Burning Wheel Hobbitses / Halflings

xenomouse

This is for those of you who are familiar with Burning Wheel and who are interested in LotR type Halflings.

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df739662_7gbtqpd

This is a first draft of work in progress, so all constructive criticism is welcome (as are both compliments and name-calling).



Did you know that the reason people call them "Halflings" in games - even though they are obviously Hobbits - is that the Tolkien estate holds some rights on the name "Hobbit." See the Wikipedia article on Halflings for more details (note that there are no references).

TheWhaleShark

You've definitely got the flavor nailed, and that's one of the most important aspects of ANY Burning Wheel character stock.

I like the lifepaths you've got so far, but I feel like you need more of them. Hobbits definitely need a Husband/Wife lifepath. Also, you have no Born lifepaths that I saw; make some of 'em. Never mind, just saw your note on the lifepaths. I would still like to see the lifepaths more hobbit-focused than just saying "they take mannish lifepaths except..." Maybe instead you should take lifepaths from the mannish settings, and just modify and adapt them to be hobbit-esque.

I'd like to see some sort of "Underestimated" trait, to reflect the fact that hobbits were considered to be among the meekest of races. Maybe something like hobbits earning an extra fate point every time they accomplish something definitely unexpected of a hobbit, or some such thing.

xenomouse

Maybe instead you should take lifepaths from the mannish settings, and just modify and adapt them to be hobbit-esque.



I'd like to see some sort of "Underestimated" trait, to reflect the fact that hobbits were considered to be among the meekest of races. Maybe something like hobbits earning an extra fate point every time they accomplish something definitely unexpected of a hobbit, or some such thing.
I'll definitely keep the first suggestion in mind when I update it.



As for additional common traits, I thought about having some sort of "Innocence" trait where hobbits take the death of a friend or party member unusually hard (since they are largely unaccustomed to battles and violence). Then I recalled that eventually, they got pretty good at dealing with issues with which they were "unaccustomed" (e.g. - Merry helping take down the witch-king, Pippin helping take down a Troll in the battle at the black gate [if my memory of the books serves me], and Sam and Frodo being much more capable of resisting the corruption of the one ring than any human). So they aren't as incapable of dealing with trauma as I originally thought, but it did take them a bit to get there.



As for an "Underestimated" trait, it seems like it would be related to the "Innocence" trait I was thinking about, though with a different bent (e.g. - people underestimate them because they are assumed to be the "meekest" or the most innocent of races). "Underestimated" would work off the assumptions of the person observing the hobbit, while "Innocence" would describe something intrinsic about the hobbits, regardless of the observer. In that light, "Underestimated" should affect the observer and not the hobbit, but I'm hesitant to add a trait that affects third parties based off assumed beliefs. That trait should only come into effect if a third party believes that hobbits are so meek, but that's getting a little complicated.



Maybe one solution would be to have a "Surpise!" trait, which is a call-on for traditionally non-hobbit activity (namely violence). What do you think?

albrackin

Hey xenomouse, great BW addition! Hoping you haven't forgotten about it and are planning an update (such as the definition of "Eavesdropper" Trait). We have tried and love the Hob... er.. Halfling Lifepaths and were very pleased with the results. The only shortcoming? Needed an Emotional Attribute! Faith just doesn't seem to fit, and the Elf/Dwarf/Orc ones make even less sense. We asked the question "What would a Halfling struggle with?" and the answer came to us in the form of a certain "goblin" we all know who became corrupted by a certain ring of power. "Restlessness" is what we have chosen to call it. We tested it a few times and it seems to serve the purpose, so if anyone is interested I'm linking it here: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgrdc4tn_414v4m7gjd&pageview=1&hgd=1&hl=en

Happy Halfling Burning!

xenomouse

Wow! I had no idea people would actually use this and - coincidentally - had completely forgotten about it. At first glance, the emotional attribute structure looks really solid with one or two caveats. The conditions to determining starting Restlessness give 11+ opportunities for the starting score to increase. With the understanding that a character will most likely not fit all those conditions and that the max starting Restlessness is 9, it seems like too much, as it would be pretty easy to answer yes to most of those.

If you weren't already aware, the Magic Burner has a new emotional attribute called Corruption which seems similar to Restlessness in terms of the situational tests for advancement - it even has that trick with the Deeds point that you mentioned. The book also has a section dedicated to burning new emotional attributes. Check it out if you get a chance.