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View Full Version : Roleplaying Kender: How Do? Or ways to roleplay a Kender that is not unfun.



Witty Username
2020-03-25, 06:23 PM
So, Kender have a reputation. I have not played a Kender personally but I have played in a game that introduced Kender NPC, and a bard with a personality was modeled on kender behavior(for the first session anyway). Which leads into I have always liked Kender, mostly due to the enjoyment of the Dragonlance books. However, there is the reputation, that is admittedly deserved.

So I ask, does anyone have success stories with Kender they would like to share? Or advice on how to make Kender antics add to the party's fun rather than detract from it>

One Step Two
2020-03-25, 06:45 PM
Years ago, my gaming group played through the Dragonlance Age of Mortals modules, the Key of Destiny, the Spectre of Sorrows, and the Price of Courage, our party was diverse, including a Kender party member. The player was respectful of the players in terms of the story, he didn't randomly take items from players in combat, and used the inherent kelptomania as a tool for levity, not disruption to quote one of my older posts on the subject:


We introduced a new Ranger character to the group. Our Kender immediately shook hands, and stated, his Slight of Hand check. He looked over the new characters' equipment, and found a Feather Token Swan Boat, which he immediately put in his cap, because it was a really pretty feather. When the Ranger spotted it, and asked for it back, the Kender stated, "Aww, but it looks so nice here, and if you need it I'll always be nearby." Our Solamnic knight hurrumphed, and the Kender pouted a little, then handed it back with a grin.

He made the distinct effort to go for interesting items over value, he did not steal the rangers +3 dagger, he didn't attempt to take their coins or gems, he took a feather and made it obvious that he took it because to the Kender, it was a neat feather. I have made (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=16350081&postcount=92) several (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=16350989&postcount=102) posts (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=16364095&postcount=140) about Kender and how they operated as part of a group without being hated, but it ultimately boils down to what I coined as:



The Giant's Law: It is the responsibility of the player to determine how her character should act for the good of the game before stating 'but that's what my character would do!'.

LibraryOgre
2020-03-25, 07:00 PM
Years ago, I ran a kender played by one of the few people I was sure wouldn't use it to be a jerk. I told him at the outset that my view of kender was that they genuinely did not realize that they were handling objects, and that he would not control his character's use of those things... he could call upon them at will, but if he was standing near something "interesting", I was going to check if he handled it. He also did not have the ability to stop his taunt power... he could use it at will, but I would use it if he was taunting someone. He requested a Wisdom check to be able to control himself; I told him he had to ask for it (so, if he told me he was controlling himself, I would make a wisdom check; if not, it was my discretion).

It worked out pretty well. We did not play for long, but his abilities came in handy. He was a cleric, so he had a good wisdom score, but he was also a fun player, so he made the game fun with the character, rather than had fun at the expense of the game.

Kender, as a whole, are highly flanderized (https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/Flanderization). There are relatively few canon examples of kender who are not the worst traits of Tasslehoff... the best I can think of is Tarli Half-Kender, and he was supposed to be a subversion... a head fake. But, his mother was also so unkenderish that her lover didn't realize she was one (which is a problem in and of itself). There's also the Kendar from Otherlands, the Afflicted Kender of 5th edition, and the Marak Kender from Taladas. So, non-flanderized kender are possible, just never a focus of the stories we have.

a_flemish_guy
2020-03-25, 10:28 PM
rule number one: have a talk between the player with the kender and the DM about what is and what isn't within kender gameplay
rule number two: have the DM tell the players all they're supposed to know about kenders
rule number three: any kender player who acts in bad faith has his character allignment irrevocibly changed to evil

thorr-kan
2020-03-25, 11:17 PM
It is possible. I've played a kender...3 times in three different groups. I have not been lynched yet.

First was a 2E pick game in Day of Al'Akbar. Played kender cleric of Mishakal (sp?), the DL healing goddess. I played up the curiosity angle to keep moving forward. "What's behind that door?", rifling through the bad guys' effects, etc. I used the rogue abilities in support of those actions. Nobody killed me, so I assume I wasn't too irritating. I will say, delayed blast fireball grenades and hoopak really make steamrolling the bad guys a lot easier.

