Narf the Mouse Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I don't know what Avernum is' date=' so... probably not? [/quote'] http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/products.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My Elves are the same! Which raises the question, the same as what? Lucius Alexander My palindromedaries are different! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrito Boy Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My elves are different because they're albinos. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melnibon%C3%A9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My elves are different because they're albinos. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melnibon%C3%A9 I've always kinda preferred the Vadhagh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister E Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My Elves are the same! Which raises the question, the same as what? Lucius Alexander My palindromedaries are different! As all elves are unique in their own way... like snowflakes... whatever is special about each elf is actually quite common. Thus, there is nothing different about any elf. It make more sense when you realize there is likewise nothing out of the ordinary about the people who generate elves. "All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look. I make love like you wanna wanna make love. I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not." ~[some jerk-elf proving he's just like every other jerk-elf] ~Mister E ("I am Mr. E's existential dysmorphism.") P.S. When I look in the mirror, I see a phat person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gent Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My GM's elves are different because they live underground. Otherwise, they're normal D&D elves His dwarves, on the other hand, worship trees and hate axes because of their association with cutting down trees. They, for no other reason than a refusal on the GM's part to accept fantasy-race stereotypes, are customarily clean-shaven and never drink alcohol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My GM's elves are different because they live underground. Otherwise, they're normal D&D elves His dwarves, on the other hand, worship trees and hate axes because of their association with cutting down trees. They, for no other reason than a refusal on the GM's part to accept fantasy-race stereotypes, are customarily clean-shaven and never drink alcohol. While funny, this is almost my least favorite kind of "I just gotta be me" syndrome with GM's or writers or whatnot. If all you are doing is making a photo-negative of an existing thing, it really isn't unique, and just tends to annoy (me, at least.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I should have known. Susano already had a version of a Keebler Elf. http://surbrook.devermore.net/bigbrawl/food/keebler_elf.html Lucius Alexander The palindromedary watches Lucius deflate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister E Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! While funny' date=' this is almost my least favorite kind of "I just gotta be me" syndrome with GM's or writers or whatnot. If all you are doing is making a photo-negative of an existing thing, it really isn't unique, and just tends to annoy (me, at least.)[/quote'] In some ways, it is a lot like Dark Sun. Take the whole "what-if" element, for instance. I really liked Dark Sun because it abstracted D&D itself, and came up with its own conclusions... yet was still recognizable in the end. Certainly it was a worthy attempt to "up the ante" for jaded role-players. Now that I'm thinking about it, pretty much the entirety of DMGR1 [Campaign Sourcebook & Catacomb Guide] was devoted to just this type of approach to creating setting material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrito Boy Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I've always kinda preferred the Vadhagh I'd never heard of them before. Still haven't read any of the Corum books. Thanks for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I like elves and use them in most of my fantasy games, but I'm a little sick of how the culture drift has altered perceptions of them, so I tend to either pull a Tolkien and derive my elf races from original mythological sources, or go kinda Julian May and make them a survivor remnant of an earlier civilization like Atlantis. Someday I'm going to run a game with Diskworld style elves tho As I started reading this I was thinking of "lords and ladies." I wonder if I read this before... Nope, not based on the date. Someone on the board posted their world where the elves had long ago conquered the dwarves and selectively bred them into disturbingly subservient slaves. I have been thinking about a fantasy/sci-fi world where the Elves rule most of the world, if not all of it. Imagine Immortal Nazis. Then there are the "forest folk" I intend to use in a game. All most people know is that if you enter the "forbidden forest" you usually don't come out again. Sometimes you are found right at the edges, pinned to a tree by 4+ foot long arrows. Sometimes you are thrown out of the woods at night with your head torn off. There are only a very few Humans or any other race who have contact with them. They are not known to have ever gone to war outside their land. I am torn as to whether I should tell more. I can't remember whether I have in the past, and if I write them into a story, I would hate to have someone else claim copyright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! Y'know, there's something I've noticed in my gaming lately and I wanted to know if anyone else was seeing it - Human player characters are becoming downright rare. Not only are there more alternatives to playing a Human than I can keep track of, "Human" seems to be a downright unpopular choice - to the point I've felt like I get funny looks for playing one. Is this just a local thing, or have any of the rest of you noticed a tendency in fantasy games for Human player characters to become an endangered species? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary isn't really Human, but plays one in a role playing game thirty years ago one of the people I gamed with called Humans "Humdrums". Sometimes I even agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! That's cause elven chicks are hawt. Dwarven and goblin chicks' date=' not so much.