Gnomes

[Havard]

The one thing I picked up of interest about Gnomes in the D20 book is that they are a wandering people, sort of like gypsies.

I suspect they wander a lot because nobody likes them. Well, maybe that's just me.

Funny how I can enjoy hobbits, generic halflings, even kinder ... but I dislike gnomes for some reason. :oops:

I don't know why you dislike them, but it seems like there are so many different incarnations of Gnomes that I don't know if they have a single identity as a race. In some material they are very similar to Dwarves. Others, like Dragonlance and Mystara focus on the inventor aspect of Gnomes. D&D 4E changed them again and made them more Fey-like.

I am still trying to pinpoint how Blackmoor Gnomes should be portrayed. The d20 sourcebook Clock & Steam does suggest a more tinkerish type of Gnome. Again, Blackmoor's technological theme makes it easy to use them in this fashion. On the other hand, humans, dwarves and even elves have their share of dabbling with technological devices in Blackmoor so this means Gnomes have even less of a niche of their own here.

In my original post, I picked up on the "gypsy" comparison used in the main d20 Sourcebook. At the moment, I think I am moving away from that idea. I like the idea of small family units of Gnomes moving from town to town looking for work, but I think they should instead be compared to more common medieval craftsmen. Gnomes should not have the exotic connotations of "gypsies" and Blackmoor gnomes are known not to show of wealth, preferring very common clothing. Unlike dwarves who are masters at crafts like Blacksmithing, and massive steam machineries, Gnomes are much more specialized in finer crafts like making jewelry, gem cutting or tiny clockwork devices. Mages and Dwarves like working with Gnomes because they can offer expertise in this particular fields so that the Mages and Dwarves can incorporate these crafts in their larger constructs.

Could this be a direction to take gnomes?

-Havard