~Halfling farm RP amenities, the threshing floor!~
The halfling roleplay niche & style was made organically in starting in 2011. It is currently 2022, and it's very obvious that never once did anybody make a full culture write-up for halflings with specific traditions and practices. This is why "proper" halflings are determined mostly by what they DON'T do rather than what they DO do (no minas, no locks, no shoes, no swords, etc.), and due to many changes over the years, a lot of these cultural taboos aren't even followed anymore (Hayhollow has minas shops and many burrows have locked chests)! While great strides have been made in recent years to create and record halfling cultural elements (such as the halfling religion, which went from a total meme into an actual fleshed out set of beliefs thanks to @TakeMeT0TheFae), much remains to be done and many interesting bits of halfling culture have either been lost to time over leadership & village transitions or were never expanded upon in the first place.
Furthermore, the old halfling roleplay niche of "Small, quaint, chill community that doesn't do wars and raids" isn't very unique anymore, what with LOTC as a whole going through dry spells with barely any warfare or significant player conflict. Back in 2018 there would always be massive influxes of new halflings whenever huge wars started up & players made halflings to ride out the storm. This simply isn't the case anymore.
This is why I hope to finish the project I started in the summer of 2021 and redefine halflings as something BETTER! We don't have a huge population, but there are events & roleplay niches that work best in smaller settings, and I believe that is what we ought to focus on. My current idea is to focus halflings around farming RP much more than usual and run several farm-focused events every week (planting, harvesting, threshing & milling grain, work with animals, etc.) and lean into the productive & work-RP side of halflings. On top of more cultural lore posts, this should (hopefully) make halflings far more interesting!
I'd like to see your thoughts on the matter!
This feedback thread is geared towards both halflings and non-halflings alike.