A game world without dwarves, elves, etc.?

[Cedric]

I'd probably just skip d20 for this and play Ars Magica in mythic europe.

Cedric

 

[s/LaSH]

I'd probably just skip d20 for this and play Ars Magica in mythic europe.

Cedric

Yes, then you can go into the faerie woods and meet aloof, magical, pseudo-immortal beings.

Wait, that was needlessly sarcastic. In truth, elves and dwarves (or close equivalents) are fairly common in terrestrial myth, thus making them fairly prevalent in fantasy. Which reminds me, Pratchett's Discworld doesn't have elves either - except during Lords and Ladies. And I don't think many people want them to come back, not that they'd have a say in the matter.

 

[tonym]

If I was playing in a D&D world without dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings, I'd probably be a little less 'into' the game. Demi-human races add something valuable to a fantasy world, IMO--even if the PCs seldom come across them.

For example, exploring an ancient dwarven mine seems a lot cooler than exploring an ancient human mine.


Tony M

 

[Theuderic]

May I suggest Dragon Lords of Melnibone from Chaosium. Or, perhaps their own rules system for the setting, Stormbringer fifth edition.

EDIT: I always thought Elric was avant garde......

 

[barsoomcore]

I always thought Elric was avant garde......

Not as avant-garde as ME! I am the avant-gardest! Barsoom - "Avant-Garde" - Core, that's what they call me.

 

[Desdichado]

How is Elric still avant-garde? Have you seen those publication dates?

P.S., Barsoomcore, you at least are certainly avant garde. But are you sure you want to sound French? I thought it had been several decades since anyone wanted to sound French.

 

[barsoomcore]

Mais oui, mon ami!

(I admit I may have been listening to too much Dmitri From Paris of late)

 

[Storminator]

<SNIP>

AU looks interesting, but I probably won't play in the setting or run it. I'll lift stuff from it to use in my own homebrew.

From my playtesting I'll likely run an AU game, but I won't lift stuff from it... nor import too much other material.

PS

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I not only ditched the standard races for the world I'm currently homebrewing, I ditched the real-world animals too. No dogs, cats, bears, horses, etc. And let me tell you, making up animals to fill various ecological niches is waaaaaay harder than making up PC races. I mean, mammals alone are taking me forever, and I haven't even gotten to the insects yet.

It's given me a newfound respect for God/Allah/Nature/the Monoliths/Whatever. I mean, you gotta have some world-class imagination to come up with creatures as twisted as the platypus or the Dicrocoelium dendriticum (lookit up, it's hysterical).

 

[Theuderic]

How is Elric still avant-garde?

Well, anything that is conceived as being avant garde will always be avant garde. Just look at Bauhaus designs for example. Avant garde is just another name for experimental, really. Why, even Elric himself seems to be way ahead of his time, showing modern sensibilities in a society bound by ritual and tradition.

At the time, the Elric stories were very different from the any other form of fantasy literature that was published. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Dunsany, etc. were very conservative and traditional. One knew what evil and good were in the bigger sense of things, these authors clearly established this. Moorcock's Million Spheres postulation, and the notions of the eternal champion struggling between Law and Chaos, were very new concepts in the realm of fantasy literature.