D&D General why do we have halflings and gnomes?

[Oofta]

Hobbits were added in because of LOTR and later renamed halflings (and slowly lost some of the visuals of hobbits) because TSR was sued by Tolkien's estate. Gnomes? I always assumed they were meant to represent the fey "little people" of legend.

So in my campaign gnomes originate from the feywild, and are the "good" side of the goblin ancestry that split off. They have a close association to nature and magic. A fair number are druids or warlock with fey patrons. That or they are tinker gnomes simply because I have fun making up crazy inventions as they try to out-do each other on the creativity of their inventions. In game they also tend to be sages, particularly when it comes to arcane studies (although not necessarily wizards).

Halflings? They're one of those races I'd get rid of but they've been in my campaign world forever. I don't have a problem with them, they just don't really have much going for them either. So I give them a niche of being itinerant wanderers and a people that fit into the literal cracks in society. They represent the (literal) little people that happily go around their daily lives doing odd jobs or living a pastoral life.

 

[Tonguez]

Gnomes is a good question. They didn't enter D&D until the 1st edition AD&D players handbook. They are drawing from the same mythological well as elves and dwarves. In Tolkien's writings, the noldor elves are specifically identified with gnomes. D&D gnomes resemble non-Tolkienated elves. Magical little people who make toys for Santa, make shoes for poor cobblers, help maidens spin straw into gold, miners who take in lost princesses etc.

There are gnomes in L. Frank Baum's Oz stories, maybe they jumped from there to AD&D?

The Nomes of Oz resemble Svirfneblin being rather short, rather round and rough and rugged as if they had been broken away from the side of a mountain.

Gnomes however are awesome, they are a small reclusive race, fey like but rugged, and as you allude chock full of folklore (although miners adopting princesses is dwarfs). They do need to be tiny (1-2ft) rather than small though. Smurfs are my favourite depiction of gnomes, not to mention the TPratchetts wee small men.

I dont know, but suspect they were added to D&D to provide another small race that wasnt boring or subject to Tolkiens copyright,

Birthright has a nice take on Halflings, neutral evil denizens of the Shadow World who can detect undead, see shadow creatures and use shadowwalk to move between worlds.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In my first 5e campaign I made the main villain a gnome, on the basis that players tend not to take them seriously or consider them a threat.

 

[Maxperson]

I think its fairly obvious why hobbits where included - LotR fans wanted to be like their heroes.

Gnomes is a good question. They didn't enter D&D until the 1st edition AD&D players handbook. They are drawing from the same mythological well as elves and dwarves. In Tolkien's writings, the noldor elves are specifically identified with gnomes. D&D gnomes resemble non-Tolkienated elves. Magical little people who make toys for Santa, make shoes for poor cobblers, help maidens spin straw into gold, miners who take in lost princesses etc.

There are gnomes in L. Frank Baum's Oz stories, maybe they jumped from there to AD&D?

The Noldor weren't identified WITH Gnomes, they were the Gnomes. For Tolkien, Gnome was just a name for a tall, fair elven race that forged and created. He dropped it, because of the association with European gnomes which were smaller and looked different.

 

[Umbran]

Smurfs are my favourite depiction of gnomes

So, I play in a game run by a friend of mine - his young daughter also plays, and I wanted to make sure I watched my language...

"Smurf," in gnomish, is a rubbery blue residue resulting from botched alchemical processes. Lumps of the stuff are most often created in failed attempts to create homonculi, it is however not uncommon in other processes when the reagents weren't pure. It is rubbery, slightly tacky... and has no purpose the gnomes have yet discovered. It is not sticky enough to be an adhesive, it has only marginal structural integrity, is not edible (but is basically non-toxic). It is... a little blue lump of failure.

It thus becomes a bit of gnomish invective. "You smurfhead!" "What the smurfing smurf?" "Well, that's smurfed it." "We're smurfed." and so on.

 

[Stormonu]

Not literal, but for me the two "little races" fill a spot for those who want elves that aren't elves...

Halflings are two parts human, one part elf.
Gnomes are two parts dwarf, one part elf.

 

[Shiroiken]

I'm not a super-fan of either, but they fill a need for players. Gnomes fit a niche between elf and dwarf, being of the earth and the surface. Halflings are normal people who live in a huge world, and have to learn to adjust (and often take advantage of it). I've had a player who's chooses halfling about every other character, and we think that's just because people might object if he chose them every time.

 

[ART!]

I did an inordinate amount of folklore and etymological research on gnomes years ago, and what i came up with for my gaming worlds was a reclusive race known for their arcane knowledge and ancient lore, with fey-like natures and origins, but with a very earth/underground bent. If you want to know something obscure, magical, fey, ancient, or some combination thereof, your best bet is to find some gnomes and ask them.

 

[Ringtail]

I find gnomes a little redundant with Haflings, but this is really in standard D&D lore, where they are like Hafling and Dwarves rolled together.

I really like the Gnomes from Pathfinder, where they are strange, fey-like and quite unique. I also kind of like the tinker gnomes and mechanical experts from something like Warcraft, but that doesn't fit everyone's campaign setting or even tone. (That ACME Science Steampunk stuff can be a little silly.)

 

[el-remmen]

In my first 5e campaign I made the main villain a gnome, on the basis that players tend not to take them seriously or consider them a threat.

The main villains of my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign were a litter of half-fiend gnomes.