jmartkdr2
Hero
Gnomes, I think, missed the boat on being a first-round race. Elves, dwarves, and halflings were all established really early in the games run as distinct classes. As classes, they needed to be complete characters: there's a bit of chicken-and-egg here, but like most early DnD classes they were designed to emulate specific characters from fiction, but rather quickly were expanded into entire peoples.
If gnomes were included that early, I feel they would be just as established. But that would need there to be a popular gnome character to emulate. I don't know of any such character, but I'm not an expert on the history of fantasy fiction.
All the races that were added after that first round and had good traction had a strong hook. Half-elves, half-orcs and tieflings were/are all edgy, which is always popular. Half-orcs and goliaths are big strong guys. Dragonborn are dragons.
Gnomes' hook seems to be 'wacky engineers' - which isn't the least popular hook but isn't as popular as edgy or dragon seems to be.
All the races shift and expand over time. Heck, at this point I'd sat dwarves, elves, and halflings don't have a central idea anymore - but they're established in the imaginations of the player base, so they're not going anywhere. Gnomes aren't quite there. They're close, though.
If gnomes were included that early, I feel they would be just as established. But that would need there to be a popular gnome character to emulate. I don't know of any such character, but I'm not an expert on the history of fantasy fiction.
All the races that were added after that first round and had good traction had a strong hook. Half-elves, half-orcs and tieflings were/are all edgy, which is always popular. Half-orcs and goliaths are big strong guys. Dragonborn are dragons.
Gnomes' hook seems to be 'wacky engineers' - which isn't the least popular hook but isn't as popular as edgy or dragon seems to be.
All the races shift and expand over time. Heck, at this point I'd sat dwarves, elves, and halflings don't have a central idea anymore - but they're established in the imaginations of the player base, so they're not going anywhere. Gnomes aren't quite there. They're close, though.