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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8176514" data-attributes="member: 6779196">In a nutshell, yes. They fill the narrative role of the Everyman, or more specifically the agrarian class. But it’s important to understand why they were chosen for that role. Well, I mean, they were chosen for it in D&D because it was the role they filled in LotR, but why were they written for that role.In LotR, humans are special. They’re flawed, but their flaws are what make them great, because unlike elves who are born perfect, humans have the ability to rise above their flaws. Their role in the story is to be the aspirational heroes and cautionary examples. They can’t fill the role of Everyman because their job is to be exemplars, positive and negative. Hobbits, then, are unexceptional humans. And in that, they have a certain admirability as well. They are worldly and humble in a way that the greater men of the setting are not, and that humility is why only a hobbit could be the central protagonist.Now, that doesn’t really work in D&D. A lot of what D&D took from Tolkien doesn’t really work, because it took the trappings but left the underlying themes behind, which does leave halflings feeling a bit superfluous. That’s why they’ve gradually shifted from being hobbits straight out of LotR, to being a more palatable take on Kender - plucky, curious, with a penchant for mischief and gifted with preternatural good luck, but without the culturally reinforced kleptomania.There’s nothing wrong with writing halflings out of your setting, if you feel they don’t fill any strong narrative purpose within it. But if you want to include them, consider what purpose they might fill in your world. Is there a use in your setting for a people who are more human than human? Or if not, is there another way you can subvert that theming that will better serve the themes of your own setting?In my own setting, halflings are an oppressed class. The Tolkienesque agrarian hobbit is a stereotype, derived from the image of Halfling slaves, and the tricksy halfling thief is another stereotype, derived from the image of halflings forced into criminal activity as the result of the material conditions that generational poverty has forced them into. I think that’s an interesting subversion of the existing tropes, and helps explain the relative (though not total) lack of a culture distinct from humanity, as slave owners would have actively worked to erase existing halfling culture.Gnomes are the Hidden Folk. Fairies and brownies and leprechauns and the like. They fill the role of mysterious magical little folk from the Otherworld left vacant by Tolkien’s elves.</blockquote>

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