Quote from: Willie the Duck;943405I've never seen any reason to make hair anything more than stylistic. Each race's males can grow beards, and otherwise it is just a cultural tendency (and yes, most dwarves consider a full beard to be a sign of male adulthood).

Totally agree

Kind of like Pratchett I have female dwarves have beards and dwarves have a taboo against letting non-dwarves know their gender.

Dwarves are naturally hirsute, but warriors go clean-shaven so their beards don't give an enemy a handhold or catch in their chain shirts.  And warriors is most of them, at least in theory.  A dwarf with a long full beard is proclaiming he's such a master of his craft he's neither expected nor allowed to fight, except in the last resort of being overrun.

Halflings naturally grow long thick sideburns, but not full beards.

Elves have no facial hair except thin high eyebrows, that look plucked but aren't.

Half-orcs are not a playable race when I GM; if someone asks about it I may counter-offer to let them play a full orc.  Full orcs vary wildly by tribe.

Quote from: CRKrueger;943500Congress needs to pass a law declaring the Van Dyke will now be called the Evil Spock.

Everyone I've repeated this to pauses for a second, and then goes "that's awesome"!

Why change what's expected?  Mine's no more original than expected.

In my game, dwarves always have beards.  Elves almost never have beards; if they have a beard, it means they're some kind of serious weirdo-elf.

Interestingly some of the Mystara illustrations for halflings show them with beards. A few you cant tell them apart from dwarves or gnomes.

Ive seen a few drow illustrated with facial hair for added evilness.

Theres a couple of other RPGs and settings that play around with that too. Elfquest comes to mind right off.

That can even apply to the non-demi-humans.

Do your goblins and orcs have facial or head hair?

Quote from: Omega;944494Interestingly some of the Mystara illustrations for halflings show them with beards. A few you cant tell them apart from dwarves or gnomes.

Hmm. I didn't remember that.

It depends on which world I'm running in.

In my current world Elves are hairless except for their heads, eyebrows and lashes. Some extremely old elves may grow facial hair.

Dwarves almost all have facial hair. Most dwarves are carved from stone and then brought to life with a magical rune, they get the hair they are carved with. Female dwarves often have facial hair as well. Some dwarves are bald, or clean shaven, or both.

Gnomes go in for wildly extravagant facial hair, and hair styles in general. Although older gnomes settle down and get more traditionalist and conservative.

Hobbs (Halflings) tend to go for Victorian muttonchops and such.

Orcs usually do not have full beards, but bristles are not uncommon.

Goblins are amphibians and hairless and slimy.

Mixed race characters may look like either parent or a combination of both. And with magic such combintions as Hobb-Rock Troll are possible, if improbable.

Quote from: RPGPundit;944841Hmm. I didn't remember that.

GAZ8 - The Five Shires. Check out the Blackflame user with the full wizard beard or Multhim Greybeard in the Sheriffs section. Ulam is another later on. And the halfling pirates. Thats alot for something supposedly rare.

Quote from: Omega;944952GAZ8 - The Five Shires. Check out the Blackflame user with the full wizard beard or Multhim Greybeard in the Sheriffs section. Ulam is another later on. And the halfling pirates. Thats alot for something supposedly rare.

Huh.

I guess I tend to go pretty vanilla in my species expectations/preconceptions. Dwarves and gnomes tend to have beards and mustaches except for the females (no beards/mustaches), halfings tend more towards muttonchops or maybe an elaborate large mustache. Elves are devoid of beards or mustaches. Half-orcs are like humans in the category of facial hair. Half-elves can swing either way with regards to facial hair. No surprises.
Style of hair/facial hair is more of a cultural/regional aspect rather than by species except as noted.

Quote from: RPGPundit;599334Do your elves ever have beards?
Do your halflings?

Do your dwarves ever NOT have beards?
What about half-orcs?

RPGPundit

I'm amazed anyone even thinks about this stuff.

The important question is: How hairy are their feet?

Quote from: RPGPundit;599334Do your dwarves ever NOT have beards?

Dark Sun Dwarves don't (seldom?) have beards.

Other than that, it's not something that comes up.