Where does the Gnomish Tinker stereo/archetype come from?

[Faraer]

I don't mind them on Krynn -- but then I tend to take stuff on its merits rather than demand it comply with a set of narrow tastes -- but the idea took on a life of its own outside, perhaps because the gimmick is quicker to grasp than Gary Gygax's badger-loving hill people or Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Folk, which fit their respective settings much better. For instance in the Realms, some people saw that Gond had to do with machines, and tinker gnomes had to do with machines, and Gond was worshipped in Lantan, so deducted falsely that there were lots of Lantanna gnomes.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Whenever I find a world with tinker gnomes, I sigh heavily, change my alignment to 'CE', and bring out the 'ol ranger class, with Favored Enemy: Humanoid (gnome). With some luck, I'll rid the world of the blight that is the tinker gnome. Otherwise, I shall rest more easily in my grave knowing I have reduced (culled?) the surplus gnome population.

"Ranger: As a special exception to the stacking rules, a ranger with Favored Enemy: Vermin and [...]"

 

[talinthas]

the DLCS was originally slated to have 20 pages of crunch on tinker gnomes. this section was sliced out since someone high up decided that it was way too much space to dedicate to a single race =(.

 

[Davelozzi]

talinthas, are you serious? If so, they made the right decision. I think it would have been appropriate to have a tinker class in there but twenty pages would have been a terrible idea.

 

[Aaron L]

Tinker gnomes are an abomination that I'm afraid I will never forgive Dragonlance for.

 

[RC Hagy]

The concept of tinkering gnomes originated with Dragonlance.

The concept of an angry dwarf originated with Al Pachino.

Any questions?

Yep... if my brain were on them what would happen?




Hagy

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shortly after they appeared in Dragonlance, they appeared in one of the Creature Crucible gazeteers for Mystara.

Honestly, given how bland gnomes were before this, I think it's hard to complain too much about tinker gnomes, no matter how overdone it's gotten since then. (Personally, I genuinely prefer to model my gnomes on Switzerland ... seriously.)

If you're looking for good tinkering rules, there are no finer ones (for when you don't want tinkering to be solely comic relief) than the Tinkerer core class and technology rules in the Warcraft RPG book, which is also immensely portable to other settings.

 

[Wolffenjugend]

Shortly after they appeared in Dragonlance, they appeared in one of the Creature Crucible gazeteers for Mystara.

Mystara? Didn't that come out in the 90s? DL has been around since the 80s.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Mystara? Didn't that come out in the 90s? DL has been around since the 80s.

Mystara for AD&D came out in the early 1990s. Mystara, the Basic D&D setting (signature villain Bargle appeared in the adventure in the red box rulebook), predates all of TSR's worlds but the World of Greyhawk and Blackmoor (Blackmoor was later turned into the prehistory of Mystara, at that).

The Top Ballista Creature Crucible came out in 1989, and featured the flying gnomish city of Serraine, along with World War I flying ace rules for D&D.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Tinker gnomes are an abomination that I'm afraid I will never forgive Dragonlance for.

That'saveryinterestingpointofviewandonethatIwould
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[deep breath]

-Hyp.