How do you like your elves?

[bouncyhead]

Fried.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I don't have much video-game related elf experience, so my references are limited mostly to mythology and D&D. Anyway in terms of role playing, elves are handled best by 4e. Enough subraces to carry on D&D's time-honored tradition of "We have to have elven subraces," with enough conceptual and power distinction to justify each one.

What they are exactly is not important (they may be vulcans or tree-hugging hippies), in rpgs like in fiction, perfection is boring, give your elves depth, stop making them perfect.

I'm not a card-carrying Trekkie, but every time I see a vulcan on screen I think "Mary Sue elf." I'm always thinking "Why isn't Spock/Tuvok the captain, when he's clearly smarter, stronger and generally better than all these human shlubs?" Writer fiat, I guess?

 

[Desdichado]

I don't like elves. I prefer not to have them at all.

If I do have them, for whatever reasons, they're not elves. They're elfs. I also like my proper English.

And they're not likely to be friendly. They borrow liberally from some of the darker Sidhe type stories, and have infamous characters like Oberon or Mab associated with them.

Actually, come to think of it, Jim Butcher's faeries from The Dresden Files novels are pretty good at being the kinds of elfs that I can accept.

 

[saskganesh]

My elves are xenophobic, paranoid and terrible. Humans hate and fear them, though when they do encounter the fey, it's a cause of wonder.

 

[Salad Shooter]

Extinct

If not possible, I'll go for the Tolkein-ish slightly-otherworldly, haughty types. Silvanesti-esque, perhaps.

 

[Izumi]

It's thought that originally they were considered some kind of lesser-deity spirits that inhabited natural places. Follow tradition and make them anything you want them to be. I kinda drift toward the Poetic Edda, but even in that there are some inconsistencies.

 

[kitsune9]

I like the presentation of elves in Dragon Age, Eberron, and Iron Kingdoms. I'm kind of tired of the Tolkien versions. Probably with Dragon Age, I think the elves earned my sympathy and I felt really sorry for them.

I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse.
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not eat elves and congee.
I do not like them, Samwise Gamgee

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Dead and gone.

 

[Shades of Green]

I actually prefer "proper" elves to be fey, and quite alien at that (as they are in Celtic myth) - that is, tricky creatures of Chaos and not just another humanoid species (I'm currently in the mood of cutting down the number of humanoids/demihumans in my campaign).

Player character (and NPC) "Elves" in terms of the PHB race are actually Changelings - Elven babies placed in human cribs when the original human babies were stolen by the Fey. As they were raised by human parents, they are stuck somewhere between their Fey nature and their human upbringing. And they tend to be quirky anyway, though, of course, the player chooses how much his or her Changeling is human. In game terms, they should be good with (Chaotic) magic, stealth and natural things, but not with people or with Lawful gods.

 

[Aeolius]

Pini Elves