• Hello game master! Welcome to our growing community. Please take a moment to Register (top right button, see how: Slides).

    If you use Campaign Logger, you can use the same login details - we've linked the app to this forum for secure and easy single sign-on for you.

    And please drop by the Introductions thread and say hi.

Small Folk

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
Browsing the Pathfinder 2 rules, this passage got me thinking (highlight by me):

https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com/rules/game-mastering/#Crowds said:
CROWDS
Crowded thoroughfares and similar areas are difficult terrain, or greater difficult terrain if an area is truly packed with people. You might allow a character to get a crowd to part using Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Performance.

A crowd exposed to an obvious danger, like a fire or a rampaging monster, attempts to move away from the danger as quickly as possible, but it is slowed by its own mass. A fleeing crowd typically moves at the Speed of an average member each round (usually 25 feet), potentially trampling or leaving behind slower-moving members of the crowd.

What about folk that is slower, smaller, and/or weaker? How do they live around humans? Are they equally susceptible to mass panic?

AncestryHPSizeSpeedAbility Boosts/Flaws
Human8Medium25'Two free
Halfling6Small25'Dex, Wis, free / Str
Goblin6Small25'Dex, Cha, free / Wis
Gnome8Small25'Con, Cha, free / Str
Elf6Medium30'Dex, Int, free / Con
Dwarf10Medium20'Con, Wis, free / Cha

Rules-wise, only dwarves are likely to be affected. Based on their sturdiness, they are left behind more often than trampled.
Still, there might be risks. Did the small folk develop strategies for these situations?

Market Stalls
Market stalls present their wares in height between two and four feet for humans. Are there lower tables for small folk? Does small folk entertain their market? I imagine that a merchant provides a stepping box for the small folk to see and reach their wares.

Small Folk Taverns
OTOH, a small folk tavern might prepare to serve those "large ones" (or "longshanks" as goblins name them). However, I imagine human-sized tables and stools/chairs to be slightly out of proportion.

How do you handle the daily elements in a world where a sizable number of small folk live among humans?
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
This is an intriguing thought! You could have wee folk ghettoes where the guards have hard time entering buildings and chasing suspects. :)
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
This is an intriguing thought! You could have wee folk ghettoes where the guards have hard time entering buildings and chasing suspects. :)
What would a space like this look like?

For humans are mostly between 5 and 6 feet high, (modern) doors are between 6 and 7 feet, ceilings are between 8 and 9 feet.
Wee folk is about 3 feet high, doors might be from 3 to 4 feet high, ceilings from 4 to 5 feet.

That matches Gandalf in Bag-End.

This could become as ridiculous as Alice in Wonderland.

https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com/rules/skills/#Acrobatics_Trained_Actions said:
Squeeze

You contort yourself to squeeze through a space so small you can barely fit through. This action is for exceptionally small spaces; many tight spaces are difficult terrain that you can move through more quickly and without a check.
https://pf2.d20pfsrd.com/rules/playing-the-game/#Difficult_Terrain said:
DIFFICULT TERRAIN

Difficult terrain is any terrain that impedes your movement, ranging from particularly rough or unstable surfaces to thick ground cover and countless other impediments. Moving into a square of difficult terrain (or moving 5 feet into or within an area of difficult terrain, if you’re not using a grid) costs an extra 5 feet of movement.

Moving into a square of greater difficult terrain instead costs 10 additional feet of movement. This additional cost is not increased when moving diagonally. You can’t Step into difficult terrain.

Movement you make while you are jumping ignores the terrain you’re jumping over. Some abilities (such as flight or being incorporeal) allow you to avoid the movement reduction from some types of difficult terrain. Certain other abilities let you ignore difficult terrain on foot; such an ability also allows you to move through greater difficult terrain at the normal movement cost as for difficult terrain, though it wouldn’t let you ignore greater difficult terrain unless the ability specifies otherwise.

The stereotypical Halfling's Thieves Guild would benefit "hugely" from such an environment. At least until the City Watch upgrades.

If the watch does not employ wee thief hunters then maybe "elixirs of ensmallment" might be standard issue for human thief hunters?
 
Top