Gnome Appreciation Day Thread

[GnomishPride]

This thread, as the title would imply, is all about gnomes. Feel free to discuss your favorite gnome characters, tricks, tropes, stories, and more!

As an aside, I think it'd be pretty cool to make a roster of sorts of Playgrounder gnome enthusiasts - members of the Gnome Appreciation Club, as it were.

With that being said, let's put our gnome hats on!

[Vrock_Summoner]

Can I count gnomes that are specific to my setting? And kind of weird compared to normal gnomes? Because my gnomes are pretty much my favorite species in my Incarnum setting. They're basically living bone elementals, originally created from the chopped off hand of a deity known as the Fixer, though they've been living and procreating as mortals for thousands of years since and the knowledge of their origins is long forgotten. They have the supernatural ability to fix and restore nearly anything, whether they be magic items that normally lose their properties when broken or even deactivated artifacts from the lost ages that could only be produced through rituals of which there is no surviving documentation. They're also hairless and knobby and short, plus adorable in my own personal opinion. Plus they're a contender with any of the other races on the merits of their own Incarnum abilities and unearthly strength and durability, never mind the forces they can occasionally bring under control, which covers one of the issues I have with common portrayals of gnomes (namely that they're not worth much outside of their gadgetry or illusion magic).

If they were just given a little more respect by the people who write them, gnomes would be the best fantasy race ever. *puts on gnome hat*

[AvatarVecna]

Is this thread welcoming to people who aren't favorable to gnomes? Or even people that don't like gnomes? Or even people that fully understand why more than few monsters have gnome on their favorite food list?

Hypothetical questions, of course. I looooooove gnomes...

[Piedmon_Sama]

Time to celebrate like gnomebody's business! Whether you stay at gnome or gnome around, Gnome Appreciation Day's a day to make your very gnome!

GNOMES!

[bionicleFanatic]

@Vrock: Wow, that's certainly unique! O.o I always like clever twists on the existing races.

On topic, I created a gnome rogue today, who likes tinkering with mechanics (ooh, how original). I'm running a modified Ebberon campaign, so it kinda makes sense. He's short and stocky, looking more like a hobbit than a gnome, he wears greasy leathers, sports shaded goggles, and sounds like Yondu from GotG. He's also fairly anti-social, but isn't a group breaker because he's got a personal interest in an artefact they're searching for. So far he's been pretty fun to play, like a kind of desperate, steampunk Ethan Hunt.

[Milo v3]

*Puts gnome skull on my kobold head* (that's what you guys meant by gnome hats right?)

I appreciate the high quality of gnome skulls used in the fabrication of kurtulmak's holy symbols.

[Honest Tiefling]

I'm starting to see why the gnome got delegated to the Monster Manual on 4th edition's release now. That or tieflings are simply that awesome.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I've got a gnome to pick with anyone who's not down with the gnomes! You gnome who you are!

[LooseCannoneer]

I've got a gnome to pick with anyone who's not down with the gnomes! You gnome who you are!

Gnome pun intended, I'm assuming?

[Piedmon_Sama]

Gnomely trying to make it gnome how I feel!

[Vrock_Summoner]

It's a quarter after gnome, I am a gnome and I need you gnome... *to the tune of Need You Now*

Sooo... Any good gnome characters in popular fiction that any of you guys can think of? I'm trying to get over the fact that Dragonlance gnomes are the only thing from that novel series worse than kender.

[Milo v3]

I did like the gnomes in The Giant's worldbuilding articles.

[Straybow]

I like traditional European gnomes of folklore, but at 8-10 inches tall they wouldn't make highly playable characters.

[Vrock_Summoner]

I like traditional European gnomes of folklore, but at 8-10 inches tall they wouldn't make highly playable characters.

Depends on the system. Ars Magica would love that kind of gnome as a player character, since unlike the overly tropified vaguely feudal European-themed generic fantasy of many games, it's literally set in 1220 Europe and uses its folklore relatively faithfully. (Which actually makes those gnomes less tenable, since gnomes were conceptually introduced during the 16th century, but... I'm sure you can get close.) Plus players can play nearly anything they choose that works within the setting and cosmology, with much fewer limits to "player character appropriate stuff" that a lot of RPGs are prone to.

And D&D has other Tiny playable races, and mini gnomes would be far from the weirdest available races.

On the other hand, less "thick" or setting-specific fantasy settings would probably not work with the addition.

[AvatarVecna]

I've got a gnome to pick with anyone who's not down with the gnomes! You gnome who you are!

You wanna throw down, broham??!!! Fight me IRL m8!!

[Yora]

Gnomes are great. As long as they are not tinkering or pranking.

They are so much more interesting and likeable than dwarves with their magic and nature traits. And not being alcoholic racist scottish viking miners.

[2D8HP]

And not being alcoholic racist scottish viking miners.

I'm pretty sure I saw A.R.S.V.M. open for The Stiff Little Fingers, MDC, The Dead Kennedys, and the Angry Samoans in the '80's but sadly, not The Gnomes.

[TeChameleon]

I have to admit to a sort of odd soft spot for Gnomes, if only because they (at least in vanilla D&D) appear to have decided 'bugger this medieval nonsense' and wandered off to take a respectable stab at steampunk. That and strong Illusion magic is utterly terrifying when combined with creativity (and maybe a nasty sense of humour).

... come to think of it, they're basically the collective Doc Brown of fantasy

[Vrock_Summoner]

... come to think of it, they're basically the collective Doc Brown of fantasy

Well darn it, now I have to make another setting where all gnomes are splintered hive like fragments of the god-mind of Doc Brown.

[Mister Loorg]

How dare you people forget the most important Gnome in all of DnD...

Spoiler

Show

[Braininthejar2]

http://giant.gfycat.com/EnchantingSpitefulBighorn.mp4

[Hunter Noventa]

Let us never forget the Legend of Gnome Ann.

Shame the comic was too early to say anything about Gnome Ann's Sky.

[quzar]

My favorite line from the 3.5 PhB: "Evil gnomes are as rare as they are frightening."

[Vrock_Summoner]

My favorite line from the 3.5 PhB: "Evil gnomes are as rare as they are frightening."

The sort of statement that's hilariously vague when taken by itself.

Scenario 1: This dastardly villain's cunning exceeds that of every other villain I've faced combined... But I just can't punch such a cute face

Scenario 2: Gods, they're everywhere! ... And they're just stealing people's socks.

[Jay R]

Several months ago, I was designing a gnome character named Gwystyl for a new D&D 3.5E game. I had already decided that he would have an ancestral relic - a traditional gnome's weapon called a hooked hammer. The DM and I are creating its history together, so he can use it while developing adventures. [A hooked hammer is a weapon with a hammerhead on one end and a plothook on the other.]

That was already established when I heard of Alan Rickman’s untimely death. So the history of the weapon is that Gwystyl’s ancestor Grabthar used it to win a great battle, in an alliance with the dwarven king Warvan and his sons.

Someday, when it’s appropriate, after Gwystyl learns the history of his weapon, he is going to swear, “By Grabthar’s hammer, by the sons of Warvan, you shall be avenged!”

[Eldan]

Gnomes are great. As long as they are not tinkering or pranking.

They are so much more interesting and likeable than dwarves with their magic and nature traits. And not being alcoholic racist scottish viking miners.

As someone growing up in Alemannic territory... gnomes are dwarves. They are what dwarves should have been. Slightly-built, mountain dwelling people adept in trickery, stealth and illusion. Not stocky vikings with big beards and axes. All the dwarves I know would rather curse someone or steal from them than fight them with a weapon.