Thread 719952927

How come hobbits/halflings never took off like other tolkien races? In Baldur's Gate 3 only githyanki get picked less than Halflings.

Dwarves exist and are cooler, Gnomes exist and are the exact same thing but they're also smaller so they corner the comfy midget market.
Nobody gives a shit about halflings, they're the middle child.

Nobody wants to be the literal pudgy midget.
Dwarves at least are painted as badass warriors and craftsmen.
Hobbitses are too much of a "noble savage" or "funny meme" (le smol race tanking a big behemot lullz) in RPGs too much battle-oriented to be good picks.

I'm already a manlet IRL, why would I want to play as one in my escapist video games?

>>719952927 (OP)
Because western fantasy keep depicting them as abominations with deformed features and not a proper short race.

>>719952927 (OP)
Halflings are:
Honest
Hardworking
Dilligent
Friendly
Does this sound like a modern zoomer to you?

>>719952927 (OP)
They're designed to be the underdog race, one of the major themes of the Hobbit and LotR is that even the most feeble weak race in the universe is capable of great things because they are pure-hearted.

Most people don't want to play as something small and pathetic when they can play something cool.

When it comes to RPGs and stats and abilities based on race, being very small gives penalties in the most common actions: movement and combat.

>>719952927 (OP)
There's nothing really that good about them unless you just want a cozy, chill life.
Ironically that's kinda the reason they make good ring-bearers. They're not that strong and they don't want to be, they just want to chill, so the ring has less power over them. When Sam got the ring for a while, he was given visions of a possible future where, using the ring's power he becomes a hero and rides a majestic horse and strikes Sauron with his sword, but he quickly realized it's just baloney that wouldn't actually work out and he just wants to go back to his garden.

Maybe you could interpret this as the humble farmer content with his life being the only one capable of slowing the ruin of the world through industrialization, dunno.

They are just an offshoot of humes. Other races were or became standards, but if you just made small people then it would be seen as a ripoff of Hobbits. FF often has some of little people, but they changed it up a bit.

>>719952927 (OP)
Who the fuck wants to be a manlet in their power fantasy simulator?

everquest hobbits are chads

>>719952927 (OP)
I like them
It's weird that 3e D&D turned them into basically kenders from dragonlance. I liked them being broad and jolly

>>719953943
God, I can still hear the Rivervale music

Because combat is a major feature of most rpgs and making halflings good at combat is absurd unless you give them superhuman stealth and stealth-crit bonuses.

>Be a hobbit
>Enter RPG combat
>Legolas headshots you from 100 yards
>Have to make up bullshit rules as to why the race that's weak and short doesn't just get 1-shotted by all of the larger threats around them
It doesn't work for most games, it would work for city builders and strategy games.

>>719956947
This is why it makes sense to make life sim style games for hobbits like the one that recently came out. Too bad that one is pretty bad.

>>719952927 (OP)
bg3 halflings are extraordinarily extremely fuckable
There, I said it!

>>719952927 (OP)
It's very hard to see the appeal. Elves/dwarfs are their own thing and then you've halflings who...have lotr, but you can't even use the copyrighted name for lotr vibes. They don't fight, even worse than humans, so you'd need a story-based VN to even have that work idk.

One of the major red flags of the myriad Tolkien RPGs (One Ring etc) being soulless exploitative bullshit is that they portray Hobbits as going on adventures with men elves and dwarves as a natural and common occurrence.

>>719952927 (OP)
halflings are a thing in seiken densetsu games

>>719952927 (OP)
hobbits cant fight. the best you could do are stealth games
see: gollum

>>719952927 (OP)
Being specifically based on hobbits and not also having a large amount of mythology around them to draw from limits just how much writers can do without JUST being a Tolkien rip off
Obviously fantasy dwarves, elves, and orcs do take a lot of inspiration from tolkein’s version but they can also draw from mythology to get inspiration for their own spin

Most video games are specifically based around combat so hobbits have an awkward fit in them, with them being mostly good as rogues.

