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First off, I apologize for the massive word wall you're about to commit to if it doesn't scare you off immediately. Secondly, I imagine this thread as an evolution to my ideas, gleaning feedback from other creative types and seeking help from said creatives when I hit writer's block as I encroach on the horrifying task of organization.
I have filled close to four notebooks of varying sizes over the years working on my own homebrew world/campaign setting and have finally started to sift through all of my ideas and thoughts and have come to a point that I'm starting to organize everything into Microsoft documents. I've reached a point that I'd like some input and I figured here would be as good of a spot as any to ask for opinions and advice.
I've already decided that I'm returning to more classic roots and am trying to avoid the Tolkien theme as much as possible. I know that this unavoidable at certain points (at least in my mind), but I don't want to stray as far as say Dark Sun. By classic roots, I refer to our own world mythologies that Tolkien did draw most of his ideas from.
Before I start a lot of work on the world itself, I wanted to tackle who lives in it first. As far as I'm concerned I see it working like this. One, who lives in the world shapes the world. Two, once I've decided on the races, I will work on the creation mythos, cosmos, etc (which I have rough ideas on but and stumped with, but one thing at a time). Three, start fleshing out areas, kingdoms, etc.
So step one. I want the "core" races in my game. Humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, half-elves. I'm still torn about halflings. No matter the setting, well excluding Dark Sun, they've always seemed a bit silly to me. As far as humans are concerned, I'm not going to screw with the "stock" fantasy human over much. They're the core, identifiable race that no matter who you are, you can identify with them. I want to return to our mythic roots concerning dwarves and elves. I've already done a ton of reading on the Germanic and Norse roots of elves and I'm going to take that to heart as I create the race from the ground up. Same with the dwarves, though they will take more of the Germanic mythology as the elves will lean more towards the Norse side.
What I am stuck on is gnomes. Freaking gnomes. Personally, I hate them, but I have several players in my group that like them, and if I don't include halflings, will gravitate towards them. While researching the mythological source of gnomes, I'm stuck. They're too similar to elves and what I'm wanting to do with them. I'm not opposed to Paizo's re-imagining of the gnome and actually like what they did with the race. It would also fit into my master plan of what I'm wanting to do with the elves, which is to return the elf to the master of the fey fold, returning him to his Norse roots.
For now, I'd like some feedback about what some of the players who like gnomes think and from fellow GMs as well, if I haven't bored you already.
Many thanks.
Last time I built a fantasy world for d20, I had a hard time justifying the presence of gnomes. Even orcs barely made it in (by a technicality).
Wait. Halflings seem a bit silly? But not... Gnomes? I'm very sorry. That really is as far as I got. Oh wait. You hate them. Phew! Carry on! More power to you. Drop gnomes, halflings AND dwarves and you've got a fan here. All patently ridiculous.
[EDIT: Sorry, you were looking for some pro-gnome advice. Can't help you there. Halflings, gnomes and dwarves are what catapults were invented for.]
I wrote (well, started) this TV Tropes page on the subject of gnomes...
Any justification you come up with to remove dwarves, gnomes, and halflings from your setting, as long as it makes sense within the context of your setting, is fine.
I dropped dwarves, gnomes, and halflings from my setting and the Earth is still spinning. Additionally, I added a lot more races to my setting as options.
I'm with Oceanshieldwolf: I can't offer you pro-gnome/halfling/dwarf advice.
Don't lose them, change them. Make them unrecognizable as gnomes. Perhaps they're a savage barbarian people, barely emerged from the forest. Perhaps they're mystic and aloof, rarely coming down from their crystal towers.
Perhaps gnomes are the only ones with the advanced technologies of gunpowder, or have found a way to merge magic and gunpowder to be devastatingly dangerous.
There are tons of ways to use the less-liked races. All you have to do is change the tropes that are normally associated with them.
Wow. I'm surprised. I didn't think there would be so much dislike for the smaller races. If I decide to keep gnomes, I think I'll pull a lot of inspiration from the Paizo re-imaging of the gnome.
My reasoning for this is as such: I have a few players that usually play in my game that love the little races. I don't know why, but it has to do something with their personality. Another reason is as previously mentioned, the Paizo re-imaging ties in closely to what I want to do with the elves. According to early Norse and Germanic mythology, elves were essentially the kings of the fey races. I'm keeping the roots of that essence, keeping the idea of Elfhame (though going to rename it).
My problem with these kind of gnomes (thank you Evil Midnight Lurker), is that I really hate the concept. And wanted to do something different with the race as a whole.
I'll be working on outlining my thoughts and racial notes on the elf and dwarf races this week, if anyone is interested.
For those interested in my thought process behind the elves, you can find most of it here and notice this to see how I do my approach to Dark Elves, pulling from a story from Christian mythos. I like Paizo's stance on there are no good dark elves. I'm really sick of the Drizzt phenomenon.