Tuesday, April 7, 2020

OSE Encounter Activities - Halfling

I must admit to a slight and persistent bias against Halflings. I usually remove or replace them as a Character Class and potential Encounter in most of my games because they connote far too much Tolkien tang for my liking. The folklore associated with them is frightfully young and therefore a staggeringly sparse seam to mine for mythological touchstones. Elfs, Dwarfs, and Gnomes are so much more mythologically fertile, and don’t really have the issues associated with a being pigeonholed by and derived from a solitary source.

If I had my druthers, I’d take a cue from others and remix them utterly in order to find them a more interesting niche. Oh wait, I do and have! 😊

Over the years, I’ve recast them as Ageless Orphans, Faerie Goblins, furtive Froglings, and even Hedgehog-folk. They’ve played the part of a fierce Chameleonic fighting force, bonded at birth to Giant Lizards. I’ve even rendered them as cave-blinded doomsday zealots, worshiping Medusæ and capable of an uncanny, statuesque motionlessness. If only it didn’t step on Gnome-toes as much, they’d maybe make for decent Bluecaps or Brownies.

But I’m sure others don’t have these pesky concerns, so here’s one hundred Halfling activities. I’ve tried to cleave to the campestral and underscore the bucolic overtones somewhat for the broadest possible utility.

1 comment:

  1. That's hysterical. You don't like halflings because they're so recent and lack the mythological depth of dwarves, so you replace them with bizarre things that you just made up NOW? LOL! ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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