Would it bother you If dwarfs would build normal cities and not picture?

i always imagined that urban dwarves would build soviet style shit like picrel

Pretty much this.

Also what sort of dwarves? Culture impacts cities built.

I thought drow were the slavs though?

Yes, within reason.
Dwarves as a vanilla fantasy race are literally defined as being master craftsman. Without all the little things that make them dwarves they're just midgets, so at that point you should call them something else, not dwarves.
I'm all for people using their own form of fantasy race but when you name something after something that's already been defined and then take away all the things that come with the name, why even use the name in the first place?
It's fucking lazy and obnoxious. Just call them something else, because going so far off model looks much worse than just coming up with a generic name that isn't incorrect.

to be honest, yeah a little bit.

Dwarf literally just means midget.

I'd rather live in African slums than... there.

The problem with Dwarves as Master Craftsmen, is that it is hard to represent in games.

This detail shines in videogames, where you have dedicated artists painting / modeling their buildings and beautifully designed houses, bridges, castles, whatever.
Likewise, in novels, the author can fully describe these things and paint a vivid picture, filling it with detail and thereby give dwarves their well-earned respect for masterwork skill with stone.

In a narrative table top however, you can't full on detail it. If you do, eventually the party is going to get bored of you (as DM) monologuing about the shape of the buttresses and the mechanisms of levers and pulleys and stone roller-bearing gates.

At best, a (friendly) city in an RPG is a place to stock up on supplies, buy and sell. But Tourism and Art Appreciation are best left to the imagination - as implementative measures to showcase it will be ignored or fall flat.

TL:DR --> For this stuff, it's better to show than to tell - unless your medium allows you to tell it very well (as a novel)

I have thought about this, giving the dwarf some time to shine by making them extra good at maintaing the equipment of the party, making sure that their weapons don't break on long journeys and through several fights. Though such maintenance mechanics are never really fun, may add "realism", but at the end it's just another thing for the players to keep in mind to not fuck themselves over.

This and this

Also, they could do something besides pickaxing rocks, like actually mining, it's not the same thing.

Even farming can involve a lot of craftmanship and stonecutting, specially if you intend to live on a fucking mountain.

>In a narrative table top however, you can't full on detail it. If you do, eventually the party is going to get bored of you (as DM) monologuing about the shape of the buttresses and the mechanisms of levers and pulleys and stone roller-bearing gates.

How is this not applicable to any high quality city? This seems like a really, really weak complaint.

Any elven city is going to be just as detailed as a dwarven hold. Are you afraid to describe those, too?

We literally just call small people dwarves where I come from.

I'd still want them to be dwarfy.

Honestly mountain/cave cities are kind of dumb unless you've got some sort of handwavian underground farming.

>dwarves living in mountain holds
>the most valuable and heavily defended parts of their kingdoms are the plateaus covered in terrace farms

Where is that second picture?

never mind, I found it.

Drow and dwarfs share inspiration sources. If drow are russians dwarves are poles.

Just when you thought you've seen the most retarded post of our generation, this comes up.

I'm not afraid to describe them.

I'm just reluctant to describe them at length.
I'll probably give 2-3 sentences to an overview.

"The deepwoods gradually fade to a light clearing, within which lies the Elven city of Elesimere. Under the wide shady boughs of an ancient and giant liveoak tree, you see townspeople going about their business, scurrying up and down the rope ladders that lead to the upper levels. The sides of the tree are covered in red and blue flowers, apparently a crop tended to by diligent hands. Somewhere, a minstrel is playing a breezy tune on something stringed and warbly. The air is heavy with dew and smells sweetly. "

Ok. It sets the scene, but I feel I oversold it on that. It's only 5 sentences, but with comma clauses and run-on fragments, it's about 8 distinct ideas. That would take me about 3 minutes to speak out at the table, unless I was super rushed.

It's Doable - but rare. Your group may vary.
Some players are more narrative focused and like this, but my group is currently more murderhobo-ish and less likely to appreciate it.

Honestly, I like the idea of dwarves defining feature not to be stonecunning or craftsmanship, but their pragmatic isolation.

I treat Dwarves like the Lord of the Ring Entfolk. Slow to action, slow to change. But stubborn and loyal and steadfast.

If your kingdom is in a skirmish and you're seeking foreign help, you can send diplomats to ask for aid. It'll take a while. You might not convince them. They have a reputation of turning away dignitaries after hearing their pleas, and simply stating that "this will pass."

However, if you get their help, you get veteran war leaders who studied and trained combat for centuries. You get patient, effective, well-disciplined troops who don't quail at shock tactics. Troops which know how to hold a line, and understand the logistics of long sieges and supply chain disruption. They aren't as flashy as elves, with their focus on battle acrobatics, or swordmaster paragons or elite champions. Dwarves don't have celebrity weaponmasters. They have stalwart high-caliber common soldiers and a "for the people" attitude that encourages protective brotherhood.

Then, the other factor. Their isolationism means that they're usually advancing their culture and research independently of other nations. Sometimes they develop new tech and magic in parallel with the rest of the world. Sometimes they have stuff unique to them, but they've never shown the world. So, they get a mad-science, high magic edge (on occasion)

>No SlavDrow post

Veeky Forums, I am dissappoint.

Maybe we don't need to see it the nth time?

Motherfuckin' mushrooms, son.
And they eat blind cave fish and cave lizards...maybe bats, too.

Well, where is it?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumela_Monastery

>Motherfuckin' mushrooms, son.
>And they eat blind cave fish and cave lizards...maybe bats, too.
The problem is that sunless ecosystems have very little energy, generally getting it all from outside (like bat guano).

It'd be hard for one to support large complex organisms (like dwarves) let alone whole civilizations worth of them. Unless it's just hand-waived as magic mushrooms or something.

>Would it bother you If dwarfs would build normal cities and not picture?

I've been subscribing to the notion that if Dwarves lack a proper mountain or cave channel to tunnel around in and build their homes in they'll still ultimately build a very "dwarven" villages and communities in other environments, by that I mean:

>Grassland/Plains: Dwarven Warrens
Using wood, stone, and padded soil, Dwarves living out in the open country will build themselves hobbit-hole style earth shelters. With their constant natural desire to burrow and fortify their location- Dwarves are quite capable of building heavily defended, but quite discreet "Dwarven Warrens".

>Forest/Jungle: Dwarven Mounds
Due to forests and jungles often being flooded or having poor soil/sediment Dwarves have to get creative in the construction of their homes, usually building large termite mound spires out of clay, mud, wood pulp, etc..
>Bonus: Dwarven Baskets
TRULY primitive Dwarven tribes within jungles weave large circular baskets out of the foliage available. They almost resemble massive paper wasp nest if it weren't for the hairy little men that crawl in and out of them. In remote or dense jungle dwarven populations it isn't uncommon to see large communities where the construction of mounds and basket-style buildings take place.

It would only bother me because it would mean they were competing for space with humans, and if that were the case, why wouldn't humans have sent them the way of Neanderthals or the other homo dead ends?

Dwarves bother me.

Humans build the best fantasy cities because they're actually by rivers.