Elves actually don't reproduce quite like Men and Dwarves; it's as much spiritual as it is physical. They don't develop the same, either. You might have an Elf several decades old who is mentally quite mature as far as speech and skills go but still has the body of a young child. I think full maturity is reached when they're around 100 years old.

That aside, your quote is dead on from what I know. Female dwarves are very similar to male dwarves and rarely seen by outsiders. I recall that the Erebor supplement for TOR had at least one pregen female dwarf character, and she had a beard coming out from under her helmet. Just looking at her, she looked little different from a male dwarf aside from the breasts. So in my view female dwarf adventurers would be a rarity but certainly not forbidden, and as you say most non-dwarves wouldn't know the difference anyway.

Quote from: Brand55;1112233Elves actually don't reproduce quite like Men and Dwarves; it's as much spiritual as it is physical. They don't develop the same, either. You might have an Elf several decades old who is mentally quite mature as far as speech and skills go but still has the body of a young child. I think full maturity is reached when they're around 100 years old.

They're all the same in terms of "Boy bit goes in girl bit. Sometimes baby comes out of Girl bits as a result of that".
All the rest is fluff.

Quoteyour quote is dead on from what I know. Female dwarves are very similar to male dwarves and rarely seen by outsiders.

Characters are often the exception from the norm anyway. So as long as a character history covering some reason why they're out and about, then I guess I'd be ok with a Female Dwarf character. Not that it's an issue yet. Noone has asked for one at yet, but I wanted to figure out an approach now and get other people's  views on it.   Thanx

Quote from: danskmacabre;1112215Anyway, what are the views here?

Personally, I dislike the idea that the quote you posted means that dwarven women are nearly identical to the men. (Including the beards)
I take it to mean female dwarves are so rare, when they are seen, they are doing "an Eowyn", and dressing to appear as the male dwarves.

Here's a little further reading. For what it's worth, Tolkien said that both male and female dwarves have beards from birth.

On Dwarf-women in general:http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dwarf-women

On female Dwarves and beards: http://tolkien.slimy.com/faq/Creatures.html#DwarfBeards

And of course, none of that means anything if you don't like bearded female dwarves in your own game. So just go with what works best for you, but if you want a canonical answer then beards seem to be it.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1112240Personally, I dislike the idea that the quote you posted means that dwarven women are nearly identical to the men. (Including the beards)
I take it to mean female dwarves are so rare, when they are seen, they are doing "an Eowyn", and dressing to appear as the male dwarves.

I'm just quoting Tolkien actually.  He states (as I quoted above) . To non Dwarves, they look the same (including beards based on a later post by someone).

Quote from: Brand55;1112241Here's a little further reading. For what it's worth, Tolkien said that both male and female dwarves have beards from birth.

On Dwarf-women in general:http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dwarf-women

On female Dwarves and beards: http://tolkien.slimy.com/faq/Creatures.html#DwarfBeards

And of course, none of that means anything if you don't like bearded female dwarves in your own game. So just go with what works best for you, but if you want a canonical answer then beards seem to be it.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I thought anyway.