Second was a 2E Al-Qadim campaign set in the Assassin's Mountain boxed set. I played Hakim Star'trekker, a kender sha'ir (genie-summoning mage) whose parents were spelljammers from Krynn to Faerun. Since Assassin's Mountain is a faction based investigative whodunit, the curiosity angle and rogue abilities were in the fore. We were *supposed* to be in everybody's business. And taunting was useful for getting the enemies to make mistakes. It worked really well for a low combat, intrigue-based game.

Third was a kender handler in a cross-genre homebrew game in the Friday Night Gaming Group. I played him much more traditional. While I "handled" other players' stuff, I always played it matter-of-fact and not in the heat of combat. "Oh, here's your holy symbol." in the morning after my watch and before we got going for the day; that kind of thing. It was a minor annoyance to the other players, but they treated it like any other natural obstacle: "It's raining; wear a poncho. Unknown riders ahead; keep a hand by your weapons. We're taking to the authorities; keep a muzzle on the kender." I had a lot of fun being bright and bubbly and sulking after being shut down. But it never lasted more than a minute. "I can't BELIEVE you guys wouldn't let me talk to the Prince. You're all so mean. Hey, isn't that a great western dragon, like we were looking for?!" and I'd be fine.

One of the other guys in the Friday Night Gaming Group is playing a 2E kender mystic (priest) in another Al-Qadim campaign. He's playing him more like a crazed halfing, but it's the same premise: curiosity, taunt the bad guys, interested in other people's stuff, sometimes needs a muzzle and a lunge-line. He's a hoot. And the party leader.

The main rule of playing a kender is: Don't Be A ****. You're curious about everything, not a thief amassing wealth. These are (presumably) your friends, so you're not going to screw them over. Keep it light; mood swings can be a thing, but it's never for long; live's too interesting.

Witty Username
2020-03-25, 11:22 PM
I like the idea of getting the DM in on it. DM rolls secretly and down the road just says the wizard's fancy quill for his spellbook has gone missing. As the Kender player you don't know if this is your stuff or some other thing like a thief stalking the party. You agree to help look for it and upend the wizard's entire pack helping him look, then maybe suggest you may have a replacement in your pack and dig through your pockets for a quill, finding the quill because of course its there, and give the wizard a "new" quill.

I was also thinking depending on the circumstances, if you could flavor your starting equipment as other member of the party's gear at least for the first session. For Example, you are a rogue and have spare dagger or something, maybe ask the party fighter if he would be cool if the dagger you have is a backup weapon of his and you grabbed it cause it looked useful.

I expect letting the party in on your antics is a start. Get a sense on what they find funny, frustrating, or too much.

thorr-kan
2020-03-25, 11:23 PM
Also, if you can get ahold of it, read the Dragonlance Heroes novel Stormblade. Lavim is described as a stereotypical kender who plays a major part in the storyline.

Kelb_Panthera
2020-03-26, 02:53 AM
It's not that hard.

The easier trait to handle is the stock kender naivete. All the world's a wonder but you're not touched in the head. You can ooh and ahhh and expect the best from people without thinking that a dragon won't devour you or the BBEG will stop his dastardly plans just because you ask nice. Kender are -long- accustomed to other races and creatures looking at them as pests, nuisances, and/or prey. Be ready for the fight when it inevitably comes and fight to win, just like anybody else. Maybe feel bad (IC) about the fact it had to go down that way but get it done.

More difficult is the kleptomania. The important thing to remember here is that it has nothing to do with greed. Kender are -not- interested in material wealth. They're more like jackdaws. Their eye is drawn to things that are interesting; knick-knacks and baubles with patterns, colors, and textures are -much- more interesting than any piece of actually important equipment your allies or anyone else might have. They're also fairly unconcerned with parting with the things they've acquired as a result of the "handling urge." If you're busted, and you will be if you're handling as often as kender are known to, don't worry about it and just hand over the goods with a smile and a shrug. There will be critical times when playing up this aspect of kender will be of great detriment to the whole party. When they come up, just don't. Unless the game is pretty light bordering on comedic in tone, it won't be well-received. Even if your game does have that kind of tone, you'll want to disrupt "big moments" pretty sparingly.


Which reminds me, consider the tone at your table before deciding to play a kender. They're not at all appropriate to a super serious or grimdark campaign. If you can accomplish the thing you're shooting for with a halfling instead, do that for these sorts of campaigns.

Above all, just be considerate of the GM and the other players at the table and you should be fine.

