see some reference to actual market research, even a token attempt. My gut feeling is that the designers made changes entirely on personal observation sans bias confirmation.

But would this really change how you feel about leaving out Gnomes? If you like them and they are gone, that sucks for you, regardless whether Scott Rouse has a personal hatred for Gnomes and wanted to remove any trace of them from the game, or Mike Mearls loved them but market research just showed that the majority of players care more for Elves then Gnomes.

If that's of any help:
The term "Elf prôn" is certainly more common then "Gnome pôrn", so I guess that alone might be in indicator which race is more popular as a whole (regardless of the specific game).
Judging from Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Das Schwarze Auge and Warhammer, Elves exist in all of them, but Gnomes seem to be missing.

 

[TerraDave]

Hussar: you should have put gnomes in that poll as well.

And they aren't doing that bad. About the same as Half-Elves.

I never said they are the most popular race. Just not that unpopular.

But even the existence of these two polls is more then a meh response. As is all of your posting.

EDIT: I will give a counterexample of "meh": Vancian Magic, take all the threads and heated arguments on that...oh wait....there are none. Or the Half Orc. Or Abjuration specialists. Or Pelor....Even the chance that classes like the Druid and Barbarian won't be in the PHB I has gotten less of a response.

There is plenty of meh and non-responses to changes for 4th ed. The gnome going is not one of them.