D&D General why are dwarves harder to think of varients for?

[Corinnguard]

In the World of Warcraft setting, you have the Earthen. Think of them as the Elemental Plane of Earth equivalent of the Azer. Earthen They're the ancestors of the Dwarves in this setting who were transformed into flesh and blood mortals by the Curse of Flesh.

 

[jgsugden]

Me, from 2007, reskinning & mashing Warforged & Dwarves together (emphasis is new):

I love these coincidences where DMs create similar concepts independently, but that end up being very similar. If I encounter them when I play with another DM, I usually earmark it as something to focus on the next time I build a character with the DM... I've had some great experiences diving into the lore of something that both the DM and the player were invested enough to 'create' independently.

 

[Aldarc]

In the World of Warcraft setting, you have the Earthen. Think of them as the Elemental Plane of Earth equivalent of the Azer. Earthen They're the ancestors of the Dwarves in this setting who were transformed into flesh and blood mortals by the Curse of Flesh.

Yeah, but at the end of the day WoW dwarves are still gruff miners, beer drinkers, and the like with the usual fantasy stereotypes, including Viking aesthetics with faux-Scottish accents.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I think you might need to define what dwarves are, then take traits and either highlight them or oppose them. To me dwarves are:

• Related to stone, hills, and mountains
• Orderly/law focused
• Clan/family based
• Skilled craftsmen
• Skilled warriors

I could probably think of more, but you might ignore the hills and mountains and create a desert dwelling clan that is known to be skilled mounted warriors (maybe giant lizards, maybe camels) and skilled craftsmen creating incredible glass products from sand located in their home.

Maybe a clan has taken to the seas, a chaotic society where strength and cunning gets you a leadership position. Still skilled warriors, there homes are found on the coasts and ships at sea.

Maybe they're skilled wizards, known for their spellcasting and the magical artifacts that come from that knowledge. This one is probably a trope as well, dwarves forged magical artifacts in Norse mythology, it's one reason why I always found it weird that they couldn't be wizards back in the day.

I think part of the problem is, it can be hard to bridge the gap between intentional trope subversion and a cohesive new concept. That is, much like the issue with Strong Female Character Syndrome, a Nu-Dwarf effort that is merely subversive to be subversive, not because it is a better story for it to be subversive, will almost always fall flat and not appeal to audiences.

At its heart, this problem is basically just a special case of the problem with formulaic writing. Which may be why most good "expand the horizons of this D&D race" things tend to center on a well-written character, who personally adds a new dimension to whatever they are (elf, githzerai, what-have-you), since that inherently averts the artificiality problem. The differences and alterations are critical to telling a worthwhile story.

So, to anyone out there hoping to reinvigorate our short kings, work on that. Work on making an interesting story that hinges on dwarves being a little bit different from what we usually expect them to be. Whether that necessity is at the character level or the thematic level, make your variant dwarves matter to the telling of a good tale. Which is, of course, a tall order. But you'll need to fulfill it if you want to see those broader horizons. It's always possible. Dak'kon came out of nowhere and is deeply beloved. Perhaps you can do the same.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Because the tropes are just so strong, and they just work..

This is similar to my thought. Dwarves have a fairly solid “core” concept. They’re tradition-minded, they live in hills and mountains, they’re incredible crafters, so there is less “need” to split them into sub-races.

Elves on the other hand…
Do they live in shining cities or hidden in forests?
Are they masters of arcane magic or masters of primal magic?
Or are they the guys with bows that move stealthily through the forest?
Is their core concept that they come from the Feywild or not?
What about the underground elves?

Is the archetypical elf a wizard, a ranger, a rogue, a druid or a cleric/priestess of Lloth?

The way D&D is split up, the competing core concepts don’t really make sense for a single race: that theoretical race would end up with way too many features.

So, as bit of a kludge, it gets split up into multiple subraces. Frankly, I think this does a disservice to both the design space and to the elves themselves.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

it is more I can't do it without it feeling non-dwarvish and this angers me as it seems like it should be so easy.

Well I can’t help with how you feel. I don’t have that issue. Plenty of variants still feel like dwarves to me.

I guess you need to figure out what is essential dwarf to you and then play with areas outside of that for variants?

 

[jmartkdr2]

One thing I added to dwarves was making the duergar ability to enlarge themselves a general dwarf trait - but then making it possible that when they do so they lose their minds and get stuck that way.

This is where ogres come from.

The variants, as it were, are different cultural approaches to this issue. Do they sun the power, or do they find a way to control it? Do they use magic, discipline, psionic power or divine intervention to control it or bring themselves back? Of course, this means each variant tend to favor a certain pc class or two.

 

[Charlaquin]

TL;DR: We need more dwarves that are still clearly dwarves, but who buck the trends of their past characterization. That's the only way to make them more diverse and interesting...because it literally is making them more diverse, and if well-done, more interesting as well.

That’s why I love my main man Varric so much

 

[Mind of tempest]

That’s why I love my main man Varric so much

image is broken you're lucky I have varrics face carved into my brain.

he feels less like a new group and more someone who never saw himself in his people, I find it relatable but does not fix the problem

 

[FrozenNorth]

So, to anyone out there hoping to reinvigorate our short kings, work on that. Work on making an interesting story that hinges on dwarves being a little bit different from what we usually expect them to be. Whether that necessity is at the character level or the thematic level, make your variant dwarves matter to the telling of a good tale. Which is, of course, a tall order. But you'll need to fulfill it if you want to see those broader horizons. It's always possible. Dak'kon came out of nowhere and is deeply beloved. Perhaps you can do the same.

Ironically, I don’t think elves generally are a good example of this. They are so variable that they have lost their core.

There are a lot of positive examples though. One recent example is how tending towards non-binary became a core element of the changeling race. Makes sense in retrospect, but not at all common in previous editions of D&D.