Eternity Does Anyone Even Like Halflings?

[Brancaleone]

So why is the books called "Lord of the Rings" anyway? Who was that lord? A halfling.

RingS, plural. How many rings did Frodo lord over?

 

[Reinhardt]

all of them

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Little people are amazing. I still remember how much a pygmy was worth in the Old Kingdom, we'd travel thousands of miles to bring one back. I've heard of many other races of little people living in Africa, Asia, even in Europe. They're much harder to find now, much like Middle Earth's hobbits by Tolkien's time(he was given the rare privilege of being allowed to study their archives). This is a real shame and one of clearest signs of the degeneration of our world.

 

[thesecret1]

So why is the books called "Lord of the Rings" anyway? Who was that lord? A halfling.

RingS, plural. How many rings did Frodo lord over?

Depends. How many do you think he could fit at once?

 

[Harthwain]

Tiefling players are subhumans without fail.

Reminder of what actual tieflings look like:

Though they only make sense in the Planescape setting and should never have been incorporated into another one.

Sooo... basically an elf with a tail?

 

[0sacred]

a naughty elf*

 

[fantadomat]

I want to know which players care about this

Hmmm most people want to play as themself. I always play as a human rogue,faggots play as elfs,midgets play as dwarfs,trannies play as females....thus makes sense that faggot midgets want to play as hobbits.

 

[Oreshnik Missile]

Halflings of various flavors have been a staple of fantasy RPGs for decades, but why? Who wants to play as one? I can understand if someone doesn't want to play a human. It's a fantasy game, so let me play something fantastical! But who wants to play as a midget? Wizardry lets you play a hobbit or gnome, early Ultima lets you be a bobbit, BG2 lets you be a halfling or gnome. Sawyer went on record saying that orlans exist in Pillows because he thought the halfling roleplay was important to players. I want to know which players care about this, so I can excommunicate them. The point of hobbits in Tolkien's work was that they were the last folk you'd expect to go on a grand adventure. They weren't hardy warriors or genius mages or world-weary rangers. They were a pastoral folk who liked the simple things in life.

This:

View attachment 59141

Not this:

View attachment 59142

Tol kuk made the English standin race in LoTR halflings because that was his view of how Englishmen should be - unambitious. Peaceful. And above all, religiously and politically subservient to the supposedly far-seeing and ethereal elves (which is to say, kikes). The Hobbit quest into Mordor, an attack of nihilistic terrorism and destruction, presaged the Anglo invasions of the Middle east at the behest of the Jews.

Essentially, the Halfling concept represents the spiritual subjugation of the goy.

 

[Karwelas]

Tiefling players are subhumans without fail.

Reminder of what actual tieflings look like:

Though they only make sense in the Planescape setting and should never have been incorporated into another one.

What a utterload of shit, my friend! You may fool these good people of Codex, but if you try to do so with old, respected sages of tabletop (aka Planescape nerds), you better be prepared to face consequences of cherrypicking art!

Here, let us follow with some table that you SHOULD use when you roll up a real tiefling, not 5e porn shit, nor really lucky one to end up with only a tail! (Truth be told, there are some tieflings like that, but you can end up with quite charming monster or fucking half-image of Ravel Puzzlewell!) And mind you, it isn't only look bullshit, it is also about useful or esoteric stuff!:

 

[0sacred]

Notice how blue and green hair were very rare occurences on abberrations from the underworld. Such saner times

 

[Humanophage]

Urban halflings make a lot of sense. They represent the debased urbanised peasant. Very Dickensian. A kind of urban underclass in a medieval or early modern city associated with taverns, thievery, stealth, materialism, domesticity, quest for personal comfort, general lack of imagination combined with outbursts of wild schemes. They are in fact fairly consistent with Tolkien, given how Middle Earth mainly represents an earlier period compared to most fantasy while the Tolkien hobbits are ahead of the world technologically, what's with all the pipes, windmills, modern taverns, irreligiosity, etc.

They seem a bit like caricature Irishmen to me.

 

[Kabas]

Not suprising that all manlet races are dead last but i am surprised that Dragonborn are as high as they are. Dragon men are cool, i guess?

Anyway, on the topic of halflings and other similarly short races.

I am cool with them though i do feel that western fantasy rpgs tend to have way too many short races that occupy the same niche.
My most favourite videogame halflings are definitely Hoburgs

from Conquest of Elysium games.

 

[Demo.Graph]

I've never created a halfling in any crpg, and probably never will.

Now I want to run Arcanum hobbit gunslinger.

