After a long hiatus from Shackled City, our group has started playing again. We've just started the chapter after Bal-Hamatun and just finished dealing with the riot.
My character is a halfling rogue/thief acrobat who was left at the Lantern Street Orphanage. I was wondering about how halflings are treated and what they're up to around the city. Our DM and I have talked about it a little, but intergroup tension leads to bad communication lines.
Thief-acrobat is a 5 level PrC, so once we hit 12th level I plan on taking level in Whisperknife, from Races of the Wild. A whisperknife is a halfling avenger type who will take out people who mistreat other halflings. To make it feasible for the story is why I was curious about the state of halflings and other small folk.
Thanks in advance!
I've got to say, they don't really get into them. I'd say it's in the perview of the GM, as there are no pre-existing assumptions about them. Sorry for such a lame response, but it's just not addressed. I do think your idea is a good one that fits in.
~Qualidar~
Yeah, that's the feeling I was getting from the DM when we talked about it for a little bit. I was really just curious about what other DMs/players knew or thought about it.
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IIRC, Cauldron has a reasonably large halfling population, but there is little mention of halfling society within Cauldron, and precious few halfling NPCs. What NPCs there are, are for the most part shop keepers and such, or else folk associated with various criminal organizations. Gnomes fall into much the same category as halflings by the way. As far as I’m aware, there are no gnomes or halflings mentioned amongst the nobles or other important folk of the city.
What does this mean? Well, there are several ways you could look at it. The vanilla version is that the small folk form part of Cauldron’s industrious back bone. They are generally hard working, innocuous folk, who tend to have little political ambition, but work hard to provide for their families and keep the city running, although sadly a rare few turn to a life of crime.
Perhaps a more interesting take on it could be that halflings (and perhaps also gnomes) suffer from class persecution or even racism within Cauldron. They tend to be denied public office, they have no members amongst the ruling council to represent their interests, and are kept firmly working class (or low class). Activists and outspoken member of the halfling community tend to be targeted by the Watch, and in desperation a large segment of the community has turned to crime in an effort to better their lot or oppose the government.
If your character is going to be interested in / focused on the welfare of the Cauldron halfling community, ensure you discuss this with your DM, as he/she may have to introduce a few more halfling NPCs or opportunities for your character to shine in this regard.
Hope that helps!
Ask your DM to go to theRPGenius.com website and have a look in the Shackled City archive for an organisation called 'The Explorers & Acquirers Division of Dorcemetry Museum'. This organisation may give your Halfling a home with plenty of halfling side treks, plot links and great allies to call upon.
Offically, as everyone else has already mentioned, the halflings play a very minor role in the city and plot as a whole.
Delvesdeep
Thanks guys! I'll see what we come up with!
In our game, a wise cracking player, played a wise cracking halfling. This halfling decided to go pro with his wise cracking act (i.e. take a level in bard and ranks in performance: stand up comic). A happy Dm (The miniatures and whiskey were gifts, i swear.., and I'm the DM!), and a more than happy player decided that his player came from a near by community of halflings and gnomes. Thus his favored class is bard.
So in our Shakled city campaign halflings are quite diplomatic, poetic and well known as performers. Gnomes are also known to be larcenous, oppotunistic and sneaky. In fact, in Cauldron both Halflings and Gnomes are known to be opportunistic, sneaks, with the ability talk their way out of any trouble.
Any way that was are take on halflings and gnomes.
Short people got..,
Anyway I'm done
Perhaps a more interesting take on it could be that halflings (and perhaps also gnomes) suffer from class persecution or even racism within Cauldron. They tend to be denied public office, they have no members amongst the ruling council to represent their interests, and are kept firmly working class (or low class). Activists and outspoken member of the halfling community tend to be targeted by the Watch, and in desperation a large segment of the community has turned to crime in an effort to better their lot or oppose the government.
In my game, gnomes and dwarves were persecuted after the “riot” for financing an occult organization