RPG Evolution: The Trouble with Halflings

Over the decades I've developed my campaign world to match the archetypes my players wanted to play. In all those years, nobody's ever played a halfling.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

So What's the Problem?​

Halflings, derived from hobbits, have been a curious nod to Tolkien's influence on fantasy. While dwarves and elves have deep mythological roots, hobbits are more modern inventions. And their inclusion was very much a response to the adventurous life that the agrarian homebodies considered an aberration. In short, most hobbits didn't want to be adventurers, and Bilbo, Frodo, and the others were forever changed by their experiences, such that it was difficult for them to reintegrate when they returned home. You don't hear much about elves and dwarves having difficulty returning home after being adventurers, and for good reason. Tolkien was making a point about the human condition and the nature of war by using hobbits as proxies.

As a literary construct, hobbits serve a specific purpose. In The Hobbit, they are proxies for children. In The Lord of the Rings, they are proxies for farmers and other folk who were thrust into the industrialized nightmare of mass warfare. In both cases, hobbits were a positioned in contrast to the violent lifestyle of adventurers who live and die by the sword.

Which is at least in part why they're challenging to integrate into a campaign world. And yet, we have strong hobbit archetypes in Dungeons & Dragons, thanks to Dragonlance.

Kender. Kender Are the Problem​

I did know one player who loved to play kender. We never played together in a campaign, at least in part because kender are an integral part of the Dragonlance setting and we weren't playing in Dragonlance. But he would play a kender in every game he played, including in massive multiplayers like Ultima Online. And he was eye-rollingly aggravating, as he loved "borrowing" things from everyone (a trait established by Tasselhoff Burrfoot).

Part of the issue with kender is that they aren't thieves, per se, but have a child-like curiosity that causes them to "borrow" things without understanding that borrowing said things without permission is tantamount to stealing in most cultures. In essence, it results in a character who steals but doesn't admit to stealing, which can be problematic for inter-party harmony. Worse, kender have a very broad idea of what to "borrow" (which is not limited to just valuables) and have always been positioned as being offended by accusations of thievery. It sets up a scenario where either the party is very tolerant of the kender or conflict ensues. This aspect of kender has been significantly minimized in the latest draft for Unearthed Arcana.

Big Heads, Little Bodies​

The latest incarnation of halflings brings them back to the fun-loving roots. Their appearance is decidedly not "little children" or "overweight short people." Rather, they appear more like political cartoons of eras past, where exaggerated features were used as caricatures, adding further to their comical qualities. But this doesn't solve the outstanding problem that, for a game that is often about conflict, the original prototypes for halflings avoided it. They were heroes precisely because they were thrust into difficult situations and had to rise to the challenge. That requires significant work in a campaign to encourage a player to play a halfling character who would rather just stay home.

There's also the simple matter of integrating halflings into societies where they aren't necessarily living apart. Presumably, most human campaigns have farmers; dwarves and elves occupy less civilized niches, where halflings are a working class who lives right alongside the rest of humanity in plain sight. Figuring out how to accommodate them matters a lot. Do humans just treat them like children? Would halflings want to be anywhere near a larger humanoids' dwellings as a result? Or are halflings given mythical status like fey? Or are they more like inveterate pranksters and tricksters, treating them more like gnomes? And if halflings are more like gnomes, then why have gnomes?

There are opportunities to integrate halflings into a world, but they aren't quite so easy to plop down into a setting as dwarves and elves. I still haven't quite figured out how to make them work in my campaign that doesn't feel like a one-off rather than a separate species. But I did finally find a space for gnomes, which I'll discuss in another article.

Your Turn: How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

 

[Irlo]

one can not make a whole race of the hero's journey it does not work in dnd as fundamentally is build differently from lord of the rings it does not work here.

D&D 5e halflings are not hobbits.

besides they would just get killed at world spawn as what little background they have they do not have a powerful god watching out for them.

