Boosties
Small heroes have it rough. That’s because humans write the setting books, and humans tend to be a little taller than the halfling-standard 2 ft. 8 in. + 2d4 in. No matter how good of a fantasist you are, it is freaking hard to break out of that mindset. We assume that our secondary worlds are built along the same lines as our own, and the primary world is built to accomodate humans.
Consider this: Have you ever seen a setting where halflings were the dominant race? How about gnomes? I wrote a whole continent chapter about a goblin empire a few years back, and now that I think back on the project, I’m pretty sure I neglected to mention the scale of architecture in Goblinvania. (In my defense, I was more interested in writing about the dieselpunk orc air force and the ogre motorcycle gangs.)
Even though we all love watching Luke bump his head in Yoda’s hut and Gandalf bump his head on Bilbo’s chandelier, it’s rare to get the same effect at the table. I think it has something to do with the difference between a visual medium like film and the verbal nature of TRPGs. We assume that our characters can go wherever we want. We gloss over the need for high chairs in the local pub or the difficulties of getting the ogre barbarian into the witch’s cottage as an ease-of-play thing. And because we don’t have to visualize those interactions, we’re able to dismiss them without much thought. The size of the heroes only becomes an issue in set piece encounters, like cramped tunnel fights or the wonderful Alice in Wonderland mushroom dungeon in Out of the Abyss. Meanwhile I’m left to imagine cosmopolitan settings like Dinotopia, wondering whether a game could be better served by that sort of shift in scale.
So what do you say? Do you guys think that size differences could stand a little extra emphasis in your games? Or do you think glossing over that detail for ease of play is truly best practice? Let’s hear it in the comments!
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I did run a very short lived game set in my homebrew D&D setting* that was in a country ruled by dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and pixies. Sadly they didn’t actually get past the roadside tavern that was designed to be more accommodating of travelers. If they had, they would have seen time and time again that places and items weren’t designed for the bigger folk at all.
Of course I don’t really like the short races much and thus this continent is also the post-apocalyptic nightmare realm part of my setting, full of undead, demons, aberrations, and crazy warforged. =P
*To note: I have this custom “small scale” D&D cosmology I made a while back. For the “main” planet I actually know what all the countries/continents are and they each have their own different setups going on. Though if any game set in one lasted long enough the characters would be free to travel to one of the others.
I’ve so far run three games set in this setting and almost ran a fourth. Each in different countries. The third of these is the one I’m still currently running a group for.
Why don’t you like the small races? Mechanical reasons? Or did one of them shoot your pa or something?
Good call on the inn btw. Shades of the Prancing Pony right there.
I find their stereotypes to be annoying and lots of players tend to lean into them. I can stand and even enjoy annoying characters. But I don’t like dealing with a character that’s only annoying because of their race instead of doing something more creative.
Ah. You mean the kender type stuff. Yeah, I can see that.
Weirdly, the rat folk over in Starfinder have been pretty cool on that front. It helps when Rocket Raccoon is your role model.
Rocket Raccoon is a much better role model. I mean, for roleplaying. Not life. Man that wouldn’t be good. =P
Now that I think about it, Rocket does share some disturbingly kender characteristics:
I would say that most settings take more consideration for Small-sized creatures than they do Large-sized creatures. Ofcourse that may just be done to keep pets (mounts and animal companions) from coming along.
I wonder if that’s to do with the power fantasy? I mean, “the big guy” in sword and sorcery generally looks like human barbarian poster boy Conan. Make him “the medium guy” and the archetype loses a lot of its luster.
I’ve just now come up with a new character concept – a Halfling affected by Enlarge Person and Permanency. What exactly do you call a medium sized Halfling though?
(Sadly 5E doesn’t have Permanency-type spells, so I’ll have to do this one in my next Pathfinder game.)
“What exactly do you call a medium sized Halfling though?”
A Doubling!
I always liked “dire halfling” as slang for humans. Seems to fit this situation too.
I think it gets glossed over in most cases for smaller characters because medium sized civilizations already can and do accomodate smaller creatures on a daily basis. Their own children…
The role play would perhaps be easier if you imagined you were in an ogre sized civilization instead and then swapped ogers for humans and humans for halflings.
I may need to rethink my kobold’s interactions with the human world a bit…
I remember there was a project where teachers from schools were asked to visit a place that had many facilities scaled up so that they would see things from a child’s perspective.
That’s a neat idea, but there’s something that bugs me about the conceit. We don’t design spaces for children because their opinions aren’t considered as important as adults’. If halflings were somehow the dominant species of a setting, I bet a lot more spaces would be designed from a “halfling first” perspective. The lack of that perspective may be the reason teachers had to go through that Alice in Wonderland empathy training.
