I looked around at all the different forums and this seemed the most appropriate place to post this. Anyway, this may not be the best of first impressions (and I realize I may be taking my own life into my hands by even broaching this subject) but this topic is about Kenders. I gotta say, up until the playtest pack for DnD Next was released I had no idea what a Kender was or even that such a concept even existed. Since discovering it, however, I've fallen in love with the race, but my interest in Kenders is purely academic in a manner of speaking and by that I mean I love them because of the quirky characters I could easily create with them. Some personal history, I fancy myself a writer. I'm not published yet but I do on occasion participate in writing forums where we create characters and stories and "role play". When I create characters for these stories I like to put a little bit of extra thought into who they are and one of the things I love to do is to create characters who have certain quirks that are often times contradictory to what they do. For instance, I participated in a role play where I created a Jedi Knight who was afflicted with scopophobia (a fear of being seen). In another role play I created a swashbuckling pirate character who couldn't swim and was afraid of water in spite of the fact that she sailed quite frequently. In a DnD 3.5 game I created a dungeon delver character who was claustrophobic and many others with similar traits. So when I saw Kender in the Player's Handbook and read that they tend to collect random useless junk and frequently forget that they have it my eyes lit up with the possibilities. An entire race of people built around the same kind of quirks and eccentricities I frequently build into my characters? It was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, in researching the race and trying to learn more about it I quickly found out that Kenders were one of if not the most hated race in DnD, which was disheartening to say the least. I've read arguments from both sides of the debates and it seems to me a lot of the ire directed towards Kenders comes from a mishandling of, well--Kender handling. Basically, a bunch of irresponsible players who frequently play Kender to troll the rest of the party by stealing their stuff. Then they justify it by saying, "Oh, I'm just playing my race," as if that makes it okay. Would playing an evil character who constantly betrays or tries to kill the party and then justify it by saying, "I'm just playing my alignment," be any different? Anyway, I'm not really posting this to argue the merits of playing a Kender I'm really just sort of testing the waters as the title says. I did a forum search for the word Kender to sort of get a feel for how people around here feel about them with no real results so now I'm asking. To be clear, though, my preferred style of play is not to disrupt the game every thirty seconds and alert the DM to the fact I'm making a sleight of hand check. I prefer the absent-minded version of handling where the DM makes sleight of hand checks for me in secret. For instance, if I say I want to get a closer look at an object I think is interesting the DM should decide whether or not to make a roll to see if I take it or not. I don't necessarily have to take everything I pick up but it should at least be unclear to me whether I put something back or put it in my bag. Or alternatively the DM can decide at random intervals whether that item someone is reaching for is in their bag or mine which I'm okay with so long as it doesn't happen so frequently that people start actually getting really angry with me. That way if another player's item turns up in my possession I can genuinely be surprised by it as a Kender should be and the role play that follows is just that much more authentic. I also don't see Kender handling as a game mechanic that must be used all the time to justify playing a Kender. I see it as more of a story mechanic that can and should be used to encourage good role play and character development (which is how I would use it in my games if I ever get around to finishing my DnD Next campaign). However, like any good story mechanic it can easily become stale or even infuriating if used too much. That's my personal feeling on the subject though I've seen it argued many times that Kender who aren't stealing all the time are cheating or not playing their character right and to that I say is there a rule that says you have to play race X a certain way? You're talking about a game where the developers hand you a bunch of rules and say do with them what you will and have frequently gone on record as saying, "If the rules get in the way of your enjoyment of the game then throw out the rules." There are lots of things to love about Kenders that go beyond Kender handling. I am as much interested in their fearlessness, their insatiable curiosity and their fierce loyalty to their friends as I am in their tendency to often misplace important things until later. To me I look at the Kender and see a potential goldmine for memorable characters who are funny and cute and maybe even a little bit annoying but not so much that it takes away from everyone's enjoyment of the game. Heck, my last (and well first) Kender had some interesting quirks that went beyond just being a Kender. For starters her background was a Jester, although she was really more of a gleeman. She danced, told stories, played music, wrote jokes and loved to talk to interesting people and write down things they tell her to use in her act and whenever something made her angry she had a tendency to swear in Orcish (I even bought an Orcish to English dictionary to do just that). She was also just as likely to accept an old boot as payment for a quest as she was to accept gold or gems (because let's face it, despite their disinterest in gold or gems even Kenders need money to buy food). She may have also tried to barter with junk once or twice. Oh, and she was rather vain at times as well cause you know Kenders know the importance of first impressions so she was always preening herself when granted the opportunity and had an expensive ivory brush and silver mirror she always carried around with her. I think she made for a fun character but sadly the campaign I was in ended sooner than I would have hoped (conflicts in scheduling, hooray retail schedules). Anyway, to bring this long post to a close and basically get to the point I was trying to make, how do people around here generally feel about running games with a Kender in the group? Are people here somewhat optimistic and open to the idea or am I in the wrong place?