Zarrgon
2020-03-26, 09:20 AM
The only way I can see it working is if everyone agrees not to play D&D, but instead agrees to play the Silly Kender Game. So in the game you'd only pretend to start a quest, and then ask...well, ok, what wacky thing does the kender do? And just do that for hours. Really the problem here is the Player Spotlight.

It's really beyond annoying to have a player with a character that steals from the other characters.

And it's 100% worse with a kender, as players who want to play that race are just about always big jerks: They don't want to play a game of D&D; THEY want to have fun ruining a game of D&D for other people. They are the jerk kids that destroy sand castles another kid is building ''just because".

Even with a table rule of ''ok the kender player promises not to ever steal an important powerful useful item" is a bit pointless. Sure the player *might* agree to it...or they might just say they will do it, and then will ignore it. But even if they do, you still have the huge Player Spotlight problem. The player of the kenrer WANTS to disrupt the game, but sure maybe in a "fun way"(to them anyway). So even if they take a useless item from a fellow player character they WANT the game to stop while that player and character complain and they can sit back and laugh and be all cute and say ''I'm just playing my character". And they will demand that this game disruption is done often, maybe as much as every 15 minutes. After all if they don't disrupt the game, then they are not playing a kender.....

Lord Torath
2020-03-26, 09:35 AM
I've thought an interesting way to handle stealing from the party (but never actually had the chance to try it - never had the chance to play a kender) is the retroactive pilfer. When a party member states they're using an item that would be an interesting thing for a kender to take, if I'm close to them, I can pipe up "I dig it out of my pouches and hand it to you." If I'm not close enough to just hand it to them, then I didn't take it in the first place. Or I did, but I returned it before they noticed its absence.

This keeps the fluff that kender take things that interest them, but doesn't affect the crunch of the game. The wizard is not going to suddenly be without their Wand of Fireballs just when they need it most. During down time (setting up camp, eating breakfast, etc) I might steal something from a party member and then openly examine it so they can see it (and reclaim it) if desired.

Other than that, the only things I steal from the party are things the DM says I steal from them.

But yeah, the #1 rule when playing a kender is "Don't be a Pied Ninny to your party."

Willie the Duck
2020-03-26, 01:47 PM
Kender, as a whole, are highly flanderized (https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/Flanderization). There are relatively few canon examples of kender who are not the worst traits of Tasslehoff... the best I can think of is Tarli Half-Kender, and he was supposed to be a subversion... a head fake. But, his mother was also so unkenderish that her lover didn't realize she was one (which is a problem in and of itself). There's also the Kendar from Otherlands, the Afflicted Kender of 5th edition, and the Marak Kender from Taladas. So, non-flanderized kender are possible, just never a focus of the stories we have.

I really think the Dragonlance worldbuilders made a mistake in making most all the subsequent Kender Tasslehoff clones (/making Tasslehoff a highly representative member of the Kender race, however you want to frame it). Instead, they could have decided on a set of overall racial traits of which Tasslehoff's behavior could have been a single presentation thereof. Something like backstrapolating his lack of understanding of property rights comes from a racial lack of understanding of exclusive land rights (nomadic people perhaps). Fearlessness could stay as is (mostly. Tasslehoff honestly shouldn't have survived the first novel). Then you just have wandering, fearless, wide-eyed nomads with a sense of wonderment at the whole world; but without the not-so-comedic sociopathy.

Lord Shark
2020-03-26, 02:27 PM
The one kender I've seen successfully run basically ignored the whole "stealing from everyone" aspect; he just happened to have a lot of unusual items in his pockets. ("But where did you get that ball of string?" "Oh ... *shrug* ... musta found it somewhere.")

Segev
2020-03-26, 03:07 PM
I like the idea of getting the DM in on it. DM rolls secretly and down the road just says the wizard's fancy quill for his spellbook has gone missing. As the Kender player you don't know if this is your stuff or some other thing like a thief stalking the party. You agree to help look for it and upend the wizard's entire pack helping him look, then maybe suggest you may have a replacement in your pack and dig through your pockets for a quill, finding the quill because of course its there, and give the wizard a "new" quill.

I was also thinking depending on the circumstances, if you could flavor your starting equipment as other member of the party's gear at least for the first session. For Example, you are a rogue and have spare dagger or something, maybe ask the party fighter if he would be cool if the dagger you have is a backup weapon of his and you grabbed it cause it looked useful.

