Could there be legal reasons for this?
Given that halflings don't look that much different than human children, I could see the risk of the game getting fully banned in some countries.
That argument seems weak, especially since Halfing is not the only choice. Dwarves are as common, if not more so in some locations than Elves in the Forgotten Realms. I see them a lot in various novels. Halflings are more of a Tolkien thing and not something you see widely discussed in various books from the Realms, even Gnomes are more commonly mentioned.
