D&D General Why Do People Hate Gnomes?

[Vaalingrade]

We had this thing called Accelerated Reader. You earned points by reading books and taking a short test. The points could then be exchanged for good and services like candy, patches, pins, hats, etc.

Each LotR book was worth 60+ points. In fact, most fantasy doorstoppers were north of 50. We nerds ate well that year.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

This album about the Silmarillion came out before the LoTR movies.

 

[Steampunkette]

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And let’s be honest. Reading Tolkien is kind of like reading 1984. Everyone says they have and most people are lying.

1984 is a common GCSE set book, so loads of people in the UK have read it because they had to. The same goes for Of Mice and Men. I've skimmed both of them for teaching purposes, they are pretty short*. The best bit of 1984 is the opening line.


*Not like that other perennial, To Kill a Mockingbird. That was a slog.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I doubt that group is going to amount to anything with songs like that. They're going to go over like a lead balloon.

 

[Steampunkette]

To go with Ramble On, there's Enya's 1991: Lothlorien

Rush's 1975 Rivendell

Good ol' Black Sabbath with "The Wizard" 'cause Ozzy was a fan in 1970

In 1974, Camel wrote Nimrodel, Procession, and White Rider

And Sally Oldfeld wrote Songs of the Quendi in '78

ahem MUSICAL NERRRRRRRRDS who loved Lord of the Rings and helped bring it into popular culture long before the movies!

Probably at least -part- of why the Hobbit from Rankin Bass released in '77 as a crazy cool cartoon, Lord of the Rings hit different in '78 with heavy rotoscoping, and then in '80 Rankin Bass came back for the Return of the King with more great cartoonery.

 

[Guest 7034872]

ahem MUSICAL NERRRRRRRRDS who loved Lord of the Rings and helped bring it into popular culture long before the movies!

Probably at least -part- of why the Hobbit from Rankin Bass released in '77 as a crazy cool cartoon, Lord of the Rings hit different in '78 with heavy rotoscoping, and then in '80 Rankin Bass came back for the Return of the King with more great cartoonery.

Oh, yeah--I 'member these days, alright. I vividly recall the day I learned Rush's album, Caress of Steel, was all about Middle Earth; then and there I went from really liking that band to a state of adoration.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Sorry, no. I'm not going to engage with this premise because it's inherently faulty. I did not say that D&D's exact version/style of gnomes is present in folklore or pop culture. Just that there are obvious folklore creatures that are very similar to major aspects of D&D's version of Gnomes.

I will give you some examples of creatures that are very similar, though.

Santa's Elves are very, very similar in many ways to Rock Gnomes. They're short, pointy-eared, kind-hearted tinkerers/inventors. I'm not claiming that they're exactly the same, just that there are clear similarities between the two. Sure, they're not named "Gnomes", but that's irrelevant to the fact that they're quite similar creatures.

Same with Snow White's Seven Dwarves. Those are way closer to D&D's Gnomes than its Dwarves (mostly similar to Svirfneblin, actually, as they specifically mine for gems).

And, yes, World of Warcraft's Gnomes almost definitely came from D&D via Dragonlance, but they're still part of a popular non-D&D franchise and quite similar to D&D Gnomes. They've been around long enough to be fairly well-known.

I do not disagree with you here. I do see that halflings and gnomes are probably too similar to be distinct races. I do not care if Gnomes are a separate race, so long as there is some option to play something similar to them. I don't care if they're combined with Halflings, Elves, or Dwarves, as all of them have huge similarities with at least one Gnome subrace. I really, really like Gnomes, but I am not so protective of them that I want to avoid them being folded into another race. I'd only be upset if they were completely dropped from the game. So long as there are guidelines to play a gnome (or something similar enough), I'd be perfectly fine with it. I'm as annoyed by redundant races as you are.

I can see why people don't like Gnomes being redundant/overlapping with other races. I like them even though I largely agree. And lots of people like other races that are mostly redundant (you remember the Halfling thread), to the extent that they will fight online for 200 pages arguing why they should be distinct races. I am not one of those people and I would be 100% fine with all of their most important traits being combined with another race.

honestly, I see gnomes lacking in depth that can lead to dark places, I could see gnomes as callous from their curiosity leading to horrific stuff, obsession gone far too far for say vengeance, fanaticism and other such darkness plus oddly paranoia as they seem to have two strains who are known for being secretive and one who survives by being useful to a larger more aggressive society.
halflings do not really have darkness save ignorance (halflings would be great cosmic horror protagonists)
and honestly, I want halflings gone as they are by nature shallow and lack even the verity of gnomes.

the only other small races are goblins and kobolds with the latter being ruined by their players and goblins were ruined for me in ways hard to articulate.

The Hobbit is commonly read in English schools. It was read to me at my primary school and it's still a common choice at KS2.

that would be brutal as Tolkien write in a fashion that makes me think I am eating the best-tasting brick in the world good, enjoyable but heavy and hard to consume.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Rename Rock Gnomes to Forest Dwarf, Forest Gnome to Fey Dwarf. Svirfneblin can be Deep Dwarf.

Give dwarves the same countless brands like elves do!

 

[Mind of tempest]

Rename Rock Gnomes to Forest Dwarf, Forest Gnome to Fey Dwarf. Svirfneblin can be Deep Dwarf.

Give dwarves the same countless brands like elves do!

dwarf fans would hate it as being anything like an elf is a sin or some other convoluted thing.