Dragonlance Would you allow Kender outside of Dragonlance?

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm just wondering. For me allowing something so incredibly tied to a particular setting to be played outside of it just jarring and not appealing at all (as DM or a player at the table of a DM doing so). I'm getting the impression that some others feel differently, so I want to see where most are at.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

In my homebrew setting, Kender are simply a gypsy-esque subrace of halflings. No homeland, shunned in most cities if not for the lively entertainments they put on, and accused of thievery because of their beliefs - physical things belong to whoever needs them most - "owning" a thing is a foreign concept to them.

 

[neobolts]

I would probably not introduce it on my own. If a player really wanted to play one, I'd find a way to introduce kender into the setting.

Now I'm picturing 4e era FR with the Spellplague pulling in a society of kender rather than genasi.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I was expecting a choice for "No, and I wouldn't run Dragonlance without banning Kender, either." Some folks love 'em, others hate 'em.

 

[Umbran]

I am not so sure I'd allow them *inside* Dragonlance, much less outside it.

Don't get me wrong, Tasslehoff worked well in a novel. But at the table, that would be annoying enough that someone would have slapped the player.

The, "I don't believe in personal property," thing can be okay, as a philosophy. But it seems that everyone else on the planet understands that different cultures have different mores, and one occasionally has to adjust behavior to get by. Kender, apparently, are too bloody stupid to understand this even when they are exposed to it, and that just doesn't make any sense.

 

[Cristian Andreu]

I'm DMing a Planescape campaign, and for a moment I pondered the possibility of including a group of kender NPCs from Krynn springing forth from inside a particularly large Bag of Holding.

Then I slapped my own face, took a cold shower, and didn't talk to myself again for two weeks.

 

[KingsRule77]

Sure. Curiosity and kleptomania could be fun.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I was expecting a choice for "No, and I wouldn't run Dragonlance without banning Kender, either." Some folks love 'em, others hate 'em.

Absolutely! As I've mentioned before, the first time I read about Kender (in Dragon, before Dragonlance came out) I swore a vow that any character of mine who ever came across any Kender would kill it/them on sight. Fortunately, everyone else I've ever played with wanted nothing to do with them either. But that vow still holds.

 

[Psikerlord#]

To answer the OP - Definitely. In fact I would completely substitute kender for halflings in a heartbeat.

 

[Paraxis]

I wouldn't allow Kender as a PC race in a Dragonlance game. They are a license to behave horribly to the rest of the players and excuse the trollish behavior as "roleplaying".

 

[Morrus]

I'd allow Kender. I wouldn't allow disruptive play. The player would have to figure out how to do one without the other.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

I see kender the same way I see Chaotic Neutral characters - they require the right sort of player. In the hands of the wrong person, yeah they can be disruptive. But, when played by someone who can add nuance and depth, they suddenly become awesome. My spouse played a kender in a 2nd Edition Ravenloft campaign and it was one of the highlights of the campaign.

 

[asorel]

In 99% of cases, my answer would be 'No.' On rare occasions, if I know the player well and consider them trustworthy, I would have make sure it's cleared with the other players. All of them, not just a majority. Then I would make it clear in no uncertain terms that this character is likely going to die early into the campaign, probably at the hands of the other PCs.

But seriously, Kender are just a terrible idea as a race. A group of adult adventurers wouldn't want to be responsible for the life of an ADHD child with kleptomania traveling with them, and likely wouldn't trust such to keep their own lives secure in a battle. And it's not just the fact that the race is used as "an excuse" for annoying behavior. It's that this annoying behavior is completely justified IC, and to not partake in it would be poor roleplaying. Factor in their fearlessness, i.e. suicidal tendencies, and you've got a TPK in a four foot container.

All right, I'll stop ranting now.

 

[Crothian]

I would allow it. I never had a problem with players playing Kender before.

 

[mlund]

I'm generally not a fan of player characters of monster races. A kobold or goblinoid is about as far as I'd go. Gray Oozes, Rust Monsters, and Kender are for me to torment the players with, not for PC use.

Marty Lund

 

[Bacon Bits]

I'm not a fan of the race for PCs in any setting including Dragonlance because, like 1e/2e Paladins, they're so infamously misplayed. I've seen exactly one played correctly, and a the rest used it as an excuse to steal everything magical from the rest of the party, "because it's what my character would do," which tends to be the general excuse for disruptive play.

 

[mlund]

Seriously, though, if I had to wrangle kender for some God-forsaken reason, I'd do it in +13A. Kender would get taunt as a once-per-battle Racial Ability. "Handling" would be a racial feat. It would be a Faustian Bargain ability. You gimmick up an explanation of where and when you got whatever pouch-fitting item on the fly. In exchange the DM banks a complication to be named later, just like invoking a "5" on the Icon Dice. Yes, you happen to have the vault key Captain Birdwhistle was carrying. Just don't come crying to me because your scatterbrained klepto with selective memory disorder can't, for the life of him, remember ever coming to this town - let alone tripping the Lord Mayor over his chamber-pot andthatbountyposterdoesn'tevenlooklikemethisisjustdiscriminationagainst-URK!

Marty Lund

 

[asorel]

Seriously, though, if I had to wrangle kender for some God-forsaken reason, I'd do it in +13A. Kender would get taunt as a once-per-battle Racial Ability. "Handling" would be a racial feat. It would be a Faustian Bargain ability. You gimmick up an explanation of where and when you got whatever pouch-fitting item on the fly. In exchange the DM banks a complication to be named later, just like invoking a "5" on the Icon Dice. Yes, you happen to have the vault key Captain Birdwhistle was carrying. Just don't come crying to me because your scatterbrained klepto with selective memory disorder can't, for the life of him, remember ever coming to this town - let alone tripping the Lord Mayor over his chamber-pot andthatbountyposterdoesn'tevenlooklikemethisisjustdiscriminationagainst-URK!

Marty Lund

That's a nice way of doing it, but I personally can't see any major city not banning the presence of Kender inside the walls. A LG society would keep them out, and I can see LN or LE cities offering bounties for them.

 

[MechaPilot]

I generally allow a player to choose just about any race for her character. If the race is not native to the campaign world that we're playing in, the player must come up with a plausible explanation for the character's race. Perhaps the PC was cursed or magically transformed. Or, the PC may have come from a different world.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm just wondering. For me allowing something so incredibly tied to a particular setting to be played outside of it just jarring and not appealing at all (as DM or a player at the table of a DM doing so). I'm getting the impression that some others feel differently, so I want to see where most are at.

I've allowed them in the past. In my homebrew, they are NOT halflings - and halflings are present in addition (and far more commonly). But the Kender of my homebrew world are imports from Krynn.