Furry races serve as a useful warning that the setting is going to be terrible shit, and one's better off avoiding it.

Hands off my dogheads from Slavic myths, and skaven and beastmen from WHFB, and Jomon and Kailasa from Dominions, and Mrrshan and Bulrathi from MoO, and pagans from Thief, and urmom.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Little people are amazing. I still remember how much a pygmy was worth in the Old Kingdom, we'd travel thousands of miles to bring one back. I've heard of many other races of little people living in Africa, Asia, even in Europe. They're much harder to find now, much like Middle Earth's hobbits by Tolkien's time(he was given the rare privilege of being allowed to study their archives). This is a real shame and one of clearest signs of the degeneration of our world.

Ebu Gogo (Homo Floresiensis) still exists in Indonesia.

This is how real hobbits/halfings look like. Dem be niggaz from da hood en da whitey crackaz spawns of Yakub be white washin dem n shiet to keep da Black men n wombmen down

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

There are caves in the Javanese jungle with tunnels spanning the whole Indonesian archipelago and going as far as Australia. The human hybridization present in the region, as attested by the high degree of archaic admixture recently "discovered" in Papuans and native Australian aborigines is a result of mass human experiments conducted inside the tunnels. Homo Floriensis was one several the types that escaped, definitely an artificial hybrid of sorts, probably using 'little people' as a base. You still find that type among modern Timorese.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

What a utterload of shit, my friend! You may fool these good people of Codex, but if you try to do so with old, respected sages of tabletop (aka Planescape nerds), you better be prepared to face consequences of cherrypicking art!

Here, let us follow with some table that you SHOULD use when you roll up a real tiefling, not 5e porn shit, nor really lucky one to end up with only a tail! (Truth be told, there are some tieflings like that, but you can end up with quite charming monster or fucking half-image of Ravel Puzzlewell!) And mind you, it isn't only look bullshit, it is also about useful or esoteric stuff!:

The image I posted was drawn by Tony DiTerlizzi and is from the entry on Tieflings from the Monstrous Compendium Planescape Appendix I, published in 1994, two years before The Planewalkers Handbook (written by Monte Cook) from which you've taken that table. To refer back to the Planescape Campaign Setting Box Set description of tieflings (written by David Zeb Cook):

In the multiverse, few creatures are of pure lineage, and even fewer are what they seem to be. That's the greatest truth of the tiefling's existence. It's not advisable to ask a tiefling about his or her ancestors, as the answer wouldn't likely be pleasant. Part human and part something else, tieflings are the orphans of the planes. They can be described as humans who've been plane-touched. A shadow of knife-edge in their face, a little too much fire in their eyes, a scent of ash in their presence - all these things and more describe a tiefling. No planar would mistake a tiefling for a human, and most primes make the mistake only once. Tieflings live with both pride and shame of who and what they are. They have no culture of their own, and most are loners, which fits their background. Some slip into the edges of human society, becoming poets and artists who describe the corrupt fringes of the respectable world. Adventurous types often spend their years probing the unexplored edges of the multiverse, be it to survey strange lands or experiment in the forgotten niches of magical science.

Humans don't trust tieflings (and deep inside they fear them), but they remain inexplicably fascinated by tieflings just the same. The plane-touched are often accused of secret plots and awful alliances — mostly without a shred of proof — because of who and what they are. A tiefling learns early that life is unfair and hard. His reaction is to fight back and never let his foes see the pain.

Other people, even other tieflings, simply aren't viewed as allies and often are automatically considered enemies. A tiefling doesn't take a friend until he learns the measure of his companion, and even then he'll never fully trust anyone. "I watch my own back," is an old tiefling quip. They maintain no hereditary blood-feuds, but tieflings take care of themselves without any thought of others' problems.

Tiefling characters gain a +1 bonus on Intelligence and Charisma scores, but suffer a -1 penalty to Strength and Wisdom. Tieflings can be of any alignment save lawful good. They also gain a number of special abilities, based on their mysterious heritage: They possess infravision to a range of 60 feet and have the ability to create darkness, 15-foot radius once per day. Tieflings suffer only half damage from cold-based attacks, and they gain a +2 bonus to all saving throws vs. fire, electricity, or poison.

Tieflings can be fighters, rangers, wizards (including specialist mages), priests, thieves, or bards. They may also pursue multiclass options, including fighter/wizard, fighter/priest, fighter/thief, wizard/thief, and priest/thief.

This image of tieflings accompanied the tables you posted from The Planewalkers Handbook; Annah from Planescape: Torment