remember the hobbits ?

[necromancer]

Is it just me or is no one writing about hobbits anymore. Actually tolkien was the only one who i can think of who used them. Its a shame that the most origional, most innocent, most central charactors to the story are not the ones remembered. Writers aren't intrested in heros who want to save the world peacefully, they want the heros who would rather wipe out the enemy than have peace or that can kill like savages but are incapible of compassion.

I think tolkien would of prefared the peaceful hobbits to be immortal rather than the bloodthirsty Drawves and orcs or the not much better humans or the elves who will kill an enemy without any guild or campassion.

[Ancient Gamer]

Hobbits are wonderful. They are also painfully attached to DnD and Tolkien. Some of my female players perform the most wonderful hobbit acts y'ever saw. It is nearly impossible to talk about Hobbits without getting into the Tolkien / DnD act. Because of that many has chosen to move on.

No one has yet come up with a good replacement race for the Hobbits (Do not say Kender. I will not hear of it)

[CaptainPenguin]

Simple answer to this- hobbits are boring. They're tiny, innocent, they eat a lot, they're hairy. They don't like going on adventures because they want to stay home all day in their little houses. They're basically just short hairy British country people. There isn't anything particularly cool or exciting about them.

And, like AG said, they are inextricably bound to Tolkien and LOTR.

[Sydney Cain]

Is it just me or is no one writing about hobbits anymore. Actually tolkien was the only one who i can think of who used them. Its a shame that the most origional, most innocent, most central charactors to the story are not the ones remembered. Writers aren't intrested in heros who want to save the world peacefully, they want the heros who would rather wipe out the enemy than have peace or that can kill like savages but are incapible of compassion.

I think tolkien would of prefared the peaceful hobbits to be immortal rather than the bloodthirsty Drawves and orcs or the not much better humans or the elves who will kill an enemy without any guild or campassion.

Of coarse not! Think about it - which would you be; the tall, strong, handsome, and battle ready hero, or the short, hairy, cant kill a bug without help, whiny, weak hero. Hobbits are like hippies, they dont do much but smoke and play crappy music.

[Ancient Gamer]

Hobbits are the cute fellas that girls like to play. They use their wit and subterfuge to win the day. Those that are less combat oriented often love the Hobbits.
Male gamers usually hate Hobbits (and many hates elves too).

If there had been any viable replacement, I would have used them, but there is not.

[necromancer]

The hobbits are not just extras that were created for a laugh nor were they created as a repensentation of everything weak and puny and cowardly. They were created by Tolkien as a symbol of everything anywhat good about the human race. They don't start wars they don't polute the planet, they don't commit genocide they don't invade countries with armies not in any way near as advanced as their own just for oil!

The hobbits solve a problem with wit and self-determination and selflessness. The humans elves and drawves solve a problem by killing left right and centre.

The Hobbits were the heros of LotR they crossed the mountains of Mordor, escaped from an orc tower and crossed the plain of whatever its called and cast the ring into the crack of doom (i know what your thinking but hey Gollum is a hobbit.)

For another thing Frodo left the place he loved more than anywhere else in the world to go to a place where he will not be surrounded by but one of his kind.

Also in the end Frodo defeated Sauron not Aragorn and his mighty army which would of been wiped out.

But you obviously don't care about that so try this. What challenge is in killing orcs left right and centre or finding an obvious one weakness in an enemy thats overpowered and unbeatable just to make you feel like a hero for ultimatly rolling a high dice. A Hero that uses wit and integrity and that sacrafices himself to save his people. But also has more courage and resists evil. Besides if you feel hobbits are weak just because they are not the best fighters then change the bloody rules! Make them faster, have the shire massacred and the remaining hobbits turned into more guys with less moral restrictions on violence Just Like Humans! Or something like that.

[Sydney Cain]

The hobbits are not just extras that were created for a laugh nor were they created as a repensentation of everything weak and puny and cowardly. They were created by Tolkien as a symbol of everything anywhat good about the human race. They don't start wars they don't polute the planet, they don't commit genocide they don't invade countries with armies not in any way near as advanced as their own just for oil!

