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

[TerraDave]

Most fantasy that Gygax liked had 1 race for protagonists: humans. He put those other races in because LotR was big and he knew they would be popular. They were.

I could see just doing humans, maybe with "gifts" or some wider range of options. I do wonder if the rise of newer fantasy could disrupt their popularity, but all indications are that elves, dwarves, and sometimes halflings and orcs remain pretty popular.

 

[zarionofarabel]

I think it's very easy to describe them to new players as you can point them in the direction of the LotR movies.

 

[Minigiant]

I just thought of another one.

They little you insert ideas from mythology, culture, and religion to your game without thinking hard about it.

Dwarves let you insert Norse stuff. Elfs let you insert a lot of stuff. And halflings can be a substute of any monothestic post-Classical society's viewpoint because they are just little people who like staying home with the family.



If the Egyptians had a popular Demihuman they might have expanded the Common Four to Five. And the Greeks and Romans had too many halfanimal humans based on curses or gods hugging humans that we cant just pick one.

Perhaps someone could snag a race from each Ancient and Classical popular society and stick them in a standard D&D setting.

NEKOS FOR 6E PHB!
I want a cat-eared bishie fighter with the samurai subclass in the edition's core artwork. So when I ambush players with broken yokai and bakemono, I ccan blame WOTC or whoever buys D&D.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think the appeal is in the thread title.

Tolkein/LotR is popular.

Put it this way I live in NZ. Tourism industry has grown up around the locations used in the films. There's obvious ones like Hobbiton but you can get apps that show you where specific scenes are filmed.

Lots of stuff on youtube as well. Hell I was born in "Rohan".

Look familiar?


Those films where 20 years ago now. Two hour drive from my hometown joint looks like that.

Nerds carrying swords into the high country lol.

And this.

Hobbiton™ Movie Set Tours

In the heart of New Zealand, step into the lush pastures of the Shire™ with a guided walking tour of Hobbiton™, as featured in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Trilogies.

www.hobbitontours.com

 

[Wicht]

I think the appeal is in the thread title.

Tolkein/LotR is popular.

Put it this way I live in NZ...

I find it fascinating viewing this through the framework of those coming into the question thinking of D&D in terms of 5th edition, and thinking of LotR in terms of the movies...

The movies are popular, but the influence on the game goes back to the books. If one walks into a bookstore today and looks at the vast selection of fantasy novels available, one might not appreciate that such was not always the case. Back in the 60s and the 70s and even into the early 80s, LotR was not just the best fantasy available, it was the zeitgeist and the soul of fantasy. It created the fantasy genre and for a time (and still today, though not as directly) all fantasy was just a response to LotR. I remember reading the books for the first time (I was 9) back in 1982 and thereafter trying to write my own fantasy. I soon realized I was just trying to retell LotR. I was not alone. Terry Brooks readily admits (and its really obvious) that his first Shannara novel was just a reskinned LotR. That glut of fantasy novels and source material that we have today was not always there and is a direct result of people reading LotR for the first time and wanting to write fantasy. As more and more wrote, they began blending in from other sources, some of which predated Tolkien, such as fairytales and myths, but almost always they were building on the framework Tolkein had started.

Gygax incorporated Tolkien into Dungeons and Dragons, not just because it was popular, but because it was fantasy and, back in the day, fantasy was Tolkien. Tolkein's elves and dwarves and hobbits and orcs (goblins) and undead wizards leading armies was what we knew, and when we crafted our own stories, we were just expanding on his. Now its an intrinsic part of the legacy of the game.

One caveat - Before LotR, there was pulp fiction, and we cannot discount the influence of pulp on the genre and the game, especially in the gritty aspects of sword and sorcery, as well as the Lovecraftian influences, but LotR mostly ignored the pulp and crafted something new. And, in my opinion, there has always been just a touch more of Gandalf and Bilbo in the game than Conan or the Grey Mouser.

 

[embee]

People aren't very creative. 99% of fictional races are just humans with bumpy heads.

You have angered Lieutenant Worf with your comment.

 

[embee]

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

Because they don't understand the benefit of reach weapons.

 

[Guest 85555]

I'll admit I'm a new school D&D player/DM. I've never discounted a player idea in osr or 5e, but I still wonder. Dwarves, elves, halflings... and so on.

Why do people chose these races?

To me, elves and dwarves are just humans with some tokrm magic element. Turtle people, and cat people and demon people and dragon people seem like a fun experience. Why playa dwarf and not a mountain dwelling human miner? Why wood elves and not tribal forest dwelling humans? Wealthy human wizards instead of high elves? I mean are humans even relevant in D&D anymore?

Is it a role-playing thing, or just a ability bonus power-up thing? I don't think I've ever ran a group that had a single human in it.

My experience is there was a race for every type of personality. We always had that player who just felt like a dwarf in person and liked playing them (same with elves).

 

[Oofta]

For me it's because the standard races have an identity that has been widely adapted (and occasionally subverted) that have widely accepted lore and there are specific tropes. Each race has a very specific niche variation of what people can imagine.

These standard views of the races have several influence, not just LOTR and D&D but a multitude of movies, TV series, novels and games. The image of elves and dwarves are easily recognizable whether or not you've ever read the PHB if you've ever been interested in fantasy in general.

I can't say the same about, say, a loxodon. What's their culture like? How to people react to them? What's their relationship with the world at large? Even if I make a PC that subverts the trope, people would never realize it with a lot of uncommon races because they have no idea what that race should be in the first place.

Last, but not least, the character I come up with is more important than their race for me. So if I'm making a PC I'd rather have a solid foundation, a starting point that I can fully embrace or twist as I see fit. If there's no cultural foundation, there's nothing to start from. Besides, if I want to pick up any trait from one of the uncommon races I can easily do that with RP and individual PC flavor. What does playing a leonin add if I can just play Dick the Lion-Hearted?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

What is the appeal?

Well, some people like the core, standard races like humans and dwarves and halflings ....

...while other people prefer tieflings and tortles and githyanki, oh my!