Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Halfling (Dungeons & Dragons)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to Halfling. (non-admin closure) buidhe 06:39, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Halfling (Dungeons & Dragons)

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Halfling (Dungeons & Dragons) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)

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Non-notable article that fails WP:GNG. Even the notability of halfling is a bit shaky, but this article lacks notability in secondary sources and is sourced to WP:PRIMARY ones. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 01:20, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Fictional elements-related deletion discussions. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 01:20, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Science fiction and fantasy-related deletion discussions. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 01:20, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Games-related deletion discussions. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 01:20, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

• Obvious merge to Halfling, which is itself a stub, and would benefit greatly from the expansion, and from any other mergers/expansion that can be found. Sources that are primary to the specific concept of a D&D halfling are secondary as to the general pop culture concept of a halfling, which has no "in universe" connotation. BD2412 T 01:23, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
• Selective merge to Halfling. The topic of halflings as a whole is probably notable to some extent, and the D&D halflings would be part of that subject. However, the amount of detail in the entire article would be WP:UNDUE. A trimmed version should be merged, though. Hog Farm (talk) 02:49, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
• Redirect to Halfling - I initially was going to suggest a selective merge, per Hog Farm, as I felt that the existence of the D&D Halflings and the legal issues regarding how they came about their names was worth a mention there. But, I see that it already is, and as there is nothing else in the article except for primary-sourced game info, I don't really see much else that would really need to be merged. At the very least, this is an unnecessary WP:SPLIT, I would say. A Redirect would leave its history intact, in the case that others felt that there was other information worth merging. Rorshacma (talk) 13:54, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
• Keep or merge to Halfling per above comments since there are WP:RS to retain, per WP:PRESERVE and WP:ATD. BOZ (talk) 14:41, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
• Merge per BD2412 and BOZ and redirect. Secondary sources here are mostly but not completely present in the target article as it is now, primary sources here should be used to flesh the D&D-related info out to at least the level of those present for other fiction versions. Daranios (talk) 18:57, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
• Keep per WP:NEXIST. As one of the original races in the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons, the halfling has been discussed in non-fiction academic work on role-playing games.
  • The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games by Michael J. Tresca, McFarland & Co (2010)
  • Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It by David W. Ewalt, Scribner (2014)
  • Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy: Raiding the Temple of Wisdom, Open Court (2012)
  • The Encyclopedia of Fantasy by John Clute & John Grant, St. Martins Press (1999)
  • Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games by Lawrence Schick, Prometheus (1991)
  • "Racial Determinism and the Interlocking Economics of Power and Violence in Dungeons & Dragons" by Ilan Mitchell-Smith in Opting Culture: Culture and Power in Sociology and Cultural Studies, Lexington Books (2009)

The amount of coverage in each source varies, but I think collectively they demonstrate notability. I'll put these sources on the article page in a Further reading section so that editors who want to improve the page can use them as resources. -- Toughpigs (talk) 01:06, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

• That Encyclopedia of Fantasy book, as far as I can tell, does not even talk about D&D halflings. Clicking on your link, every actual discussion of the term halfling is only in regards to other uses of the term outside of D&D, such as a half-elf or a half-selkie. In fact, that actual entry for the term "Halfling" in the book does not even mention the D&D version. The closest it actually even comes is listing the name of the D&D novel The Halfling's Gem' in a list of R.A. Salvatore's books. Additionally, that last source you provided appears to mention Halflings in exactly one sentence, where they are not even the primary subject of the sentence. Searching for sources is certainly helpful, but it would be even more helpful if you took the extra time to actually review your proposed sources before flooding the AFD with a number of them that are not actually helpful to the subject matter at all.

Likewise, posting links to Amazon sales pages aren't particularly useful in helping others find information if you aren't going to actually tell us what the coverage in those books is, and I am not sure if it is appropriate to add those links to the Amazon sales pages to the actual article. Rorshacma (talk) 05:05, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

• Redirect to halfing (a rather sorry article anyway). I am not seeing any in-depth discussion of halfings in DnD, just mentions in passing in the wider, bigger context of halfing concept discourse. Sources listed by Toughpigs, those that I can access, don't seem to discuss DnD aspect beyond plot. Concept of halfing may be notable, concept of halfings in DnD is WP:FANCRUFT. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 08:23, 15 March 2020 (UTC)
• Keep - Dungeons and Dragons media has served as a baseline for a lot of fantasy media since its inception. Nominating all of these D&D pages seems like a scorched earth policy to me. If the article doesn't meet some sort of requirement, I believe it can always be improved as opposed to outright deletion. Waxworker (talk) 09:54, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.