I expect letting the party in on your antics is a start. Get a sense on what they find funny, frustrating, or too much.

This is about how I'd run it. If I were playing a Kender, I'd hand the DM a d20, and tell him to roll it whenever he felt like I should be picking a pocket or stealing a thing, and if I succeeded to write down to tell me later, when I look in my bag, what I've "found." (Obviously, if I got caught, I got caught, and he'd tell me by virtue of the NPC who caught me reacting appropriately. or he'd tell the appropriate player that the PC noticed me doing whatever, and I'd only find out as the PC reacts to this unconscious kleptomania.)

The reason Kender have such a bad rep tends to be that players use them as an excuse to be jerks. It always happens to be the shiny, expensive, valuable things that the kender "just happens" to "innocently" steal. And the PCs are expected to go along with it and not blame him when the player is actively being a selfish jerk about it.

So the secret is: don't be a jerk. If the PC Kender doesn't realize what he's doing, then don't have the player know, either!

Pauly
2020-03-26, 03:54 PM
Kleptomania
It is a compulsion. It can be triggered by an obsession with a particular attribute, an interest in a certain class of objects or as a response to a particular stress. It is not about stealing valuable or useful items. Nor is it about randomly stealing random things.
Some role playing examples. An obsession with the color blue. An interest in ancient dwarven culture, a dislike of elves. If the character gas an obsession with the color blue then they are uust as likely to steal a priceless sapphire as a pretty piece of blue glass, but in either case they’ll leave the emerald or ruby alone. In the absence of the thing that triggers the mania they are not manic.

Taunting.
This is schoolyard kind of thing. It isn’t foul mouthed or creepy. Also it is like a little dog yapping at a big dog from behind a tall fence. The kender might taunt the city watch patrol because they know the city watch isn’t going to kill them, but in front of an ancient black dragon they’ll keep their pie hole shut.

Basically if you keep a few rules you will avoid the problems of
- derailing the adventure by putting the focus on the kender
- triggering TPKs “because that's what a kender would do”
- disrupting other player’s fun by stealing their items or sabotaging their diplomacy.

The taunting/naivety can be kept in check by the player. It’s the seasoning to the character not the meat and potatoes. If the other players know what triggers the kleptomania then they can adjust their character’s responses to a known predictable behavior pattern.
The kender’s quirks should be mildly irritating to other players, with the charm and fun a player brings to the role overcoming those issues.

patchyman
2020-03-30, 11:38 AM
Kender are an abomination.

A Small-sized prey race that is fearless goes extinct after one generation. Particularly when their other abilities kleptomania and Taunting (Really?) are also conducive to their being hunted to extinction by creatures who DON’T think they look tasty.

As this very website points out, there are few things more unnatural than a creature without a flight reflex. And that was said about a high level paladin, who at least have some abilities to back up their lack of a flight reflex.

LibraryOgre
2020-03-30, 11:49 AM
Kender are fearless, not suicidal. It's shown many times that they're perfectly willing and able to run from danger... they just don't get consumed by fear like some people do.

Lord Torath
2020-03-30, 01:30 PM
There is a big difference between being fearless and thinking you're invulnerable. Paladins are fearless. None of the Azure City paladins thought they could take on the entire hobgoblin army alone, though. Being fearless doesn't make you dumb.

LibraryOgre
2020-03-30, 02:38 PM
There is a big difference between being fearless and thinking you're invulnerable. Paladins are fearless. None of the Azure City paladins thought they could take on the entire hobgoblin army alone, though. Being fearless doesn't make you dumb.

It is, IMO, part of their flanderization... a lot of folks take "Not affected by fear" and take it to "Are completely unable to evaluate danger and completely lacking in survival instincts." They also seem to take adventurer-class kender as being examples of all kender.

Segev
2020-03-30, 05:11 PM
A kender will run when a dragon threatens to eat him if he catches him. But where a normal person will run screaming, panicking, and with great speed but not necessarily great judgment, the kender will lack the adrenal spike of speed (though he'll likely get a thrill of excitement), but also will be calmly thinking, "Well, that's bad. How do I get away most effectively?" while fleeing.

The net result is that both are fleeing. One is just a bit maddeningly thrilled/calm about it.

