3.5 as Munchkinland, a hypothesis

[Exegesis]

Dragons fly. Giants and five-story monsters walk. Leaps are improbably high and far. Buildings of immense proportion thorn the sky without collapsing. You can fall a thousand feet and not be smooshed.

What are the chances humans in D&D are just a lot lot smaller than us?

[Troacctid]

That would make it Lilliput, not Munchkinland. Munchkins are only a little bit shorter than the other denizens of Oz.

[Red Fel]

That would make it Lilliput, not Munchkinland. Munchkins are only a little bit shorter than the other denizens of Oz.

I would agree with you, but for one thing:

Munchkins are among the major cultural groups in Oz. They are also among the major cultural groups represented at the gaming table. Coincidence?

Clearly, D&D draws Munchkins because they want to go home.

But, yeah. Lilliput.

[Exegesis]

Just trying to figure out brains that small, I don't know how problematic that would be—how much could you do with a smaller system that ran faster, for example?

Or, I was thinking you could have "souls" be, like, hard drives on the astral plane that are connected to people by miniscule portals in people's skulls.

[Feint's End]

Dragons fly. Giants and five-story monsters walk. Leaps are improbably high and far. Buildings of immense proportion thorn the sky without collapsing. You can fall a thousand feet and not be smooshed.

What are the chances humans in D&D are just a lot lot smaller than us?

Well there are size descriptions in the Player Handbook.

In a world using feet as size measurements maybe since feet could be measured in feet of smaller creatures (any size really) unless you take their size in cm. In a world using metre unlikely due to them being clearly defined in relation to the radius of the world. Now you could say that the whole world could be smaller but this would change the laws of physics again (probably to the point of the planet not being able to sustain an atmosphere).

Solution? Don't mix physics and D&D!

[P.F.]

Dragons fly. Giants and five-story monsters walk. Leaps are improbably high and far. Buildings of immense proportion thorn the sky without collapsing. You can fall a thousand feet and not be smooshed.

What are the chances humans in D&D are just a lot lot smaller than us?

Back in AD&D (I was 13) there were still sections of the Monster Manual written in the original dimensions, like where dragons had breath weapons with ranges of 6", which seemed pretty limited to me, until my DM explained that 1" was a shorthand for 10 feet. I had thought this was a holdover from when D&D was a miniatures game, but now I think you've stumbled on something amazing!

If a dragon were really the size of a dragonfly, then a 6" breath weapon wouldn't be so bad, and they could fly with the wing-area-to-body-volume ratio that they already have.

[137beth]

The munchkin adventurers are always disappointment when just as they approach the BBEG, a house falls on top of her via DM fiat. Bad adventure design!


Munchkins are among the major cultural groups in Oz. They are also among the major cultural groups represented at the gaming table. Coincidence?

Here is a graph explaining whether it is a coincidence! (http://xkcd.com/523/)