D&D General What is the appeal of Tolkien fantasy races?

[Zardnaar]

If people are new to D&D the classics are also new I suppose even if they've been around in other literature.

 

[aco175]

I guess, because it has always been that way. I grew up with D&D being humanish races like Tolkien. Monsters were monsters and races that looked like monsters were not something you could play. The game was more Tolkien than Star Wars Mos Eisley cantina.

I kind of see a dragon-like human or a cat-like human when I see all the newer races that some people like. Maybe it is a generational thing and I'm just old or set in my 1e ways.

 

[Minigiant]

The appeal

• The fan likes LOTR
• The fan doesn't want to roleplay that hard

D&D dwarfs and elves aren't even Mythological ones.

When's the last time your elf kidnapped a child for an Archfey?
When is the last time you dwarf turned into a dragon to protect his treasure?

November 21st 2020
October 19, 2019

 

[zarionofarabel]

I like the Elf because they have pointy ears and have a haughty attitude.

I like the Dwarf cause they have a beard and drink ale and curse a lot.

I like the Halfling because I can be a Kender without letting everyone know that I am a Kender. Hehe!

 

[zarionofarabel]

I AM a human with a bumpy head. Is that bad?

NO!!! You are just as wonderful and amazing as every other human. If any other human tells you otherwise throw dice at their face until they go away! You don't need that negativity in your life!

 

[Guest 6801328]

Why do so many people want to use plain old longswords, instead of guisarme-vulges and bohemian ear spoons?

 

[Richards]

NO!!! You are just as wonderful and amazing as every other human. If any other human tells you otherwise throw dice at their face until they go away! You don't need that negativity in your life!

If you throw dice at their face and hit them, you may end up turning them into yet another human with a bumpy head.

Johnathan

 

[Zardnaar]

If you throw dice at their face and hit them, you may end up turning them into yet another human with a bumpy head.

Johnathan

I have seem that done irl lol. One player kept talking over the DM, "donk".

 

[billd91]

I guess the answer to the question is -- LotR is one of the greatest fantasy works ever written, and it created many of the tropes we take for granted today. D&D was largely inspired by it (despite Gygax's later post-lawsuit protestations to the contrary) and originally included hobbits, ents, balrogs, foresty elves, mountainy dwarves, elves who hate dwarves, dwarves who hate elves, rangers, the whole works before those elements had to be removed or renamed.

That work speaks to a lot of people. And the movies managed to hit a home run.

This.
Plus, I'm going to say that LotR is so well known and popular, in part, because the characters in it are as interesting as they are. We learn just enough about elves, dwarves, and hobbits to make them kind of fascinating to play. You've got the dwarves with their rich history of delving in mines, working their crafts, holding fantastically long grudges, fighting orcs/goblins, ruminating over their past and history of loss to the orcs. You've also got elves in their long decline, a bit of joy and melancholy as they fade from their prominence, reveling in song but feeling the need to leave their homes of thousands of years, but also a bit of ruthlessness in dealing with their orcish enemies invading their lands. And then you've got hobbits - and those first chapters of Fellowship of the Ring are brilliant in letting you know what hobbits are like.

So yeah, lots of people like playing elves, dwarves, and halflings.

 

[Don Durito]

1) They're already there. If you're running an exsiting setting or a homebrew that you've had a long time then you don't have to add them because they've been there all along.

2) They are the most 'core'. People forget this but the PHB does say that some of the races such as Tieflings and Dragonborn are optional - so if you take that seriously (do people? I don't know) then you would expect removing them to have more pushback.

3) They feel traditional - if you have other kinds of weirdness in your setting they can help offset that

4) They are traditional. This particular moment in popular culture is one where nothing is new and old properties are constantly rehashed and rebooted. I can't help but feel that this is a big part of the popularity of D&D right now.

5) In their own right? Not much to my mind. I've long been bemused that frpgs have been so wedded to these races (along with the need for non-human races at all) for so long after most fantasy novels seem to have largely abandoned them - but D&D's shadow is long I guess.