There has been original creature design all throughout Dragonlance, but the Gnomes were redefined not just for the Dragonlance setting, but ultimately for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game system moving forward. Let’s take a closer look at the history and lifestyle of Tinker Gnomes.
Transcript
Cold Open
I will make sure I speak slowly enough for you to understand, otherwise, this would be a short, confusing episode.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the fast talking, busy bodies tinker gnomes. I would like to take a moment and thank my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. I am drawing information from the various Dragonlance sourcebooks, but I may miss something, so feel free to share your questions and comments below.
Discussion
Gnomes are an unassuming race. Short, delicate looking, but industrious as can be. Their traditionally nasal voices are belied by their seemingly never ending run on sentences. They have the uncanny ability to both comprehend and communicate simultaneously and only slow down when addressing other races or when in a moment of peril. Because of their passionate connection with technology and invention in a primarily magical world, they may seem out of place at first glance, but it is in part because of this truly original take on the race that Dragonlance stands out as a setting.
As is clarified in Dragons of Winter Night from The Annotated Chronicles, Jeff Grubb explains: “I’II take the blame for [Gnomes]. Gnomes, up to that point,
were the poor-relation player-characters of AD&D. They were
late arrivals. They were one more little-people race in the game,
joining the doughty dwarves and happy halflings. They had one
cool ability-they could become illusionists, which were already a
DM’s nightmare. And they could talk to burrowing animals. Yeah,
there’s a reason to play a gnome—I want to chat with a
woodchuck. Gnomes were not the most desirable characters in
the bag, but we had to take them into account in the game. So
we were casting about for what role the gnomes would play
(if any) in DRAGONLANCE, and I started on a riff about my
previous occupation—engineering. Most of my brief engineering
career had consisted of making repairs for things that other
engineers had designed and later discovered were impossible to
accomplish. I pitched the idea of gnomes as the ultimate inventors,
but that most of their inventions were made in order to fix their
previous inventions. Tracy thought that was hilarious, and soon
the gnome flingers and all the other devices of Mt. Nevermind
appeared. The gnomes themselves took on a new lease on life
and eventually escaped to space (and possibly to other people’s
campaigns). In AD&D campaigns, both DMs and players learned
to fear when a fast talking, curious, helpful gnome appeared. And
it’s all because I made fun of engineers.”
Their in-world history is the most detailed of any race on Krynn. Every Gnome keeps a diary of their work and inventions. This forms a very detailed, tedious and inexplicably boring history that even the most intrepid scholars balk at. It is known that Reorx forged the Graystone and imbued
it with light and power. In about 3500 PC, he consigned the stone to the First King, gnomoi Aldinanachru. Aldinanachru placed it in the tower of Lunias atop Mount Garath on Taladas. Around 3100 PC, a gnomoi guard was tricked into releasing it, unleashing magical havoc upon
Krynn as the stone drifted west. Reorx sent the largest clan of the gnomes to regain the enchanted stone. Now, this tale differs from other histories of Krynn, but Gnomish ancient history seems to be clouded in even more historic minutiae and most was actually lost in an accident with a primitive computer invention consisting of a cam and shaft data storage facility. Upon arrival on Sancrist Isle, many Gnomes gave up the chase of the Graystone, which was the catalyst for their arrival. Eventually even those who continued in pursuit returned to Sancrist.
From their beginning, Gnomes have focused on the development of scientific and technological devices, in stark contrast to the magical world they inhabited. They live in a technological world of steam powered engines, clockwork mechanisms and ore refining plants. Their first contact with outsiders were the Knights of Solamnia. In their fear of outsiders, the Gnomes decided they would hide their presence by making Mount Nevermind disappear. This attempt will forever be known as the ‘Day of Rotten Eggs’. The entire island was covered in a dense cloud of yellow smoke which smelled of rotting eggs left in the sun for weeks! Within a matter of hours, everyone in the colony was deathly sick. The downside was that gnomes themselves were also affected and it was only due to the generosity and humanity of the Solamnia colonists that cared for the Gnomes they were able to live through the day. Thus began a long friendship between the Gnomes and Knights.
