Elves got the love, dwarves are within sight, and the gnomes are on the horizon. I think I read somewhere about half-orcs, but what about halflings? They're looking quite the neglected race here.
Other than being a Chelaxian slip that originally hailed from Andoran and eventually made his way to Absolom to join the Pathfinder Society, I'm just trying to come up with some good fluff for my little foolhardy rogue.
I am sure they will be coming next year. Keep in mind only about half the year has been shown so far. I imagine by this time next year we will see the book.
Maybe. I still can't believe James allowed the dwarves to jump ahead in line. There is treachery afoot, I doth protest! ;)
Creative Director
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I am sure they will be coming next year. Keep in mind only about half the year has been shown so far. I imagine by this time next year we will see the book.Maybe. I still can't believe James allowed the dwarves to jump ahead in line. There is treachery afoot, I doth protest! ;)
One thing about being editor-in-chief is learning how to pick your battles. :-P
However, once it's on the schedule, it will only take half as long, right? ;)
One thing about being editor-in-chief is learning how to pick your battles. :-P
Surely there was a concession? Like releasing your own post apocalyptic setting through Paizo? Probably not ran rampant by feral halfling c.h.u.d.s, but I'll concede that one too. :P
Halflings of Golarion will eventually happen; it's the only one we haven't done or announced yet, after all!
There are lots of things I'd rather see than HAlflings. I'm glad halforcs and gnomes are coming first.
(The abomination that is Kender pretty much ruined halflings for me, I don;t use them much in the campaigns I run...except as cannon fodder or victims..)
There are lots of things I'd rather see than HAlflings. I'm glad halforcs and gnomes are coming first.
(The abomination that is Kender pretty much ruined halflings for me, I don;t use them much in the campaigns I run...except as cannon fodder or victims..)
*cough* *sputter* Blasphemer! Don't make my pint size rogue stab his fork directly at your ankles.
:P
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There are lots of things I'd rather see than HAlflings. I'm glad halforcs and gnomes are coming first.
(The abomination that is Kender pretty much ruined halflings for me, I don;t use them much in the campaigns I run...except as cannon fodder or victims..)
what!?!
you'd rather see a race that came about by monster/human rape (oh, love, sorry) than hobbits? halflings are not kender!!
...since halflings are most like children, it's a little disturbing to only use them as victims and cannon fodder.
One thing about being editor-in-chief is learning how to pick your battles. :-P
The dwarves got you drunk, didn't they?
Halflings Halflings Ra Ra Ra!
This message brought to you by the Halfing's For A Better Sun Deity Consortium
I've got to say, I really like Sarenrae. I liked Lathander but Sarenrae has him beat, if you ask me. (Never much felt the love for Pelor. Sorry, Pelor.)
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I've got to say, I really like Sarenrae. I liked Lathander but Sarenrae has him beat, if you ask me. (Never much felt the love for Pelor. Sorry, Pelor.)Halflings Halflings Ra Ra Ra!
This message brought to you by the Halfing's For A Better Sun Deity Consortium
He's a fun god, he's the sun god, Ra! Ra! Ra!
*giggles*
I'm actually very much with you on that. Sarenrae is just wicked pissah.
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Creative Director
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One thing about being editor-in-chief is learning how to pick your battles. :-PThe dwarves got you drunk, didn't they?
I know better than to drink anything a dwarf gives me. Since it's an equal chance that it's beer, laundry water, or toilet water. Actually, who am I kidding? Dwarves don't know about laundry water.
I know better than to drink anything a dwarf gives me. Since it's an equal chance that it's beer, laundry water, or toilet water. Actually, who am I kidding? Dwarves don't know about laundry water.
Thank you james, that just made my day. Also Am really looking forward to dwarves of golarion, the golarion fluff is great, i normally dont use D&d fluff at all but pathfinder is changing my preconceptions.
James, out of curiosity, where does the Dwarf hate come from?
I second that. I'd like to know the origin of their despise.
