How to fix Gnomes, Hafllings, Orcs, and Elves.

[octavius]

Hairy feet, healthy appetite, dislike for Adventure and noisy machinery.
Not much to build an RPG race around, except they are also very stealthy.

 

[Silly Germans]

So they are fat librarians ?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Is there actually something like hafling/gnome lore ?

Halflings are hobbits, halfling lore is hobbit lore.

I am unfamiliar with hobbit lore. What is typical for hobbits ?

Hobbits are essentially yeomen, your salt of the earth people.

The most notable Hobbit subtype(and from which nearly any adventurous one would be descended from, including the Tooks, etc., All of the major hobbits in LOTR are Fallohide sans Samwise Gamgee) is the Fallohide Hobbit. This is most likely what all derivative hobbits/halflings are based on.
Fallohides are primarily hunters and scouts, and as Gandalf implied, they make excellent burglars. They are naturally very stealthy.

Hairy feet, healthy appetite, dislike for Adventure and noisy machinery.
Not much to build an RPG race around, except they are also very stealthy.

Fallohides are adventurous, it's why Tooks are considered to be "bad" hobbits.

 

[Ayreos]

Fix them? How about making your own setting with your own custom inhabitants and races instead of more creative bankruptcy and gratuitous Tolkien abuse?
I'm sure devs and writers can do better than "spindly men with knife-ears", "midgets", "fat midgets" and "green uglies".
Sci Fi manages to innovate on this front at times, there's no reason Fantasy can't.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Fix them? How about making your own setting with your own custom inhabitants and races instead of more creative bankruptcy and gratuitous Tolkien abuse?
I'm sure devs and writers can do better than "spindly men with knife-ears", "midgets", "fat midgets" and "green uglies".
Sci Fi manages to innovate on this front at times, there's no reason Fantasy can't.

You could accuse Tolkien of doing the same thing with various tales that came before. Not everything needs to be new and unique, and not everything unique is good. Building upon existing work is generally a good idea.

 

[Ontopoly]

Elves are the matter race and some of you are really salty and jealous. Taller, smarter, Live longer, prettier. They're basically humans but with pointy ears and better in every way. If you want to play a 3 foot dwarf though that's all on you.

 

[Whiny-Butthurt-Liberal]

Easiest way to fix: don't include them in your setting. Try to be original for once.

 

[Mojobeard]

Only thing wrong with halflings and gnomes is 3.x.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Only thing wrong with halflings and gnomes is 3.x.

I don't like gnomes. They're basically halflings except quirky, I don't really think they added anything interesting.

 

[Ysaye]

Fix them? How about getting rid of humans?

Seriously though from a D&D perspective, allowing all races to do everything ruined them - you fix it by allowing them to be the only ones to do certain multi-classes. But that is never coming back because the message that "everyone can be successful at anything" is too important.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It's the very first hit when you google:

"I do think of the 'Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue..."[T 3]

I don't like gnomes. They're basically halflings except quirky, I don't really think they added anything interesting.

 

[Desiderius]

Only thing wrong with halflings and gnomes is 3.x.

I don't like gnomes. They're basically halflings except quirky, I don't really think they added anything interesting.

Owlcat finally got there.

Especially with the Sprigganknight.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

You people are nuts. Gnomes are the best. The industry of the dwarves, the magical propensity of the elves, and the good nature of the hobbits halflings. They also like illusions, which is the best school of magic. Check mate!

 

[Silly Germans]

Have gnomes and halfings kings and kingdoms ? Dwarves often have respectable realms but i don't remember any game ever featuring a halfing or gnome location that was more than a house.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Have gnomes and halfings kings and kingdoms ? Dwarves often have respectable realms but i don't remember any game ever featuring a halfing or gnome location that was more than a house.

The Shire is essentially an autonomous entity as of The Hobbit, and they have a thain.

Again, halflings are just hobbits and halfling lore is Hobbit lore, they can't be separated even when in a separate universe. Much like how the names of the dwarves may change, they still generally like gold, live in mountains, and typically control trade routes. The Shire may not exist, but it would be safe to assume they'd have a thain.

 

[Ayreos]

You could accuse Tolkien of doing the same thing with various tales that came before. Not everything needs to be new and unique, and not everything unique is good. Building upon existing work is generally a good idea.

The typical argument of the artless! False and intellectually weak. Tokien collected folk tales spanning centuries and made a setting. Then that setting has been copied and repurposed. Something The Elder Scrolls can be considered "building upon". The rest not so much!