Witty Username
2020-04-01, 03:30 AM
Come to think of it, don't Kender not have a firm grasp of the concept of ownership? Like if I remember right, Kender are pretty comfortable with other Kender taking their things because of a perception that they don't necessarily own objects as individuals. You could play that up, pay for things that help the party as a whole or pass out your equipment to other party members that can use it (giving the wizard your spare crossbow or something). Maybe even be that weird friend that is constantly buying(borrowing/stealing/etc.) knickknacks for other people.

Segev
2020-04-01, 02:48 PM
Come to think of it, don't Kender not have a firm grasp of the concept of ownership? Like if I remember right, Kender are pretty comfortable with other Kender taking their things because of a perception that they don't necessarily own objects as individuals. You could play that up, pay for things that help the party as a whole or pass out your equipment to other party members that can use it (giving the wizard your spare crossbow or something). Maybe even be that weird friend that is constantly buying(borrowing/stealing/etc.) knickknacks for other people.

Explicitly, it's easy for friends and even strangers to get their stuff back from a Kender. Just ask for it. They will either give it freely, or, if you act like it was yours to begin with, return it with an admonishment that you should be more careful with your things so you don't lose them so easily.

It gets them in trouble with stuffy or already-prickly folks who accuse them of being thieves (and they're not wrong), but a person who knows what they're doing with a kender will, when the kender guest is leaving, ask them to show them their "collection" on their way out the door. And then ask for anything in it that is theirs. The Kender will happily share. And, if there's resistance, remind them that they found it in your house, and they'll perhaps be a bit obnoxious about sharing their worldview on how it came into their possession, but they'll return it. They're not hard to deal with if you know what you're doing, and the player of them isn't being a jerk.

The trouble in-setting tends to be that people don't know how to deal with them and just see "thief" and act like accusing them of it will shame them into not doing it. The trouble in games is with players who are being jerks and trying to excuse it with "in-character justifications."

a_flemish_guy
2020-04-01, 07:50 PM
I've once read a story where a kender "got hold" of the essential macguffin and traded it for something shiny at the town some 3 sessions before the party noticed it was missing
while this was the player effectively trolling it's not outside of the bounds of normal kender behavior, after all they don't really have an attention span or a solid grasp on the gravity of the situation

if a kender is in the party I'd take him apart to say in the simplest most terms: "this thing needs to travel with us at all times, it's essential to us finishing our goal"
kender are childlike and naieve, not actively malevolent and you can count on them doing what's right as long as you tell them what's right

Eldan
2020-04-02, 06:59 AM
I've read a similar story. It ended with the party deciding to execute the Kender.

Tanarii
2020-04-03, 04:38 AM
How do you role play a Thief in a way that is not unfun? Do that. Except it's even easier, because Kender aren't thieves.

That was the entire point. Halfling Thieves were a core part of D&D, but fat sit-at-home Hobbits and intentionally ripping off your team mates maliciously weren't fun. So they reskinned the combo into something that is fun instead.

Segev
2020-04-03, 10:59 AM
How do you role play a Thief in a way that is not unfun? Do that. Except it's even easier, because Kender aren't thieves.

That was the entire point. Halfling Thieves were a core part of D&D, but fat sit-at-home Hobbits and intentionally ripping off your team mates maliciously weren't fun. So they reskinned the combo into something that is fun instead.

Indeed, 3e Halflings and later more closely resemble Kender than they do Hobbits, and it's for a reason. They just toned down the mental...issues...that gave Kender a truly alien (and annoying to many) mindset. Just like Rock Gnomes in 5e are essentially Krynn's Tinker Gnomes, but not to the level of self-destructive madness that the Krynn denizens illustrated.

Pauly
2020-04-03, 04:05 PM
How do you role play a Thief in a way that is not unfun? Do that. Except it's even easier, because Kender aren't thieves.
d.

The real question is “How do you play a character in a way that is not unfun”

There are some races/classes/backgrounds that can be seriously unfun for other players if the controlling player decides to be an a-hole. Some examples:
Paladins.
Racially purist elves
Socially superior nobles.
Evil characters in a good party.
Dwarves who resolve social problems with an axe.

If your fun consists of knocking down things others have built then it doesn’t matter what class/race/background you play. You’re being Rian Johnson in “The Last Jedi” where you take every plot point JJ Abrams developed in “The Force Awakens” and break it.