*****
FWIW, I really don't have any issues with dwarves. Don't think I ever played one, but I'm still getting the dwarven fluff in my subscription anyway.
There are lots of things I'd rather see than HAlflings. I'm glad halforcs and gnomes are coming first.
(The abomination that is Kender pretty much ruined halflings for me, I don;t use them much in the campaigns I run...except as cannon fodder or victims..)
what!?!
you'd rather see a race that came about by monster/human rape (oh, love, sorry) than hobbits? halflings are not kender!!
...since halflings are most like children, it's a little disturbing to only use them as victims and cannon fodder.
1) "you'd rather see a race that came about by monster/human rape (oh, love, sorry) than hobbits? halflings are not kender!!"
Yes, yes I would. Not that I endorse rape. But I prefer halforcs to hobbits.
2) Children make great cannon fodder. Of course, children are universally Neutral Evil so that's OK.
3) Hobbits aren't horrible. But Kender ruined halflings for me. (Well, Eberron Halflings are OK. But I banned halflings from my pre-eberron 3.5 campaign entirely) Let's see if Paizo can make them nice again.
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Creative Director
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James, out of curiosity, where does the Dwarf hate come from?
Good question! The answer has 6 parts. I shall list them below in order of relevancy, with part one being the least relevant and most spurious, and part six being the core reason.
Part One: I am somewhat entertained by perpetuating the belief that I hate dwarves, and thus often take a stance of self-exaggeration on the topic to perpetuate my own mythos.
Part Two: For whatever reason, dwarves to me are overwhelmingly mired in their own cliche. Perhaps because of the one-two punch of Tolkien and Snow White, or perhaps because they of almost ALL the D&D races have always been portrayed as bearded gruff guys who like bear, forges, and beards. There's been PLENTY of variants on gnomes, elves, and halflings, but in my experience, dwarves always end up kind of feeling the same. To the point where if you try to pull off a dwarf archer, or dwarf swashbuckler, or dwarf ninja, they look more comical than anything else.
Part Three: I learned to play the game with the Basic set and with 1st edition. In those games dwarves had, by far, the most limited options when it came to character classes. They could be fighters, or thieves, or maybe clerics. That narrow list of options was boring to young James Jacobs, and without the charming cuteness of the halfling to counteract that, there just wasn't much of interest in the dwarf to me.
Part Four: When it comes to fantasy fiction, the heroes I find the most enjoyable to read about are the scrappy ones. The ones who are willing to do underhanded, sneaky things to win. The ones who aren't really trying to be heroes, but are instead put in that position and, sometimes, accidentally become heroes. If these heroes have an alignment, that alignment is usually chaotic good. Maybe chaotic neutral or neutral or neutral good. I'm not really as interested in lawful heroes, or particularly lawful good heroes; they bore me, I guess. I like batman MUCH more than superman. I'm not a big fan of paladins. Han Solo > Luke Skywalker. And so on. When you look at the classic D&D roles for the demihumans, lo and behold the dwarf is lawful good, and often played to an over-the-top zeal and fanaticism with the law part in particular. And on top of that, barrel-shaped beardos are not as attractive to me as heroes. Dwarves have a LOT going against them. When you turn a dwarf into a duergar... POW! He's a LOT more interesting to me.
Part Five: I am not fond of loud people, drunk people, or stubborn people. Those three traits really set my teeth on edge, and I tend to want to avoid hanging out with folks who have those traits, to be honest. And as it happens, those are three traits that ALWAYS seem to be associated with dwarves.
Part Six: For whatever reason, my gut reaction to anything is to favor the underdog, and to favor the non-obvious "favorite" choice. Probably because I grew up in a small town where I often was the nerd who wanted to stay indoors and read when the majority of the rest of my class wanted to go out and play sports or whatever I simply grew up being able to empathize with the less popular choices. Dwarves are, undeniably, a POPULAR race. Arguably the MOST popular race. They certainly seem to be with designers, in that their racial abilities are much more numerous and, I feel, useful than most of the other races (although not as versatile... but hey, if you're playing a dwarf, you're not interested in versatility! ha ha). That's why I've always been a fan of gnomes and halflings, or of bards. They're the choices that, classically, gamers like to deride as being the "LAME" choices. And so I've spent a LOT of my time and creative energy invested in these "sub-optimal" choices, and I've found that they're really a LOT of fun and interesting and enjoyable options that, done right, can be just as powerful and rewarding as anything. Put simply... dwarves have plenty of fans already. They don't need me too.