 

[Silly Germans]

It seems to me that halfings and gnomes are very underdeveloped. They lack a strong characterization/identity like dwarves which makes them bland and boring and therefor unpopular. Humans are already the be-whatever-you-want race in most settings, the half-men seem superfluous indeed unless they get a stronger, more discriminate typecasting.

 

[Peachcurl]

Anyone read the Orcs novel by Stan Nicholls? Never feels like it deals with anything but rough-cut humans.
On the other hand, in Warhammer 40k you have different biology, "culture", technology ...
I'm not saying that W40k has the best possible representation of Orcs, but at least they have their own identity. (Much better than the space-elves aka Aeldari)

No (human) writer can avoid anthropomorphization, but most don't even try very hard to create anything but humans with different looks. Which is fine, sometimes, but I enjoy to see something different now and then.

 

[Semiurge]

Hairy feet, healthy appetite, dislike for Adventure and noisy machinery.
Not much to build an RPG race around, except they are also very stealthy.

They also like sparking up a pipe of Lothlórien leaf.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It seems to me that halfings and gnomes are very underdeveloped. They lack a strong characterization/identity like dwarves which makes them bland and boring and therefor unpopular. Humans are already the be-whatever-you-want race in most settings, the half-men seem superfluous indeed unless they get a stronger, more discriminate typecasting.

Hobbits are basically the anti-dwarf.
They're rustic people without a noble class. They don't build great kingdoms, they prefer a simple way of life.

 

[Bulo]

. . .I honestly can't think of a single good implementation of Halflings. I never really cared for Tolkien's work too much, and even than, they filled a very niche part in the story.

 

[Naveen]

Halflings are often underutilized because they're basically small humans, and why would anyone want to voluntarily turn themselves into a manlet?

Because it's hilarious. When I play the Infinity games I try to add or create as many manlets as possible. One of my last BG playthroughs had every shorty I could find in my party. It's just funny to look at.

Anyway, I think Conquest of Elysium 4 lore for "hobbits" (Hogburs I think they are called) is, well, unique, at least. They are lazy and greedy merchants and craftsmen who sell "magic weed" and make a special beer to get humans addicted to it so they can kick them out of their farms and then populate them with more hobbits. There's also another faction of hobbit necromancers.

 

[Silly Germans]

Have hobbits and gnomes any enmities with other races ? Did they ever wage a war ?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

When I play the Infinity games I try to add or create as many manlets as possible. One of my last BG playthroughs had every shorty I could find in my party. It's just funny to look at.

I once did this in BG1. I used a mods which relocated NPCs to make them accessible in Chapter 1. My MC was a gnome. I had Montoron (Halfling Assassin), Tiax (Gnome Thief/Cleric), Quayle (Gnome Cleric/Mage), Kaigan (Dwarf Wizard Slayer), and Alora (Halfling Swashbuckler). I think I ended up ditching Alora, because the party was otherwise full of murderers and misanthropes. Strange team, but fun.

 

[Kliwer]

I love hobbits/halflings.
The worst blasphemy that new (3+) editions of D&D made is changing hobbit-like halflings into retarded no-funny kenders. Hobbits are a mark of classical fantasy worlds, along with elves, dragons, good kings and evil wizards.

A lot of You, as I have noticed, do not like those type of fantasy anymore - which is fine. But it is better just to invent new original setting (like Planescape) than randomly changing classical themes. Because it leads to a parody. The worst example of this approach is PoE: we have dwarves which are not similar to dwarves, elves which are not very elvish, paladins which are not honorable, no-evil necromancers etc. This approach is similar to some new P&P players, which are trying hard to invent original characters so they play as an ent woodcutter, lawful-good dark knight or other shit of this type (just to clumsily break stereotype).


However if you like to create a classical fantasy stay close to the roots. You could change the tone (dark fantasy like in Dragon Age Origins or fairytale like in Drakensang) but the core should be unchangeable. Try to imitate Tolkien because he was a genius and good imitation of his ideas will be better than any modyfication from shallow mind of typical game developer. My favorite game worlds are probably: Drakensang (pure Tolkien + some German atmosphere), Baldurs Gate 1 (almost a pure Tolkien imitation: good white wizard, meeting with friends in the inn in the middle of wilderness, abandoned mine, even the hobbits village), old Might and Magic (i.m.: Tolkien + a bit of Star Treck). And from P&P-only RPGs probably Warhammer (1. edition). I also like some worlds which are totally different (mainly Planescape and Sacrafice, from P&P-only also Monastyr), but not those ones which tried to make "Tolkien world but with elves indistinguishable from humans and hobbits-cannibals" (Arcanum is probably the only exception). And yes, Dark Sun would be better without elves and such.


So stay away from hobbits. Or move to another universe.