They feel redundant when you have dwarves and gnomes

>>719952927 (OP)
Low movement in all systems and in most D&D and D&D-likes they don't have an int bonus like gnomes so they're not good picks for wizards either. Although, currently they are probably at their best in 5e now, since halfling luck is a very good feature and racial ability score bonuses no longer exist.

i have a 10 year old daughter. she is so sensitive all the time. she cries every day at least once and works herself up over everything. it's so tiresome

>>719952927 (OP)
because D&D got sued for copying them so they invented hobbits at home (halflings)

>>719952927 (OP)
Mogged by Dwarves, Gnomes and Goblins.

>>719952927 (OP)
Think about it logically.

>>719952927 (OP)
Nobody wants to play a tiny manlet who is good at nothing but sitting in their homes doing nothing.
Dwarves at least are usually depicted as battle-hardened warriors.
It's the same reason why nobody cares about playing a paraplegic in a wheelchair, despite DnD devs pushing it on people.

>>719958789
If you look at settings where they try to push what exactly you can do with halflings it just feels kinda… stupid?
Look at dark sun, and ratlings

>>719959320
I'd say halflings are actually better than dwarves in most systems.

>>719959069
>>719959069
Cause she has a shitty, over-critical father

>>719952927 (OP)
>he doesn't make a monk/barbarian tavern brawling halfling called Cockpuncher Joe

I think it's funny that games and TTRPGs give Hobbits thieving skills
The point was that Bilbo WASN'T a burglar like Gandalf promised the Dwarves.
It was a classic Gandalf gag. He was having a laugh and giving them a fat useless Hobbit who he was pretending was a master thief for shits and giggles because he wanted to troll the Dwarves by sending them with a guy who was only really good at eating food and smoking his pipe and troll the Hobbits by making Bilbo leave his home and go on an adventure.

>>719952927 (OP)
Because most fantasy games are based heavily around combat to some capacity, and people just don't think of Hobbits and fighting.

>>719960657
>The point was that Bilbo WASN'T a burglar like Gandalf promised the Dwarves.
He absolutely fucking was though. Its also not using the precise modern definition of the word burglar, it doesn't necessarily mean you're a master thief, its more about being able to get into places you're not supposed to be without being seen to do *something* and he spends the entire book doing just that

How do you correctly play as Gnome without resorting to memes?

>>719961405
He used the damn Ring for all of his stunts and Smaug still knew he was there.
Bilbo wasn't a burglar in any sense of the word. He was just lucky, or unlucky depending on your point of view, enough to stumble upon a powerful magical artifact.

>>719961816
>He used the damn Ring for all of his stunts
He doesn't get the ring until almost half way through the book where he's already helped them with the trolls, elrond, and getting the ring in the first place.
And smaug knows he's there because its a magical creature with a powerful sense of smell and high-beams for eyes that could see the shadow, and bilbo still manages to outfox him.
There wasn't a fucking dwarf in the party who could have done any of that. Gandalf knew they needed someone in the party who had dex and wis, and could make a stealth check.

>>719959450
>Nobody wants to play a tiny manlet who is good at nothing but sitting in their homes doing nothing.
Unless you have a fetish for strong tall women that can take care of you

>>719962574
>strong tall women that can take care of you
hobbits don't get that
hobbits get short fat women who also sit in their homes doing nothing

>>719962723
How many hobbits did Bilbo run into on his adventure? Zero.
How many tall sexy elf women did he run into? A lot. If I were Bilbo I would get that ass

>>719962981
>How many hobbits did Bilbo run into on his adventure? Zero.
1 if you count Gollum.

>>719963142
Gollum is my wife!

>>719963142
Don't forget about Biilbo and Bigger Bilbo.

>>719962981
you might want an elf but would an elf want you?
why would an elf bed a short hairy hobbit with a short hairy penis when they can have a Legolas?

>>719952927 (OP)
Because they all look fugly. Make them look halfway good and people will like them.

>>719952927 (OP)
They're too busy raising daughters to go on adventures. Bilbo and Frodo could do it because they were incels.