PS: It's worth noting that I found the dwarves in Dragon Age to be VERY interesting and entertaining. Bioware did an INCREDIBLE job keeping dwarves feeling like dwarves, but NOT making them good guys. The fact that the dwarf who can join your party is crass, crude, rude, and foul is VERY entertaining. Hardly lawful good.
~grins~ Now I want to play a bald, beardless NG dwarf dual wielding hand axes while wearing no armor. Thanks bunches James!
edit - Hmmmnnnnnnnn... Barbarian, ranger, or rogue? Hell, straight fighter would work, but that would be cliche',
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The dwarven mindset and its love for traditions make it ideal for the wizard class. Not of lot of people have explored that avenue, but it is appealing to me, if I ever get the chance (wizard/loremaster, or just plain wizard methinks). Engineering, architecture, crafting and engraving stuff in stone tablets are all Int-based skills, and it is a wonder to me that "the smart dwarven caste" has never been more prominently displayed (Jason is right: all dwarf "heroes" we've seen in literature thus far are loud drunken dwarf fighters... at first glance these sullen bastards even appear to me as perhaps the "rejects" of their clan, with no good skill, so they were exiled or never encouraged to stay and have a decent stake in clan affairs...)
In almost all settings (not sure in Golarion) dwarves are always the most capable engineers and architects, able to build underground halls of countless wonders and innovation, centuries ahead of the surface dwellers in terms running water, aqueducts and such... it appears logical to me that each stronghold would also have a long-standing wizardly tradition, as all wizard skills go hand in hand with the ideals of dwarven society (hard work, study, excellence, skill over social finesse, inability to lie and preference in stating absolutes/truth in all things, preference in dealing with facts rather than hearsay, preference in saving/hoarding money instead of flaunting wealth, etc. etc. etc. WIZARDS!!!!)
:)
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Part One: I am somewhat entertained by perpetuating the belief that I hate dwarves, and thus often take a stance of self-exaggeration on the topic to perpetuate my own mythos.
This is by far my favorite answer!
I can agree with most of it overall. I don't like that everyone always plays Dwarves with Scottish accents, who wield axes and hate Elves. In my homebrew, I try to have the stereotypical Dwarves because folks want to play them but I also have a darker race that's prefers deception and sorcery to axes and beer chugging.
So two more questions(if you don't mind):
1) Do you feel the same way about Elves?
2) If given creative control over Dwarves in Golarion, what would you have done to make them different? (Besides not having them at all!)
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{Part Five: I am not fond of loud people, drunk people, or stubborn people.}
*stifles many comments about some of your co-workers*
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*applause for JJ* Thank you for such an eloquent and well-delivered response.
The reasons you enumerate are a mix of why I love Dwarves. In all actuality, I like my Dwarves at polar opposites.
Lawful Good and Violent About It Paladin.
Neutral just neutral and explosive about it Evoker/Astrogineer.
In short, however, I agree with the reasons JJ's provided for Dwarf hate, and I'm happy to report that Dwarves can still be done well if done thoughtfully and against tradition.
Still, I love my Halflings!
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Creative Director
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1) Do you feel the same way about Elves?
I don't, actually. In fact, the standard elf plays exactly into the opposite of all the things I don't like about dwarves, so as a result I've always been very fond of elves. They're both more human and more inhuman than dwarves, and in all the right ways.
2) If given creative control over Dwarves in Golarion, what would you have done to make them different? (Besides not having them at all!)
