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Post by geoffrey on Mar 19, 2014 22:22:40 GMT -6
Consider Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Whenever dwarves or elves or orcs are encountered, nobody ever asks, "What the devil is that?" Everybody knows good and well about dwarves, elves, and orcs. But think about what happens when a hobbit shows up. Almost nobody knows what he is. Not even the ancient Treebeard has a clue. Hobbits, you see, are isolationists who never leave the Shire, except for a handful of cracked ones.
Now look at your OD&D books. You will notice that hobbits (unlike dwarves, elves, orcs, goblins, etc.) are not included in ANY of the encounter tables. Nor are they given an entry in Monsters & Treasure. In fact, they are only slightingly presented as a choice for PCs: "Hobbits: Should any player wish to be one..." This is followed by the most onerous of restrictions: Hobbits can be only fighting-men, and they can never rise above 4th level.
In short, the setting assumptions in OD&D do not have hobbits running around. Sure, the occasional PC might be a hobbit, but such a PC will be very unusual--just like Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Pippin, and Merry. D&D land (like Tolkien's Wilderland) has dwarven kingdoms, elven kingdoms, hordes of humanoids running amuck, etc., but no hobbit settlements. Sure, there must be a hobbit homeland for the very rare hobbit PC to hail from, but it must be off the map, just like in The Hobbit.
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Post by Falconer on Mar 21, 2014 23:38:43 GMT -6
In OD&D, being true to the literature is put first, in this as in many other instances. There‘s no effort made to balance Hobbits against the other races. If you want to play one, fine, but you know what you’re getting. A plucky little dude with good aim. He’ll never be a Super-Hero or Wizard. The world thinks they’re queer, and they think the world is queer.
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Azafuse
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 245
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Post by Azafuse on Mar 22, 2014 2:23:09 GMT -6
He’ll never be a Super-Hero or Wizard. But hundreds of them can be better than Tucker's kobolds.
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Torreny
Level 4 Theurgist
Is this thing on?
Posts: 171
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Post by Torreny on Apr 4, 2014 3:06:24 GMT -6
But hundreds of them can be better than Tucker's kobolds. At least four times as good, haha!
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