What are dwarves like in your campaign?

[punkorange]

I'm looking for an idea for my dwarves. I don't want them to be miners really, I am thinking of the orcs in my campaign fill that niche. Anyone use dwarves differently in their campaign?

What about elves, I kind of want to change them from the tree hugging hippies they are into something else. I'm thinking barbarians.

 

[Crothian]

THe dwarves in my world are pretty traditional. But the elves are sailors. They live on a smaoll island natyion and are the best boat wrights and sailors in the world.

 

[Storyteller01]

Gravity sensing navigators and traders, but that's a DS campaign...

 

[GlassJaw]

In the steampunk game I'm working on, dwarves live and work in the undercity and run all the machines that keep the city running. A little cliche I know but they aren't very friendly - think Master Blaster from Mad Max. They have a fragile agreement with many of the big corporations to keep the city up and running.

They also don't have a problem indentured "servitude" and have no qualms about dealing with the lower class races to work for them. They are quite active in illiegal weapons construction and trade as well. So no, dwarves aren't very nice.

 

[The Lost Muse]

I actually went MORE stereotypical for my dwarves, taking them right back to their roots in Norse Mythology. These earthy, otherworldly, tricksters are associated with the earth (and metaphorically fertility), shouldn't be trusted, and are tough warriors to boot. (And they are the only norse-like race going at the moment.)

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=136596
I can't tell you how I handle dwarves, but this is how Shades of Green does it.

 

[BSF]

I scrapped 'Dwarves'. I created two new races. The Thurgon (Sons of Stone) and the Durgon (Sons of Clay). Then I started creating some very specific archtypes for the Thurgon. They are rigid in their ways and treat the stone of the world as sacred. Their creator is also the builder god who created the world. The Thurgon consider themselves to be the mortal shepherds of creation and stand in the way of all those creatures that would destroy the world. Non-conformists in their society are not accepted. This makes the Thurgon very difficult to deal with.

The Durgon are a lot more flexible. But they still have some of the same base philosophies.

In my world, the Elves are mostly a seafaring race. There are the woodsy type elves, but no more than the woodsy type humans. The Elves are exploring the world and have begun eyeing domination of sea trade as one of their goals. They will likely try to wrest power from some of the dominant human cities soon.

 

[Serendipity]

IMC, the world is still recovering from a 1,000 year dynastic struggle between an extremely large elven (non-standard) empire. Some races (including the Dwarves) were enslaved durring the conflict and consequently, have very little of their own culture left intact - most of what they *do* have is something akin to the military ethic of professional soldiers.
(Of course, IMC, Halflings are also all seagoing merchants too - I'm not much for "traditional" D&D sterotypes...)

 

[Turanil]

My next campaign of Castles & Crusades, the dwarves won't resemble a kind of Tolkien dwarves mixed with Norsemen. Instead, I will make them as medieval Swiss mercenaries jealous of their independance (no nobles among their culture). The craftsman tradesman aspect won't be emphasized.

 

[Mercule]

Woefully underdeveloped. The biggest racial feature is that they are, as a whole, deeply religious.