Actually, I HAVE and HAD creative control over dwarves in Golarion. I decided to more or less pass on actual development of them, since I was more interested in developing halfings, elves, gnomes, half-elves, humans, and even half-orcs, leaving the work on dwarves to other folk at Paizo who like them more. Had I been the one in charge of the dwarves, I'm not sure what I would have changed, but it would have probably annoyed a lot of dwarf fans.
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The dwarven mindset and its love for traditions make it ideal for the wizard class.Dwarven rune-wizards and geomantic sorcerers, who tap into the power of the earth and stone, would be way, way more interesting than the standard 'dwarven cleric' or 'dwarven fighter' riff.
Hmm, I guess I come from the "Dwarves can't cast arcane because they have Magic Resistance..." days of yore.
My mind fails to conjure up any Dwarven Wizards in any modules or adventures I've been in either.
Thus, when I decided to make a Dwarven Wizard I got this silly squishy feeling deep inside that I was Doing Something Different.
Why yes, my alignment is Chaotic Neutral. Why do you ask?
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I don't, actually. In fact, the standard elf plays exactly into the opposite of all the things I don't like about dwarves, so as a result I've always been very fond of elves. They're both more human and more inhuman than dwarves, and in all the right ways.
But don't Elves fall into the same sterotypes and cliches? Heroic tree-huggers who use magic and bows to protect the woods and are aloof yet wise, etc. Plus, they get more love than Dwarves! Legolas kicked ass in the movies, Gimli was comic relief.
Had I been the one in charge of the dwarves, I'm not sure what I would have changed, but it would have probably annoyed a lot of dwarf fans.
That's what I was angling for actually. Sales and happy fans aside, what would you do to make Dwarves more entertaining in Golarion? Make them more like Duergar maybe?
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Hmm, I guess I come from the "Dwarves can't cast arcane because they have Magic Resistance..." days of yore.
My mind fails to conjure up any Dwarven Wizards in any modules or adventures I've been in either.
Yeah, I have to go back to Norse lore, where Dwarves were highly magical beings (often shapeshifters), who forged Mjolnir, Draupnir, Gungnir, etc. for the gods, being magical craftsmen as well as powerful wizards.
Start by renaming them! Names have power and meaning. Calling them something other than "dwarf" helps a lot. In one campaign with a lot of Norse elements, I called them "swarts" and it helped. (Though it led to the typical D&D player jokes about warts. Might want to find a different name.)
I wrote a little bit of stuff on halflings recently (for something which the authors haven't been announced so I'll leave it for speculation). However it's up to Sean as to how much of it survives the editing process. :)
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Yeah, I have to go back to Norse lore, where Dwarves were highly magical beings (often shapeshifters), who forged Mjolnir, Draupnir, Gungnir, etc. for the gods, being magical craftsmen as well as powerful wizards.
Ah yes, the Dwarves of Norse mythology. Very awesome creatures. Darn shame they got nerfed in modern-ish mythology.
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From awhile back, my thoughts on where to fit Halflings into Golarion, for my own game.
Halflings of Golarion
Golarions’ Halfling population is most strongly concentrated in southern Avistan, with Andoran currently being the country that has the highest percentage of Halfling residents (as many as one in four Andorans are Halflings). They have lesser populations, ranging from 10 to 20% of the total citizenry, in nearby lands of Taldor, Cheliax, Isger, Druma, Galt, Molthune, Nirmathas, Nidal and the River Kingdoms, with Ustalav and southern Varisia being as far north as you’ll generally find settled communities of Halflings.
Before Cheliax’s turn to diabolism, that nation had as many, if not more, Halflings than Andoran, but the rise of the speciest House of Thrune has seem a turn in their favors, and many have fled to more hospitable realms.
