This is my second rant about race names, so I suppose it’s now an official pet peeve of mine. This time I’m talking about the lazy and uninspired Half named races; the Half-elf, Half-orc and especially the Halfling.

Now I’ll admit, begrudgingly, the first two names make sense for what they are. Each is the hybrid mix of two races. But my argument is that if such a mixing produces a race that breeds true (and they do), then that new race deserves an identity all it’s own. And thus, a unique name that doesn’t forever bind them to one of their parent races and all the stereotypes that come with that association.

Halflings, on the other hand, have gotten screwed from the get go. What their name implies is both blunt and unflattering, that they are literally half of a “normal” person. It’s really a derogatory term. In my many years of gaming, I have seen a handful of Halfling players that have role-played out their character’s offense to racist (height-ist?) tall-ones.

In an attempt to create a more believable game world, each race needs to be as culturally unique as possible. To that end, I believe that races should have names that tell everyone else who they are, not what they are. So I suggest renaming the Half-elf, Half-orc and the Halfling. Perhaps you will call them Eloi, Morlocks and Hobbits. Or maybe Vulcans, Klingons and Munchkins. Or whatever fits best into the nature/culture of your game world. It doesn’t really matter what you decide on, just give each race it’s own singular identity.

(Just for the record, no I haven’t renamed these races in my own homebrew world… yet.)