We've never seen 8BT Dwarven women, so it's safe to say, based on Berserker's words, that they are without beards.

In D&D they tend to be fairly masculine in appearance, but if my 2nd ed The Complete Book of Dwarves is still correct, they don't usually grow full on beards--though they can easily be stubbly. In Terry Pratchett's novels, dwarven men and women are nearly indistinguishable by any non-dwarves. So it can go either way, really.

Tolkien's too, believe it or not -- I don't remember where it's said in the actual books, but I think Gimli spelled it out pretty clearly at one point in the second movie.

What?!? Do you realize how hard it was to even fit a beard onto a female-ish sprite? My ego, it is crushed...

Sky Warrior Bob

I don't remember exactly where either, but I do remember that it is the narrator mentioning it, I believe in the third book, while Gimli tells it in the movie.

On topic, I don't know what to make of Berserker. But he cracks me up...Brian did quite well bringing him in, he's just loaded with comic potential.

You cant realy tell if RM or BM have any beards, because you cant see any of BM's face and only half of RM's. I see a stabbity death comming berserker's way, or better yet, Law Ninjas! Maybe thief has just been too messed up in the head from that axe to give the command and have berserker killed.

I believe Brian brought up Terry Pratchett, so I just thought I'd say that he>all. Anyone read Monstrous Regiment yet?

Un-hijacking the thread again, I think berserker was just taking BM's 'zing' and running with it. Hence, at the end he says zing. He was just messing with 'em

The part about them being from the circus is part of the zing, but I'm not so sure about the nobeard=ladies comment. He just sounded as serious as a dwarf can be, but it might just be part of the set-up.

No good can come of Berseker being sued.

I think i could see fighter at the circus....swinging his sword chucks with a big smile, til he accidently kills everyone there.

They also have beards according to Lord Of the Rings movies. I remember when they were walking to Helms Deep, Gimli was talking to that one girl saying "Some say there arnt Dwarf women. Some say we just pop out of thin air. But we do have women." Then Arogon comes in an whispers to the girl, "Its the Beards".

Also, in Lineage 2 (My MMORPG) The dwarven women look a lot like 12 year old girls.

To quote "The Return of the King", appendix A, III:

"...It was said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole people. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart. This has given rise to the foolish opinion among men that there are no dwarf-women, and that Dwarves 'grow out of stone'."

I suspect that Tolkien added this last line in, about men not believing in dwarf-women, because the dwarfs of the Nordic sagas (on which Tolkien heavily based his works) were supposed to be only men. Thus, Tolkien was able to clear up any misconceptions that medieval man may have had about the genders of certain mythical races.

So, since male dwarves in Tolkien appear to all have beards, then I would assume the women would too, since they are so hard for humans to tell apart from the men folk.

But 8-bit theatre is a world of its own, and it is up to Brian if dwarf women have beards or not.

-AntiGnostic (master of esoteric knowledge)