What's up with Scottish Dwarves?!?

[MoogleEmpMog]

I would suggest Star Trek as one of the principle culprits. Dwarves-as-engineers goes back at least as far as Warhammer, and engineers-as-Scottie in geek pop culture goes back farther than D&D.

 

[Slife]

What I want to know is how acutal Scottish people play Dwarves? Do they give them a Texas accent or something????

No way. Everything's bigger in Texas.

 

[VirgilCaine]

it's easy to see a dwarf as a short, bearded Scotsman wearing a kilt and wielding a claymore, with fiery red hair and blue painted skin. The image is as awesome as it is hilarious.

Except, of course, that 3rd edition Dwarves have dark skin and dark hair. So my blonde or red-haired dwarves will be retarded, just like blonde Japanese people are.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Except, of course, that 3rd edition Dwarves have dark skin and dark hair. So my blonde or red-haired dwarves will be retarded, just like blonde Japanese people are.

If people don't feel compelled to have elves that look like the Greys straight from the UFO, I don't know why hair and skin color of dwarves would be an issue of canon for anyone.

 

[Psion]

Why would you want to limit it to D&D players?

I sort of assume that's the population group of interest here.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

What I want to know is how acutal Scottish people play Dwarves? Do they give them a Texas accent or something????

Heh. Works for me. Strong family values, well-armed, and rich from mining (oil/gold)? Yeah, a Texan dwarf would work.

Scottish dwarves have been around in one kind or another since the 80s. Basically, they're the boorish macho-men of the fantasy world. The boorish macho-men of the Ren Faire crowd are fake Scottish. I think that's where it all started.

I've used Scottish dwarves, Viking dwarves, Japanese dwarves, Irish dwarves, American dwarves, and Turkish dwarves over the years, as I think about it. I'm sure we can make all sorts of flavor and culture for dwarves wherever in the campaign world we would like. Why stop with one culture for dwarves?

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

How are you differentiating between "ale" and "beer"?

I don't have the OED handy but here is a quote from Wikipedia:

Before the introduction of hops into England from the Netherlands in the 15th century the name “ale” was exclusively applied to unhopped fermented beverages, the term “beer” being gradually introduced to describe a brew with an infusion of hops.

Which is why I find the idea of a Medieval Scotsman, Dwarvish or not, drinking beer to be anachronistic.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Tolkien said that in some regards he thought of dwarves as Jews.

I share that sentiment. In my homebrew Grymwurld™ Dwarves are bankers, armourers, smiths, and jewelers. They have last names like Goldsmith, Goldstein, and Goldman.

 

[dpmcalister]

What I want to know is how acutal Scottish people play Dwarves? Do they give them a Texas accent or something????

I'm Scottish and my dwarven barbarian has an extremely broad Scottish accent (so broad that even some other Scots I know can't understand it ). Dwarves have always been Scottish in my experience, and I really enjoy playing up the stereotype (of both dwarves and Scotsmen )

 

[Zander]

Warhammer's to blame?

As an old-school Warhammer FRPG (NOT tabletop...blech! ) gamer, I can't say that the dwarves were any more "Scottish" than not. Just about everything in that game had a strong Germanic flavor, including some of the Dwarven surnames. Sure some dwarves (particularly Trollslayers) had facial tattos and red hair, but no one was walking around in kilts or saying "laddie" or anything like that.

While it's certainly true that Warhammer dwarves were very teutonic/nordic, it can't be said that the idea of a Scottish dwarf was unknown to the designers at Games Workshop. IIRC one of the minis in the Dwarf Lords of Legend set that came out in the mid-'80s was called Angus and looked distinctly Scottish with a tam o'shanter and kilt.