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I am running a homebrew “kitchen sink” campaign. Only recently, I have tried to start finalizing my particular perspectives on various races from the long list of traditional archetypes – and it was reading about the world of Golarion that really inspired me to start answering these questions. The discussion about elf ears was especially interesting to me, as I always thought of myself as a “shorter ear” guy, but the longer ears have become more appealing to me (my players will likely disagree, but none of their characters are presently elves, so it doesn’t much matter).
I was wondering if I could pick the creative minds of the Paizo boards on my gnome problem. Ya see, I really like the Golarion gnomes (which remind me vaguely of the Midnight gnomes), but in a kitchen sink setting, I also would like to provide room for the “gnome tinker” archetype to go with the “gnome fae” archetype, yet still consider them the same race. Any ideas about how to combine these disparate stereotypes?
Thanks in advance!
C
You could treat them the same way Eladrin and Elves are treated in 4e. The same race, but after a split some kept to their fae roots (gnomes) and some went fully into the world (tinker gnomes). Or you could make dwarves the tinkers. That would fit the industrious, bah magic image. Although the frequent explosions wouldn't really fit.
Golarion's gnomes have a tendency to pick up crafts, trade skills, odd habits, etc., as a method to tie them to the material world. In your setting, you could decide that they naturally gravitate toward tinkering. It could also be a good way to incorporate the traditional ineptness of gnomish tinkerers, if you want to go that route: as creatures of fae origin, they have trouble understanding the limitations and properties of the material objects they work with.
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Golarion's gnomes have a tendency to pick up crafts, trade skills, odd habits, etc., as a method to tie them to the material world. In your setting, you could decide that they naturally gravitate toward tinkering. It could also be a good way to incorporate the traditional ineptness of gnomish tinkerers, if you want to go that route: as creatures of fae origin, they have trouble understanding the limitations and properties of the material objects they work with.
All that, and IIRC one of the devs said that gnomes have to approach "mundane"/non-feyish pursuits with extreme passion, or they start slipping back towards wild fey ways.
A gnomish woodworker won't just be into woodworking, he's going to really be into woodworking to the point where his non-gnomish woodworking friends are going "Dude, take a break from it already. You're freaking us out."
I may be remembering wrong.
Spliting the two into seprate sub-races would work. Also the Tinker class from WOW game could be of great use. In my home brew I use
3.5 Gnomes not as fey (my elves have that role) but more akin to distant relations to Dwarves.
then I have
Steam Gnomes which are WOWrpg gnomes who have Tinker as favored class. Also I like the tech. rules for creating and using in that game as it is difficult enough that many players/npc wouldn't want to use it and keep tradtional fantasy stuff at hand.
You'd have to pick up WOWrpg, but I highly recomend this, if you can find a copy.
It could be some sort of cultural schism; you have the gnomes who retained their connection to the fey, and those who said "no, we are part of this world now" and turned their back somewhat on "the old ways" embracing tinkering and crafting, creating things by hand rather than by magic.
I am thinking along the lines of certain immigrant groups some kept to the ways of the old country and others abandoned them in order to better "integrate".
Gnomes are my favorite race. They have so much potential. to see them ejected from the 4e PH made me roil in anger! to see half-orcs and gnomes jettisoned for a second type of elf and a dragon-man...*burrrnpt*...it makes me want to vomit...*mmngphft*...OK better change the subject...
In my not so humble opinion both Gnomes and Halflings have been compromised by 3.x to 4e.
The ideas espoused by the others are all solid approaches!
Anthrorob