[/quote'] You need to check out Supermegatopia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I suppose. I don't particularly see why you couldn't do both, even if not to the particular extreme of 'clean shaven dwarf'. In this case, a good subversion of the dwarven stereotype would be to not have a perpetual mad-on for orcs, goblins and giants (or whatever critters the dwarves have grudge-matches with), perhaps even wondering if maybe the dwarves aren't to blame for the problems in the first place and the orcs (etc) have a valid grievance. Anyway, here's a personal example of a character I played in a D&D to subvert stereotypes ... a Shifter Druid. As his backstory, during childhood, he would constantly question why his tribe did things, many of which seemed utterly pointless. He would always find the response of 'It is the way of our people' or 'It's tradition' to be a hollow non-answer. When the time came for his coming-of-age ceremony, he realized that it didn't matter what the tribal elders said he needed to do 'to become a man'; to become one in his own eyes, he had to find his own path. The night before, he packed up his portable belongings and left the village for a city. He lived there for several years, getting an education. While there, he learned of the Far Realm(C'thulhu-esque aberrant monsters) and decided they were the ultimate threat to the world, and began to look for ways to defeat them. Since the Far Realm monsters distort reality where they appear, he reasoned that they were the antithesis of nature; as such, he took to learning to command nature to use its power against them. Note the use of the word 'command'; he doesn't commune with nature or spirits, or worship or revere primal forces; his patron diety of choice is Erathis, goddess of cities and civilization. He tells Natural Forces to sit down, shut up, and do what he says. He would later attempt to return to the village to try to bring them into modern (or as modern as it gets) times. He was predictably rebuffed, and left again, pitying them and considering them as good as dead in their stagnation. Now, something tells me that's not a typical druidic, or shifter, outlook, but I can't imagine anybody considering the character 'invalid' for such. I think the last character I played in a D&D game was a half-ogre fighter. He wore a chainmail shirt, carried a scimitar, and specialized in ranged weapons. His favorite was his Harpoon, but he carried javelins also. IIRC it was in Eberron. He was an orphan, grew up in a town near the swamps (I forget the name of the area) and was to some extent trained by the various retired adventurers in the town. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I haz Pathfndr. Me too...just got the ultimate Magic today. I'm loving it. pathfinder to me is FAR better than "not D&D" 4th edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gewing Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I haz Pathfndr. Hmmm. I had a thought I'm growing fond of. I think in my new setting the majority of "Elves" will mostly be remnant populations of Atlantian Catastrophe survivors from the various pre-catastrophe lands (Lemuria, Mu etc), i.e. the Tuatha De Dannan coming to Ireland fleeing their home sinking beneath the waves, but the inside straight will be filled by stranded time traveler populations. I'm working with spooky Lovecraft physics, so the occasional Cruise Ship or airliner slipping through a crack in space isn't out of the question. A slightly quirky space time continuum lets you explain almost every myth as anomalies. You need to move up here! pretty please? I can see LOTS of fun from anomalies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! In some ways, it is a lot like Dark Sun. Take the whole "what-if" element, for instance. I really liked Dark Sun because it abstracted D&D itself, and came up with its own conclusions... yet was still recognizable in the end. Certainly it was a worthy attempt to "up the ante" for jaded role-players. Now that I'm thinking about it, pretty much the entirety of DMGR1 [Campaign Sourcebook & Catacomb Guide] was devoted to just this type of approach to creating setting material. Yeah, and that is more or less where I am with my setting, I would like to think. Trying to be "different" while not being "weird." And I know none of my ideas are truly original. Catfolk are an ever-present trope, my lizardmen aren't so different from what Warhammer has, the Bear People are probably the closest to "original" of anything I have put to paper so far. I'd like to think I gave them all a bit of a unique twist. My Catfolk - the Nephil (name stolen from the old RPG "Exiles" IIRC)- are not savage, they are highly cultured, near utopian society, a bit like elves in that they live in forests and in perfect harmony with nature, good with magic, but not immortal.) The Big Lizards - the Saurak - are a bit like Aztecs with iron-age tech; but look alot like the lizardmen from Warhammer (unintentionally; had never really played Warhammer.) The little Lizards - the Seraps - are a lot like goblins from WOW I suppose; dirty, lots of gadgets that don't always work, profit as justifcation for anything, etc. And the Bears - the Gurahl (name stolen from god knows where) - are kind of Aboriginal; walkabout, dreams, etc. But also something of a warrior culture, a bit savage. "All of this has been done before. All of this shall be done again." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narf the Mouse Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My Catfolk - the Nephil (name stolen from the old RPG "Exiles" IIRC)- are not savage' date=' they are highly cultured, near utopian society, a bit like elves in that they live in forests and in perfect harmony with nature, good with magic, but not immortal.)[/quote'] By odd coincidence, Avernum is a redo of a series of computer games called either "Exile" or "Exiles", by the same people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kraven Kor Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! Then that explains a lot - I think II or III was one of my favorite RPG's of all time. I am now off to buy Avernum... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narf the Mouse Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! Then that explains a lot - I think II or III was one of my favorite RPG's of all time. I am now off to buy Avernum... They've got three new chapters in the story, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted July 1, 2011 Report Share Posted July 1, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! My races started out...well not mine. It was an attempt to make a Breath of Fire (Playstation RPG series) game world rather than elves and dwarves, they had the clans...which were more or less Anthropomorphic animals, plants, humans, or Humans with Wings. Over the course of the last 20 years my BoF campaign never saw the light of day and I sort of drifted to a home brew setting but decided i liked the BoF races better than the traditional ones. Some filing of serial numbers later... I also decided against using most of the traditional humanoid monster races (orcs, goblins, hobgobs) keeping Trolls, Giants, Ogres and Fey. Though I might require some Lizard or Snake Men at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNaga Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! That made me think of some the topics in the tctropes website. Such as My Elf are Better. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurElvesAreBetter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Re: My Elves Are Different! I also decided against using most of the traditional humanoid monster races (orcs, goblins, hobgobs) I've gotten sick of them after 20-odd years of D&D and other fantasy games, myself. I generally have them in the process of crawling out of 'savagery' to the point where they aren't 'savage', but are still 'primitive'. Not that all of them have advanced, of course, but seeing a kobold or goblin walking down a city street isn't cause for alarm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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