Thread 96919074

honest question: do people not understand the intended appeal of gnomes, or just find them annoying?

imho, the idea behind them is that they're supposed to be kind of the willy wonka/11th doctor/king bumi sort of race who are mad enough to see past a lot of conceits about what people think is possible, and are often driven more by curiosity and wonder than things like profit, glory, love, or saving the world

>>96919074 (OP)
They are annoying as fuck, for exactly the things you described.

They're also another race that is only useful as casterfags in a game that already bends over backwards to give everything to casterfags.

>>96919074 (OP)
>do people not understand the intended appeal of gnomes, or just find them annoying?
>imho, the idea behind them is that they're supposed to be kind of the annoying fuck

>>96919074 (OP)
If the intended audience sucks, then the thing built for said audience will almost invariably suck. A house built on a foundation of manure will at best smell like shit, at worst sink in it.

I like gnomes! The ones who are tiny whimsical forest spirits who live in mushrooms and wear pointy hats.
I do not like the derivative halflings that desperately try to be unique and fall short because of it

>>96919074 (OP)
The fact that you've relegated them to one hat has actually worsened my perception of them, especially since that one hat wouldn't necessarily be exclusive to them to any degree, and exponentially so given that hat has nothing directly relevant to playing a game.

>>96919310
This.

>>96919074 (OP)
the issue with gnomes (and most fantasy races, really) is that they're interchangeable with a bunch of other things

one of my favorite guys I played was a pathfinder gnome, lived a normal rancher life up until Bleaching [TL note: pathfinder gnomes don't age as long as they keep experiencing new things, a gnomish autist reaches old man status real fucking quick], so he became an adventurer despite not particularly wanting to just stave it off. Jolly guy, really well-developed personality and friendships with his squadmates through a 2 year campaign

But you can really just strip the details out to end up with "everyday guy forced into adventuring through means outside his control," dude's fulfilling one of the classic tropes
I could have played this character exactly the same as almost any race with minor backstory alterations

>>96919074 (OP)
>OK
Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling

>Not OK
Gnomes
Tieflings
Aasimar
Dragonborn
Furry shit
Those fucking bird people
Anything elsegk8jjx

>>96919310
yep, this

>>96919724
OK, boomer

>>96919074 (OP)
1) How does it affects the game you are playing/running?
2) Why are you asking random strangers and not your fellow players?

>>96919074 (OP)
>the willy wonka/11th doctor/king bumi sort of race
But I don't want a whole race of any of those characters.

>>96919074 (OP)
>do people not understand the intended appeal of gnomes, or just find them annoying?
they seem like a superfluous race, earthy like dwarves and small like hobbits. And they are in Paracelsus at least dwarves/genomia or however its written by Paracelsus are the same thing. In effect the gnomes are a dwarf sub-race and nothing more.

they are also reminiscent of garden gnomes, but in a bad silly way.

>>96919789
This is not the epic own you think it is.

>>96919074 (OP)
I understand the appeal of gnomes just fine. Now please understand that the people they appeal to are almost always annoying faggots that nobody except other annoying faggots actually want in their games.

>>96919724
This. 110% this.

>>96919724
this indeed

>>96919724
Add lizardmen to OK list.

>>96919074 (OP)
>imho, the idea behind them is
No, that's not how that works. You can have an opinion on the role they fill in a setting or game, but "the idea behind them" would be what the designers intended in including them. And, unfortunately, designers too often include things in fantasy games for no other reason than "these things exist in fantasy games".

Also, if an entire species shares a given perspective, that isn't madness. Madness is specifically a deviation identified by society as outside of accepted perspectives.

Me personally I like to use gnomes as "The Ones who got there First."
Because of that Sprite-ish Spirit that Pushes their curiosity to the max, Gnomes in my setting are typically as I've Said "The Ones who Got there first." Forest Gnomes are the ones who managed to speedrun getting to the depths of the druidic arts, Rock Gnomes are the ones who managed to reach the heights of my world's tech tree with one country swinging magitech and another going in the oppisite direction and leaning on hard sciences. The Deep Gnomes were the first in a lot of areas... Druhkari in the warhammer setting have some of the best medical tech in setting... On my world, that right is owned by the deep gnomes. As it turns out when you delve down into the abyss, having what are essentially bacta-tanks... helps.
I use them as the race in my setting where everyone basically has some engineering degree. What the Engineering their doing is dependent on what branch they stem from.