While it is easy to generalize, and suggest that Halflings are free-spirited folk filled with wanderlust and a craving for adventure (as is often the case with their populations in Andoran), it is equally true that Halflings can be staunch traditionalists and defenders of the status quo, with no love of ‘trouble-makers,’ which better describes their populations in Taldor and, until recent decades, Cheliax. Indeed, it was their staunchly traditional nature that resulted in their fall from grace, as they resisted the turn to devil-worship and continued following the teachings of Abadar or Aroden, to the annoyance of the new dominant religious authorities. As a result of these very different mindsets, it is not uncommon to find that the loudest and most rabble-rousing of Andoran freedom-fighters are Halflings, while the most stuffy and traditionalist of Taldans are also Halflings.
In Cheliax, the much-reduced Halfling population includes a disproportionate number of slaves (often rounded up on truly dubious pretexts), and the non-slaves include both the outraged rabble-rousers who are one step away from being apprehended themselves, and those who work quietly and keep their heads down, hoping that this too, shall pass.
In Taldor, Halflings represent almost 20% of the population, but less than 5% of the upper class, due to a problem with social equality. And yet those rare few families who do ‘make it all the way to the top,’ tend to throw the most lavish and well-attended affairs, as if their rarity makes them all the more precious, even in the eyes of the human elite who made it so difficult for them to gain recognition.
Druma has a higher-than-average population of Halflings as well, and the Kalistocracy seems to appeal to them in great numbers.
The River Kingdoms are a special case, with a low-average number of landbound Halflings, but a thriving community of rivergoing barge-folk, who have their own culture and traditions, and winter in Lake Encarthan, lashing their rafts and boats together to make a temporary city. Halfling boatsmen are said to be able to traverse tributaries inaccessible to their larger kin, through dint of their various superstitions and traditions. A Halfling bargeman might drop a gold coin overboard in this section of river, and toss a handful of salt upon the water at that pond, and they claim that these observances protect them in their travels. Competitors whisper that the accidents that befall non-Halfling bargefolk are not nearly so supernatural in their origins, but the result of deliberate sabotage by the smaller folk.
Farther north of the River Kingdoms, few if any Halflings are seen, and generally being represented only by wandering folk, with the exception of Ustalav, which contains communities with Halfling populations as high as 1 in 10, and southern Varisia, where a population of Halflings has incorporated seamlessly with the Varisians themselves, adopting their clothing, their customs, their language and even their coloration, it seems.
Despite their presence in the region, Halflings are not common in Razmiran or Lastwall, for different reasons, and represent less than 5% of the local populations.
Farther south, Halflings descended from slaves taken from Taldor have become prolific in Qadira, and even more so in Katapesh, where they number over 10% of the local population. The numbers drop precipitously farther into Greater Kel, and in Osirion, only to pick up again in Thuvia, and yet again in Rahadoum, which has a population of over 5% Halflings. Nex has a surprising population of Halflings, recruited at first to work as assistants, laborers, librarians and scribes, only to surprise their masters by eventually equaling their arcane achievements as well. Again, one in ten of the wizards of that nation are Halflings, and they tend to innovate in areas of magical efficiency, industry and commerce, with a lesser interest in pure theory. Geb has only Halfling slaves, with the undead aristocracy of that nation being almost entirely non-Halfling in origin.
Osirion, too, is an exception, as centuries ago, Pharoahs and city-rulers found Halfling slaves to be choice entertainment, trained to tumble and cavort about, playing the part of court fool and clad in demeaning costumes. It was custom to permanently dye the faces of these entertainers in animalistic masks, to represent various archetypal figures for skits and plays performed for the amusement of these noble courts. It has been centuries since this has passed from favor, and Halflings are now regarded as equals by Osirioni law, but memories run long and Halflings generally regard the desert-nation with distaste, making up less than a tenth of a percent of the overall population. Still, for every rule, there are exceptions, and for every void, there are those that will seek opportunity in filling it, so it is not unheard of to see Halfling merchants in the streets of Osirioni cities, Halfling ‘explorers’ raiding the tombs of Osirioni kings (whom their ancestors may once have capered before) and even shameless Halfling entertainers tumbling and mocking on the streets of Sothis, shaming Osirioni passersby into giving them coin out of guilt.
