Gnomes

[DungeonDevil]

4. The gnomes from Gnomes, the classic coffee table book by Wil Huygen, and The World of David the Gnome, the cartoon inspired by it, who were all twee and unpleasant.

Twee? Well, perhaps only a little. Unpleasant? Not in the slightest.



The Huygen/Poortvliet gnome is the quintessential default conception for the race IMC.

I think of them being locality-bound, the genius loci of a very specific place, e.g. an ancient tree, a brook, a grove, a large stone that dominates the landscape, a hillock, etc. and thus not ideally suited for the roving, restless sell-sword stereotype PC. That and their small stature makes it harder for them to join battle effectively. By their reclusive, retiring nature, they would make a party's hobbit look like a steroid-crazed, warp-spasming Celt out of the Slaine graphic novels. :lol:

The only difference is that I follow the description of the gnomes by Paracelsus who said that they were two spans tall (c. 18 to 20 inches) -- far taller than six inches!
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Addendum: It's been a long time since I've last been here at the Inn. I'll have to catch up on all the new threads and convos over the past year. I've been too busy to even lurk much.

[Greg]

I have been reading the World of Greyhawk boxed set books again, and one thing that strikes me is that gnomes are extremely common in that setting. In some regions, they seem to outnumber dwarves and halflings. But I couldn't recall any mention of gnomes in Blackmoor, so I started looking through the oldest materials we have from Supplement II: Blackmoor and the FFC. So far, I have only uncovered two brief mentions of gnomes, and the evidence leads me to believe that gnomes were not part of Blackmoor until Gary Gygax added them to his game, and they may have been a retcon in the Blackmoor setting. Maybe Greg Svenson can recall when gnomes became part of the setting, but here is why I think they were a late edition.

In Supplement II: Blackmoor, there is only one mention of gnomes. It is a single line that seems to suggest that they live in air-enclosed cities on the bottom of the sea and connected to the surface world via tunnels. But the context is unclear because there is no other discussion. However, gnomes are presented in the same section with the sahuagin and a bunch of sea creatures and monsters, so when it says "on the bottom," I assume that this means the bottom of the sea.

In the FFC, I believe gnomes are only mentioned in parenthetical notes to the dwarves, which are listed among the reinforcements that PCs could purchase and bring in from the Great Kingdom. Under the fantasy subcategory, it says "Dwarves (Gnomes)." This seems to indicate that dwarf and gnome reinforcements have the same cost, the same maximum troop number, and the same number of dwarves or gnomes in each troop company. But it could also imply that gnomes do not exist in the realms of Blackmoor, and they only exist in the Great Kingdom.

Beyond these two brief references, I don't think there is any evidence of gnomes being part of Blackmoor until later editions of D&D, as discussed earlier here. Gnomes certainly don't seem to be a prominent part of the setting at all. But they exist in large numbers in Greyhawk.

This leads me to believe that Gary Gygax may have introduced gnomes into D&D in the Great Kingdom and his own Greyhawk setting, and maybe Dave Arneson later added gnomes to Blackmoor in a very limited capacity. Maybe Gary loved the concept of gnomes and liked the idea of them being a big part of his setting. But it's interesting that they weren't a playable race until 1E. However, I could see Dave liking gnomes as well, especially given his sense of humor and affinity for quirky ideas or characters in his game.

[aldarron]

I have been reading the World of Greyhawk boxed set books again, and one thing that strikes me is that gnomes are extremely common in that setting. ...

In the FFC, I believe gnomes are only mentioned in parenthetical notes to the dwarves, which are listed among the reinforcements that PCs could purchase and bring in from the Great Kingdom. Under the fantasy subcategory, it says "Dwarves (Gnomes)." This seems to indicate that dwarf ...

This leads me to believe that Gary Gygax may have introduced gnomes into D&D in the Great Kingdom and his own Greyhawk setting, and maybe Dave Arneson later added gnomes to Blackmoor in a very limited capacity.

Interesting!

The Third Coot invasion army tables in the FFC draw upon 2nd edition CHAINMAIL where we have "DWARVES (and Gnomes):" p26 as a single entry.  IOW gnomes are a variety of dwarf.

Arneson didn't prohibit any of the fantasy creatures mentioned in CM, so we can safely assume by default that gnomes have existed in Blackmoor since the summer of 1971 when CM first came out.   However, we can also safely assume them to be rare, given the paucity of references. 

I know of one other early-ish reference to gnomes from a mid 1970's character sheet created by Dan Nicholson.  The character he created for a Blackmoor dungeon dungeon dive was a gnome fighter. So at least one of the original players played a gnome at least once before AD&D or the Greyhawk folio came out.

In Supplement II: Blackmoor, there is only one mention of gnomes. It is a single line that seems to suggest that they live in air-enclosed cities on the bottom of the sea and connected to the surface world via tunnels. But the context is unclear because there is no other discussion. However, gnomes are presented in the same section with the sahuagin and a bunch of sea creatures and monsters, so when it says "on the bottom," I assume that this means the bottom of the sea...

I think you are right about the sea location, but lets look at the passage with a couple surrounding entries for context:

MOTTLED WORMS: Similar to mottled purple worms on surface
GNOMES: Live in air-enclosed subterranean cities connected to the surface by tunnels.
KOBOLDS: Live in air-enclosed cave complexes connected to the surface by tunnels.
LEECHES: See Book II: MONSTERS & TREASURE.

So yes, the default here seems to be that these are ocean adventure entries - maybe from Steve Marsh, but the brevity and vagueness suggest to me that it may have been the editor Tim Kask tossing in some ideas. In any case, I don't think we are talking about settlements found on the seabed, but rather under it.

Notice that gnomes are in subterranean air pockets and the kobolds in caves. I think the implication here is that the tunnels leading up to the surface exit on an island or shore location, but the habitat extends under the seabed. What this does tell us for sure is that Blackmoor gnomes live in cities underground and kobolds live in caves.