>>96919074 (OP)
>appeal of gnomes,
they are wimpy forest dwarves

>>96919310
Oho I see what you did there.

>>96919074 (OP)
i just dont care about them and their appeal does not appeal to me.

>imho, the idea behind them is that they're supposed to be kind of the willy wonka/11th doctor/king bumi sort of race who are mad enough to see past a lot of conceits about what people think is possible, and are often driven more by curiosity and wonder than things like profit, glory, love, or saving the world
Yeah, that just doesnt isnt appealing to me. If you want to play one, fine, hope you have fun. But its not what i am interested in.

>>96919074 (OP)
Gnomish curiosity as the driving force of innovation in the world, which is fundamentally at odds with a stagnant fantasy setting, makes them rather difficult to adapt. Paired with their entire trope about "adventure for the sake of adventure", makes them fall flat narrative-wise. It makes them feel like they don't have any skin in the game.

>>96919310

This. The inventor and neon-haired type gnomes I've always associated with guys who are going to try to turn the game into the nerd comedy hour and girlfriends who aren't super interested in playing and will sabotage the campaign from within.

Forest spirit gnomes are based though.

>>96919074 (OP)
they really don't and apparently you don't either
in dnd they became a core race in 3rd edition where they are alchemists, inventors, tinkerers, craftsmen, traders and yes adventurers
they aren't a meme race, and so they work or at least they did for us and they were far more common in the tables i ve participated than halflings who always were the:
>short humans lol, so funny
>also gypsies for some fucking reason

>>96919074 (OP)
Depends on the setting

>>96919074 (OP)
I do not understand the appeal of gnomes and I find them annoying.

>>96919074 (OP)
People understand exactly what gnomes are about and react accordingly.

>>96919074 (OP)
Real races of "little" people, like Central African Pygmies, are not driven by profit or wonder but by a struggle to survive in Rain Forests devoid of much soil fertility while facing discrimination and violence at the hands of larger Bantu.

>>96925206
>Rain Forests
>devoid of much soil fertility

>>96919724
>the demi humans without sexual dimorphism or puberty are okay

Hmmmmm, I see what you're into

I'll go with classical mythology instead of modern

>>96925236
>Rainforest soils are often of poor quality, with low concentrations of nutrients including carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

>>96919074 (OP)
I like gnomes, they're actually very alien to the world but they are fire bringers. They embody the Prometheus archetype better than any other, Lucifer was a Cherub after all.
They'll give away magic Bull's Strength buckwheat pancakes to homeless humans just because they want to know what will happen and to test their goodness, also to make them fuck off from the forest

Read Passport to Magonia if you want to learn how to RP Fey, it's the book that inspired 40k Eldar

>>96925442
So are rainforest plants just hyper-evolved to sustain themselves on fuckall in terms of soil quality?

>>96919724
Warforged or whatever you call construct/medieval robots are cool player characters, c'mon.

>>96919074 (OP)
I just wanted to fuck BG3 gnomes like Thulla, so I ended up liking them
The le artificer types are fucking gay

>>96925588
Quit jerking off to robot girls, anon.

>>96919724
>no orc/halforc
Kill yourself

>>96919074 (OP)
well you see they make nast villains or the ocasional unexpected hero

>>96925568
No the soil quality is shit because those plants are there. They sucked up all the good stuff growing.

>>96919310
Best post on /tg/ right now.

>>96919074 (OP)
Gnomes are only acceptable as NPCs. Everyone who plays a gnome is the same insufferable HoLdS uP sPoRk lol random piece of shit.
Do not approach gnome players
Do not invite gnome players to your games
Report all gnome player posts

>>96927332
Gnome players suck but vampire/dhampir and other undead players are so much worse by virtue of either being tryhard edgy or severely mentally ill.