Tanarii
2020-04-04, 12:57 PM
Indeed, 3e Halflings and later more closely resemble Kender than they do Hobbits, and it's for a reason. They just toned down the mental...issues...that gave Kender a truly alien (and annoying to many) mindset. Just like Rock Gnomes in 5e are essentially Krynn's Tinker Gnomes, but not to the level of self-destructive madness that the Krynn denizens illustrated.
Yup, spot on. They were both a first attempt to fix what was a problem, or at least sidelined, race. Now personally I loved Kender over even 3e/4e halflings and hate Minoi and love 5e gnomes. But that's neither here nor there. As you say, 3e did a good job of revising the Kender to something more generally accessible, and 5e did the same with Gnomes.

In fact, if nothing else that suggests a good way to play the Kender without being annoying. Play it as an agile nomadic witty and slightly larcenous lightfood halfling.

thorr-kan
2020-04-04, 01:05 PM
Yup, spot on. They were both a first attempt to fix what was a problem, or at least sidelined, race. Now personally I loved Kender over even 3e/4e halflings and hate Minoi and love 5e gnomes. But that's neither here nor there. As you say, 3e did a good job of revising the Kender to something more generally accessible, and 5e did the same with Gnomes.

In fact, if nothing else that suggests a good way to play the Kender without being annoying. Play it as an agile nomadic witty and slightly larcenous lightfood halfling.
I disagree with 2E needing a fix, but freely admit I'm prejudiced by the good tables I've played at. I've never had a jerk-kender player, nor been one.

But your suggestion for how to play a kender without being annoying is a good, concrete suggestion on play style.

Tanarii
2020-04-04, 10:13 PM
I disagree with 2E needing a fix, but freely admit I'm prejudiced by the good tables I've played at. I've never had a jerk-kender player, nor been one.

But your suggestion for how to play a kender without being annoying is a good, concrete suggestion on play style.
I meant hobbit-halflings and gnomes being just another kind of dwarf (with illusions!) needed a fix.

thorr-kan
2020-04-05, 12:13 AM
I meant hobbit-halflings and gnomes being just another kind of dwarf (with illusions!) needed a fix.
Gotcha; my misread.

(Though I still love hobbits. Tolkien and Lewis got me into DnD...) :smallbiggrin:

Velaryon
2020-04-06, 07:44 PM
I just had a ridiculous idea that someone must surely have thought of before now.

Convince your entire party to play Kender.

How I would handle it is to just have one community gear list (except for key items like the fighter's weapon, wizard's staff, etc.), and when someone needs a particular item, roll randomly to see whose pockets it ended up in today.

Is it workable? I have no idea, as I've never even played in a game with a Kender, much less played one myself. But tell me that wouldn't be good for at least one session's worth of comedy hijinks.

Witty Username
2020-04-06, 09:31 PM
The real question is “How do you play a character in a way that is not unfun”

There are some races/classes/backgrounds that can be seriously unfun for other players if the controlling player decides to be an a-hole. Some examples:
Paladins.
Racially purist elves
Socially superior nobles.
Evil characters in a good party.
Dwarves who resolve social problems with an axe.

If your fun consists of knocking down things others have built then it doesn’t matter what class/race/background you play. You’re being Rian Johnson in “The Last Jedi” where you take every plot point JJ Abrams developed in “The Force Awakens” and break it.

Well said. I am astounded how strong emotions are around "The Last Jedi" though.

Pauly
2020-04-07, 03:53 AM
Well said. I am astounded how strong emotions are around "The Last Jedi" though.

Actually I resigned my Star Wars fan card with the prequel trilogy, and I really haven’t been able to be emotionally invested in Star Wars for a long time. TLJ makes a nice-ish stand alone movie. But as a middle part of a trilogy it’s a disaster because it’s supposed to build from TFA to set up whatever the 3rd movie was. What it did was to tear down TFA and do nothing to set up excitement about seeing the next installment. My comments about TLJ were purely as a disinterested observer.

Porcupinata
2020-04-07, 10:07 AM
The one kender I've seen successfully run basically ignored the whole "stealing from everyone" aspect; he just happened to have a lot of unusual items in his pockets. ("But where did you get that ball of string?" "Oh ... *shrug* ... musta found it somewhere.")

Yep.

