Weird Fantasy Dwarves, Elves, and Haflings

[Evilschemer]

Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings are such a traditional element in Fantasy RPGs that they're included in DCC.

Unfortunately, they are so rooted in Tolkein and Celto-Scandinavian folklore that they dampen a lot of the weird fantasy Clark Ashton Smith/Jack Vance vibe that both DCC and my campaign strive to emulate.

What are some ideas I can do to help make dwarves, elves, and halflings more weird fantasy?

Some ideas to start the conversation:

Dwarves are not bearded hammer-wielding Cornish miners. They should be stunted twisted Rumpelstiltskins, gruesome albino creatures of the earth with long arms and thick leathery skin. My platonic ideal dwarf would have no hair or beard but that's going to far against player expectation, so the braided hair and beards reluctantly stay.

Elves are not beautiful hippie nature Vulcans. They should be alien otherworldly creatures from another plane (Elfland) whose natural ethereal form could drive men mad.

Halflings are not short fat bucolic furry-footed burrowers. They should be backwards hillbilly pygmies who live in underground warrens.

[Rostranor]

Take a look at the Swordsmen and Sorcerors of Hyperborea for dwarves, and the Liberation of the Demon Slayer for elves. Both works pain those demi-humans in a nonTolkien light and more of a darker side of mythology.

[Evilschemer]

I just did a quick google image search, and for my campaign, at least, I'm going with:

Dwarves = Derro from D&D, but with beards.


Elves = Elves from Hellboy 2


Halflings = Nelwyn from Willow

[Maxwell Luther]

My Jabberwocky campaign setting uses the Elfquest type elf: sort of like wild west Indians with pointed ears, savage tempers and faerie magic. No dwarves in my campaign, but Gnomes. Halflings are exactly like the Nelwyn example.

[ragboy]

What I've toyed with is:

- Halflings are mutant humans with twisted physiques and possibly strange powers.
- Dwarves are descendant of an evil race, and though not necessarily evil, are not well loved for recent (~100 years ago) wars with their ancestors.
- Elves -- just read Daniel Bishop's two adventures concerning elves -- and then the source material. I think that'll do, pig. That'll do.

[Skyscraper]

You can dump the demi human classes and races from the available playable races by the players and make the dwarves, elves and halflings into races/creatures that you want, that they might encounter on their adventures.

Or, you could develop new classes that correspond essentially to the demihuman classes/races, but make them human. This is what I've done in my campaign where the demi-human races do not exist.

The elves are called sylvans and live in the forest, the halflings are gypsies and the dwarves live in the mountains (but not in mines). They are humans also, but again of another race, a bit like say, asian, white caucasian, african, middle-east or native american races might exist nowadays. I also have other human races that, for now, do not include playable PC races.

I've slightly remodelled the races to be able to use the DCC core classes with just a little tampering. The words "halfling, elf, dwarf" mean nothing in my world. They are only a mechanic for the players to refer to in the DCC book.

For example, the Halflings are called gypsies, they are humans a bit (a few inches only!) shorter than the others. They come from another portion of the world, they are an old race, but human like any other. However, they've developped an affinity with predicting the future and they are most welcome anywhere since it is said that harboring gypsies brings luck. (i.e. the halfling luck mechanic.) Rules-wise, they work identically to halflings, but their size is that of a human and they do not have infravision. They get minor spell-like abilities, the first one on level 1 which is a kind of hypnosis. The gypsies are travellers that arrived in the region where the adventure takes place, before the "other" human race that opens up the traditional fighter-wiz-cleric-thief classes.

[Arijuna]

I would suggest sticking with the stereotypes given in most fantasy rpg's and just do what the rulebook says. They're exceedingly rare to come across.

[smathis]

What are some ideas I can do to help make dwarves, elves, and halflings more weird fantasy?

One of the setting hacks for the Transylvanian Grimoire is using the classes in Transylvanian Adventures in a Sword & Sorcery/Weird Fantasy context.

The advantages of TA in this respect are:

• There is no "healing magic" nor a dependency in the game on such.
• Classes are such in TA that there are a multitude of options available, even without the usual fantasy staples.
• The addition of a spellcasting class is as simple as using DCC RPG magic in place of the magical systems that will be presented in the Grimoire. Or you can roll with TATG spellcasting as is and embrace a more disturbing, less gonzo weirdness.

Making a weird demihuman race is as simple as using the Half-Breed as written. Or switching out access to Two-Weapon Fighting with some of the other class abilities (in essence how TATG accomplishes multi-classing).

So Halflings could be short little people who have a Luck die (instead of Two-Weapon Fighting) and can talk to snakes, wolves, the souls of the dead, etc. Or they could be immune to the elements. Or have little psychic gifts like limited telepathy.

Elves could have Two-Weapon Fighting and any number of what are listed as "Dark Gifts" for the Half-Breed class.

I'd reskin Reavers to be Dwarves. But switch out one of their class abilities with the Half Breed ability to see in the dark. Or even speaking with rocks.

The flexibility of the Half Breed class allows for a wide variety of demihuman races. Adding in the multiclassing guidelines and there are dozens (if not more) combinations that can be achieved in TATG with just that one class. Fishpeople, Demonkin, Faeriekin, Beastmen, Dhampyrs... all those come to mind immediately.

Plus there's the advantage of having more varieties of Fighting Men beyond the Warrior.

[Richie]

This is an excellent thread and the OP makes a really good point about the schism between Tolkienean and weird fantasy.

I had an idea about an altered race of dwarves who live underground in a symbiotic relationship with a giant sentient mycaelial mass and a species of giant ants. Instead of hair and beards the dwarves have fungal mats attached to their heads and bodies and probably growing into their brains. The ants are also intelligent or semi-intelligent beasts of burden, mounts etc. The dwarves and ants together are mushroom farmers but the farms form the food, medicines and architecture! And the fungus conveys a psychic link between the three species.