25 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 21st comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Not at all, it was just a totally new one on me. :lol:
But I'd agree, based on the bulk of what other's have dreamt up regarding gnomes, it 'feels' more right to think of them living in hills or gardens, or even little gnome villages. But I suppose there's really no reason why some gnomes might not live in tree houses or some such too. :lol:


I agree with it being more "right" for them to live in hills or gardens, maybe even tiny cottages tucked back in a forest clearing. I think a tree would make a great place to hide a secret laboratory though :biggrin: Who knows where this whole gnome laboratory will go from here?

Samson said:
I'll bet nobody thinks of iguanadons ( lizardmen ) as coming from outer space either, but if you'd been there the day we all had the inside joke going you'd know :P

Meh…I think this is one of those times when it's best not to ask questions, isn't it? :stare:
25 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 22nd comment:
Votes: 0
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Not at all, it was just a totally new one on me. :lol:
But I'd agree, based on the bulk of what other's have dreamt up regarding gnomes, it 'feels' more right to think of them living in hills or gardens, or even little gnome villages. But I suppose there's really no reason why some gnomes might not live in tree houses or some such too. :lol:

I agree with it being more "right" for them to live in hills or gardens, maybe even tiny cottages tucked back in a forest clearing. I think a tree would make a great place to hide a secret laboratory though :biggrin: Who knows where this whole gnome laboratory will go from here?

Well, at least if the lab blows up within a tree, it just gives the appearance of autumn as opposed to the earthshaking we get in Shattered Refuge.. :wink:

Avaeryn said:
Samson said:
I'll bet nobody thinks of iguanadons ( lizardmen ) as coming from outer space either, but if you'd been there the day we all had the inside joke going you'd know :P

Meh…I think this is one of those times when it's best not to ask questions, isn't it? :stare:

Oh, mustn't forget that we're talking about time traveling undead iguanadons from outer space at that.. these are actually worse than the Mean Green Mutha' from Little Shop of Horrors. :lol:
25 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 23rd comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Not at all, it was just a totally new one on me. :lol:
But I'd agree, based on the bulk of what other's have dreamt up regarding gnomes, it 'feels' more right to think of them living in hills or gardens, or even little gnome villages. But I suppose there's really no reason why some gnomes might not live in tree houses or some such too. :lol:

I agree with it being more "right" for them to live in hills or gardens, maybe even tiny cottages tucked back in a forest clearing. I think a tree would make a great place to hide a secret laboratory though :biggrin: Who knows where this whole gnome laboratory will go from here?

Well, at least if the lab blows up within a tree, it just gives the appearance of autumn as opposed to the earthshaking we get in Shattered Refuge.. :wink:


I had not really considered what might happen if the lab blows up. That certainly brings to mind new twists for the area. Reminds me of the old walnut tree near our house when the second frost of this winter came. The next morning the leaves began falling off so quickly that it looked like "walnut leaf rain". Honest!

Conner said:
Avaeryn said:
Samson said:
I'll bet nobody thinks of iguanadons ( lizardmen ) as coming from outer space either, but if you'd been there the day we all had the inside joke going you'd know :P

Meh…I think this is one of those times when it's best not to ask questions, isn't it? :stare:

Oh, mustn't forget that we're talking about time traveling undead iguanadons from outer space at that.. these are actually worse than the Mean Green Mutha' from Little Shop of Horrors. :lol:


Oh, my! They've mutated then? Are the traveling undead iguanadons from outer space rabid or aggressive? And if they are rabid, is there an antidote or vaccine available? :lol:
25 Nov, 2007, Guest wrote in the 24th comment:
Votes: 0
The time traveling undead green iguanadons from outer space are indeed aggressive. But not rapid. So although we do bite, you'll live :)

Squirrel Aliens though, now those are rabid. And aggressive. Also from outer space. But fortunately haven't perfected time travel yet.
25 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 25th comment:
Votes: 0
Samson said:
The time traveling undead green iguanadons from outer space are indeed aggressive. But not rapid. So although we do bite, you'll live :)

Squirrel Aliens though, now those are rabid. And aggressive. Also from outer space. But fortunately haven't perfected time travel yet.