When the 5e playtest was underway, one of the "D&D Next" playtest releases happened to have Kender as a race, and their description talked about how they picked up random (non-valuable) things that took their fancy and gave them a racial ability to discover that they a mundane object about their person if the party needed one. However, the write-up for the race stopped at "acquires interesting things" rather than going the whole hog and describing them as being kleptomaniacs who take other people's belongings and have no concept of personal property.

The result of that was that my wife - who has never read a Dragonlance book in her life and had never even heard of kender until she read that playtest release - played one and it was absolutely fine. The curious and fearless character who always had something interesting in their pockets was an asset to the party rather than the liability she would have been had the D&D Next write-up given them the ridiculous attitude to property. The character never once stole anything from another party member, and was as surprised as anyone else when she happened to have something useful on her (and could never remember when or where she had picked it up).

That's the way to do a kender that's not unfun - although I realise that others might not be so lucky and might get a player who remembers the terrible versions of the race and insists on playing the terrible version even though that version is from a different edition.

Segev
2020-04-07, 01:55 PM
Yep.

When the 5e playtest was underway, one of the "D&D Next" playtest releases happened to have Kender as a race, and their description talked about how they picked up random (non-valuable) things that took their fancy and gave them a racial ability to discover that they a mundane object about their person if the party needed one. However, the write-up for the race stopped at "acquires interesting things" rather than going the whole hog and describing them as being kleptomaniacs who take other people's belongings and have no concept of personal property.

The result of that was that my wife - who has never read a Dragonlance book in her life and had never even heard of kender until she read that playtest release - played one and it was absolutely fine. The curious and fearless character who always had something interesting in their pockets was an asset to the party rather than the liability she would have been had the D&D Next write-up given them the ridiculous attitude to property. The character never once stole anything from another party member, and was as surprised as anyone else when she happened to have something useful on her (and could never remember when or where she had picked it up).

That's the way to do a kender that's not unfun - although I realise that others might not be so lucky and might get a player who remembers the terrible versions of the race and insists on playing the terrible version even though that version is from a different edition.

That's actually quite cool, and would make a nifty racial perk for a halfling subrace.

New Halfling Subrace: Medlkend
A curious (in both senses) people, these lithe and energetic halflings are friendly to a fault and rarely seem to even comprehend that others might not reciprocate. They love to travel, and meet new people, and learn new things, but have a tendency to ignore boundaries that can make them annoying to those who don't know how to deal with them.
Insouciant. You are carefree and without ties that hold you back. Nothing daunts your curiousity nor friendliness. You are immune to the Frightened condition.
Acquisitive. Medlkend are a naturally curious lot, and pick up items of interest without even realizing it. Many keep bags of trinkets they've collected over the years, but tend to also be more than willing to share them with others for the asking. You can examine your bag for useful items by rolling an Intelligence(Investigation) check to see what's in there. The DM will describe an item worth the amount of your roll in gp or less that is potentially useful to your current situation, or he will roll on the Trinkets chart to determine some new item you've found. Note that medlkend are as likely to lose objects as acquire them, so they may not have the same item the next time they check (at the DM's discretion). You may do this once, regaining the ability after a long rest.

Sacradans
2020-09-11, 03:17 PM
I frequently play kenders, they are my favourite race by far. And I've done so in a few different editions over the years. I will upon occasion actively 'handle' from strangers in town or whatnot, and happily roll off the trinket table to see what I acquired. But I limit this to at most 1/session. Generally my DM is good with me just randomly checking pockets for any mundane object I may have picked up along the way.

And in the past, I've been known to have my kender be kind of a packrat with things, especially with party members. I would scan over my inventory and pick out something I had... a pretty marble that matched the elf's eyes, a ball of string that would just dashing in the dwarf's beard.. and write the object down on a scrap of paper, along with the phrase of 'you reach into your pocket/pouch later to grab [insert random item here]. You find that it seems to be missing but in its place is [my gift here]. I'd then hand the scrap of paper to the appropriate player. They'd jot down some thing they had that I'd be able to find. I got all sorts of cool stuff that way, like a half-carved whistle that my character carried around for MONTHS trying to play it but never could.

The benefit of this system was that it was fun for both me and the other players, they got to decide what my grubby little hands grabbed (so they wouldn't lose something valuable to them), it didn't detract from the story, or occupy the DM's time.

LibraryOgre
2020-09-11, 03:18 PM
The Mod Ogre: Only in Ravenloft do we allow undead kender.