Why are halflings so much rarer in fantasy fiction than dwarves and elves? You see those two everywhere...

I really, really like the name I got, "Thorin MacBrew."

Shit. Dwarves are great.

>Urhelm Beardhill

Could be better, could be worse.

>Balin Beardbattle

not the shittiest, I must say

>Raghelm Beardshield
I want a refund.

>Urkon Runebattle

Not bad!

Small races were a mistake.

yea

Bolgar Goldfounderson, I am ok with this.

also /thread

>Beardbeard

less specialized. dwarves have the mountains, elves have the trees, humans have the farmland. nothing else works for halflings other than to be not!elves without the magic same as gnomes are not!dwarves with magic.

Urist Goldhelm

Durhelm Axeholme

Not bad I guess

Glory to Allah, brother.

Durnar Macbattle
Eh, not the worst it could be.
Sometimes I kinda wish my names didn't start and end with the same letter.

>Reinhelm Runebattle
The clan is strong in this thread.

Maximum overkek

Wilhelm Undersmith

Hagli Spikefoundersson?
Fuck that.

Urfan Beardbeard.

I'd hate my family for having such a silly name.

Bolgar Beardstone

Can I switch those last two aroumd?

Raghelm Beardholme

That turned out interesting.

To answer your question: because they're boring. There's like fifty short races and all of them have something unique. Halfling's unique thing? Farming and food. That's not super interesting for games/stories about adventurers and epic quests.

About the only thing you can do with them (simple village folk dumped into the deep end of world drama) was already done by Tolkein and nobody wants to be accused of ripping him off.

Balnar Doomshield
Sounds a bit too (super)vilanous for my taste.

Hafling's unique thing is more "fuck adventuring, let's stay home"

halflings are boring.

BOLFOR MACBEARD, BITCHES.

The reason the hobbits were the heroes in Tolkien was because they were humble, small and peaceful, which fitted the story he wanted to tell, but are rarely great traits in most fantasy fiction

t.Reinli Runehand

It's rare for a halfling to be out adventuring. It's suspiciously Tokien, and thus, it's assumed that halflings are the same as hobbits.

That, and, really, they're just diet dwarves. Why settle for the knockoff when you can have the real thing?

>Raghardt Runebattle
runebattle clan-building thread when?

They're even more boring than dwarves and elves

>Durhelm Machelm
I must be a retarded dwarf or something.

What kind of professions, classes, archetypes and personalitoes are more suited to halfling characters? How do you earn the respect or fear of the party.

The unspeakably Violent Jack, the Bull-Buggering, Priest-Killer of No Fixed Abode.

>Raggar Hammerfoundersson

C- for the last name

Reinkarl Bloodbattle, may use this later

Thornar Hammerbrew

"Good Hand"
I wonder how that hand got so "good".

Would skullkid ripoff play better as halfling or a gnome? What about Midna?

Dwaist Hammermountain.

Dwaist is such a shitty name, it just reeks of bad random name generators.

Because they suck.

It's ten times funnier when you learn what "raggar" means in Swedish.

>Hangar Macbattle-Beardbattle

That name's complete bollocks, but at least I can house a helicopter.

Bolli Hammerfounderson
Cousin?

I feel like Skullkid would be a the forest version of a Svirfneblin. A Gnome specialized to live in the darkest, most dangerous forests, with the capriciousness of true Fey.

Hankarl Undersmith

Fuck anybody who plays Kender

Undersmiths are best smiths

Raghelm Goodhelm what type of awtist name is that I have 2 helmets in my name. What are they there for normal awtists only need one this name is double autism.

Bolhelm Spikehelm

Raghelm Hammerhelm.
Fuck this bearded faggotry.

HAGLI or Bolist GOLDSHIELD

Durist Bloodsmith

Hey, not bad.

Bolist Bloodsmith

If I was a Dwarf, my name would be Durhelm Runebattle. Based chart.

Gotta love Wilhelm Axehelm. NPC vendor here I come!

Wilgar Goodmountain

I like it.

Raghelm Underhelm.
Huh, guess I really like helmets.

>Willi Beardbeard

Just kill me now.

>Bolnar Macsmith

I'm always making a new mac to get mad bitches

>Ur-Helm MacBattle
I don't hate it, but it's a bit...videogamey. Like a username.

Thornar Doomsmith.

I like.

>Bolivar Bloodbattle
Neat.

Also nobody wants to roleplay as fat Britbong midgets

Who would want to roleplay a manlet voluntarily?

Halflings have two settings, boring and annoying. If you're trying to make a serious setting, it's very difficult to incorporate an entire race of corny midgets. Especially considering their lack of mythological roots.

>Reinkarl Goldshield
Oy gevalt how did the chart know I'm Jewish

Raghelm Hammerbattle

Sounds solid to me.

>Bomhardt Beardbeard
Masha'allah brother

Bomhelm Doomsmith, son of Gimgar II

Aside from Tolkien reasons, most of what halflings do can literally either be attributed to other wee folk or them simply being British country folk, which human peasantry can pull off.

You have to give them a niche.

