TassleHoff Burrfoot and the kender race. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

TassleHoff Burrfoot and the kender race.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
May 14, 2004 8:22:55 Why are players so against playing a race such as kenders ? Tasslehoff was the one responsible for saving the 5th age of Krynn. Shouldn't that be a feather in the kender races' hat ?

~~~
#2
maladaar
May 14, 2004 8:27:51 I am a huge fan of Tas and kender in general.

I usually have a kender in the group as a DMPC. I have a new player that wants to run a kender, which he is creating now. About 5 years ago I had someone run a kender in the group as well.

I think the problem is that most people run the kender the wrong way. I remember someone posting saying the the kender stole the fighter's full plate armor, not just one piece but the whole suit (along with practically everything else the group had including weapons). Personally I blame the DM for allowing that player do that.

They take out of curiousity, not greed (or to be spiteful), which is what I seem to read a lot on some of the boards.

I love kender because they are so the opposite of the way Tolkien describes the halfling.
#3
cam_banks
May 14, 2004 8:37:33 We have an afflicted half-kender in my Dragonlance campaign. His player keeps forgetting he's half-kender. With any luck, events will conspire to remind him, but until then he's just a sort of pragmatic human on the short side.

Cheers,
Cam
#4
zombiegleemax
May 14, 2004 8:38:38 LoL!

~~~
#5
zombiegleemax
May 14, 2004 10:01:55 Because they tend to be very annoying, innocent, nice, memoryless...They remind me of young children and I hate them, that's the reason why I hate kenders.

I am also greedy, and I don't like to "share" my stuff...
#6
nuke
May 14, 2004 12:52:04 I think it just boils down to kender are HARD to play. You have to be pretty experienced, and being that we're human.. it's hard to fathom a race that is just that curious and innocent.

Of the people who've been around DL a lot, I'm sure you'll find a lot of them really enjoy playing Kenders.. but for the people just getting into it, I think it's a smart idea to avoid them.
#7
zombiegleemax
May 14, 2004 21:10:01 I've had 4 Kender over the course of DMing DragonLance. I've played one, one player has played the same character in 2nd (on 3 different campaigns) and 3rd... although I don't think he plays one half as good as I do and he had a second one briefly, and another has had one, once. I have no problems allowing them into my campaign, as long as they are played right.

My name is Darlantan, and I love Kender! :D
#8
wolffenjugend_dup
May 14, 2004 21:45:53 Kender are often used as a means of implimenting humour in a campaign. Some people don't like that and, therefore, find kender annoying. It all depends on the gamers...
#9
zombiegleemax
May 14, 2004 23:55:19 I have a kender in my froup, played by my best friend. He's really good at it, because he *IS* a kender in real life, only with slightly more hair. He really does handle, if he sees something cool in a store or in somebdoy's house, he'll pick it up, and when his attention is taken away he'll just kinda stick it in his pocket and forget about it. He has to pat himself down before he leaves anyplace, just to make sure. I htought he was joking, but then once, when we went to Wal-Mart, we were walking past the auto section on our way out, about half an hour after leaving the toys section, and then he said "hey, cool! Look what I found!", and he had some cool toy car. He did not remember where he got it, did not even remember picking it up, he just found it in his hand. He's great at roleplaying. He calls our paladin his knight in shining armor. The group met up with him when he "saved" us out in the woods one day, and we haven't been able to get rid o fhim since. Once, we were teleported a ways off to help a friend of this wizard lady, but he decided not to go with us. We thought we were rid of him, until we were clearing out the haunted tomb of the Baron, we heard banging sound in a sarcophagas(sp?), we tensed, got ready to fight the skeleton inside, took off the lid...and there he was.
#10
zombiegleemax
May 15, 2004 5:01:01 i have never actually played a kender, but i was once playing a human druid that had never met a kender (strange as it may seem). this guy was very happy to see a lot of people (a little like a kender) so when he was travelling to town to sell the few things he couldn't use. he met this little man, like a short childlike human. with arms outstreched to greet me. so like the country bumpkin he greeted him back. after saying hi and answering a few inane question about why my hair was orange, and where i was going and why. i took a few steps and relised that my pants where around my ankles, and this little man walking away tying my silk belt around his head like a bandana. well naturally i chased him and when i finally got him to stop dodging me and to give my belt back, he decided we were freinds. and was stuck with him. eventually we had this DMPC kender druid running around ansalon.

