On Building and Burrowing

[Petyr 485]

This treatise is to be used as a guide for whenever a master architect is not present.

The Three Keys to Burrowing:

1. Cozy

2. Circular

3. Covered by Dirt

Cozy: A burrow must be cozy. A burrow that is too spacious is a burrow begging for unwanted guests. Cozy is not the same as cluttered. A halfling should never have too much room or too little room. Huge basements or vaults or spare rooms are not encouraged.

Circular: Burrows should be rounded, not built with the crude edges of other barbaric races.

Covered by Dirt: If there is no dirt on top of a burrow, it is merely a house, and a house is not proper for a halfling.

Standard Building Procedures:

Most burrows will have between three and five rooms. This is typically two large rooms and one bed room, perhaps adding a storage room or, in exceptional cases, another large room. A room is qualified as large if the surface area of the floor is greater than or equal to twenty four meters squared.

Standard rooms include:

Bedroom (always)

Living Room (always)

-typically the fireplace goes to this room

Entry Room/Hallway (typically)

Eating Room/Party Room (sometimes)

Separate storage room (sometimes)

A standard four-room burrow will consist of two large rooms (entry room and living room) and two small rooms (storage and bedroom).

Carefully consider the placement of doors, windows, and fireplace before construction begins.

Walls should be made of wooden planks stacked two meters high upon some sort of sturdy log.

Darkwood and standard planks are preferable.

The floors should always be covered by a thin layer of wooden planks or some sort of wool carpet.

Ceilings should be layered inward from the walls as such (depending on the shape of the room):

After construction, burrows should be covered by a layer of dirt, as to be made inconspicuous and natural-looking. Plant flowers and tall-grass after all dirt is placed.

Some notes:

Small basements are okay, but a basement too large will collapse the burrow from lack of support.

Experimentation should of course occur; no two burrows should be identical, and each burrow must be built to the needs of the particular halfling.

Sometimes it is wise to build into the ground a bit, as to avoid too large of a hill and too much similarity between burrows.

Different rooms can be different elevations, connected by a stairwell.

Cutting wooden planks in half allows for very inventive ceiling shapes, adding to the overall cozy factor.

*The author of this treatise may later edit it if the need for advice of a greater detail comes up.*

[TheRoyalOnion(Aris) 101]

((Looks great, very helpful))

[LaCabra (Soda) 1519]

"In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: It was a Hobbit hole, and that means comfort." - Tolkien

But thank you for this guide, Petyr, it will help with the new Better Burrow Club (or the B.B.C. for short).

[lugarthecougar 57]

((Wonderful.. Now I want to make a Halfling character..))

[Guest Jhonen]

((Remember that if you build large and ugly basements that may be prone to collapse... it will collapse. THE WARNING HAS BEEN STATED!))

[Fid 566]

Thank you for this.

[Aptrotta 162]

((My burrow came

With a basement. Today I started redoing my burrow to make it look like a burrow. I don't know if I should ill in the basement with dirt or do something with it. It was poorly built and everything

[cruzazul 2815]

((This is very good. Nice job!

[Aptrotta 162]

(( amazing I forgot to add))

[Aptrotta 162]

(( should basements be under the burrow or under to the side to still allow for circled roofs. It i will make it a bit deeper

[Moot 1719]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.