We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

[penemue]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

I prefer the elves are scary Sidhe monsters sort of campaign with some fay blood and magic is totally mind blowing and it's going to get you killed because all mages eventually go crazy and hunt down other mages for their power and the inquisition is now hunting you because you are a godless witch.

My Palladium campaign back in the early 80s was totally human-centric with a dash of Thieves World thrown in for fun.

I haven't run a serious Fantasy campaign for years. I really want to, but I have so few original ideas that I just can't get excited about the genre anymore. Maybe this is my next project.

[Maelstrom]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

Because you desperately need a fifth player and the only way he'll play is if he gets to play a Kzinti. Because he's a furry.

 

Jeez, just because you shave your cat's tail the ONE TIME . . . .

[Kristopher]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

So far, I see no shortage of the usual "I don't like/allow Race/Species X because some guy once plaed one poorly in my game" mentality.

 

**shrug**

[penemue]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

So far, I see no shortage of the usual "I don't like/allow Race/Species X because some guy once plaed one poorly in my game" mentality.

 

**shrug**

 

I think we just need better players.http://www.herogames.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

Seriously though, I think not allowing players to play species other than human is just a matter of personal taste. I have had bad experiences with players playing half orcs, half elves, elves, dwarves, gnomes, pixies, etc. Pretty much anything, even human characters, but much less so with human characters.

I don't know. I have a hard time running fantasy campaigns. Maybe it's my lack of love for the genre that makes it frustrating for me.

[Vanguard00]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

So far, I see no shortage of the usual "I don't like/allow Race/Species X because some guy once plaed one poorly in my game" mentality.

 

**shrug**

 

I also see plenty of helpful and useful advice, experience and perspective, which I'm guessing is what the original poster was after.

 

Glass half empty/half full, I guess.

[CTaylor]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

I don't know. I have a hard time running fantasy campaigns. Maybe it's my lack of love for the genre that makes it frustrating for me.

 

Never run what you don't love. It will make the experience painful and scenario creation very difficult.

[penemue]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

For me fantasy works best in a modern context, that's why I am a fan of urban fantasy.

I can run an Arthurian campaign in modern times, but I can't run an Arthurian campaign in Arthurian times.. What's up with that?

[Maelstrom]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

My hatred of elves comes primarily from WoW. Likewise my hatred of gnomes. And orcs. And warlocks. And 13-yr-olds.

[Vulcan]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

I just hate 13-yr-olds, regardless of what they play.

 

(No, I'm not good with kids. That's why my wife and I don't have any.)

[Vulcan]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

In my current game, the elves are in the process of pulling away from humanity and returning to the fae. Their homelands are going to become 'faded lands' - demiplanes that only slightly impinge on the real world.

 

My next game is going to be set a couple generations in the future. Elves will be very different (fae subtype, with magical abilities and an ECL), and incredibly rare. The dwarves, likewise, will have retreated underground and become even more reclusive. Gnomes and halflings will still be around, but not as much.

 

Orcs and what-not, on the other hand, will still be very much around. I'm trying to decide if the Hobgoblins are going to settle down and start their own civilization, separate from the general humanoid raiding culture.

[Chris-M]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

I also see plenty of helpful and useful advice' date=' experience and perspective, which I'm guessing is what the original poster was after.[/quote']

 

Indeed it was -- my thread 4 teh win!!11

 

But I'm also cool with people saying things like, "God, I hate kender, drow rangers, and tieflings" or whatever. Sometimes it's cathartic to let these things out. People have absolutely savaged some ideas and approaches that are near and dear to my own heart, but that's okay by me. Differences of opinion are what make life rich and interesting.

 

Sadly, though, no one has compared a particular race to the Nazis yet. Folks are just too civil around here.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

Sadly' date=' though, no one has compared a particular race to the Nazis yet. Folks are just too civil around here.[/quote']

 

The Aryan ubermensch have always reminded me of Nazis for some reason...

[Vanguard00]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

Sadly, though, no one has compared a particular race to the Nazis yet. Folks are just too civil around here.

I did have in mind that the elves were once all about genetic cleansing, but it's part of their background. The "current" state has the elves as an empire on the decline, so their military might is most defensive rather than offensive.

 

Then again, there's a human faction in my fantasy world that wishes to see the end of all sentient races except their own. They view all other races as either competition or an abomination, and either way they should just go.

 

Again, though, this is a world that has seen very little game play, and none in recent years.

[JmOz]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

The idea of orcs as a Nazi race is interesting to me

[Curufea]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

Well, Mary Gentle has done Orcs as a US Marine race.

[Midas]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

Indeed it was -- my thread 4 teh win!!11

 

But I'm also cool with people saying things like, "God, I hate kender, drow rangers, and tieflings" or whatever. Sometimes it's cathartic to let these things out. People have absolutely savaged some ideas and approaches that are near and dear to my own heart, but that's okay by me. Differences of opinion are what make life rich and interesting.

 

Sadly, though, no one has compared a particular race to the Nazis yet. Folks are just too civil around here.

 

*ahem*

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1626617&postcount=59

 

Most elves have struck me that way. Hamilton's Seelie are the most up front about it. OTOH, Tolkien's elves were much less so, though they did have their moments: The Nolder weren't Nazies, they were just...um...jerks. Yeah, that's the word.