>>719952927 (OP)
Halflings were only implemented late in BG3's development. You don't even see any halfling NPCs early.

>>719963346
She won't have to, I have the ring of power. She won't even know I'm there.

>>719952927 (OP)
Being 4 feet tall makes you pathetic.
Like "ooh, look at me I'm a race that's the size of a toddler" what am I supposed to do with that

>>719952927 (OP)
I mean. If I want to be a manlet, I rather pick goblin or some shit.

>>719959069
>i have a 10 year old daughter
>i have
No you don't , you are merely taking care for her now so she can be the wife of my 14 yo son

>>719961476
>play a gnome
>without memes
sounds like a missed opportunity

>>719963515
>You don't even see any halfling NPCs early.
The first merchant in the grove is a halfling, isn't he? The guy near the weird ox.

What does sex with halflings feel like, bros?

>>719952993
Faggotsies

>>719953101
>hardworking
Aren’t they literally the laziest race ever, who eat like fat fucks and burn their brains out on weed? Sounds pretty zoomer to me

>>719952927 (OP)
Same issue as with dwarfs. Why the fuck would i want to play as short humans?

>>719952993
Dwarves are burly, stoic, skilled craftsmen
Gnomes are nimble, ingenious inventors
Hobbits are.... little peasants who aspire to grow potatoes

>>719953390
It's not within halflings though, plenty of them are assholes of various sorts.

>>719952927 (OP)
In Tolkien books, most hobbit communities go out of their way to stay the fuck away from the affairs of the other races. I recall Bilbo has to travel for several miles before coming across his first group of elves, who were rangers. The little guys just enjoy a nice cozy life, no major conflicts or aspirations, just sit, eat every day, go to bed, that sort of pre-industrial countryside way of life. So compared to the insane digging and building dwarves do, and the magic shit and endless lives elves have, they are boring.
I am surprised at the lack of a hobbit farming game ala Animal Crossing where you focus on leading a small hobbit community, grow stuff, deal with various hobbit rivalries, and maybe occasionally dip your toes into some grand adventure only to go back home asap to sleep with your hobbit wife and rise your little kids, who will most likely follow your steps one day. I don't think any AAA company has any interest in doing this, and farming games are a pain in the ass to code for indies so... A man can dream...

>>719964267
>I am surprised at the lack of a hobbit farming game
There is one. You not going to like it.

>>719964437
Post it. I deserve to suffer for invoking Satan's name.

>>719964035
Pipe weed isn't supposed to be DUDE WEED LMAO! It was basically just a way to have tobacco (a new world plant that shouldn't exist in the shire until untold generations later when its brought from the americas).
And they weren't lazy, just an idyllic pastoral pre-industrial agrarian society that had basically everything they needed at their finger tips in abundance.
Yes they like food, and socializing, and all that, but the seven meals a day thing isn't from fantasy, thats how most people ate when their job was working a farm or doing manual labor. Instead of three big meals a day, you have multiple smaller meals every couple of hours so you can keep your energy up without feeling gross and overfull while you're working.
And in tolkien's universe, the hobbits live on such good fertile abundant land because they are a good and humble people who embody the christian virtues of faith, hope, and charity. If you look at the places with the "evil" people they have stripped the land bare and made it a corrupt reflection of themselves.

>>719952927 (OP)
Hobbits were created to be unlikely heroes. If you're going for a straightforward fantasy work, you can't have them without also having to do the legwork to turn them into a Bilbo or Sam.

>>719960657
Hobbits did have a natural ability to go unseen and hide at the drop of a hat if they wanted to. It's in the introduction to the book.
Also, Gandalf knew that Bilbo had it in him and just needed a push.

>>719964632
Then why did Saruman say to Gandalf that "your love for the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed your mind" ?
Slowing the mind sounds like weed to me.