then when i was DMing a game i had a kender handler, i used a table i had written up to generate all sorts of little things the kender might be carrying, what i did before the start of every day was roll up 20 different things to represent his kender pockets, it was fun when my PC kender stated that he would reach into his pockets to try to find something useful.

i had things like chicken feather, crows foot, pencil, a short pice of string, a piece of green glass, a stick of dry pasta, a dried flower, a thorn, a tiny piece of coloured wood and various stones shaped like animals. that kind of stuff, from time to time there might be somethig a little more useful like a fishhook, a hammer and one piton.

it was a riot when he actully used the feather to tickle a guard behind the ear to allow our ranger to shoot him from behind.
#11
zombiegleemax
May 15, 2004 9:27:58 My wife loves to play kender, and she does a darn fine job at it too. She finds it very easy to play them as you have to just think like a 5 year old who is just discovering the world. There are some members of my group that don't like kenders on that alone and there is one who doesn't care for the way they are a distraction for the action. I personally think they are great but need to be handled carefully otherwise they can be a source of great anarchy. Kender are the easiest but the hardest race to play because you have to balance out the child and the adult and you have to play the disadvantages of kender and not just the advantages. I think it works for my wife in part because she is not familiar with all the rules and doesn't exactly know how everything works or what it means
#12
zombiegleemax
May 15, 2004 22:08:43
Originally posted by Thordoc
then when i was DMing a game i had a kender handler, i used a table i had written up to generate all sorts of little things the kender might be carrying, what i did before the start of every day was roll up 20 different things to represent his kender pockets, it was fun when my PC kender stated that he would reach into his pockets to try to find something useful.

i had things like chicken feather, crows foot, pencil, a short pice of string, a piece of green glass, a stick of dry pasta, a dried flower, a thorn, a tiny piece of coloured wood and various stones shaped like animals. that kind of stuff, from time to time there might be somethig a little more useful like a fishhook, a hammer and one piton.

it was a riot when he actully used the feather to tickle a guard behind the ear to allow our ranger to shoot him from behind.

Do you still have a copy of this table? I have been htinking of making one, but until then I have just let him assume he has whatever he wants in his pouches. One time he found a recipe for hot dogs. He sold it to buy our ship. After about 8 days gone, we came back an found out the guy had become a multi-billionare and had moved away from the crime-ridden sea port he called home and moved to the richest city in the land, as well as making his own grand castle.
#13
zombiegleemax
May 16, 2004 7:52:25 wel, for kender newbs, dragonlance.com has an article on how to play them well. i am making my first kender character, Silerut Ganderstomper. and he is awesome. he has a hilarious backstory. he doesn't have those wrinkles on his face, because he got into enchanted facial cream, for example. poor Silerut! but my fellow pc's are excited to have one around. they have a feeling i am gonna play him as i would myself, because i am the physical embodiement of kender. and they like my quirks. but not the handleing of other's things. or the constant borrowing. and sometimes i talk to much. i don't know why? oh well.
#14
karui_kage
May 18, 2004 0:10:42 Does anyone else find it ironic and funny that a person nicknamed Raistlin-Uber-Mage considers himself a kender?
#15
zombiegleemax
May 19, 2004 5:42:42 jacen,

i never actually put thi table onto the computer (i probably should have), cause my games and myself am rarely orginised, i'm sure to have the bit of paper around somewhere, :D

what i did was i grabbed a blank excel spreadsheet with 100 spaces
then i spent a good hour filling it up, i walked around the house looking into cupboards and writting down the things that i usually picked up first, provided that it sort of fit into the classic fantasy world. then i had a look in the arms and equipment guide (from 2nd edition) and picked out various things, i even rolled up some magical items randomly and just made them normal items of the same. i also tried to not let the little guy get bogged down with stuff, so at the end of each day i asked him to sit down and "clean out" his pouches. i then asked him for 20 items that he discarded, as certain things were against his taste, like one day he discarded a severed finger that he picked up somewhere, and a set of jailers keys and stuff like that.

