Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Elven metabolism, tall dwarves, pretty trolls.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Salamandyr" data-source="post: 6146936" data-attributes="member: 40233"><p>I see elves, dwarves, and trolls as representations of concepts-exaggerations of human traits. Consequently, if they move too far from the "standard" idea of what they are, then they no longer represent the concept they're intended to represent. You can stretch it some... take a chair for instance, you might add wheels, and it's still a chair. You could add a motor, and it could still be a chair. But if we were to add wings, encase it in a steel skin and serve drinks and small bags of peanuts, it's not really a chair anymore-it's an airplane-even though we're still sitting while using it.</p><p></p><p>So for me, if I play an elf, it's because I want to play an <em>elf</em>, with all that that implies. If I'm not in the mood to play to the traits embodied by those concepts, I play a human.</p><p></p><p>[Edit and Addendum] This is written after the next couple posts in line. </p><p></p><p>I think what I was thinking about in this post is less to do with individual characters, like for instance a dwarf affected by gigantism, and the tendency of some DM's and world designers to change their elves or dwarves just to have bragging rights that "our elves are different!" as if some superficial changes to behavior made up for a lack of characterization. I recall for instance, one story I read where dwarves had no beards and gnomes did (and hated each other). What was the point? If you're just going to mess around with what we fundamentally think of as a "dwarf", why call it a dwarf at all? Why not call it a "stonebrother", or something. The hairlessness of dwarves didn't make the story interesting. Oh, and elves and orcs were related to each other. None of the creatures he called elves felt like elves, or dwarves felt like dwarves. He just used those fantasy names because they were fantasy and then just willy nilly changed characteristics on them until they didn't feel like what they were supposed to represent.</p><p></p><p>It's like writing a story where you have cats and dogs, except cats are diurnal pack hunters with strong bonding instincts, who track and run down prey and dogs are nocturnal, solitary stalker hunters with excellent nightvision, just so you can say "My cats and dogs are different". Why not just have the dog be the dog and the cat be the cat?</p><p></p><p>Anyway, it's a tangent from the original post, but kind of where I was coming from with my post.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Salamandyr, post: 6146936, member: 40233"] I see elves, dwarves, and trolls as representations of concepts-exaggerations of human traits. Consequently, if they move too far from the "standard" idea of what they are, then they no longer represent the concept they're intended to represent. You can stretch it some... take a chair for instance, you might add wheels, and it's still a chair. You could add a motor, and it could still be a chair. But if we were to add wings, encase it in a steel skin and serve drinks and small bags of peanuts, it's not really a chair anymore-it's an airplane-even though we're still sitting while using it. So for me, if I play an elf, it's because I want to play an [I]elf[/I], with all that that implies. If I'm not in the mood to play to the traits embodied by those concepts, I play a human. [Edit and Addendum] This is written after the next couple posts in line. I think what I was thinking about in this post is less to do with individual characters, like for instance a dwarf affected by gigantism, and the tendency of some DM's and world designers to change their elves or dwarves just to have bragging rights that "our elves are different!" as if some superficial changes to behavior made up for a lack of characterization. I recall for instance, one story I read where dwarves had no beards and gnomes did (and hated each other). What was the point? If you're just going to mess around with what we fundamentally think of as a "dwarf", why call it a dwarf at all? Why not call it a "stonebrother", or something. The hairlessness of dwarves didn't make the story interesting. Oh, and elves and orcs were related to each other. None of the creatures he called elves felt like elves, or dwarves felt like dwarves. He just used those fantasy names because they were fantasy and then just willy nilly changed characteristics on them until they didn't feel like what they were supposed to represent. It's like writing a story where you have cats and dogs, except cats are diurnal pack hunters with strong bonding instincts, who track and run down prey and dogs are nocturnal, solitary stalker hunters with excellent nightvision, just so you can say "My cats and dogs are different". Why not just have the dog be the dog and the cat be the cat? Anyway, it's a tangent from the original post, but kind of where I was coming from with my post. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Elven metabolism, tall dwarves, pretty trolls.
Top