>>719953390
>When Sam got the ring for a while, he was given visions of a possible future where, using the ring's power he becomes a hero and rides a majestic horse and strikes Sauron with his sword, but he quickly realized it's just baloney that wouldn't actually work out and he just wants to go back to his garden.
Its actually much better than that.
It shows sam getting the ring. But after he defeats sauron the ring shows him a vision where he rules over the shire, and turns it into his own private garden.
Sam rejects the temptation, because he's a humble guy, and ultimately is rewarded for his faith by becoming the leader of the hobbits and the shire, expands their territory with a whole new farthing, and in repairing the damage saruman did, basically replants the entire shire, turning it into his own personal garden. On top of that he is seen as the hero and protector of the shire (along with Pippin and Merry).
It never clicks with sam, and it won't click with most readers, but Sam is rewarded with the very thing he rejects because he didn't think he was worthy, and wouldn't accept under those terms on principle.

>>719964904
Because he thinks Gandalf is trying to protect the hobbits because they make the best pipe weed.
Its showing how corrupted the character has become when sarumon the wise can't see anyone doing something without it being a direct material gain to them.

>>719965184
Then why pick the words "slowed your mind"? It doesn't make any sense in that context. He's clearly talking about the effects of the leaf itself and how spending so much time idling with hobbits is slowing him down and making his mind dull.

>>719965565
Because he's projecting his own envy.
Saruman was supposed to be the wise one, but all of the wise among middle earth knew full well that Gandalf was the first among the Istari.
In Saruman's mind, undermining Gandalf's wisdom was the greatest insult he could throw while still keeping a pretense of civility.

Halflings are really boring relative to most other fantasy races, "human with features" or not

This was even part of the logic behind Tolkien choosing hobbits as the heroes of his stories-- they're unassuming peasants and don't really stand out

>>719952927 (OP)
Why do you want to be a midget
If fantasy is about feeling powerful, why would you want to suck.

>>719965739
Calling someone a pothead is generally considered an insult, yes.

>>719964035
Nah they make sure the harvest is in before partying.

>>719966041
>they
Bilbo and Frodo and all the others we follow besides Sam are rich fucks who don't do anything

>>719964904
Anon, Tolkien was a notorious tobacco pipe smoker, and at the end of the book Bilbo said he stopped smoking pipe for health reasons since he got old (which isn't something you'd hear from a weed smoker), there's 0% chance pipe weed is anything other than tobacco.
But here's from the books themselves.
> “There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit:
>they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of a herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana.
>A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this particular custom, or ‘art’ as the Hobbits preferred to call it.”
-Lord of the Rings, Prologue, part 2: “Concerning Pipe Weed”

>>719952927 (OP)
Their sex appeal has not been marketed well enough.

>>719965824
Because they don't have lofty ambitions. They've basically won the lottery already. The biggest assholes in the shire are just kind of salty their cousin hasn't died so they can inherit his sweet mansion, or Ted Sandyman who us just a hobbit chad that is sniffing after Sam's waifu.
Gandalf points out that when push comes to shove most hobbits manage to pluck up courage equal to the greatest heroes of history.
Merry helps kill the witch king with Eowyn (satisfying the prophecy because neither are "men" and Merry is wielding a dagger from the barrows, a relic of the northern kingdoms when they were at war with the witch king, forged specifically to make him mortal enough to land a killing blow).
While Tolkien can say his books aren't allegory, they are absolutely informed by his catholic faith, virtues are always rewarded, and sins not expiated will continue to corrupt.

>>719964904
>>719966670
Just referring to it as a leaf is a giveaway. You dont smoke weed leaves. You smoke the buds, the flowers.

Only with tobacco do you smoke the leaves.

>>719966751
>incase
>aromasensei
In hindsight these two existed only to train generative AI models and lora.

>>719966875
what a narcissistic take

>>719966670
>>719966776
I'm not saying it's literally cannabis, it's just a fantasy weed they're smoking and it has a calming effect on them. I imagine it to be something like Khat, you know the stuff South Africans chew to become docile, that's a leaf too.