In my setting, they're decended from the couplings of an ancient union of a dwarf tribe and human tribe that wanted to have nothing to worry about anymore. Incidentally, they ended being the one that arrange all the dungeons and what not in the central country of the setting; they figure that if you just hide all the dangerous weapons, knowledge, and magic away in these evil difficult dungeons after the world is done ending and every other race is crawling from the wreckage, you can maybe get a few centuries to millennia of peace before some idiot human finds some piece of godpower again. This has lead to what can only be described as a halfling mafia going around and making sure the other races know their place, or else.

>Thor-fan Under-Beard

Not sure how to feel about this combo.

>Urist Runebrew
Jesus, I couldn't be more dwarven if I tried.

>In my setting
Stopped reading there. Why is there such a lack of genuine originality here? If you want to make something different actually do so. Don't just fuck around with well established ideas

Then why are you in a thread about how to utilize halflings in a fantasy setting?

Actually I think you'll find this thread was about why we don't see halflings used as much as dwarves in fantasy and the answer is pretty apparent to anyone who thinks for half a second. By nature in most descriptions they are considered unadventurous and domestic which obviously does fuck all for interesting fiction/tabletop.

Why were the gnomes introduced again when you have Halfings? Now, that's a forgettable race.

Gnomes can be comic relief or high-tech, which are valuable options. Halflings? Even Tolkien wrote that it was a once in a century event for one of them to leave the Shire.

>By nature in most descriptions they are considered unadventurous and domestic which obviously does fuck all for interesting fiction/tabletop.

Which is why Tolkien created them, so he could subvert typical heroic fantasy tropes and make the true protagonists a pair of unassuming country bumpkins.

Which again comes back to the fact halflings are in totality Tolkien's creation with little to no room for reimagining. And again, when people do reimagine them they just wind up being cringey, annoying gag races.

Bomhelm Goldsmith

I guess I'm Jewish now

Haggar Beardhand.

Sounds like a dwarf who got dropped when he was born.

Haggar...don't I know that name?

Then are we saying that all fantasy needs to not having a halfling equivalent? Because if the idea is that no one has ever been able to create something other than literally short hillbillies as a role for them that makes sense, they should be excised from fantasy wholesale.

Personally I wouldn't mind that. It's like putting Not!Jedi in your sci fi setting. Yeah it's not the like the concept itself is copyrighted but unless you're a master at creative storytelling it still comes off as blatantly derivative.

Agreed. I see how of course the subversion of their usual nature as done by Tolkien lends itself to good storytelling but any attempt to include them in, for example, a tabletop adventure game is always gonna come across to players as "Oh so your character is like Frodo/Bilbo". And anyone trying to play an average Joe halfling would never get near such an adventure if they were being true to their role.

You could also try to give it your own twist. In my setting, the gnomes are basically halflings: short, simple folk who prefer to just take shit as it goes and keep close to home. At least, that's what it was like before the despotic Elvish empire rose up and annexed them all, along with lots of Dwarfs. Now they're their overlords' cowardly lackeys: unhappy or ambivalent about their lot in life, and either too scared or apathetic to do anything about it.

Urist HAMMERBATTLE

Doubly so considering their "usual nature" was also defined by Tolkien. We're talking about a race which was 100% another person's creation, with no real roots in common folklore or literature.

>Durist Macbrew
I don't like this

No, the idea is that you can't just make up another role for them. No other role makes sense for "humans, but short", so they can't exist in anything outside of Middle Earth.

Then why not use any other wee folk, like leprechauns, pixies, brownies, kobs, or hobs in place of halflings?

There's a ton of short magic races that can fill the mechanical role of hobbits (small and vaguely magical) to replace hobbits.

I've seen elves be described as being anything from "the name you call humans with magic abilities" to "the sentient spermcells of gods" and dwarves as anything from "that's the joke name of our untouchables caste" to as "the sentient spermcells of gods", but hobbits are too hard to turn into something else, because anything other than The Shire is too unbelievable?

>but hobbits are too hard to turn into something else, because anything other than The Shire is too unbelievable?

The Hobbits were created for the Shire, and the Shire was created for the Hobbits. This is the point I keep making. "Hobbit" and "Halfing" are not a generic term for little people smaller than dwarves. These terms specifically refer to the people who live in the Shire, or the "Shire" if the writer isn't Tolkien.

Then what's the term for "little people smaller than dwarves", because some of us would like to have that as an option without people shitting all over it as if we always want to do "The Shire BUT".

The opinions so far presented have been arguing that they literally can't be a small humanoid race in fantasy settings because you'd just call them Hobbits and ignore what makes them different.

Durhelm Hammerhelm, guess I'm a used helm salesman,

Come too Hammerhelm for all your helmet needs! Sun in your eyes? Headbutting elves? Falling rocks? Battle? At Hammerhelm we got you covered! We got New helms, Used helms, old helms, fancy helms and more!

See for full details. Not liable for loss of eyes, ears, nose's, or other facial features. Once helm is in possession of buyer Hammerhelm assumes no responsibility for maintenance or failures.

Urhelm Beardshield

im ok with this