Mount Nevermind is their largest settlement. It is an extinct volcano on Sancrist Isle that the Gnomes have hollowed out and cleaned up. The center features a lake and 35 levels of non stop whistle blowing, gear turning, horns blaring, light flashing activity. They have created Gnomeflingers (catapults) to expedite travel between levels and use carts, steam lifts, stairways, pulleys and ramps as well. Beneath the volcano is a massive undercity where engineering committees study ways of isolating the dangerous creatures they tend to uncover in their efforts to harness geothermal energy. Externally, the slopes and surrounding countryside to the volcano are used by the agricultural and hunting guilds for farming. There are committees working hard at creating artificial food as well.
Society in the mountain is complex as each clan has its own methods of election. There are some 50 major guilds in Mount Nevermind, and a host of minor ones from Mathematics
Guild, Philosophers Guild, Mechanical Engineering Guild, Weapons Guild, Education Guild, etc. While only two guilds have anything to do with life science, the Agricultural and Medical Guilds.
Outside the mountain there are settlements across Krynn, usually only numbering under a thousand. Gnomes are generally not well liked. Their technological bent makes them very alien to people accustomed to magic, and their poor grasp of social relations puts off most potential friends. From time to time one may run across the Mad gnomes. These gnomes have no care for technology and if they do invent something, it tends to work a little too well. After the Chaos War, and the destruction of Mount Nevermind, Reorx lifted his curse on Gnomes and thus the Thinker Gnomes came to be. They focused on smaller clockwork and spring devices that regularly work!
Tinkering is first and second nature to gnomes. It is in their DNA. Whether they are masters in their obsession, or ensnared by it is up for debate, but you will find no other species as fervent about anything. This is so ingrained in them that each Gnome has a lifequest. The purpose of this lifequest is to attain perfect understanding of one device. Though few ever attain this knowledge. This means most gnomes are unfulfilled in their lifes work. Even passing it onto their progeny. If a gnome or its progeny complete a lifequest, they secure themselves and their ancestors a place with Reorx in the afterlife.
Though technology has been the cornerstone of Gnomish inventions, Clockwork mechanisms are a relatively recent development and they know nothing about electricity. Their obsession with technology is their ultimate undoing as they see simple mechanisms as failures, thus continually ‘improving’ upon designs, to a fault. Some players are hesitant to add Gnomish technology in their games, but keep in mind: Gnomes have technology-but they
are so incompetent that anything their technology can do, magic can usually do cheaper,
faster, and more efficiently. Most of the tech is 30 times larger than necessary, it will make 10 times the noise it should, it will have many totally redundant features, and will fail miserably (if not disastrously) most of the time.
Examples of gnomish technology is the Netflinger, designed for the Knights of Solamnia. It’s meant to trap an opponent from a distance, unfortunately it entraps the user half of the time. The aforementioned Gnomeflinger is the gnome’s answer to stairs, it is ostensibly a catapult with nets and backup emergency sponges for a landing system. The Flapestry is meant to send moving pictures and sound over distances, though it is enormous and as complex as a time machine. The Irongnome is a suit encasing its wearer deflecting any damage directed toward it. The Blamblower is a sort of oil based flamethrower. The Whooshwagon is a self propelled wagon that is slower than horseback. The Fargab is a wagon sized telephone. The Gnomethink-Klackeradd is a huge calculator. The Blindguide is a clockwork compass. And the Stewmatic is a food preparation device turning raw vegetables and meat into an amorphous mass of steaming glop.
Outro
And that is all I can stuff into this episode. Have you ever played a Gnome in a Dragonlance campaign? Are the gnomes you encounter in other AD&D campaigns the same as Dragonlance ones? And how far do you allow gnomish technology to progress in your game? Leave a comment below.
I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below.
This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
You will be beset with failure, but never give up hope. If that happens, you will know defeat.
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