I'll file that away since it might come in handy in the future. Might be worth checking out Other Space or a good ole Star Wars mud to see if one could run into one of those alien squirrels. Where the heck is Dr. Who
(or Conner :tongue:) when ya need them?
25 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 26th comment:
Votes: 0
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Not at all, it was just a totally new one on me. :lol:
But I'd agree, based on the bulk of what other's have dreamt up regarding gnomes, it 'feels' more right to think of them living in hills or gardens, or even little gnome villages. But I suppose there's really no reason why some gnomes might not live in tree houses or some such too. :lol:

I agree with it being more "right" for them to live in hills or gardens, maybe even tiny cottages tucked back in a forest clearing. I think a tree would make a great place to hide a secret laboratory though :biggrin: Who knows where this whole gnome laboratory will go from here?

Well, at least if the lab blows up within a tree, it just gives the appearance of autumn as opposed to the earthshaking we get in Shattered Refuge.. :wink:

I had not really considered what might happen if the lab blows up. That certainly brings to mind new twists for the area. Reminds me of the old walnut tree near our house when the second frost of this winter came. The next morning the leaves began falling off so quickly that it looked like "walnut leaf rain". Honest!

Or, in some cases, think of what happens when a big old tree gets split by lightning as well. If no one actually saw it happen, maybe it wasn't lighting but really one of those gnome experiments gone awry. :wink:

Avaeryn said:
Samson said:
The time traveling undead green iguanadons from outer space are indeed aggressive. But not rapid. So although we do bite, you'll live :)

Squirrel Aliens though, now those are rabid. And aggressive. Also from outer space. But fortunately haven't perfected time travel yet.

I'll file that away since it might come in handy in the future. Might be worth checking out Other Space or a good ole Star Wars mud to see if one could run into one of those alien squirrels. Where the heck is Dr. Who
(or Conner :tongue:) when ya need them?

Wow, I rank up there with Dr. Who? :cool:
26 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 27th comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Or, in some cases, think of what happens when a big old tree gets split by lightning as well. If no one actually saw it happen, maybe it wasn't lighting but really one of those gnome experiments gone awry. :wink:


I'm so glad I started this thread :cyclops: This has truly been a fruitful discussion that has yielded many ideas for building in the future. It also has helped loosen the rust that lingers around my cerebral area for the most part. I'll keep the weather in mind for the boobytraps in the laboratory as well. I think the players might get a kick out of trying to "defuse" gadgets in order to make it to the next level, don't you? One wrong move and *ZaP*, game over… :devil:

Conner said:
Avaeryn said:
Samson said:
The time traveling undead green iguanadons from outer space are indeed aggressive. But not rapid. So although we do bite, you'll live :)

Squirrel Aliens though, now those are rabid. And aggressive. Also from outer space. But fortunately haven't perfected time travel yet.

I'll file that away since it might come in handy in the future. Might be worth checking out Other Space or a good ole Star Wars mud to see if one could run into one of those alien squirrels. Where the heck is Dr. Who
(or Conner :tongue:) when ya need them?

Wow, I rank up there with Dr. Who? :cool:


Conner, you definitely rank up there with Dr. Who. There are many cool people in the mud community. I miss those old episodes that used to air on PBS. Some of the better ones even if the special effects were a bit lacking.
26 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 28th comment:
Votes: 0
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Or, in some cases, think of what happens when a big old tree gets split by lightning as well. If no one actually saw it happen, maybe it wasn't lighting but really one of those gnome experiments gone awry. :wink:

I'm so glad I started this thread :cyclops: This has truly been a fruitful discussion that has yielded many ideas for building in the future. It also has helped loosen the rust that lingers around my cerebral area for the most part. I'll keep the weather in mind for the boobytraps in the laboratory as well. I think the players might get a kick out of trying to "defuse" gadgets in order to make it to the next level, don't you? One wrong move and *ZaP*, game over… :devil:

*snicker* I can just picture it.. "say oh this is easy stuff, I got this one figured…" sizzle! "chat um, can someone help me with a CR over in the gnome treefort?" :lol:

Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Avaeryn said:
Samson said:
The time traveling undead green iguanadons from outer space are indeed aggressive. But not rapid. So although we do bite, you'll live :)

Squirrel Aliens though, now those are rabid. And aggressive. Also from outer space. But fortunately haven't perfected time travel yet.