I don't know what "world spawn" means. But, Yondalla.

okay if they are fundamentally irrelevant why are they always in the phb when they would more fittingly be placeable in a supplement like the other inconsequential races as to be in the phb is to be the star of the show?

Because they're well-liked and expected by players, who might have strong feelings about their exclusion? Because characters, not races, are the stars of the show? WotC has conducted a lot of surveys. Even if relatively small numbers of players chose to play halfling characters, those that do might have strong preferences for inclusion while others have low preferences or no opinion about exlcusion.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This points to the difference between us, I think. I don't need everyone to be "viable on the world stage" (if I understand what you mean by that) or big players in the history of the continent to easily incorporate them into a setting. The real world is full of supposedly inconsequential communities full of inconsequential people, but those people have real stories and real lives and more impact on history that is writ large in the books. The wide sweep of history, in my games, is not generally relevant to my players.

Why ignore the bits of halfling lore that indicate they love discovery of new things (not just exotice spices), that they are welcomed and valued by others, that some travel as a way of life? Why insist that enjoying the comforts of home means they literally never leave that home?

Because this is what people constantly tell us is the draw of halflings, combined with the fact that many people have expressed it is the problem with halflings.

I wouldn't say that halflings loving the comfots of home mean they never leave home, but their exaggerated trait that makes them clearly not human is their love of comforts. And they are just like the famous novel series Hobbits, and Hobbits.... never wanted to leave home.

But, rolling back a bit, why is it they need to be viable on the world stage? Well, it goes back to the purpose of world-building. If I asked you what is going on with the races of Eberron, where do they fit, what could you say? Quite a lot. You have the elves, what they believe and how their island nation is cut off from the world. You have the humans scattered throughout the different kingdoms. You have the gnomes running information across the world. All of this matters because it gives people a snapshot of the place of the races in the world. The orcs live in the Demon Marshes and fight ancient evils with the old ways. Great, that tells me something about them and how they fit into the world, and gives me some general clues of what to expect.

Now, take a generic fantasy world. You need to explain it to a new player, to get them excited to pick a race and play the game. They know nothing of fantasy. Well, there are a lot of racial options, even just focusing on the PHB you have seven distinct options and you'll probably want to include Aasimar to counter tieflings as a "this goes both ways" sort of thing. So you start explaining everything. And then you get to halflings, and... they are just people. They don't have any special stories. They don't really have any land. They don't really have anything that drives them except a love of comfort and family. And the other part of that is, as a person whose been looking at these other options, I'd immediately ask "Wait, so no one else loves their family?" Well... of course they do.

So you end up with this blank space... just like humans. Because that's what humans are in DnD, they are the blank space. You have a town and don't know who lives there? Humans. Because they are us, ordinary people with no special abilities or powers. And that is the problem, is because humans fill in the blank space, and the halfling traits are largely universal... there isn't much to tell a new player. They've never done anything, they just... exist. And they feels boring and lazy to build, and it will come across as boring and lazy to most other people, except for those so dyed in fantasy that "isn't special" is what draws them to the race. Which is fine, but that doesn't mean it isn't a problem for the rest of us.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sounds like a fun character. But if half-elves were erased from your world, you could make this character literally any other race. How the half-elves are represented in the broad tapestry of world history isn't as important as how this character is in the world. (IMO).

Sure, I could have done him with any other race. That's the point. Frankly, I picked half-elf because he was a paladin.

And it wasn't "my world" the DM was running in the Forgotten Realms. But yes, Half-elves being a combination of elves and humans don't have a strong identity separate from humans and elves. You could erase them entirely and nothing changes, because all the story is in humans and elves.

Now, erase either humans or elves from the Forgotten Realms. Does it even function?

 

[Chaosmancer]

I thought your point was that halflings aren't a viable PC race because they don't go on adventures.

No.

My point is that halflings are hard to build stories around and world-build with. Part of this is that 99% of every other race is exactly like the steroetypical halfling. They stay at home, love their family and community, and don't want anything to do with facing death every single day. They are... ordinary people.

