Encouraging Elven Player Characters

[Kor]

I am about to start an Elven campaign in the Forgotten Realms. Part of my challenge is to motivate my players as most of them think of elves in the term of (and I quote exactly) "namby pamby". Despite an intricate storyline and allowance for a few other races to be played that are normally found in the forest, it occcured to me that I was being far too soft on the players. I also thought perhaos other DM's have encountered a similar problem. Enter the "Speaking aloud Namby Pamby Table". Whenever a player speaks aloud the words "Namby Pamby", the DM rolls a result on the following table:

1. Speaker looses 1 magic item at random.
2. Speaker looses most powerful magic item.
3. Speaker looses 1000 experience.
4. A player chosen at random (not including the speaker) looses 1 magic item. (Or 1000 exp if has no magic item)
5. Speaker finds a deck of many things and is forced to draw every card.
6. All of the speaker's levels are converted to the NPC Commoner class levels.
7. All of the characters fall down a hole into a cookie factory where they are enslaved and forced to bake cookies. (Characters may escape the factory if the player goes home and bakes the DM 3 dozen batches of cookies).
8. The speaker's character instantly vanishes, and must make a new character. (In actuality they have just been transported to another reality -- they appear on a world with a red sky with others that somewhat look like them -- although the character can't quite figure out why they greet them with a "victory" sign which they make by parting their 2nd and 3rd fingers. At least it seems the beings truely wish the character well... something about living a long and prosperous life.)
9. The speaker's character shrinks to only a few inches high and their skin turns blue. Their clothes vanish, but a pair of white pants and a white hat appear on the ground before them. Their vocabulary greatly diminishes, typically replacing long, vulgar or exclamatory words with the same word used over and over again. As if their transformation wasn't concern enough, some grumpy old wizard and some small ogre that looks more like an organ-grinding monkey keeps chasing after them.
10. Roll twice on the above table.

I still haven't decided if I am joking about the use of this table or not... I guess our first session on Friday will confirm it

 

[Narsil]

I just imagine Elves in terms of "People from the United Kingdom who have Pointed Ears"... calm, collected and often drinking a cup of tea. However, when you piss them off; "All the rage of Football Hooligans mixed with all of the archery skills that are unique to elves."

Just remind your players to 'think British' when thinking of Elves, and remind them that the British conquered a third of the world's entire landmass and invented Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy.

 

[GreatLemur]

Honestly, I can't blame your players for not liking elves. And--this is almost too obvious to mention, but--maybe an whole elf-focused campaign is not the best idea for this bunch. You'll have a whole lot of overwhelmingly irritating genre baggage to overcome in order to get them to accept the idea without rolling their eyes, and most of it is the fault of people who really, really like elves. The only thing about elves more annoying than the whole AT ONE THE NATURE AND THE TREEEEEES bit and prestige classes with the words "singer" and "dancer" in their names are all the Drizzt Do'Urden wankers out there.

 

[llamatron2000]

This is why in one world I ran, loosely based off the real world, Elves were Middle Easterners, Africans and the like. It gave them a different feel from what people were used to seeing. Hell, my players started viewing elves as crazy badasses, and it even gave me an excuse to make ancient egypt into a long-collapsed drow empire full of crazy(CURSED) stuff in their temples.

 

[Hammerhead]

This is why in one world I ran, loosely based off the real world, Elves were Middle Easterners, Africans and the like. It gave them a different feel from what people were used to seeing. Hell, my players started viewing elves as crazy badasses, and it even gave me an excuse to make ancient egypt into a long-collapsed drow empire full of crazy(CURSED) stuff in their temples.

Badasses with a Constitution penalty? I don't think so.

The Valenar Elves from Eberron are the closest elves can get to being cool, but that Con penalty still comes back to kill them.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Badasses with a Constitution penalty? I don't think so.

The Valenar Elves from Eberron are the closest elves can get to being cool, but that Con penalty still comes back to kill them.

It just means they need to do more damage, faster, to kill you before they run out of HP. Really, not that different from most Barbarian builds out there.

And a Whirling Frenzy variant Elf Barbarian is {bleep}ing scary. Nigh unhittable, an extra attack (at their best non-raging to-hit or better), tons of damage and the ability to chase down a heavy warhorse with rider.


Back to the main topic!

Punishing people for bad-mouthing elves doesn't make them respect elves. It doesn't even end the bad-mouthing. It just makes them bad-mouth elves away from you.

If you want people to think elves are cool then make elves cool. Build them to be deadly, skillful and all kinds of good at what they do. Make elves that earn respect, not elves that demand it.
Anything else is like trying to put out a forest fire by wishing it away.

 

[Hammerhead]

It just means they need to do more damage, faster, to kill you before they run out of HP. Really, not that different from most Barbarian builds out there.

And a Whirling Frenzy variant Elf Barbarian is {bleep}ing scary. Nigh unhittable, an extra attack (at their best non-raging to-hit or better), tons of damage and the ability to chase down a heavy warhorse with rider.

I think that's more of a comment on Whirling Frenzy than anything to do with character race.

Back to the main topic!

Punishing people for bad-mouthing elves doesn't make them respect elves. It doesn't even end the bad-mouthing. It just makes them bad-mouth elves away from you.

If you want people to think elves are cool then make elves cool. Build them to be deadly, skillful and all kinds of good at what they do. Make elves that earn respect, not elves that demand it.
Anything else is like trying to put out a forest fire by wishing it away.

Dear God no. No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No NOOOOOOOOOOO!

That's why we hate elves (or at least I do). Because that's how the arrogant sons of *****s are always played. We hate the elves are uber mentality. Hates it. With the passion of a thousand burning suns.

 

[llamatron2000]

A constitution penalty matters little, when your common citizens are as good with bows as a decently trained nonheroic human soldier. Elf armies are pretty fearsome, when you think of it like that.

Yes, that's right. Elves practice WEAPON TRAINING in their youth. They have a relatively militaristic culture since every citizen has to be able to bear arms in times of need since elves are not known for their fertility. Their conscripts are better than humans, and since they can't afford to take many losses, you'd better believe they're going to be better-equipped than most armies. Better equipped to the point where their conscripts are getting gear that generally wouldn't be given to conscripts, or even grunt infantry. In fact, elven culture probably requires elves to carry out multiple roles in everyday life, and you can bet that if elves live in contested lands, the older elves more than likely have seen VERY MANY battles, and are of a quite respectable level, while the younger ones are talented, trained, and eager to do battle. Hell, even a housewife who's more physically frail than her pretty normal husband functions as a more than capable scout or lookout, when compared to a human of equal level.

Besides, its a strength penalty if you're using the environmental racial variant and the standard elf is a desert elf.

Also, crazy badasses are defined by ATTITUDE. A militaristic horse culture, combined with middle-eastern mystique goes a long way in defining elves as a cool race.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Dear God no. No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No NOOOOOOOOOOO!

That's why we hate elves (or at least I do). Because that's how the arrogant sons of *****s are always played. We hate the elves are uber mentality. Hates it. With the passion of a thousand burning suns.

So, would making wimpy elves improve your oppinion of them?

 

[airwalkrr]

My elf cleric was often called a "pansy elf." Then they saw that he was just as good with a sword as he was with a bow and that he had a better AC than everyone else! That usually shut them up. Dwarves can brag on and on about Constitution and its supposed benefits, but give me a speed of 30 and +2 Dexterity anyday.

Incidentally, I play elves roughly 75% of the time. Another 20% is human and that last 5% is gnomes or something bizarre like earth elemental or ghaele. I've never played a dwarf or a halfling.