I’m always confuzzled as to why we call Hin “Halflings” and Twicelings (A people whose only distinguishing characteristics are that they’re like Hin but twice as tall, less graceful, brave, and lucky, and shorter lived) “Humans”.
Also, why would we call creatures that are like Dwarves (With non-Dwarves being distinguished by what way they are inferior to Dwarves) “Humanoids” as opposed to the more logical Dwarfoid?
I kinda think there should be a local name for each race.
We mostly have what the humans call them, but I just can’t see a race calling itself “Catfolk”…
I assume “Catfolk” call humans “Monkeyfolk” or some variation thereof.
Certainly, it’s common for the reptilian races to refer to humanoids as monkeys…
This shift in perspective is a fun one to noodle with. In my current novel project, humans and dragons are just men and women of their respective races. I’m intentionally obscuring my descriptions of characters to play a sort of guessing game with the reader, describing human hands as metaphorical “gnarled old claws” and juvenile dragons as “comely youths” and similar.
they are called Halflings because whoever owned D&D at the time din‘t bother to, or just wasn’t able to wriggle a licence for Hobbit out of JRRT
Found the Wiki entry on the subject:
I ran one that dealt with some of the difficulties. It was in dwarven defensive tunnels. Anyone over 4’6″ had difficulty. The 7′ Human Barbarian was a little miffed when he couldn’t use his two-handed sword and had to use a dagger, (he spent most of the time on his knees.) Long bows were useless. Great fun!
Love it! This is exactly the kind of mechanically relevant stuff I’m thinking of.
So there’s been a trend with Laurel’s recent art where the spot where the nose and brow meet (I’m not a doctor, I don’t know the word for that spot) have what looks like a giant lumpy wart to me. I like the art for the most part, but that part doesn’t work.
The earliest example I can find:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/witchy-ways
I actually thought it was a wart there because witch.
Also, is nobody going to talk aboot the sexy redneck Orc?
I think that’s their brow furrowing… a strong crease would stand out with this art style, but it doesn’t show on everyone in the comic.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/69/74/d3/6974d375938817c218c2bed5327c3081.jpg
I know that’s what it’s supposed to be, but it ends up not really working, and just looking like a brow wart.
Doesn’t bother me any. I feel like it expresses the emotion just fine.
Sexy redneck orc likes lumpy warts. They’re a sign of status among the Husky Griffon clan.
Wait a minute, Oracle, Gunslinger, Monk and Summoner are halfling? I always think Gunslinger was just a child with more guns than a post-apocalyptic setting has in total. The scale of things it is not a problem if you are just a human, everything is human size and life is great. Humans rule*.
*Unless the setting and rules support the undead or robots as pc races, then undead or robots rule.
Well Monk is a Gnome, but yes.
For some reason HoH-verse Gnomes are blue. I think it might be a Pathfinder thing.
Gunslinger is a fully grown halfling.
Gabriel is right that brightly colored gnomes are a Pathfinder thing: “Their hair tends toward vibrant colors such as the fiery orange of autumn leaves, the verdant green of forests at springtime, or the deep reds and purples of wildflowers in bloom. Similarly, their flesh tones range from earthy browns to floral pinks, and gnomes with black, pastel blue, or even green skin are not unknown.”
“Gunslinger is a fully grown halfling” that is why i think it was a kid, next comic show him aproching the evil party lair to join them, only to find a signal that says: “you mast be this tall and evil to enter” Hahahahaha.
Also, Pathfinder gnomes, please pass me the soul bleacher. Humans still rule, unless otherwise undead or robot are legal pc races.
Bleachlings are such a trippy concept…
http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Bleaching
I think Griffon Tamer might catch on when the shorty-pile tries to actually mount the griffon, only to reveal that the bottommost legs are only about a foot long. Or less, given that Summoner’s a halfling with a terrible foot-to-leg ratio.
Also, I appreciate Griffon Tamer’s plaid. For completely humdrum, non-lesbian reasons. >_>
I always liked the 3.5 halfling art. They’re just perfectly proportioned tiny humans:
https://people.rit.edu/~aph3032/140/project3/images/races2.png
You’d think Summoner could use his Eidelon to fix that, as she has much longer legs than him (also for completely humdrum, non-lesbian reasons.)
…This is why you go into Synthesist, folks.
I find the idea of Summoner popping out of Rouge’s lower half horrible and creepy. I’ll see if I can’t make Laurel draw it for the sketch blog.
Many small races are about the size of humanoid child, and since kids IRL get along for the most part, I think it most settings wouldn’t not be unworkable for Small & Medium, or Medium & Large races to co-habit it. Having a Minotaur in the Gnomish underground market or a Goblin at the Ogre’s tavern might require special preparation, though.
In a mixed-race party, the easiest way to handwave it might be to just say that cities are, like your party, fairly cosmopolitan and prepared to handle a variety of creatures sizes, shapes, shelter requirements, and diets without much hassle.
