Why is it always the Halflings?

The faction responsible for all of the drama

Of all the factions in my campaign world, the ones who keep themselves in every conversation are the halflings, who provoked multiple wars and drew the ire of half the players on the map. The halfling god, Eoghanar, had the travel and hearth domains, allowing him to settle at long distances, which, just as I’d hoped, was the perfect domain for provoking maximum drama.

In my last post, I told the tale of the fall of the halfling capital city, Taranach, which was the most funded war so far, with most players pouring a ton of resources into their favored side. So what exactly were the halflings doing that caused their kingdom to be lost and why are they one of the most impactful races in my campaign world?

From the beginning of the campaign, the players wondered who would be the first to go to war. Each kingdom had a secret warfare rating that was decided at the beginning, ranging from 1-15. 15 was the highest and 1 was the lowest, and while players knew their rating (and thus where they ranked in comparison to others), no one knew anyone else’s, so while a player might know that his kingdom had the second strongest army, he would not know which kingdom had the strongest.

The halflings had a respectable warfare score, though it wasn’t the highest by any means and their god also had the travel domain, which allowed them to place settlements outside of their normal range, meaning they quickly had decently defended settlements all over the world.

The halflings made their first provocative move early on when they settled between two sharkfolk settlements, in possibly the most aggressive position they could, establishing the settlement that would eventually become their capital, Taranach. Everyone expected them to pay for their misdeeds, but it took until well after the end of the 4x setup and a year into the RPG campaign for the halflings to even begin to pay the price. So why was this and what exactly was the halfling strategy?

The halflings had a high enough warfare score to play aggressively, but they followed a CG halfling god of travel and hearth, which was flavor that the player consistently leaned into. He didn’t attack anyone else’s settlements, but instead, aggressively defending his own questionably placed settlements. The main strategy was to grab land all around the world early (he specialized in explorers, allowing him to place settlements a long distance away from his others), provoke attacks, and successfully defend as much as he could.

But who benefits from the attacks on the halflings? The halflings gained nothing from taking all the heat- winning a defensive war only ensures that the player doesn’t lose anything, but there seemed to be nothing gained. The halflings themselves did not benefit from the attacks, but their allies did.

The aggressive civilizations were mostly all working with high warfare scores and the desire to conquer the land of their defenseless neighbors. By being everywhere, the halflings put a target on their own back, provoking the attacks, and aside from a few losses, they were mostly able to defend successfully. This meant that almost all of the warfare-heavy civilizations were busy focusing on the halflings, while most of the less war-focused civilizations were allowed to build and prosper without fear of invasion.

There was one player early on who caught onto this gambit and knew what he had to do to stop it, but he alone was not enough. The orcs and their god, Tyrgrom, began targeting halfling allies for backing the halflings, demanding a public denouncement to put the halflings under pressure. When the allies refused to denounce, the orcs sent not one, but two plagues to their island to take out as many of them as they could, and it was somewhat successful against the aasimar and frogfolk, who suffered some casualties for this. But their losses were manageable, and the other players still continued to fall for the aggressive halfling taunting.

So that was the halflings’ role- to play the heel and taunt the more aggressive players into attacking them while their mainly good-aligned allies were able to enjoy an age of peace. This would have been a completely effective strategy if not for the plagues flung by the sea orcs. However, aside from the plagues, the halfling strategy was perfectly effective and bought peace for their allies for two thousand years of world history and at least a year of campaign time.

What strikes me about this playstyle is that this is a dynamic that could only emerge in this type of game. There is no joy to be gained from playing the heel in a conventional game against NPCs, it only worked because every faction was player-controlled and he taunted them directly, not only with aggressive settlement placements, but by throwing in-character insults to their manhood, which predictably resulted in the provocation of many factions and their gods.

I don’t know if there was ever a conversation between the halflings and their allies about this strategy, but I imagine there was some coordination. Even civilizations who weren’t allied with the halflings benefited in the end, as because of the halflings, they were able to play a peaceful early game where none of their settlements were ever in real danger.