Elves and dwarves crop up all the time in fantasy settings. Halflings and orcs are considerably rarer. With the exceptions of D&D and Warhammer, halflings almost never show up despite being just as public domain. Orcs are more common, but still not as universal as elves and dwarves. Why is this?
because they're literally just midgets who sometimes have big feet depending on setting.
Because they're almost always just shorter versions of humans, same as gnomes with elves.
Halflings are not that interesting.
And you are wrong about orcs, they are sometimes fused with goblins and are called something different. But the concept of orcs is not rare
>>46489326
Tolkien fantasy is pretty much the epic of the fantasy world, and almost all other western fantasy is based out of it. I would say orcs are actually more common than dwarves, if you count the different named but clearly orc stand ins.
>>46489326
Hobbits aren't supposed to be adventurers in the first place, and "pure-hearted short people" isn't exactly the most attractive concept for your average neckbeard.Unless he wants to fuck them. There's an alternate universe where Halflings are the "anime schoolgirls" of fantasy nerds.
>>46489326
I've never liked halflings. They work in Tolkien's setting, but outside of that I really cannot stand them.
Neither seem as fleshed out. Tolkien orcs were more like goblins and weren't even green. In fact goblin was just a synonym. They became codified as time went on but they're really just generic monsters in Middle Earth.
Also because gnomes do it better but honestly gnomes and halflings should just be fused with dwarves to give dwarves new niches. Elves get all different kinds of subspecies or cultures after all.
>>46489431
I know tolkien halflings are, but are they usally depicted as pure hearted? When i think halfing i think:
>dont even bother checking your coinpurse, it is already gone.
I think halflings just aren't as appealing to people as elves and dwarves as player characters. Personally I love the fuckers
Orcs are probably just as if not more common than dwarves and elves, but they just aren't always considered player character material
Also are halflings "just as" public domain? I thought I remember something about wizards (or maybe it was TSR) having to change them a bit because of legal threats way back
>>46489460
Matoran are Halflings done right.
>>46489490
That's because fuck D&D.
Why would you ever want to play as a Hobbit, when you can play as a Kender?
>>46489478
I think the opposite of gnomes really. I wish they were less just another fantasy race to play and more like other fey shit. More magic shoe repair less reason for players to make the most annoying voice in the world
Hobbits dont do anything. Thats the whole point. Their history doesn't extend passed how much they ate yesterday and the most important thing they own is their pipe. They're all about living the perfect worry-free life and not wandering off to fight liches and dragons.
>>46489490
Not that guy, but I'm pretty sure that was an AD&D style Halfling that was made to differentiate it from tolkiens hobbits to avoid legal conflict. Later versions are more like tolkien hobbits. For example, 5e describes them like this:
>"Halflings are an affable and cheerful people. They cherish the bonds of family and friendship as well as the comforts of hearth and home, harboring few dreams of gold or glory. Even adventurers among them usually venture into the world for reasons of community, friendship, wanderlust, or curiosity."
>>46489614
What about warcraft style tinker gnomes?
>>46489686
That's what makes them good underdogs though. The should pretty much never be edgy or actually want to be doing dangerous shit. They just happen to be good at sneaking around and stealing shit when they are properly motivated. They're the kind of rogues that retire and buy a farm
>>46489478
Yeah, that would be good. Hobbits could just be dwarves that live above ground and farm. Trade between farming dwarves and mining dwarves is what enables the miners to live underground.
Arcanum did it right.
Human, Gnomes, Dwarves: Non-magical natural evolutionm
Elves, Halfings, Orcs, Ogres: Magical corruption.
Gnomes are bwtter when they are Jews. Plot long term revenges. Conspirational and family based.
>>46489723
I'm not really a fan, but I always thought gnomes in Warcraft always felt a little tacked on to the setting (though Warcraft has so much of that it's hard to not get numb to it)
Could not find a good picture but the dwarf from Hawk the slayer was closer to these guys than the fat dwarfs we've come to know.
