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5 minutes ago, Nozbat said:

I've always dislike Hobbits ...too contrived... and really... if I had been Sauron...I'd have steam-rollered the Shire...mostly out of pure spite..but on the off-chance I might have found a Ring of Power

 

Bored of the Rings are we?

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... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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6 minutes ago, Joerg said:

sheep riders!

Quote

 

Arrowroot, Legolam, and Gimlet find themselves captured by, and then caught up in the troubles of, the Riders of Roi-Tan. An entire nation of German stereotypes on sheep-back, the Roi-Tanners provide Arrowroot with a romantic interest in their princess Eorache.

found with.. what else... duckduckgo form TVTropes

 

I totally forgot about that, though in my defence I read it back in the 70s as a teen. Yep, this gobbler, which many would not touch with a 10 foot pole axe, was not politically-correct!

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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15 hours ago, Nozbat said:

I've always dislike Hobbits ...too contrived... and really... if I had been Sauron...I'd have steam-rollered the Shire...mostly out of pure spite..but on the off-chance I might have found a Ring of Power

 

Even though I am a total Tolkien honk [as in 'no other fantasy author has even come close this side of Beowulf'], I freely admit that I have an ugly bias against the 'ratling races'... Hobbits, halflings, gnomes, and yes, ducks just make me want to contemplate genocide for the good of the milieu. Most of this is because I absolutely loathe fake contrived cuteness or silliness. A child discovering that they can make cookies is adorable. A rolly-polly puppy is wonderful. An entire race devoted to some Mayberry RFD faux idealistic village life and making pies just annoys the Hell out of me.

If gnome punting is a crime, then stop making gnomes.

There. I said it.

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2 hours ago, svensson said:

If gnome punting is a crime, then stop making gnomes.

 

Now, now, gramps get yer meds, and get back inside and let those kids play on your lawn... Some of us actually like what you despise and despise what you like... and we do not want to go to war with you so we will not bring ‘em up. At least not despairingly. As I have said so many times... each to their own. Give me hobbits, ducks and gnomes (a double helping if you could). Just no grumpy old men, eh.

 

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... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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5 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Now, now, gramps get yer meds, and get back inside and let those kids play on your lawn... Some of us actually like what you despise and despise what you like... and we do not want to go to war with you so we will not bring ‘em up. At least not despairingly. As I have said so many times... each to their own. Give me hobbits, ducks and gnomes (a double helping if you could). Just no grumpy old men, eh.

 

Hey, I never said YOU couldn't like them. I just said that I don't. Your fun is your fun and I wouldn't think of telling you not to have fun.

Until I punted yer gnome... 😁😆

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Dudes, Hobbits are chill af, they're literally just vibin.



(I like them a lot probably because the Shire SUPER-reminds me of the rural community I grew up in, especially the massive quantities of food, constant gossiping, and bitter inheritance feuds, lmao. My dad was a huge family lineage nut, to boot.)

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49 minutes ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

Unless it's a Redcap (goblin) in disguise...

 

No-one will ever punt a Redcap... I'd be betting on the Redcap every time.. iron boots are made for punting humans

I've used the Recap in the Gateway Bestiary several times over the years and it always flumoxes PCs who end up running away or turning out the local militia in an attempt to prevent further punting

On 7/1/2021 at 2:08 PM, svensson said:

Hobbits, halflings, gnomes, and yes, ducks just make me want to contemplate genocide for the good of the milieu

My ire is mostly against Hobbits/ Halflings... particularly the Tolkienesque 'English-pretend-shire' variety. I have a vague dislike for Ducks.. but they are definitely less cutesy mushroom-eating creatures.. gnomes I have no issue with... 

It reminds me of the introduction of George MacDonald-Fraser's book the Pyrates

“That was England, then; long before interfering social historians and such carles had spoiled it by discovering that its sanitation was primitive and its social services non-existent, that London's atmosphere was so poisonous as to be unbreathable by all but the strongest lungs, that King Charles's courtiers probably didn't change their underwear above once a fortnight, that the cities stank fit to wake the dead and the countryside was largely either wilderness or rural slum, that religious bigotry, dental decay, political corruption, fleas, cruelty, poverty, disease, injustice, public hangings, malnutrition, and bear-baiting were rife, and there was hardly an economist or environmentalist or town planner or sociologist or anything progressive worth a damn. ”

 

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On 7/2/2021 at 8:19 AM, Nozbat said:

“That was England, then; long before interfering social historians and such carles had spoiled it by discovering that its sanitation was primitive and its social services non-existent, that London's atmosphere was so poisonous as to be unbreathable by all but the strongest lungs, that King Charles's courtiers probably didn't change their underwear above once a fortnight, that the cities stank fit to wake the dead and the countryside was largely either wilderness or rural slum, that religious bigotry, dental decay, political corruption, fleas, cruelty, poverty, disease, injustice, public hangings, malnutrition, and bear-baiting were rife, and there was hardly an economist or environmentalist or town planner or sociologist or anything progressive worth a damn. ”

I've just discovered my new tattoo.