I'll file that away since it might come in handy in the future. Might be worth checking out Other Space or a good ole Star Wars mud to see if one could run into one of those alien squirrels. Where the heck is Dr. Who
(or Conner :tongue:) when ya need them?

Wow, I rank up there with Dr. Who? :cool:

Conner, you definitely rank up there with Dr. Who. There are many cool people in the mud community. I miss those old episodes that used to air on PBS. Some of the better ones even if the special effects were a bit lacking.

Hmm, can I be Tom Baker? I always thought he was the best Dr. Who. :smile:
26 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 29th comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Hmm, can I be Tom Baker? I always thought he was the best Dr. Who. :smile:


I always thought he was the best too, but just imho. Yes, in mudland we can be whoever we want–the glories of shapeshifting and such eh?
27 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 30th comment:
Votes: 0
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Hmm, can I be Tom Baker? I always thought he was the best Dr. Who. :smile:

I always thought he was the best too, but just imho. Yes, in mudland we can be whoever we want–the glories of shapeshifting and such eh?

Woohoo! :biggrin:
Now, where did I put that TARDIS key again?
27 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 31st comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Avaeryn said:
Conner said:
Hmm, can I be Tom Baker? I always thought he was the best Dr. Who. :smile:

I always thought he was the best too, but just imho. Yes, in mudland we can be whoever we want–the glories of shapeshifting and such eh?

Woohoo! :biggrin:
Now, where did I put that TARDIS key again?


Good question! Maybe Dragona could help you with that? :smile:

Ok, now back to a semi-serious offshoot of this whole thread. Since you and Samson have been so helpful with some of the gnome stuff, I thought I'd dig for a bit more. I've researched a bit on gnome gadgets, but have found information mostly for linux Gnome. Bad for me :P Do any of you know of any AD&D or similar books that might have *any* information at all on gnome gadgets and tinkerers? From what I have found the gadgets do actually have a purpose and the name of the gadget reflects that purpose. Just trying to get some discussion in this area so the gadgets (which are a bit down the road) can be creative and easily created without a migraine on my part :redface:
27 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 32nd comment:
Votes: 0
You might look into the D&D Dragonlance campaign setting, they had tinker gnomes and rules for players who wanted to be one. :wink:
27 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 33rd comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
You might look into the D&D Dragonlance campaign setting, they had tinker gnomes and rules for players who wanted to be one. :wink:


Thanks, Conner! Now might be time to see if I can find that at Amazon.
27 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 34th comment:
Votes: 0
Well, if you have no luck with that (and I really expect that Amazon would have it, though it's probably only going to be available used as it's from back in 1st or 2nd edition), I may be able to retype some of the info from it for you from my copy of the Dragonlance campaign setting book.. on the other hand, Google often yields some pretty remarkable info too.. you might try googling tinker gnomes or dragonlance for example.. :wink:
28 Nov, 2007, shasarak wrote in the 35th comment:
Votes: 0
Okay, I have a question: what do gnomes eat?

An obvious possibility would be very large mushrooms. This would make sense for a culture which lives entirely underground: unless they make raids to the surface, or someone else brings supplies down to them, they're going to need to eat something that can thrive in darkness. Of course, they probably do some fishing too, maybe catch strange fish that are ghostly pale and entirely blind from living in underground pools for millions of years.

So, where do the mushrooms come from? Are they farmed? Are there vast underground fields of giant mushrooms, standing in gently swaying ranks? Where do the mushrooms get their nutrients from? Have the gnomes cunningly tapped into the lower passages of someone else's sewer system? Gnomes being quite ingenious, they probably have a major recycling project going on, so domestic waste is probably collected by specialised rubbish-collecting gnomes with small carts who bustle around transporting refuse along the underground streets to the mushroom fields.

