Caught a cold a few days ago, so I'll keep that one short too. I don't care that much for gnomes. There, I said it. They seem like an afterthought. And an unnecessary hybrid between dwarf and hobbit. Never got the appeal.
Gnomes have little-guy cool without all the Thorin and Bilbo baggage. I think their after-thoughtness is probably their biggest advantage; you can shape them into whatever image you want. Personally, I'd rather have gnomes stand alone as the sole shorty race, relegating dwarves and hobbits to the 2-dimensional stereotypes 3 everyone saddles them with.
Agreed, having them as a substitute for both races could be a very good idea. But I like the "baggage" you're talking about. Using tropes helps immensely communicating the story in a specific genre during the game. It needs a certain amount of experience with those tropes to transcend them the way you describe and that shouldn't be a prerequisite to play the game.
Gnomes have little-guy cool without all the Thorin and Bilbo baggage. I think their after-thoughtness is probably their biggest advantage; you can shape them into whatever image you want. Personally, I'd rather have gnomes stand alone as the sole shorty race, relegating dwarves and hobbits to the 2-dimensional stereotypes 3 everyone saddles them with.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, having them as a substitute for both races could be a very good idea. But I like the "baggage" you're talking about. Using tropes helps immensely communicating the story in a specific genre during the game. It needs a certain amount of experience with those tropes to transcend them the way you describe and that shouldn't be a prerequisite to play the game.
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