so i'm sorry that i can't put anything up for you guys. i would have also quoted you as well jacen, but i'm not sure how to do that, i'm not very computer oriented.

hope that helps at least, but it was always fun to watch the actual players face when i read out what he pulled out of his pouch, and the great thing about the goup i was playing with is that they would play it out. sometimes there would be long inquisitions about where he picked up some items.

although i'm sure young Hefferdunn has a death wish, at this point in time the group is travelling towards solace from palanthas through solamnia, and he always whats to go have a look at dargaard keep, and see if there really is banshee's there or not (i'm playing during the time period of the preludes series, so when the dragonarmies are gearing up and before the heores of the lance meet again in the inn.)

i want to get them over to ergoth, where all the elves are, cause i have 2 qualinesti elves in the group, and so far all they have really dealt with is humans (which is right as they are the most populas) but i want to get the ranger and bard as diplomats for the coming qualinesti (nothing was really said the the wualinesti elves were taken of guard, and it does take elves years to get something done)

or something like that.
#16
zombiegleemax
Jun 02, 2004 12:45:54
Originally posted by Thordoc
i never actually put thi table onto the computer (i probably should have), cause my games and myself am rarely orginised, i'm sure to have the bit of paper around somewhere, :D

For my kender NPC I wrote d% numbers lightly in pencil next to the list of of items in either the 1st or 2nd edition players handbook, and where I left gaps was a cue for me to just make up something, useful or not.

I played him like a 9 yearold who talked like a fantasy 12 yearold, but had the homespun wisdom born of painfull idealism or a very long life.