So if 99% of every other race is ordinary people, and halflings are the race of ordinary people... then 99% of halflings is in every single race.

Why would there be a RACE of merchants?

Why wouldn't there be? Dwarves are known to be miners and blacksmiths, why not have a race known to travel around buying and selling things?

 

[Mind of tempest]

D&D 5e halflings are not hobbits.

tell that to the other defenders.

I don't know what "world spawn" means. But, Yondalla.

okay, world spawn is when the reality is created and all the gods drop their stuff in to watch what happens.
yondalla did not make them she found them, any amount of basic realism and they die long before they are found by her.

D&D 5e halflings are not hobbits.

I don't know what "world spawn" means. But, Yondalla.

Because they're well-liked and expected by players, who might have strong feelings about their exclusion? Because characters, not races, are the stars of the show? WotC has conducted a lot of surveys. Even if relatively small numbers of players chose to play halfling characters, those that do might have strong preferences for inclusion while others have low preferences or no opinion about exlcusion.

people will complain about literally everything, I could give them a million dollars and they would ask for more so frankly I do not care about what they think as if halfling makes them cheer then they have no taste.
I was not saying bad them just why should they be phb if they do not matter in any way other than by blind tradition?
a race's backstory and place helps inspire the characters and if they want to make a nobody any race could do it fine.

 

[bedir than]

They can be, but they are also quest givers. Or do you have the majority of your merchants strap on armor and follow the party? And halflings aren't known for mercantilism. That could be something to hang off of, if halflings were the race known to be merchants. But they aren't. To the point that I once had people arguing with me that Halflings wouldn't even use coins.

So, do we want to lean into Halflings being the race of merchants and dealers?

They use wagons and canoes to travel regularly per the PHB. It's easier to see a natural role the halfling merchant than any other race.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Luke Skywalker, strongly evoking the literary "Hero's Journey" starts off as what? A farm boy who dreams of adventure, but for a singular chain of events, would probably never amounted more than just another man trying to eke out an existence on a harsh world.

He’s even short!

 

[bedir than]

But yes, Half-elves being a combination of elves and humans don't have a strong identity separate from humans and elves. You could erase them entirely and nothing changes, because all the story is in humans and elves.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the tales of people in two cultures. While their stories are from both of their cultures, their stories are also unique.

 

[Mind of tempest]

They use wagons and canoes to travel regularly per the PHB. It's easier to see a natural role the halfling merchant than any other race.

that would compromise what people do like about halflings we would never hear the end of it.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the tales of people in two cultures. While their stories are from both of their cultures, their stories are also unique.

look this might be my null-culture ness talking but I doubt it really matters people everywhere and nearly every when are nearly identical only the details differ and details die off every minute of every day from the way our world is built.

 

[Maxperson]

Point 1, you go adventuring for character reasons. Halflings aren't somehow immune from, "goblins killed my grandma" or "I got bored" or a host of other perfectly valid, perfectly halfling(or not) reasons.

There are also plenty of halfling reasons to go adventuring. The idea that there are elf, dwarf and orc reasons, but not halfling reasons is wrong.

Halfling reason #1: I want to discover new recipes. I'll bet that there are many of them waiting to be rediscovered in ancient tombs. The ancients liked to eat, too!

Halfling reason #2: I want to test my luck against dangerous monsters. If I come back, I was luckier than they were. If not, I wasn't.

Halfling reason #3: I'm bored.

Halfling reason #4: I'm curious about what's out there to discover.

Halfling reason #5: I received a vision from my god.

Halfling reason #6: I want to go out and make many new and strange friends!

Halfling reason #7: My name is Indigo Furtoeya, you killed my father, prepare to die!

Halfling reason #8: I'm one of the halfling bad apples and got sent out of the village.

Halfling reason #9: I have halfling wanderlust.