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Start by renaming them! Names have power and meaning. Calling them something other than "dwarf" helps a lot. In one campaign with a lot of Norse elements, I called them "swarts" and it helped. (Though it led to the typical D&D player jokes about warts. Might want to find a different name.)Squats!
Stunty!
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Stunty!Start by renaming them! Names have power and meaning. Calling them something other than "dwarf" helps a lot. In one campaign with a lot of Norse elements, I called them "swarts" and it helped. (Though it led to the typical D&D player jokes about warts. Might want to find a different name.)Squats!
Demiurg!
Bah, you want to know about Halflings in Golarion? Just watch the 'concerning hobbits' intro on the extended Fellowship DVD and mentally add "in addition they make great slaves!" at the end. :P
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Creative Director
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But don't Elves fall into the same sterotypes and cliches? Heroic tree-huggers who use magic and bows to protect the woods and are aloof yet wise, etc. Plus, they get more love than Dwarves! Legolas kicked ass in the movies, Gimli was comic relief.
Sure... but it so happens that those stereotypes and cliches aren't annoying to me. And more importantly, when elves BREAK that stereotype, they don't look goofy.
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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But don't Elves fall into the same sterotypes and cliches? Heroic tree-huggers who use magic and bows to protect the woods and are aloof yet wise, etc. Plus, they get more love than Dwarves! Legolas kicked ass in the movies, Gimli was comic relief.Sure... but it so happens that those stereotypes and cliches aren't annoying to me. And more importantly, when elves BREAK that stereotype, they don't look goofy.
True, they look goofy when the conform to those stereotypes. ;-)
Halflings of Golarion will eventually happen; it's the only one we haven't done or announced yet, after all!
Kobolds of Golarion, how could you forget?
Halflings of Golarion will eventually happen; it's the only one we haven't done or announced yet, after all!Kobolds of Golarion, how could you forget?
Yum yum yummy!
I know better than to drink anything a dwarf gives me. Since it's an equal chance that it's beer, laundry water, or toilet water. Actually, who am I kidding? Dwarves don't know about laundry water.
They got crafty. It must've been in the pizza on Erik Mona day. Sad, sad news that is.
I can agree with James about dwarves being a bit limited in scope for roleplaying. Most often all the dwarves I've seen played come across as brash, loud, quick-to-anger boors. Bioware's Dragon Age dwarves are a bit of the same, in my opinion.
And in my unfortunate game universe, the Dwarves don't change much. I havae about 3 types of dwarves, and they pretty much act like standard dwarves. The only known dwarf character in play is a Dwarf Paladin who is pretty much a virgin surrounded by beautiful women who all want a piece of him. He pretty much rushes into combat to protect them, drinks all the ale he can get his hands on, and talks with horrible scottish accent (which most of my dwarves do, I blame Blizzard/World of Warcraft).
As for Halflings....I kill them down to a few thousand scattered across the realm. My fiance is my main player (pretty much she and I just play games together), and she wanted to face Demigorgon after hearing about him. But I didn't want to just throw her into the fray with level 20+ characters. Nope, had to do a campaign (or two or three lol. She likes making characters). So pretty much I changed some of Golarion history, with the Worldwound having a huge mile wide meteor that contained Demigorgon. No one knew he was there or that he was even missing from hell. Seems some world in another galaxy defeated him, but instead of banishing him to Hell, they buried him in moon and hurled him off into the cosmos, letting it be some other planet's job to deal with him.
Long story short, about 500 years ago, Demi gets free, rampages throughout the land, and pretty much crushes the land of the Halflings. Apparently on the world that dealt with him last, he was toppled by a few halfling characters and also knew of another world where a major evil force was defeated by two annoying halflings throwing some bit of jewelry into a mountain of lava. Needless to say, the Halflings in my world paid for that price.
(As for Demi, he got defeated by a massive world war against him and is currently encased in major magical wards in the mountains of Cheliax, which is how that country in my world has massive demonic problems/influences.
If you must ask, I like halflings but I've never really known what to do with them. My fiance apparently wanted them dead. =)
