Based on the existing stereotypes, it's relatively harder to make halflings into out-and-out assholes without drawing on Kender themes. I think this is a good thing! (I don't foresee ever
quite getting around to writing the Kender Personality. Let's say I'm leaving it as an exercise for the reader.) I also steered away from
Belkar, even though I think Order of the Stick has done a good job of moving him beyond the relatively shallow joke that he was in the beginning. Belkar is deliberately an inversion of most halfling traits, and you can get a broader range of evil or hostile traits from Background anyway.
It says something about the default murder-hobo-ness of D&D that Belkar Bitterleaf is less disruptive to party cohesion and fun than the average kender. My essay on how people miss the traits of Tasslehoff Burrfoot that stop him from being insufferable will have to wait for another day.
All of this is to say that there are a lot more themes I would have drawn in, but six to eight items per category means that most items have to cover the core stereotypes, and only one or two get to touch on more unusual things. It wouldn't
break anything to build these as d20 or even d100 lists, but it would dilute the consistency of many group members sharing particular traits. I dunno, I think what you want in character portrayal is for 80% or so of your presentation to show how you represent your race, class, and background, while the other 20% show how you are an individual. If there are other members of your race, class, and/or background involved in the story who cleave to the defaults, you can increase your own variation by contrast. Everyone needs a good foil, right?
