How do you like your gnomes?

[osyluth]

Now there have been a lot of these kind of threads around lately, and as always, gnomes have been ignored and rejected. So I have taken the liberty of starting one of these threads for the mistreated gnomes.

So. How do you like 'em?

[Kizara]

Goblins -> Hobgoblins

Gnomes -> Dwarves

With the exception that goblins generally serve a useful purpose in a campaign (low level fodder) and gnomes don't.

[Durendal]

I have always thought of gnomes as masters of all forms of magic. Gnomes dabble in a little of everything; psionic, divine, and arcane. I think it fits their quizzical nature and stays away from the WoW version of tinker gnomes.

[Collin152]

I like my gnomes as the master of nothing, in general. They are each highly specialized little comunities that tend to leech off of other species for suuport.
And they never, never build machines.
Hgh nature influence, lots of druids, wizards, and rogues.
Yeah.

[BCOVertigo]

Smoked rare on cedar with feta cheese and carved with the knife I ganked them with. Afterwards boil the leftovers and make soup. Serves 2.

On a more serious, albeit less delicious note, isn't the human supposed to have the "good at everything" category covered pretty hard? Seems to me they are in need of some new fluff but with halflings and dwarves already doing their respective things I see no point in exerting the effort. Most of the people I know who've played gnomes also aspire to play kender as soon as they find a DM who can't pass the sanity check required to keep them out. No judgment on those here who do but I've been scarred too many times to throw that observation aside on principle.

[Karsh]

I like my gnomes with the word "whisper" in front of it and "rogue" or "Illusionist/Shadowcraft Illusionist" after it.

[SoD]

Gnomes are one of the most overlooked creatures in the DnD world. The other being the Chitine. But there's another thread for that...or there will be.

Gnomes, they're great, I know someone who enjoys playing gnome ninjas.

[TheThan]

I like my gnomes as fierce tribal warriors (with a pinch of south-seas barbarian), known for headhunting, traps and group tactics.

[triforcel]

I like 'em crazy and explosive.

[MrNexx]

http://www.editors-wastebasket.org/n...wdd/Gnomes.htm

That's how I've always seen gnomes.

[Icewalker]

I'm aiming for the more tinker style gnomes in my campaign world, to the point where they built an underwater atlantis-esque city...except on the whole they are too wrapped up in research to realize it's getting really old and parts are beginning to break

Absent-minded but extremely smart, researchers.

Perhaps I should split gnomes overall into two different groups: ones focused more on mechanical research and ones focused on magical research. That'd make sense.

[Tallis]

There are 2 types of gnomes in my world.

The best known are consumate traders and seafarers. Their society is similar to Victorian England (though not as repressed). They love pomp and cerimony and are very concerned about being proper. Overly proper to the point of being slightly silly in the eyes of many non-gnomes.

The less known subrace are much more closely tied to nature. They fill a niche in between elves and dwarves burrowing into wooded hills. They are very reclusive and magical, using illusion to hide themselves from the outside world. They can sometimes be tricksters but never with ill intent.

My gnomes are not tinkers.

[Ponce]

Dead.

Hate em with a passion.

Wriggly little beasts.

They should all be trampled upon.

[TheOOB]

Gnomes live in dwarf lands. Dwarf lands are across the sea, gnomes don't travel on boats, dwarves don't talk about gnomes, most humans don't believe gnomes exist. When dwarves want access to rare metal and technology they can't get access to themselves, they go to them, otherwise they avoid them.

[Talic]

Gnomes... They're the Mad Scientists, right?

Take a look at www.girlgeniusonline.com. That's a gnome.

[Rachel Lorelei]

Dead and/or gone.

[d12]

Proper gnomes will either be extinct/genocided or enslaved and have had their collective spirit crushed, continually ground under the wheels of the human/dwarven/elven machine. I absolutely can't stand gnomes. They've got stupid names and seem like the race most likely to be played by someone wanting to be stupid for its own sake. And I've got no time for enduring party members so stupid that you wonder how they made it through the first day of PC College without stabbing themselves in the back with their own rapier.

In the little proto-homebrew world I play around with now and then all gnomes have been enslaved for at least a couple thousand years (I haven't rigorously established the timeline at this point). They do all manner of menial/dangerous labor. Gnomes in dwarf lands are regularly sent to mine the most unstable areas so no dwarf lives will be jeopardized in extracting the wonderful metals/gems/etc that they love working with.

There are several things I absolutely hate in D&D, and gnomes are no exception. In fact, a friend of mine recently told me that compared to my hatred of gnomes I'm downright polite in my hatred of kobolds, and I absolutely despise those little pieces of filth.

