Dwarven Rage! What do you love about dwarves?

[your father is]

What are the core values/traits of dwarves in your campaign, and what do you do that's different? Dwarves are often the worsts of stereotypes in RPG settings -- so why do they ROCK so much?

 

[sledged]

Because they think wizards are best used for decorating the sharp edges of their axes.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

They go great with cannon!

 

[Wombat]

Beards
Axes
Quaffing

I mean, what's not to love?

 

[billd91]

Dwarves may be somewhat stereotyped, but I think it's a fun stereotype to play. There's a lot of fairly rich stuff you can tap into including repressed anger, stoic discipline, greed, pride in the accomplishments of careful craftwork, a sense of long history never forgotten, and so on. Any and all of these stereotypical bits can be used, elaborated on, played up or down, and mixed with other elements to create a very memorable character that still seems to fit into a cultural mold.

 

[Dark Jezter]

What's not to love about ale-drinking, lawful-good asskickers who swing axes and have long beards?

 

[Turanil]

Dwarves may be somewhat stereotyped, but I think it's a fun stereotype to play. There's a lot of fairly rich stuff you can tap into including repressed anger, stoic discipline, greed, pride in the accomplishments of careful craftwork, a sense of long history never forgotten, and so on. Any and all of these stereotypical bits can be used, elaborated on, played up or down, and mixed with other elements to create a very memorable character that still seems to fit into a cultural mold.

Plus the fact they are the most advantaged race in terms of racial traits... Next race I play in traditional D&D will be a dwarf, but not for that reason though.

 

[your father is]

I must admit I appreciate dwarves more than elves. It always seems odd to me, though, that dwarves haven't discovered things like gun-powder. They always seemed quite technically minded to me.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I must admit I appreciate dwarves more than elves. It always seems odd to me, though, that dwarves haven't discovered things like gun-powder. They always seemed quite technically minded to me.

In the Warcraft setting, dwarves are the primary users of gunpowder weapons. Fear the dwarven riflemen!

 

[billd91]

I must admit I appreciate dwarves more than elves. It always seems odd to me, though, that dwarves haven't discovered things like gun-powder. They always seemed quite technically minded to me.

Dwarves are also, reputedly, secretive as hell. How do you know they haven't invented gun powder and are using it in their war of attrition against their goblinoid enemies?

I tend to use the secretiveness of dwarves as a good explanation for a lot of things that I can then reveal to players as the campaign progresses to really surprise them. It's a great schtick and I'm surprised more people don't use it. In fact, I've been surprised at some of the discussion on other boards (Greyhawk ones, mainly) about DMs having trouble reconciling having dwarven wizards appearing in 3E when race/class restrictions were all lifted. For me, it just means that nobody really had any idea there were dwarven wizards before, but they were possible and were there in a secret society of dwarven magic artificers, hidden deeply from non-dwarven eyes...