Useful for the occasional deus ex machina moments when the flung poo is about to hit the whirling blades of doom.
#17
zombiegleemax
Jun 02, 2004 20:27:52 shut up, just because Raistlin is my favorite character doesn't mean i can't say i act like a kender, which i generally do, when i am not being angsty. which i am right now.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax May 14, 2004 8:22:55	Why are players so against playing a race such as kenders ? Tasslehoff was the one responsible for saving the 5th age of Krynn. Shouldn't that be a feather in the kender races' hat ? ~~~
#2 maladaar May 14, 2004 8:27:51	I am a huge fan of Tas and kender in general. I usually have a kender in the group as a DMPC. I have a new player that wants to run a kender, which he is creating now. About 5 years ago I had someone run a kender in the group as well. I think the problem is that most people run the kender the wrong way. I remember someone posting saying the the kender stole the fighter's full plate armor, not just one piece but the whole suit (along with practically everything else the group had including weapons). Personally I blame the DM for allowing that player do that. They take out of curiousity, not greed (or to be spiteful), which is what I seem to read a lot on some of the boards. I love kender because they are so the opposite of the way Tolkien describes the halfling.
#3 cam_banks May 14, 2004 8:37:33	We have an afflicted half-kender in my Dragonlance campaign. His player keeps forgetting he's half-kender. With any luck, events will conspire to remind him, but until then he's just a sort of pragmatic human on the short side. Cheers, Cam
#4 zombiegleemax May 14, 2004 8:38:38	LoL! ~~~
#5 zombiegleemax May 14, 2004 10:01:55	Because they tend to be very annoying, innocent, nice, memoryless...They remind me of young children and I hate them, that's the reason why I hate kenders. I am also greedy, and I don't like to "share" my stuff...
#6 nuke May 14, 2004 12:52:04	I think it just boils down to kender are HARD to play. You have to be pretty experienced, and being that we're human.. it's hard to fathom a race that is just that curious and innocent. Of the people who've been around DL a lot, I'm sure you'll find a lot of them really enjoy playing Kenders.. but for the people just getting into it, I think it's a smart idea to avoid them.
#7 zombiegleemax May 14, 2004 21:10:01	I've had 4 Kender over the course of DMing DragonLance. I've played one, one player has played the same character in 2nd (on 3 different campaigns) and 3rd... although I don't think he plays one half as good as I do and he had a second one briefly, and another has had one, once. I have no problems allowing them into my campaign, as long as they are played right. My name is Darlantan, and I love Kender! :D
#8 wolffenjugend_dup May 14, 2004 21:45:53	Kender are often used as a means of implimenting humour in a campaign. Some people don't like that and, therefore, find kender annoying. It all depends on the gamers...
#9 zombiegleemax May 14, 2004 23:55:19	I have a kender in my froup, played by my best friend. He's really good at it, because he IS a kender in real life, only with slightly more hair. He really does handle, if he sees something cool in a store or in somebdoy's house, he'll pick it up, and when his attention is taken away he'll just kinda stick it in his pocket and forget about it. He has to pat himself down before he leaves anyplace, just to make sure. I htought he was joking, but then once, when we went to Wal-Mart, we were walking past the auto section on our way out, about half an hour after leaving the toys section, and then he said "hey, cool! Look what I found!", and he had some cool toy car. He did not remember where he got it, did not even remember picking it up, he just found it in his hand. He's great at roleplaying. He calls our paladin his knight in shining armor. The group met up with him when he "saved" us out in the woods one day, and we haven't been able to get rid o fhim since. Once, we were teleported a ways off to help a friend of this wizard lady, but he decided not to go with us. We thought we were rid of him, until we were clearing out the haunted tomb of the Baron, we heard banging sound in a sarcophagas(sp?), we tensed, got ready to fight the skeleton inside, took off the lid...and there he was.
#10 zombiegleemax May 15, 2004 5:01:01	i have never actually played a kender, but i was once playing a human druid that had never met a kender (strange as it may seem). this guy was very happy to see a lot of people (a little like a kender) so when he was travelling to town to sell the few things he couldn't use. he met this little man, like a short childlike human. with arms outstreched to greet me. so like the country bumpkin he greeted him back. after saying hi and answering a few inane question about why my hair was orange, and where i was going and why. i took a few steps and relised that my pants where around my ankles, and this little man walking away tying my silk belt around his head like a bandana. well naturally i chased him and when i finally got him to stop dodging me and to give my belt back, he decided we were freinds. and was stuck with him. eventually we had this DMPC kender druid running around ansalon. then when i was DMing a game i had a kender handler, i used a table i had written up to generate all sorts of little things the kender might be carrying, what i did before the start of every day was roll up 20 different things to represent his kender pockets, it was fun when my PC kender stated that he would reach into his pockets to try to find something useful. i had things like chicken feather, crows foot, pencil, a short pice of string, a piece of green glass, a stick of dry pasta, a dried flower, a thorn, a tiny piece of coloured wood and various stones shaped like animals. that kind of stuff, from time to time there might be somethig a little more useful like a fishhook, a hammer and one piton. it was a riot when he actully used the feather to tickle a guard behind the ear to allow our ranger to shoot him from behind.