 

Midas

[Curufea]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

*ahem*

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1626617&postcount=59

 

Most elves have struck me that way. Hamilton's Seelie are the most up front about it. OTOH, Tolkien's elves were much less so, though they did have their moments: The Nolder weren't Nazies, they were just...um...jerks. Yeah, that's the word.

 

Midas

 

I'd have to say that pretty much every race in the times of the Silmarillion were jerks. Jerks make the best myths.

If you can't have someone melodramatically fly off the handle over the slightest insult - you may as well toss out the concept of mythology

[Maelstrom]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

The idea of orcs as a Nazi race is interesting to me

 

Green power! *ugh* Kalimdor National Socialists.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

What I would find interesting would be a fantasy world which was modern or quasi-modern in which the Orcs had at one point followed a Dark Lord but had been defeated and had their dark master destroyed.

 

Orcs are now a neutral race like any other but they still carry the shame and stigma of having had a Dark Lord phase. Basically a parallell of 20th Century Europe in that respect with the defeated Orcs standing in for the Germans.

 

It might be quite interesting as a way of exploring the true nature of good and evil and the effects of prejudice in a fantasy setting.

 

Alternatively this could just be an excuse for the kind of scene where a cunningly concealed Elf watches a band of Orcs entering the Elven Forests. He doesn't fill them full of arrows however, he just sits on a branch muttering to himself. "Don't mention the war! Don't mention the war!"

[Markdoc]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

Then again' date=' there's a human faction in my fantasy world that wishes to see the end of all sentient races except their own. They view all other races as either competition or an abomination, and either way they should just go.[/quote']

 

I have a similar culture, inspired by the Terminators from the comic Nemesis the Warlock (Kev O'Neill FTW). I just had to have them, they're so gloriously gothic. Also, they make good bad guys, if you know what I mean.

 

Except in my setting, they're run by a sort of giant mystical "computer" containing the conscious souls of their past heroes and leaders (those who survived long enough to be exo-cysted, anyway).

 

Cheers, Mark

[Drhoz]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

I have a similar culture' date=' inspired by the Terminators from the comic Nemesis the Warlock (Kev O'Neill FTW). I just had to have them, they're so gloriously gothic. Also, they make good bad guys, if you know what I mean.[/quote']

 

And Pat Mills! Don't forget the guy who *wrote* Nemesis!

[Ragnarok]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

In my campaign, there is a nation of elves to the south, inhabiting a kind of cape region, controlling a powerful navy and much of the maritime trading. Due to several events in Midgard, this nation has become very militaristic and expansionist, much like the Roman Empire. The chaos of the surrounding region has driven the younger, more war-thirsty leaders to justify the expansion as a stabilizing move, but really is just intended to expand their power.

 

I feel this is a far enough departure from the stereotypical elves; depicted as defensive, fading in influence, something of the past. Whereas in my game, the elves are anything but fading. What do you guys think?

[DusterBoy]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

What I would find interesting would be a fantasy world which was modern or quasi-modern in which the Orcs had at one point followed a Dark Lord but had been defeated and had their dark master destroyed.

 

Orcs are now a neutral race like any other but they still carry the shame and stigma of having had a Dark Lord phase. Basically a parallell of 20th Century Europe in that respect with the defeated Orcs standing in for the Germans.

 

It might be quite interesting as a way of exploring the true nature of good and evil and the effects of prejudice in a fantasy setting.

 

Alternatively this could just be an excuse for the kind of scene where a cunningly concealed Elf watches a band of Orcs entering the Elven Forests. He doesn't fill them full of arrows however, he just sits on a branch muttering to himself. "Don't mention the war! Don't mention the war!"

 

I've had the same sort of idea. Kind of like LoTR but set thousands of years after Sauron's defeat -ish. The orcs (I called 'em Uroks - I know, so sue me) were having to live as best as they could, since they had essentially been bred solely for war and slowly making themselves skilled at other things. Whenever someone asks one of them "Why did you serve the Dark Lord?" the answer was always "You don't understand, he was our God."

 

And it should be good for more than just Fawltey Towers references. Even if you can't get the staff these days.

[Markdoc]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

And Pat Mills! Don't forget the guy who *wrote* Nemesis!

 

Oh I wasn't forgetting. But in this case, it was the graphics that made it "must have". It's like th ABC warriors - I was never a big fan (tho' I liked them well enough) until Simon Bisley started drawing them. He lifted a fairly limp storyline into something that I looked forward to reading every episode of. For me, comics are a visual medium as well as written one and it's a rare comic that perfectly balances both aspects.

 

cheers, Mark

[SteveZilla]

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs

 

In my campaign, there is a nation of elves to the south, inhabiting a kind of cape region, controlling a powerful navy and much of the maritime trading. Due to several events in Midgard, this nation has become very militaristic and expansionist, much like the Roman Empire. The chaos of the surrounding region has driven the younger, more war-thirsty leaders to justify the expansion as a stabilizing move, but really is just intended to expand their power.

 

I feel this is a far enough departure from the stereotypical elves; depicted as defensive, fading in influence, something of the past. Whereas in my game, the elves are anything but fading. What do you guys think?

 

It sounds intriguing. Do you allow PCs to be elves from this nation?

 

Also, just because a race is fading doesn't mean it isn't still dangerous -- especially if it tries one last time to regain it's former status though conflict.

 

Also, "fading" doesn't have to mean the race in toto. Perhaps their arcane might is fading, but they are increasing their might of arms to balance that loss.