Of female dwarves and facial hair

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Heh. Excellent point, Voltric. By no means should 3E be considered the last word on PnP; the DM is always the final authority.

 

A long time ago, before there was a third edition, there lived a race divided. One part lived under the earth and the other over. Now, in these races you couldn't spot the difference between a male and a female by looking at them. The reason? They all had beards. And the gods named that race dwarves. But now, with the invention of third edition, the facial hair of the female dwarves seemed to suddenly have fallen off. So then I ask you, fellow gamers, is this a good or bad thing. And should steps be taken to remedy this situation? And finally, will this promote sexism within the dwarven ranks?

Any thoughts on this?

 

In my opinion all dwarves have beards regardless of gender or what is written in the 3E rules. Changing the rules of the game are fine but changing the spirit is not. Hence certain things in the new edition such as this should be simply overlooked.

 

I'm so glad I am not the only one who thought this to be wrong.
I say we move for a new edition!

 

Yeah, the DM is the absolute authority. What the DM says that's the law. I agree.
But, if I ever made a campaign setting, mine dwarven lasses would be beard-ridden.
Come on, think about the poor girls trying to put some makeup on with that beard?
And imagine a poor litle dwarven newborn trying to make the difference between mom and dad? That's some serious emotional scars from childhood. No wonder why the dwarves are ill-tempered...


[This message has been edited by Elendil (edited September 30, 2001).]

 

On a related question, what of gnomes and facial hair? I heard some sources indicate they couldn't or didn't grow it, but alll the gnomes in the BG series have the bearded dwarf avatar and bearded portraits.

 

About Dwarves:

Female Dwarfs have also beards, so they are not recognized as females. I doubt if this it true. Maybe the females have do have beards (yech) but they should be recognized an voice or at least at the two large "hills" on their breast
You also hardly see female dwarves in any game or d&d book or story. So Female Dwarves are very rare. The 3rd edition PHB doesn't say a thing about femalke Dwarves except for their names. I think this will always be a mistery and the DM has the final word in this.

I don't know much about Gnomes. The 3rd edition PHB says Gnome Males prefer trimmed beards. They are less thick then dwarves and less hairy. I understand that most of the Gnomes have short trimmed berads but not all do. Couse I think girls with beards are also not seen as sexy in the forgotten realms, I think gnome females use ladyshaves. There hair is normally dark iirc.

 

According to all I've read on dwarves - No one but a dwarf can tell the difference between a male and female of the race. Females make up about 1/3 of the dwarven population and rarely travel. Check out appendix A in the Return of the King or other works by J.R.R. for more info. I think his details are better than those in the PHB. But that is just my opinion.

 

Yeah, Tolkiens words are also much used in D&D. The problem is that 1/3 isn't less and people that have visited a dwarven village should have seen them, for they don't travel, maybe.. but I don't think they don't move. So Tolkien was some more detailed about Dwarven females.... but still they are a big mystery.

 

Incidentally, check out Arcanum's stuff on dwarves (all presented in character by a fictitious anthropologist)

 

But all that stuff doesn't mean that it has to be neccessarilly so. The rules aren't there to be strictly obeyed, they are there as a guideline for one's imagination. If someone feels that dwarven women should have beards - okay. If somene feels they shouldn't - okay too. What the DM decides for the campaign worls is his call...

 

Indeed. When the DM wants to make a dwarven female with a grean beard and blue hair, he is allowed to do so... Hmmz, Marihuana ia legal in the Netherlands so I don't hope the DM uses that before playing, would turn out in something very bad.

 

I play female dwarves 90% of the time and the one real advantage with CPRGs of the beardless lady is that it is *SO* much easier to find a portrait I like for her!

 

I bet!

But now you say this, and I start to think about his. Does anyone have a picture of a female dwarve WITH beard?

 

Of course!

We already know that dwarven males and females look so alike that when they're armored they are impossible to tell from one another. Thus, by definition, all pictures of dwarven males are also pictures of dwarven females with beard.