what makes a d&d sub race stick?

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Disagree. The bad rap is well deserved. They were badly conceptualized and badly written in the original fiction. When the DL novels first came out, I quite enjoyed them. (Although the gully dwarves were a tone spoiler). I also liked the first Twins trilogy. But even in Autumn Twilight Tass leaped off the page as a bad fit. It was an attempt to shoehorn Tolkien's hobbits into the world building with none of what made the hobbits a connecting device for the reader. Granted, the fact that people played hobbits, elves, half elves, and dwarves in D&D and AD&D, and they were trying to bring game adventures to life via the novels, was behind this. The transition didn't work. What transition? From reluctant burglar to kleptomaniac - this is a core concept problem.
And there you go, two separate issues with the original fiction. (But that's not all).

Dragonlance isn't quite doing the same things Tolkien is, and is of course encumbered by the baggage of its game system. Gnomes, I think, are a bigger example of that than kender. If you want something that leaps off the page as a bad fit, the gnomes of Mount Nevermind are it.

Kender aren't halflings and aren't supposed to be. Halflings in the Tolkien mode are small holders, pubdwellers and country gentlemen -- familiar English countryside characters. And that fits a story where these pastoral, simple folks reveal themselves to have heroic qualities, especially since the framing of that story is as England's long-lost mythic past.

Kender are free-spirited innocents in a world where doors are always locked and gates are always barred. Their primary characteristic is relentless movement, really, and in that their most direct Tolkien equivalent is the dwarves of The Hobbit rather than halflings, whose primary characteristic is a deep-rooted connection to the Shire. The most direct real-world analogue isn't British intervention in world wars, it's the beatniks and hippies clashing with established American culture in the early-mid 1960s. And that fits the stories Dragonlance is trying to tell, which are about a group of people trying (sometimes reluctantly) to change a suspicious, mean, paranoid world for the better.

[Anonymouswizard]

The solution to good lender portrayals: (mildly) annoy the characters but not the players. Who cares if the y swipe pretty baubles as long as they always let the treasure be sold? If other players are into backstory and character development pocket trinkets that help with that (but don't reduce combat power). And if other players have lines for this kind of behavior do not cross them.

It's like 'do not play a nudist character if someone else would be uncomfortable'. Heck despite seeing a Standard Slutty Sorceress Mark 3 (scale bikini variant) the biggest argument I've had at a table was whether or not dwarven women have beards (settled with them being a mountain dwarf and me being a hill dwarf, so we both got our preference)

[Metastachydium]

What a shame that they boned it. (Darnit, Roy will be so upset with me, I used bone as a verb).

Well, he's Only Mostly Lawful. I'm sure he'll understand that it was for a Good cause.

the biggest argument I've had at a table was whether or not dwarven women have beards

I sure hope you were on the yes side. Otherwise I'll have to ask you to do the paradoxical and expect a visit from the Spanish Inquisition.

[Anonymouswizard]

I sure hope you were on the yes side.

Team Dapper Sideburns. Other party dwarf had a full long beard, and I wanted nonstandard dwarven facial hair.

These days I'd go with a waxed mustache.

Otherwise I'll have to ask you to do the paradoxical and expect a visit from the Spanish Inquisition.

Bah, they have to give notice anyway.