Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="niklinna" data-source="post: 8733733" data-attributes="member: 71235">Part of your question was why players might play them. I play them for pointy ears.Others have already covered pretty well the role elves play in myth, in fiction, and in game settings, and hinted at how those roles are not compatible with the roles elven PCs play, because balance, and because adventure. This problem also informs the silly joke I posted: The frat-bro elves my friend &amp; I played were deliberately designed to push against what is typically expected of elves. We joked about family members dying &quot;wicked awesome&quot; deaths in battles, as if they were football games, and high-fived &quot;Mayhem!!&quot; whenever we rolled initiative.In much fiction &amp; myth, elves are about being above it all, except when absolutely necessary in order to preserve the natural order of things, which they otherwise just kick back and enjoy because they are perfect and magical, and never age and never die (unless the particular myth demands it). Elves are angels who live on earth.Alternatively, elves are the utterly alien, with aims and desires—and powers—that humans cannot comprehend. This is the more fae/faerie type. They enchant wanderers to feast with them (or more) in their mystic halls, and return those poor souls to their worlds, if ever, with dozens or hundreds of years having gone by. But they are still beings living perfect immortal lives that mortals cannot have, cannot even withstand exposure to.Elven PCs, they have keen senses, can resist some minor enchantments, maybe get a cantrip, and have pointy ears. Oh and folks playing them get to claim association with people who breathe magic and are beautiful and never age and everybody lives in harmony all the time (except for those pesky orcs &amp; drow (except for those orcs &amp; drow who aren't pesky, as is more and more the case)).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="niklinna, post: 8733733, member: 71235"] Part of your question was why players might play them. I play them for pointy ears. Others have already covered pretty well the role elves play in myth, in fiction, and in game settings, and hinted at how those roles are not compatible with the roles elven PCs play, because balance, and because adventure. This problem also informs the silly joke I posted: The frat-bro elves my friend & I played were deliberately designed to push against what is typically expected of elves. We joked about family members dying "wicked awesome" deaths in battles, as if they were football games, and high-fived "Mayhem!!" whenever we rolled initiative. In much fiction & myth, elves are about being above it all, except when absolutely necessary in order to preserve the natural order of things, which they otherwise just kick back and enjoy because they are perfect and magical, and never age and never die (unless the particular myth demands it). Elves are angels who live on earth. Alternatively, elves are the utterly alien, with aims and desires—and powers—that humans cannot comprehend. This is the more fae/faerie type. They enchant wanderers to feast with them (or more) in their mystic halls, and return those poor souls to their worlds, if ever, with dozens or hundreds of years having gone by. But they are still beings living perfect immortal lives that mortals cannot have, cannot even withstand exposure to. Elven PCs, they have keen senses, can resist some minor enchantments, maybe get a cantrip, and have pointy ears. Oh and folks playing them get to claim association with people who breathe magic and are beautiful and never age and everybody lives in harmony all the time (except for those pesky orcs & drow (except for those orcs & drow who aren't pesky, as is more and more the case)). [/QUOTE]

Verification