Tolkien Elves in Hero

[Old Man]

Re: Tolkien Elves in Hero

 

I dislike having to interpret stuff I do not know fully.

 

Never stopped Congress.

[Markdoc]

Re: Tolkien Elves in Hero

 

Especially when dealing with fluff I do not know' date=' having a clear ruleswise built is very important for me. I dislike having to interpret stuff I do not know fully.[/quote']

 

The very definition of fluff is stuff you have to interpret

Building rules to clearly describe something that you don't know or understand fully strikes me as the very definition of "about to fail"!

 

The original source material is pretty vague on what all of this means and how it works, and I'm guessing the actual author (having read most of his notes) a) didn't really know how it worked, and didn't really care. The simplest way around all of that is to make it a GM fiat, through which information can occasionally be fed. Otherwise (as this thread demonstrates) you end up spending a ton of points and masses of time creating an awesome ability that does essentially nothing useful. Can Elves detect the ring? No? OK, have to give it some extra powers. Can they detect a magic sword like Sting? Again, apparently, no, so that needs a special invisibility too. Can they detect protective magic? Apparently yes (although only sometimes, so some powers have to be built with invisibility and some not ....) Can they detect powerful magical creatures? Nazgul yes, Balrog, yes, watcher in the waters, dragons and orcs no ... So the answer is "Yes, sometimes"?

 

And here's the biggie: did it ever matter? Answer, no.

 

Legolas: "I sense an evil ... a darkness ... Ai! ai!... A Balrog! A Balrog is come!"

Aragorn: "You mean the big gnarly dude on fire? The one making the walls tremble? Thanks for pointing that out - wouldn't want to have missed it."

 

I think you could pretty easily give the Elves a 0-point "Connection to the land" and still have it work out OK.

 

cheers, Mark