 Like I said; Hobbits= Hippies. Except there really shouldnt be any more hippies. They smell and talk about stupid crap they saw on Seseme street while they were high and ordering Dominos. I hate them!

[Pariah]

They're tiny, innocent, they eat a lot, they're hairy.

Capt are you implying that Hobbits are like rabbits?

[Ria Hawk]

Calm down, necromancer.  No one is saying that Tolkien's vision of hobbits is stupid.  No one is saying that that were created to be useless extras in Tolkien's works.  I like Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.  The issue is that Tolkien's vision has become inextricably intertwined with fantasy, especially role-playing fantasy.  This has reduced what was originally a new and awesome idea to the level of cliches, and usually badly done cliches.  That's the problem we have with hobbits.  Plus, while hobbits were pretty cool in the original stuff, they've been reduced to exactly what everyone has said they are in role-playing and a lot of fantasy novels.
Plus, while I know that hobbits could, in theory be supposed to represent the better parts of human nature, the truth is , Tolkien's hobbits weren't all sweet and innocent and noble.  There was Bilbo's relatives, who tried to appropriate Bag-End and eventually Bilbo's fortune.  Gollum may have started off as a hobbit, but look where and what he ended up.  Even Frodo had a darker side.  And the hobbits weren't the only ones who were noble and stuff: all of the named characters had their noble sides unless they were expressly villians.  And as for humans, elves, and dwarves "solving problems by killing left and right"...  Well, when a horde of screaming, murderous orcs, goblins, and assorted other things is chasing you, there's not really a different response possible.  Generally speaking, the Good Guys did not attack unless they were attacked first, or it was painfully obvious they were about to be attacked.
But the fact remains, in current fantasy and mainstream role-playing worlds, hobbits have become something of a joke.

[necromancer]

I wasn't angry  I was just getting a point across. But the point I was trying to make about the Heros killing left, right and centre is the the whole moral of it all. You talk as if the heroes were just your average soldier that is put in a situation which he must kill because he has to. The heros are put in situations where they are up against a horde of monsters and cannot do anything but kill them. However if you think about it the situation is always in favour of the heroes with the beasts attacking them. they are always in the right because the author/GM writes the story to benifit the Heroes.  This idea might not make sense but think about this: thousands of orcs die in lord of the rings and I mean thousands. Compare it to the amount of heroes actually killed. Now see what is mean no one cares if an orc dies or a horde of orcs dies as long as no orlando bloom. God the point i'm trying to make is that although the Heroes don't have a choice in the story when it comes to killing they could care! In the end the orcs are repersentations of human beings and if they were real heroes and the orcs were real humans how would you feel if the they went 'lets see how many orcs we can slaughter without any concscience at all, lets even make a game out of killing people'. Its not just orcs fantasy tends to have a race that suffers pain and is wiped out and treated like animals.

Even if the Orcs did start the war they still think and talk and walk like humans. so the point was trying to make about hobbits is that do you thinks its fair that the race people who are above that are called weaklings and to scared to kill a bug does not do them justice.

Also a replacement race just has to be like hobbits in temperment, they don't have to have the physical weaknesses

[CaptainPenguin]

I have no idea what all that was about or what relevance it had to this discussion.

[necromancer]

It was not really about hobbits in general so i'm sorry.

[CaptainPenguin]

No need, no need.
Just watch the thread drift, that's all.

I think the main reason that hobbits are not used is they, of all the fantasy cliches, have the "Tolkien" stamp on them. There's a reason that the word "halflings" was used rather than "hobbits"... For whatever reason, hobbits exist only within the Shadow of Tolkien. Since people don't want to copy the old T-Man too blatantly, they avoid hobbits.

[necromancer]

Ok you are officially right  . I think this thread has served its purpose and i'll make a new thread for replacement races for hobbits.