!i!

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carbon copy logo smallest.jpg  ...developer of White Rabbit Green

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On 7/2/2021 at 4:19 PM, Nozbat said:

My ire is mostly against Hobbits/ Halflings... particularly the Tolkienesque 'English-pretend-shire' variety. I have a vague dislike for Ducks.. but they are definitely less cutesy mushroom-eating creatures.. gnomes I have no issue with... 

I have no problem with hobbit in Tolkien because in his books they are a genuinely novel creation. The Hobbit was explicitly a children's book and I think in that context they're fine. They're a way children can discover this new world through the eyes of a protagonist they can perhaps identify with.

What's silly is having hobbits in socially real situations in later fantasy. It's a bit like like unironically finding Winnie the Pooh running a honey stall on the streets of Greyhawk. It would be completely out of tone.

Having said that, and maybe I'm being unfair, but I wouldn't bat an eyelid at finding an unreasonable facsimile of Pooh selling Honey in Glamour. Glorantha has always been a mix of the absurd and the realist, the whimsical and the horrific. It's also always, from the very earliest days, included satirical, ironic or obscure references to popular media or iconic characters and the real world. Ducks because Howard, Donald and Daffy. Prax because Dr. Seuss. Grizzly Peak because Greg was standing on it while daydreaming about Glorantha. It could have something like halflings very easily, they wouldn't really be out of place. What I mean by that is, if the rest of fantasy hadn't spoiled the well on this already they'd be no more out of place than Ducks, but they have no place there now for the same reason Orcs don't, they've been too closely associated with mediocrity. But if Tolkien had never written about Orcs, or if he's stopped writing at The Hobbit and had stayed in obscurity it probably wouldn't be a problem.

Edited by simonh
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Check out the Runequest Glorantha Wiki for RQ links and resources. Any updates or contributions welcome!

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4 hours ago, simonh said:

I have no problem with hobbit in Tolkien because in his books they are a genuinely novel creation. The Hobbit was explicitly a children's book and I think in that context they're fine. They're a way children can discover this new world through the eyes of a protagonist they can perhaps identify with.

 

Thanks for putting my feelings on the matter into words, simonh!

4 hours ago, simonh said:

What's silly is having hobbits in socially real situations in later fantasy. It's a bit like like unironically finding Winnie the Pooh running a honey stall on the streets of Greyhawk. It would be completely out of tone.

 

Oh, bother!

 

5 hours ago, simonh said:

What I mean by that is, if the rest of fantasy hadn't spoiled the well on this already they'd be no more out of place than Ducks, but they have no place there now for the same reason Orcs don't, they've been too closely associated with mediocrity.

Yep

... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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5 hours ago, simonh said:

It's a bit like like unironically finding Winnie the Pooh running a honey stall on the streets of Greyhawk. It would be completely out of tone.

Having said that, and maybe I'm being unfair, but I wouldn't bat an eyelid at finding an unreasonable facsimile of Pooh selling Honey in Glamour. 

Honestly, an amazing image.

5 hours ago, simonh said:

Glorantha has always been a mix of the absurd and the realist, the whimsical and the horrific. It's also always, from the very earliest days, included satirical, ironic or obscure references to popular media or iconic characters and the real world. 

*cough-cough* (not these days) *cough*

!i!

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I understand the derision toward hobbits as portrayed in most RPGs.  But I'll direct the discerning reader to both "The Scouring of the Shire" toward the end of The Return of the King and to the treatment of halflings in D&D's Dark Sun.  Just because they're small and twee, it doesn't mean things won't get nasty.

!i!

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37 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

I understand the derision toward hobbits as portrayed in most RPGs.  But I'll direct the discerning reader to both "The Scouring of the Shire" toward the end of The Return of the King and to the treatment of halflings in D&D's Dark Sun.  Just because they're small and twee, it doesn't mean things won't get nasty.

!i!

My problem with them is three fold...

a] the way some people play them is like having to watch an unholy love child of 'Smurfs' and 'Fraggle Rock'.

b] Kender and ditzy inventor-gnomes.

c] As they are stat'ed up in DnD, their size disadvantage isn't compensated for by their so-called bonuses.

And don't get me started on halfling 'knights' with lances mounted on dogs. That just makes the historian and SCA fighter in me cringe [even at full charge, the dog and ratling don't produce a whole lot of force at the point of impact -- it's the same physics that generate the '1d6 damage per 10 ft /3 m fallen' rules dammit!]

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Still love me my hobbits, sorry svensson. While you say you hate hobbits, what you are complaining about is DnD and halflings!

 

2 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

Some people will put whipped cream and colored sprinkles on their steak.  We must simply not dine with these people.

 

and this is bad?

Edited by Bill the barbarian
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... remember, with a TARDIS, one is never late for breakfast!

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