>>719966776
There's also the fact that hobbits were based off english country gentlemen in the late 19th century.
They were known for donning smoking jackets in the evening for a pipe, not getting stoned.

>>719966751
what a crock of shit this comic was
Incase "halflings" don't even have hairy feet

>>719967068
>narcissistic
I don't think you know what that word means.

>>719967254
join all the other freaks in the mod officiated AI generals that believe some artstyles only exist for AI's benefit

>>719952927 (OP)
thats like trying to romanticize the irish folk

>>719966875
Who was the one other sameface artist who came out as an unironic Nazi and got rightfully bullied into fucking off forever over it?

>>719967352
incase pls

>>719953081
But anon, short races are too easy to bully.

>>719967662
Shadman? I vaguely remember he went batshit and got arrested for B&E and aggravated assault or something like that.

>>719953043
Getting to beat up bad guys much bigger than yourself and celebrating your victory with a woman large enough to pick you up and hold you in front of her face while she blows you?

>>719952927 (OP)
Hobbits are specifically a tolkien thing and I'm pretty sure it's even copyrighted.
Halflings did take off, they are just called gnomes or other names. Though they usually come with different lore than Tolkien hobbits.

>>719967969
>gnome barbarian with the giant path
>drink giant potions
>wizard who exists only to cast embiggen on you
the true manlet fantasy
if only they had boots with RDJ tier lifts.

>>719967862
Nah. I was thinking of SillyGirl/Sinner/KittyPuddin/whatever.

>>719952927 (OP)
>tfw most japanese RPGs are based off of wizardy and D&D instead of from tolkein.
>If those two had them be more prominent then we'd be getting barefoot lolis as a standard fantasy race in JRPGs
What could have been....

>>719968325
man that game makes me sad, it's exactly what i would have like a shire-centric game but they dont commit to any of the traits that make hobbit society interesting and just made it boring "wholesomeslop". An actual monkey's paw for me.

>>719959069
I would too if my dad browsed 4chan lmao

>>719969502
>any of the traits that make hobbit society interesting
such as... being an intentionally boring farming society that lives long lives and smokes and eats a lot?

>>719969697
as a whole? yeah but Tolkien also mentions how Hobbit society is very distrusful of change or doing things different, their equivalent of high society thrives on rumon-mongering and talking behind each others back and trying to make that one neighbour you dont like because he grows flowers you dont like move away from their place. A very petty high school drama kind of way, and that would have fit perfectly into a Stardew Valley clone since that's a very prevalent thing in that game.
Again, like most have already said in this very thread, compared to other fantasy races hobbit are just not that interesting, but having a game where the antagonists are very petty HOAs since they live in such a idilic paradise is kind of an interesting twist they could have gone for, a good opportunity to give Hobbits a bit more character in the eyes of people.

>>719970753
That's just old English countryside drama. You're an impertinent Johnny Newcomer until your family has lived in the same house for five generations.

Hobbits are objectively the worst part of LOTR. Who even cares about these stupid, weak little midgets?

>>719972849
>t. Saruman
How petty can an ex-wizard be?

>>719972849
No one cares about them.
That's why they were useful as members of the Fellowship.

>>719972849
Evil overlooked them in its hubris and paid the ultimate price.

>>719965824
It's like a big allegory for how a few armed peasants can topple an authoritarian regime. Only 3% of Americans partook in the revolution (I'm proud to say my ancestors participated).

>>719974227
Tolkien would do a Johnny Cage splits-punch and destroy your balls for saying his work is an allegory for anything.

>>719953043
But Dwarf are awesome. And technically, you could make them the decendant of a cthonic death god, or basically Dark Elves.
That's the greatest part about them, they don't exist!

Childhood is thinking Return is awesome
Adulthood is realising Fellowship is PVRE SOVL

The hobbits are right not to want to leave, they have Heaven on Earth in their Shire.

>>719952927 (OP)
Onaholes are nice to have around but most people don't want to play as one.

Tolkien wrote that hobbits were eventually hunted down by cruel men until they devolved into a state of pygmy that had forgotten their past