What are gnome houses made from? Are they carved out of the rock?

What about the fish, what do they eat? Are there chemisynthetic bacteria living in the gnomes' caves? What do they look like - luminous? slimey? What other underground organisms get involved in the food chain - insects? reptiles? bats? lost penguins? Do the gnomes catch fish in small pools or rivers, or is there a whole underground sea, perhaps dimly lit by luminous veins in the rocky dome overhead? Do brave gnome fishermen set out on fishing expeditions in boats made from the stems of giant mushrooms cut into rubbery planks? If so, what else lives in the sea? Are the intrepid fishermen dodging giant sharks or weird, subterranean, kraken-like creatures?

What does gnome artwork look like?

Who makes gnome clothes, and out of what materials?

Whose job is it to make gnome spectacles (which are worn by all gnome scientists as a result of hundreds of years of scrutinising badly-written scrolls in dim light). Are the lenses glass, or polished quartz?

What do gnomes use as currency?

Well, there's a few things to be thinking about, anyway. :biggrin:
28 Nov, 2007, Conner wrote in the 36th comment:
Votes: 0
Woah there, Shasarak, who said anything about them living underground? Unless we're talking about Svirfneblin (the gnomes who live in the Underdark of Faerun), and I thought we were talking about Tinker Gnomes, also called Minoi, from Krynn, most of your assumption about life underground doesn't apply. As for general food for thought, those are good considerations and many of those things are already answered on the various sites she's sure to visit from that google search I suggested earlier. :wink:
28 Nov, 2007, shasarak wrote in the 37th comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Woah there, Shasarak, who said anything about them living underground?

Well, for starters, any dictionary says that.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/g...

www.dictionary.com said:
(in folklore) one of a species of diminutive beings, usually described as shriveled little old men, that inhabit the interior of the earth and act as guardians of its treasures; troll.

However, if you want an alternative perspective, then I highly recommend the books The Little Grey Men and Down The Bright Stream by "BB".
28 Nov, 2007, David Haley wrote in the 38th comment:
Votes: 0
This is the kind of problem you get when contrasting people brought up on D&D world views and those that weren't. :wink: The D&D-type view of what goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnomes etc. are is dramatically different from other folklore views. A simple example would be the garden gnomes in Harry Potter which are nothing at all like D&D gnomes, other than perhaps being small…

Tolkien's work did a lot of "standardizing" (for lack of a better term) and most people consider it to be definitive, but there are lots of other ways of looking at things. It makes a lot of stuff confusing IMO because you have to know what folklore background somebody is referring to.
29 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 39th comment:
Votes: 0
Conner said:
Well, if you have no luck with that (and I really expect that Amazon would have it, though it's probably only going to be available used as it's from back in 1st or 2nd edition), I may be able to retype some of the info from it for you from my copy of the Dragonlance campaign setting book.. on the other hand, Google often yields some pretty remarkable info too.. you might try googling tinker gnomes or dragonlance for example.. :wink:


I found some great info already on tinker gnomes via Google. Thanks, Conner!
29 Nov, 2007, Avaeryn wrote in the 40th comment:
Votes: 0
DavidHaley said:
This is the kind of problem you get when contrasting people brought up on D&D world views and those that weren't. :wink: The D&D-type view of what goblins, orcs, kobolds, gnomes etc. are is dramatically different from other folklore views. A simple example would be the garden gnomes in Harry Potter which are nothing at all like D&D gnomes, other than perhaps being small…

Tolkien's work did a lot of "standardizing" (for lack of a better term) and most people consider it to be definitive, but there are lots of other ways of looking at things. It makes a lot of stuff confusing IMO because you have to know what folklore background somebody is referring to.


I think for the sake or originality I will customize the gnomes to fit my idea of what they would be like. This will be, of course, based on what I have read about different types of gnomes from different authors and perspectives. I have yet to meet a gnome, so I have to go on my gut instinct with this. I think it will turn out nicely.
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