D&D 5E MTOF: Elves are gender-swapping reincarnates and I am on board with it

[Dannyalcatraz]

Elves do tend to plan ahead....

"Honey I think we should have another."
"Already? Our youngest is only 254."
"I know, but what if they stop learning how to play the same note on the piano for 5 years and become an adventurer?"
"Ah, good thinking, alright, lets get busy."
***a few weeks pass***
"Honey, I don't think it took."
"You mean we have to do it again?" *grumbles* "Stupid low fertility rates."

What if- like Dr. Zoidberg- male elves every few years would become consumed with reproductive rage...and “jelly? They’d grow larger, become more aggressive, emit a muskier scent.

You know...so they looked & smelled more like humans?

Would explain a LOT.

 

[Hussar]

Out of morbid curiosity, what aspects of Planescape? Is it just Sigil and the Blood War? Or something subtler?

Swimming way upthread.

My primary issue with Planescape is that it has become the default planar setting for all settings. All planar creatures are drawn from that single setting, regardless of whatever Prime Material setting you happen to be playing in. So, a Vrock summoned to Greyhawk is identical to the Vrock summoned to Faerun or any other setting and comes pre-packaged with all the elements of Planescape - Blood War, cosmology, etc.

I simply don't understand why an entire branch of critters in the game can only come from one source. We have no problems with a bajillion different kinds of elves, but, demons? Nope, every Demon lives in the Abyss and the Abyss is (more or less) headed up by Demogorgon and various other demon princes. It's simply far too stifling for my tastes.

I guess that's why I really like Far Realms. So little of that has been detailed that you can do anything you like with it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

So, [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION], I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you overall. There are elements of Planescape I'm not fond of, too, and would prefer they hadn't become the default.

But a lot of what you're talking about predates Planescape. Demons and demon lords all coming from the Abyss, all that? That's 1E planar lore, prior to Planescape as a setting.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I just always kinda assumed elves didn't have the drive to breed like rabbits. If two elves have two children over the thousands of years of their lives, population growth will, on a yearly level, still essentially be zero.

That would be ok when things are going well, though it begs the question, how do they manage that. Switching on and off fertility would help.

I thought somewhere- probably the AD&D age category chart- it states that it takes hundreds of years for elves to mature to adulthood. Dwarves were also slow in maturing, but not so much as elves. That by itself is going to impact birth rates.

This I have always had trouble with, it leaves a tribe, horribly exposed to extinction by natural attrition for a few centuries after a natural or military calamity. Also the parental investment is something else. Nursing a baby for 20 years and carrying the child about for 50 years.

Add in gender mutability...well, summer flings get more complicated.

LOL Elven romcoms could get very complicated.

What if- like Dr. Zoidberg- male elves every few years would become consumed with reproductive rage...and “jelly? They’d grow larger, become more aggressive, emit a muskier scent.

You know...so they looked & smelled more like humans?

Would explain a LOT.

LOL

 

[Sadras]

What if- like Dr. Zoidberg- male elves every few years would become consumed with reproductive rage...and “jelly? They’d grow larger, become more aggressive, emit a muskier scent.

You know...so they looked & smelled more like humans?

Would explain a LOT.

Vulcan Pon Farr

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

LOL Elven romcoms could get very complicated

Oh, yes.

You’ve Got Elven Chainmail
Some Like It Swapped
When Haldir became Saelihn

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Vulcan Pon Farr

That’s what they spoofed, yes.

 

[delericho]

Oh, yes.

You’ve Got Elven Chainmail
Some Like It Swapped
When Haldir became Saelihn

We really need a "Groan" button.

 

[Sadras]

What if- like Dr. Zoidberg- male elves every few years would become consumed with reproductive rage...and “jelly? They’d grow larger, become more aggressive, emit a muskier scent.

You know...so they looked & smelled more like humans?

Would explain a LOT.

I agree, I actually think your idea has real merit. One may need to consider how this might affect PC Elves and Half-Elves.

 

[Hussar]

So, [MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION], I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you overall. There are elements of Planescape I'm not fond of, too, and would prefer they hadn't become the default.

But a lot of what you're talking about predates Planescape. Demons and demon lords all coming from the Abyss, all that? That's 1E planar lore, prior to Planescape as a setting.

But, my point is, because Planescape has become so intertwined with all planar lore, and has become the default, in 40 years of D&D, it's all we've gotten. All demons come from the Abyss which has 666 layers and all devils come from Hell which has 9 layers and is ruled by Asmodeus.

No other type of creatures in the game have been so ossified. Giants in Greyhawk and Giants in Xendrick are quite different. Genies have a bunch of different approaches. Humanoids have so many variants that you could print an entire Monster Manual with nothing but variations on baseline humanoids and probably still have enough material for a second book.

But demons and devils? Nope. They all come from the same places that they came from when Greenwood wrote those articles about the Abyss and Hell way back in the double digits of Dragon magazine and we cannot have any variations whatsoever.