Elves -> Sidhe

[Conaill]

I've always disliked howm much elves in D&D are essentially just skinny humans with pointy ears. JRR is only partly to blame for that; his elves were very similar to humans on the physical level, but at least they still had a very "otherworldly" mentality.

I much prefer the fae and sidhe as being largely unseen, mythical creatures. Probably wouldn't allow any full sidhe PC's, but one with some fae blood might work (provided the player is able to play the character well).

 

[Pandion]

I'm surprised noone's mentioned the Meredith Gentry series by Laurell Hamilton. Very good description of the seelie and unseelie courts in modern day. In fact the main character is a sidhe from the unseelie court.

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/lkhamilton/bookshelf.html

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I actually liked the way they treated Elves in the 2e "Celtic Handbook"...that may not be the exact title, but it was one of their well-intentioned "historical campaign" splatbooks.

 

[soulcat]

Greg Bear wrote a book, Songs of earth and power. Not only did he portray the Sidhe really well, he gives references of books he used as a basis at the end.

 

[Ashanderai]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Fairie Tale" by Raymond E. Feist. Very good and horrifying account of the various fae, their queen, the wyld hunt, changelings, and more as a modern family discovers the fae court has come to their neck of the woods to play for a while. It gives some insight into the games fae play and a neat secret society that is tied to the fae. It also provides a good mood for how alien the fae can be.

 

[Nellisir]

I've had a few thoughts about the elves and the sidhe -- I'll dig around for my notes tomorrow.

1. Maintain the mystery. The Courts should never completely make sense. These people are immortal, alien, and insane. Mortals that get swept up in their politics are likely to never be heard of again. For this reason, don't let PCs play full Sidhe, just humans with enough Old Blood to be affiliated with the Houses.

2. But let the Players learn. There's nothing like beating an elf at its own game. Games become the central plot devices: what else to immortal, insane, alien, and *bored* people do with their time?

I do recall one tenet of mine, though; the sidhe are fascinated by human emotions, but they don't really understand them.... They seize upon the cliches and tropes of society and elevate them into pomp and pageantry, but something is usually very, very, wrong....

Cheers
Nell.

Ah. Seventh Sea, aka Swashbuckling Adventures, by AEG, featured sidhe has a powerful force.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I am looking toward mutilating elves as many know them

Woohoo!

(I can hear the bloodthirsty cheers already, but hang on - not like that)

 

[Drifter Bob]

I am looking toward mutilating elves as many know them (I can hear the bloodthirsty cheers already, but hang on - not like that) and basically making them something a little more like 'the sidhe'.

Any links/experiences/advice? I didn't post this in House Rules, because I don't know if anyone's done this here already, and I didn't post it in the d20 3rd-party forum either, because again I don't know who's done it, in what, or how well. So I posted here. :\

I've started work on them, going through a few RPG sources, a couple of 'reference' books etc., but I definitely need a bit more help.

TIA.

-- oops, that's for D&D 3.5, btw. --

They did a pretty good version of elves as sidhe in The Riddle of Steel, IMO


DB

 

[The Other Librarian]

Greg Bear wrote a book, Songs of earth and power. Not only did he portray the Sidhe really well, he gives references of books he used as a basis at the end.

Great book; wasn't there a sequel?

Of course making them vulnerable to cold iron opens the possibility of using the Leprechaun movies as inspiration.

 

[The Other Librarian]

Double Post