That cosmopolitan idea was my starting point for those Hordenheim adventures I wrote a while back. Hookah shops were more popular than taverns in the monster-friendly city because it was easier to stock blends to please all palates. Same deal with the red light district run by doppelgängers.
This just gave me a fun idea. A city dominated by shortstack races (goblin/gnome tinkerer alliance? Halfling/wayang black market haven?) where the architecture is actually scaled up, not down. Something fit for a cyclops. Tables that require elevated chairs to sit at. Stairs that you literally have to climb unless you’re using magical means or special VIP routes. Houses so large on the inside that entire clans can call them home.
The general idea is that everyone, regardless of stature, is made to feel small. It could be for a sense of equality. It could be a way to humble people in a very religious city. It could be because the founders were making use of old ruins and had to build around what was available in order to survive.
Giant ghost town could be fun. Why did they leave, and what’s so valuable that squatters would come in ASAP?
My players are currently in a locale with a population split about 50/50 between humans and halflings, with a smattering of other races. Market displays slope down to be visible from all eye levels, commercial buildings have sections of high and low ceilings to save on building costs, and it’s not at all difficult to find furniture sized for anyone.
Interior decorating would be a challenge in that town. What would a split-level couch look like?
Not directly related to the question at hand, but I am just reminded of the time that a friend and I made a pair of Ratfolk Rogues who would always hang out in the same square (using their Swarming ability to count as flanking for Sneak Attack) and stab to their hearts’ content. We ended up deciding that they were always walking around, one on the other’s shoulders, wearing a trenchcoat and pretending to be one big guy. The top guy had high Charisma and Intelligence and a lot of ranks in Bluff and Disguise, while the lower guy had high Strength and Constitution. I believe we also gave the lower guy a blunderbuss as his backup weapon, just because we found the idea of a big gun poking out of the lower part of the coat to be funny.
…I suppose you could do it with one player if the top guy had Leadership…
“Say hello to my little friend!”
Probably the only time I’ve experienced “size issues” in a game is a session of Shadowrun. We had been chasing a Dwarf Decker through some sewer tunnels, and he fled to the surface through a manhole. This was fine for the Dwarf Shaman and my lightly armed Human Rigger, but the GM expressed that our heavily-cyberware-decked Troll Street Samurai was going to have issues. In the end we basically had to dismantle him (advantage of his arms being full cybernetic replacements) and put him back together the other side while one of my drones kept up the chase.
What that sounds hilarious and awesome. It is also exactly what I mean by “set piece encounters.” It comes up rarely, but when it does it matters in game terms, and therefore becomes more memorable to the players.
It takes more work to transform that into a consistent setting detail, like dwarf bars being uncomfortable for differently sized folk or trolls needing to buy two tickets for their oversize seats on international flights.
‘Ha! And y’all thought splurging on the Quick-Change Mounts* was a waste.’
*From Cyberpunk 2020. The mounts let cyberlimbs detach with a bayonet mount press-and-twist. Good for swapping to specialized limbs or for sleeping.
“Swiss Arm-y Man!”
I’m playing an Ogress Barbarian in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy game, so at 11′ 6″ she bangs into all kinds of everything.
However also being tougher and stronker than 90% of what she bumps her head on it’s less Gandolph and the chandelier, and more the Koolaid Man.
She’s also had to strip naked to squeeze down perfectly normal stairs to get into dungeons… so… there’s that too.
I will have you know that I straight up giggled at that description. And that I want a world where Gandalf and the Kool-Aid Man can exist in the same room.
I had something similar to this happen in my first ever game, though not directly to my character. It was a post-apocalyptic Alternity game, and one of the members of our strange little team of problem solvers was a robot named CASE. Now, CASE wasn’t quite built to military spec, having been built as a police robot before everything went to hell, but he did have some military grade armour, made of Neutronium.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutronium) This made him extremely tough, but also heavy enough that several times through our adventures, floors would give out under him. We forgave him though because his player was the nicest guy I have ever met. It took me looking back years later to realize how power-gamey CASE was (at one point he took four sniper bullets to the head in a row and suffered no damage) simply because his player was such a good team player.
Neutronium armor? I guess you could say the guy was… a hard-CASE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMPAH67f4o
Not… not really related to the question about size-differences, but this comic raises a very important point:
…there’s, uh, some compelling reasons for all those half-orcs running around out there.
Mazzoga-Mae is the friendliest girl on the farm.
A while back, I had an idea for a videogame. The concept of this game would be that it would simultaneously be both a citybuilder game (like SimCity) and a base builder game (like Dungeon Keeper) because the area would have both human sized and mouse sized inhabitants.
Unfortunately I lack both the programming ability and the financial resources necessary to make this game happen.
Millions dollar ideas, experience-bucks execution. Story of my life, man.