Dragonlance Would you allow Kender outside of Dragonlance?

[Shasarak]

Oh, I think they work very nicely as a mysterious cabal living in the shadows of the high elf empire, advancing sinister plans.

But then what would my Gold Elves have to do?

 

[PnPgamer]

I would let my player have his kender but I would make it clear to him that playing a Kender outside of Krynn would be about the same as playing a wookie or other alien race. He would probably be looked with a lot of suspicion or get kidnapped by a mad doctor to be dissected.

Now i wanna play a wookie in dnd!

 

[Sunseeker]

I do not really see the point of having Dark Elves if they are not a psychopathic subterranean spider loving cult of personality.

I've come up with quite a few uses for "dark elves" in games. From a very traditional take on them being "winter fae" not any more evil than any other kind of elves, just less well liked. I used them as a more savage race of elves in one setting. There's plenty of lore behind "dark elves" outside of D&D to draw from.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Now i wanna play a wookie in dnd!

...I'd say, refluff Goliath, and you're good.

 

[El Mahdi]

I would not allow a Kender in a non-Dragonlance game of mine. It's not because I have a problem with characters outside of their original setting. It's because I have a problem with Kenders, or at least with the way people typically play them. The whole stealing everything and anything, especially stuff from their fellow party members, is a little funny the first time, significantly less so the second time, and from then on is simply distracting and frustrating. It does not add enjoyment or value to the game for me.

In my games, though, Kender is a slang term for Halflings (Hin). My Halflings are more like the 3E/4E concept rather than the Hobbit concept. They are more gypsy-like; similar to Romani culturally, but a short, exotic offshoot of mankind, loosely based on Homo floresiensis. So at least there is a perception that they are thieves, but devoid of an actual "finding" or "borrowing" mechanic.

However, I won't run a game in Dragonlance either. So I guess that means no Kender in any game I run. It's a setting that never really appealed to me or fired my imagination. The novels are, in my opinion, merely good at best, and some are just downright amateurish. As a setting, I find it incredibly confining, with everything so linked to the stories and novels, that there's almost no room for creativity. I fine even the adventures to essentially be railroads meant to follow or parallel the novels. Ignoring the cannon, and using a homebrew of the setting doesn't appeal to me either. It's far too vanilla and cartoonish for my tastes, almost entirely uninspiring. Emphasis though on the "Almost", because I do like the concept of the Irda. If someone wanted to play an Irda character in a game I was running, I'd even generate a history for the Irda within my campaign; as I've also done with Warforged. But Kender? Nope.

PS: Same thing goes for Dragonborn in my campaigns. Blech!!! No Thank You.

 

[Mercule]

Now i wanna play a wookie in dnd!

...I'd say, refluff Goliath, and you're good.

Heh. My first thought was "Goliath with a glandular problem."

 

[DMCF]

Kender require a special kind of play for the DM. I am playing with an inexperienced player who knows nothing of dragonlance and is a kender. He doesn't play it like kender from the books but Taladas is much different so I can link his origins there.

The problem with most games, especially pre-gen is that there is a set path. Allowing my players to interact with things and develop nemesis seems to help. We don't have a preset path so I just let them push us in whatever direction we want to go. The quests are just there to anchor them when they loose their way.

It helps that everyone else is chaotic neutral. The person Im actually having the biggest problem with is the LG Life Cleric, who is actually doing a good job of bible thumping. He's the healer so they have to out up with him.

Im just afraid the rest of the group might murder someone and he'll catch it and break the party.

 

[PnPgamer]

...I'd say, refluff Goliath, and you're good.

I wouldnt say you need to refluff... Just fluff it up, literally.

 

[SoulsFury]

Sure. If I were to introduce kender in the campaign, by adult hood, most of them would have lost a least one hand. They breed fast, like rodents, but on average, most only make to fifteen before becoming useless. Kender wander the land because they are having to steal stuff to send money back to kender villages, which are really giant retirement homes of handless kender. The young kender feed the handless and tend to crops until they have had two litters of kender, at which point wanderlust sets in.

 

[Jeff Albertson]

Then Marak Kender (sombre kenders) of Taladas is a way to go. That setting was very innovative, ahead of its time (introduced kits).