#11 zombiegleemax May 15, 2004 9:27:58	My wife loves to play kender, and she does a darn fine job at it too. She finds it very easy to play them as you have to just think like a 5 year old who is just discovering the world. There are some members of my group that don't like kenders on that alone and there is one who doesn't care for the way they are a distraction for the action. I personally think they are great but need to be handled carefully otherwise they can be a source of great anarchy. Kender are the easiest but the hardest race to play because you have to balance out the child and the adult and you have to play the disadvantages of kender and not just the advantages. I think it works for my wife in part because she is not familiar with all the rules and doesn't exactly know how everything works or what it means
#12 zombiegleemax May 15, 2004 22:08:43	Originally posted by Thordoc then when i was DMing a game i had a kender handler, i used a table i had written up to generate all sorts of little things the kender might be carrying, what i did before the start of every day was roll up 20 different things to represent his kender pockets, it was fun when my PC kender stated that he would reach into his pockets to try to find something useful. i had things like chicken feather, crows foot, pencil, a short pice of string, a piece of green glass, a stick of dry pasta, a dried flower, a thorn, a tiny piece of coloured wood and various stones shaped like animals. that kind of stuff, from time to time there might be somethig a little more useful like a fishhook, a hammer and one piton. it was a riot when he actully used the feather to tickle a guard behind the ear to allow our ranger to shoot him from behind. Do you still have a copy of this table? I have been htinking of making one, but until then I have just let him assume he has whatever he wants in his pouches. One time he found a recipe for hot dogs. He sold it to buy our ship. After about 8 days gone, we came back an found out the guy had become a multi-billionare and had moved away from the crime-ridden sea port he called home and moved to the richest city in the land, as well as making his own grand castle.
#13 zombiegleemax May 16, 2004 7:52:25	wel, for kender newbs, dragonlance.com has an article on how to play them well. i am making my first kender character, Silerut Ganderstomper. and he is awesome. he has a hilarious backstory. he doesn't have those wrinkles on his face, because he got into enchanted facial cream, for example. poor Silerut! but my fellow pc's are excited to have one around. they have a feeling i am gonna play him as i would myself, because i am the physical embodiement of kender. and they like my quirks. but not the handleing of other's things. or the constant borrowing. and sometimes i talk to much. i don't know why? oh well.
#14 karui_kage May 18, 2004 0:10:42	Does anyone else find it ironic and funny that a person nicknamed Raistlin-Uber-Mage considers himself a kender?
#15 zombiegleemax May 19, 2004 5:42:42	jacen, i never actually put thi table onto the computer (i probably should have), cause my games and myself am rarely orginised, i'm sure to have the bit of paper around somewhere, :D what i did was i grabbed a blank excel spreadsheet with 100 spaces then i spent a good hour filling it up, i walked around the house looking into cupboards and writting down the things that i usually picked up first, provided that it sort of fit into the classic fantasy world. then i had a look in the arms and equipment guide (from 2nd edition) and picked out various things, i even rolled up some magical items randomly and just made them normal items of the same. i also tried to not let the little guy get bogged down with stuff, so at the end of each day i asked him to sit down and "clean out" his pouches. i then asked him for 20 items that he discarded, as certain things were against his taste, like one day he discarded a severed finger that he picked up somewhere, and a set of jailers keys and stuff like that. so i'm sorry that i can't put anything up for you guys. i would have also quoted you as well jacen, but i'm not sure how to do that, i'm not very computer oriented. hope that helps at least, but it was always fun to watch the actual players face when i read out what he pulled out of his pouch, and the great thing about the goup i was playing with is that they would play it out. sometimes there would be long inquisitions about where he picked up some items. although i'm sure young Hefferdunn has a death wish, at this point in time the group is travelling towards solace from palanthas through solamnia, and he always whats to go have a look at dargaard keep, and see if there really is banshee's there or not (i'm playing during the time period of the preludes series, so when the dragonarmies are gearing up and before the heores of the lance meet again in the inn.) i want to get them over to ergoth, where all the elves are, cause i have 2 qualinesti elves in the group, and so far all they have really dealt with is humans (which is right as they are the most populas) but i want to get the ranger and bard as diplomats for the coming qualinesti (nothing was really said the the wualinesti elves were taken of guard, and it does take elves years to get something done) or something like that.
#16 zombiegleemax Jun 02, 2004 12:45:54	Originally posted by Thordoc i never actually put thi table onto the computer (i probably should have), cause my games and myself am rarely orginised, i'm sure to have the bit of paper around somewhere, :D For my kender NPC I wrote d% numbers lightly in pencil next to the list of of items in either the 1st or 2nd edition players handbook, and where I left gaps was a cue for me to just make up something, useful or not. I played him like a 9 yearold who talked like a fantasy 12 yearold, but had the homespun wisdom born of painfull idealism or a very long life. Useful for the occasional deus ex machina moments when the flung poo is about to hit the whirling blades of doom.
#17 zombiegleemax Jun 02, 2004 20:27:52	shut up, just because Raistlin is my favorite character doesn't mean i can't say i act like a kender, which i generally do, when i am not being angsty. which i am right now.