Dwarves: How awesome are dwarves?

[devp]

Of the "common" fantasy races, I've come to be a cheerleader of the dwarves in general. When you look at the alternatives, isn't it obvious?

Elves: usually semi-immortal and part of an ancient society with unbreakable magics. Too easy to for a character - or player! - to swim into the mire of self-absorption.

Humans: Either they're a bland jack-of-all-trades (most D&D settings), or they have some deeper Potential for either great good or great evil. Unsurprisingly, this just descends into mega-evil (the Sorcerer Kings of Dark Sun, the oppressive humans of Dragon Age).

Gnomes: Man, fuck gnomes.

Dwarves: Work hard, build useful stuff, fight the evil, stick together, get shit done.

Dwarves have a pragmatic ethos that, to me, is the mark of true heroism. Dwarves all the way.

[devp]

Now, let's look at D&D 4E and the powers granted to the various species.

Elves: Because elves have deep and unresolved issues, you have as many as four different powers. Most of these involve disappearing and staying hidden in some fashion; one of these is a do-over if you don't feel like missing. LAME.

Humans: Now even humans have a power that just means "I still don't feel like missing". When you're ripping off the elves' encounter powers: just sail into the west and start over.

Gnomes: WHAT THE CRAP - Gnomes ALSO have a "disappear now" power. I'm so disappointed.

Dwarves: Here we go: Dwarven Resilience. When other characters may hide, disappear, feystep or simply beg for a reroll, dwarves endure. They don't win through trickery or chance, but because they stick around to finish their damn job.

Again: dwarves.

[Chris Chinn]

Since you posted this in gamer culture, do you have stuff about how people play with/play Dwarves to talk about?

Chris

[devp]

For Dwarves specifically: there is the meme that Dwarves are somehow Scottish, and I like avoiding this when I can simply because it seems a bit trite and probably problematic. In Dragon Age, they are the people with the non-pseudo-british accents (basically an American accent?), so that's a good subversion. There is justification for borrowing cultural elements from real-world cultures once in a while, but I figure that drawing a straight correlation will (a) feel flat and uninspired; and (b) lead to foolishness.

Does anyone know of players who only stick with a certain species while playing? (Perhaps even humans?) I play a variety of different characters ultimately, even if I love Dwarven fluff, but some players are Always Elves or Always Humans if they feel that can't relate to someone else, and this always seemed a bit odd to me.

[judd]

Funny voices were a big part of play in college and yeah, we put on terrible Scottish accents for our dwarves. Looking back, I started to not only stop doing it but wince at that kind of thing after gaming with a Scottish guy for a while and sharing long car rides to Gen Con and back with Malcolm Craig.

I do love the dwarves, especially since the Burning Wheel dwarven lifepaths, my favorite of the stocks.

[judd]

Dwarf Story/link/thing:

There was a part of a world for a D&D game where 7 dwarven kings ruled and I really wasn't sure how to describe seven stout dwarven dudes so that they would be different from one another.

WotC had these character sketches and had a whole slew of dwarves and it was really helpful, allowing me to wring out a whole society of dwarve kings from these pics. Naturally, the D&D game never went to those lands and the PC's never met the dwarven kings.

When a BW game started up I grabbed those notes again and re-used them, having a mountain range of dwarves who were at war with The Dragon. That became an RPG.net thread and the thread became an article in Fight on!

[devp]

I like the 7 Dwarven Kings lore a lot! Dwarves Culture is general defined by their deep, sympathetic and semi-pathological familiar bonds, and I think gets you on the road towards some blood opera conflicts.

[labmouse]

Oct 20, 2011 7:15:11 GMT -8 devp said:

Does anyone know of players who only stick with a certain species while playing? (Perhaps even humans?) I play a variety of different characters ultimately, even if I love Dwarven fluff, but some players are Always Elves or Always Humans if they feel that can't relate to someone else, and this always seemed a bit odd to me.

I used to lean towards Elves for high fantasy fluff and if they had more variation in types of elves. I did veer away from the "High Elves" which were invariably pale and blond and got moderate side eye from me. If there was potential for intra-factional strife, it was all the better, like Wood Elves vs Drow.

Nowadays, I vary my race choice a bit more. For my first character in WoW, I did made a Night Elf druid though. I blame it on the lack of druid options for Alliance and the fact that I could play a pink character.
How weird is that?