Dwarves aren't cool anymore

[Psyren]

then how would you recommend making the dwarves look more aesthetically pleasing in this age and audience without sacrificing their dwarveness?


here is a question that might make this thread go somewhere interesting what it is that makes dwarves so uninteresting to you and what would it take to change that?

I don't think it's that Dwarves are any less exciting/more boring than they were - they're just being overtaken by (a) more exotic races that can readily occupy their previous key role of The Big Guy back when we were limited to Tolkien races and (b) most closely aligned with a player demographic that was overrepresented in the hobby during its formative years that are now becoming diluted. Which, again, is a good thing, it's a natural consequence of the hobby growing and that growth being faster among demos that were historically underrepresented.

In short, Dwarven popularity could have very well stayed the same, while the rest of the hobby changed around them, and we'd end up with similar results. They may even get a bit of a bump once things like their speed penalty and lack of practical racials get addressed.

There is a flavor of the time issue that is rattling in my mind.

I can only give anecdotes to this, but back in 3/5 there was a sense that Kobold had a much stronger popularity than previously. Neverwinter Nights having a fairly lovable kobold bard companion probably helped.

Fast forward to now and they seem to have faded into the background a bit, though still with their fans.

Since the assumptions is new species appealing to a new audience. Will this change over the next edition? Will Wotc rebrand Dogefolk and it will be the new hype. Or will dragonborn or tiefling fall off the hype train.

It very well could. After all, as I mentioned, D&D as a whole if not the entire TTRPG hobby is at most two generations old. The next seismic shift could be elves waning in popularity for instance.