For decades, the image of Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were the sole representations of what a hobbit/halfling was. Naturally, this characterization became the standard for the original run of Dungeons & Dragons canon. From the player character race and art to the wealth of literature (R.A. Salvatore’s Regis in particular), the traditional, simple, furry-footed eating machine gamers had grown to love remained the standard. The early nineties saw a slight shift in the characterization, but it was in the year 2000 that gamers saw one of the greatest shifts in demi-human representations, courtesy of D&D 3rd Edition. The world survived the Y2K scare, but forever after, Hobbits and Halflings were no longer synonymous.