>>46489326
Halflings never show up because they aren't interesting.
Orcs generally don't show up because most games pit the PC races against monsters or some other world-ending threat, not against slightly different PC-like races. D&D has orcs because it's trying to emulate Tolkien (or make such emulation possible). Shadowrun has orcs because it's a parody of Tolkien/D&D. Warhammer is somewhere halfway between. I'm fairly certain that Warcraft was just human/orcs because it was the best known fantasy conflict against two similar creatures.
>>46489326
Halflings aren't even interesting in Warhammer, all they do is cook, steal shit, and sneak around. They can't use magic, they don't make anything aside from food, and they're pretty worthless as anything but ranged troops. They have a weird symbiotic relationship with humans and follow them wherever they go. Oh, and they are the punching bags of the setting. Nobody feels bad for halflings, and even knights used to have games where they would hunt halflings. During Gorbads invasion of the Shire, i mean, the moot, the green skins did all kinds of fucked up things to the halflings. Even in a setting they are featured in, they aren't important.
>>46489887
Blizzard was full of Warhammer fantasy and 40k fans.
>>46489326
Distinctiveness. Most humanoid races are either human caricatures or deliberately bizarre (like gnolls and bullywugs).
Elves are slim and haughty (/fa/ggots), dwarves are stocky and stubborn (/diy/), orcs are crude and destructive (/k/ommandos). Halflings are preoccupied with food and fun (/ck/ and /vg/).
Halflings are the least interesting, because they caricature people who aren't particularly interesting. People who normally stay at home and don't have adventures. Why would you bother to play an imagination-game where you portray someone doing things you do in your real life?
Unrelated, but I've always considered halflings to be what you get if you cross elves and dwarves. High DEX, high CON, but not to the exaggerated levels of elf grace or dwarf alcohol tolerance. Hybrid classes and races usually exist to humor min-maxer pestering, but this one can also solve player indecisiveness, or to make the party artificial diverse (this setting doesn't have black people, so you're playing a hobbit).
I feel like gnomes generally are a pretty poor fit for most western fantasy setting that has the usual Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs etc.
I think Hobbits are mostly fine, if a little bland. I think if they're given some more of thier own traits to differentiate themselves a little, they'd work and they wont be offensively out of place as is, anyway.
And its not exactly original but I really enjoy playing the cowardly, selfish, little shit type of NE Halflings.
>>46492146
Pathfinder has a sort of interesting concept for Gnomes and Spriggans as Fey refugees both had psychotic breaks when adjusting to the "real" world. To bad the designs and rules are utter shit.
>>46489767
>Halflings are a magical corruption
>but gnomes aren't
>>46491950
Gypsy halflings are best halflings
>>46491950
>but I've always considered halflings to be what you get if you cross elves and dwarves.
Humans?
>>46489326
>halflings almost never show up despite being just as public domain
AND THANKS GODS!
MTG sometimes does halflings. Usually they're not interesting, but on one plane they were a paranoid hivemind, fighting a spiteful, horrible world.
>>46489765
That is exactly how I have always played it.
Gnomes, Dwarves and Halflings are just different ethnic groups of the same basic people.
>>46496068
Humans are elf-dwarves. Halflings are dwarf-elves.Or at least that's how I see it...
>>46491950
>Why would you bother to play an imagination-game where you portray someone doing things you do in your real life?
Well I have played games about having a midlife crisis and being in debt.
>>46489326
You haven't been looking hard enough
>pic related most fun halflings
>>46504364
Would help if I actually used the picture.
>>46504486
And to finish up, the Halflings from Age of Wonders are just a blast to play and some of the trolliest armies in any game. They're shit in melee and will be torn apart by anything, but they're "Lucky" which means literally any attack has a x% chance to avoid anything. Literally anything from bullets to Invoke Death. The percentage goes up and down depending on their morale maxing out at 25%. Of course morale tanks as soon as you take them out of the Shire, but details, details. You can take abilities that can turn arctic wastes and blighted hellscapes into rolling countryside.
