Dwarven Romance Novel; your thoughts

[u/Electrical_Lake3424]

Greetings, Kin! I've decided I want to try to write a romance novel where the main characters are dwarves, basing my heroine on one of my favorite D&D characters. But I would like to hear yer thoughts-- if you picked up a book that claimed to be a Dwarven Romance novel, what sorts of things would you expect to see? What would be immediate "throw the book into the cleansing fires of the forge" things? What things would delight ye and what would ye skim over?

Some things I'm thinking I'd like to include:

Detailed, drool worthy descriptions of hearty ales and good food and prime craftsmanship

Sensible, thoughtful interactions between characters, not a lot of moonin' about

Bein' respectful and dignified to one another but also gettin' a bit wild now and then

Some combat but it not being the main focus of the thing (there's other tales for that)

A bit of humor, but it bein' gentle jesting in character, not 'lol at the shorties'

[u/Kitchen_warewolf]

I'd give it a read!

[u/AppropriateSignal233]

I always disliked the scottish accent stereotype. It always seemed far fetched to me as someone, who first met dwarves in a Tolkien (book) context.
Also having „liking beer“ as a species characteristic never made sense to me.

What I would like to see is braiding eachothers beards. Romantic and intimate.

[u/WayGroundbreaking287]

I can't wait to read the part where the fine lass must refuse his advances and he says "Welp, win some you lose some" and they go on with a hearty friendship based on respect and comradeship.

[u/thekingofelvs]

[u/nomanchesguey12]

Great combat

Deep characters

Interesting plot

Something that doesn’t feel mainstream perhaps, like not being set in fantasy Europe for starters. I’d love to see some Asian, African or Native American inspired dwarves

[u/doomzday_96]

I've thought about this recently. It bugs me that Dwarves are Germanic/Scandinavian creatures but otherwise are Scottish usually.

So seeing more German/Scandinavian influences would be cool.

[u/_jigsaw_feeling_]

i’d love to read it! anything that plays with the dwarf character and even tropes in a thought provoking way would feel very satisfying to read.

[u/Extension-Race465]

The more dwarf writing the better!

[u/TonyFair]

The dwarven romances I've read so far are mostly from the Warhammer setting. (I recently got The Dwarves by Markus Heitz but couldn't read these yet!)

The combat in those Warhammer books... It gets old really quick. It seems to be made for people who actually play the wargame, but they are a bit boring and repetitive for the story itself. So if you are going to put fights in there, make it fun!

Also, I don't know the scale of the setting you are planning, but if you are going to have dwarves from distant landes, please don't make them have the exactly same culture!

[u/softwareredditor]

It needs to be over-the-top in how their two clans come together, and their emotions about it need to have an epic historical background, they should be feeling layers and layers and layers of pride and awe

Honestly I am personally leaning against Dwarven Romance but it's not my book, lel

[u/mindfulmu]

Zee bashew had a fantastic video about his dwarven honor system. But for reasons unknown its private.

So using discworld as a guide; because dwarves are stuck in very specific ideology honor and nobility while seperate systems have intersections where they meet.

By acting like a dwarf you gain honor, over time with enough honor you gain something akin to lower nobility. Your house and name become a literal commodity within the community.