[Talic]

Proper gnomes will either be extinct/genocided or enslaved and had their collective spirit crushed, continually ground under the wheels of the human/dwarven/elven machine. I absolutely can't stand gnomes. They've got stupid names and seem like the race most likely to be played by someone wanting to be stupid for its own sake. And I've got no time for enduring party members so stupid that you wonder how they made it through the first day of PC College without stabbing themselves in the back with their own rapier.

In the little proto-homebrew world I play around with now and then all gnomes have been enslaved for at least a couple thousand years (I haven't rigorously established the timeline at this point). They do all manner of menial/dangerous labor. Gnomes in dwarf lands are regularly sent to mine the most unstable areas so no dwarf lives will be jeopardized in extracting the wonderful metals/gems/etc that they love working with.

There are several things I absolutely hate in D&D, and gnomes are no exception. In fact, a friend of mine recently told me that compared to my hatred of gnomes I'm downright polite in my hatred of kobolds, and I absolutely despise those little pieces of filth.

I prefer terming the reason I play gnomes occasionally to indulge my whim for eccentricity, not stupidity.

[d12]

I prefer terming the reason I play gnomes occasionally to indulge my whim for eccentricity, not stupidity.

Hey man, if it helps you sleep at night...

Honestly, I don't doubt that it's possible to play a gnome who isn't out to Darwin himself hard. I'm just extremely skeptical to the extent that I would prefer to read about accounts of non-stupid gnome characters than risk it in any game I'm playing in. Life's too short to constantly worry about someone trying pull off completely boneheaded, party-killing things. And people interested in doing that seem to gravitate to gnomes. It's like a kind of radiation that they give off.

[sun_tzu]

I like the Warcraft "absent-minded professors/mad scientists" gnomes, personally.

[mostlyharmful]

I like them, see sig. I see them as hobbits with a talent for wizardry. Personally I can't stand halflings, but Gnomes work as a small sized race keen to get on with life and stay out of the way of races with more aggression and numbers than them. I can't stand all the daft ideas and stupid tendancies that get tacked onto them, long names, fast speech, mad science, constant bozo joking, on and on. Just cut that and let them be grown ups and sit at the big table (maybe on a cushion but still)

[Lady Tialait]

I like my Gnomes Krynnish...barring that...just take a Psion who knows fusion and grab a Eddy Murphy in a Fat suit, and apply liberal use of the power to him and Mini Me....we have a Gnome...or a disturbing Image...

[Maroon]

In my campaign world, there are no dwarves, elves or hobbits, the cheeky Tolkienian bastards. Their spots are filled by Gnomes. Compared to humans, they are extremely long-lived, mentally focused, and vary from slightly eccentric to downright insane due to their meddling with psionics and alchemical substances. Most of them live underground or in forests and they have strong family ties. There are certain 'trends' popular amongst the generations; the oldest Gnomes still wear togas and sandals and have Latin/Greek/occasionally Egyptian sounding names, middle-aged Gnomes like beards and horned helmets and alcohol, young adults spend their time on poetry and philosophy and prancing about in flowery meadows, and the teenagers are busy inventing sunglasses, electric guitars, fizzy drinks, and are forming/renaming/breaking up rock bands at the speed of the commoner quarterstaff railgun.

The young children walk around with thick glasses, dye their hair black, wear black leather trenchcoats, etc.

[Zenos]

I like them as slightly insane, pyromaniac sorcerers/wizards.

...

That's how my brother plays 'em.

[Lord Tataraus]

I prefer my gnomes dead/gone. Though I will throw in some Tinker Gnomes (as per Dragonlance) on rare occasions. I prefer dwarves to be tinkerers and miners and all that.

[KoDT69]

I'm with Lord Tataraus on this issue. Gnomes suck. Nobody wants to end up like Gimble...

[Spiryt]

I really like 4ed gnomes.

[Corrin]

I prefer my Gnomes non-existent. Yet another reason to cheer 4E!

[Pronounceable]

I also prefer gnomes nonexistant. Worthless crap faced stools...

[jameswilliamogle]

I see nothing wrong with them. One of the most entertaining characters I ever saw being RP'd was a gnomish Paladin of Tyranny. He had delusions of grandeur that he could pwn any of the other party members in combat, which was quite hilarious.

Even when not a Whisper Gnome, the Forest Gnome can make for GREAT stealthy characters. Pretty good Swordsages, too.

I didn't realize that anyone hated them... kind of surprising, actually. At least they don't spend all their time playing and singing like halflings.