Quote Originally Posted by The Gremlin View Post
[rant]
Counter-arguments ahoy!

Quote Originally Posted by The Gremlin View Post
Why does everyone hate gnomes?! There is nothing wrong with them, save misrepresentation! They have been portrayed as annoying pranksters, annoying tinkerers, and annoying halflings, just more annoying!
Arguably, if something's portrayed exclusively as annoying, it probably is. While outside of D&D gnomes are seen usually as "earth dwellers", and caring deeply for nature, D&D attempted to recast the race, and make them more interesting, particularly for players. Hence we get the idea of Gnome tricksters, to appeal to those who want to play prankster characters. Ultimately, it was decided that Gnomes simply did not appeal enough players, and was removed for that reason.
Quote Originally Posted by The Gremlin View Post
If I were in charge, I'd just get rid of halfings and have gnomes replace them. Halflings have no place in D&D, it's ripping off Tolkien. Actually, they were originally called 'hobbits', but Tolkein's lawyers intervened. SRD changed the name to halfings. For some reason, that was okay.
Halflings have been in D&D since first edition, when they were called hobbits, yes. And yes, they were blatantly copied from Tolkien. However, since then the race of Halflings have been developed to fit with how they are played, and they no longer really resemble Hobbits.
Quote Originally Posted by The Gremlin View Post
Halflings have no place in D&D. Gnomes have the potential to be a really awesome race. D&D is just leeching off LotR's popularity with tall, hot elves, orcs, grumpy comedic-relief dwarves, and HALFLINGS!
Gnomes may have had the potential to be an awesome race, but they weren't liked. So they have lost whatever potential they might have had. If you can re-fluff Gnomes to improve upon them, feel free. I mean, it can't be hard, 4chan pulled it off with Sergals (but don't tell /b/ that).
And you're knowledge of both LotR and D&D seems lacking. Elves have always been described as attractive, but Tolkien made his tall, while D&D kept theirs short. Tolkien did not create Orcs, but did define their role in most modern fantasy. And as for dwarfs, in Tolkien, and D&D, they are a very serious race. I don't know where you got the comic relief idea from.