Quote from: Thanatos02I basically took the piss when I wrote my D&D homebrew setting, but it ended up being mechanically different then D&D, so I'm writing it up with True20. (Actually the True20 you find in Blue Rose, because I like that system more, and so does Brantai.) Essentially, I wanted to explain the assumptions behind your typical fantasy setting and D&D, including immortal elves, if people evolved or not, and the question of inherant evil.

One problem: elves are actually pretty dull as written, and don't make a lot of damn sense. My solution, and I did have one, is below.

First, I asked why elves are immortal. This always seemed kind of fan-wank to me. I was down with it when Tolkien did it, but after that, elves really kind of lost the thoughtful background that made that whole deal work. My answer was that elves were the rapidly evolved slave species of an ancient and sorcerous lizard-people kingdom. These lizard-people evolved (or devolved) from primordial dragon races, but what they lost in magnitude, they made up with society and numbers. They engineered the elves from tree-dwelling proto-humans, which is where they get their -2 Con. but don't lose Str. They want to have lighter frames, and improved reflexes, but can't afford to lose too much upper body strength.

When the lizard-people kingdom fell into ruin (a whole other deal), these elves developed a civilization by pirating what was left of the lizard-people and either backwards-engineering it, trading with the human civilization next to them (humans are old and not lame in the game) or just progressing on their own. They rapidly developed a powerful civilization, but in their hubris, decided they should undergo a process to make them as powerful as the lizard-people at their peak. They could only do this by becoming immortals.

So, they gathered their finest shamans, wizards, and monks, and sequestered themselves until they succeeded. All they had to do was magically attach (I use the word 'staple' because it's a pretty artificial procedure) their own patterns onto the static, powerful patten of the world. Their own will become unmoving, and they will become immortal once their frame would start to degenerate. So, they reach peak age, and then never change.

This has some drawbacks. First, it's not one-sided. When you look deep enough onto the pattern of the world, the pattern looks into you, and the elves began to take on aspects of the elements. See, this is the other gimmik I wanted to deal with; the bollocks that elves are all inherantly magical, and so do better magic then everyone else. Well, they *are* magical now, because elemental magic is now encoded onto their DNA when they're born.

There'a another drawback, though. They breed as normal, and they live as normal, but they have some really high mutation at birth problems. It seems that the magical DNA material is unstable in the womb, when the form is just starting to take on shape, so what you get is a lot of still births. These are all just dumped in the farthest reaches of their woodland, in the darkest parts of the swamp, and never talked about. Some of these awful mutants live, though. These are all dumped as well, but some of them must survive until this day, unspeakably warped and dangerous.

Being long lived, those that live past a mortal lifetime are considered pretty well-educated. They're accomplished sorcerers, given their understanding of the elemental arts (they're good at their 'chosen' element, and shitty at their opposite.). There are two human cultures, really. The ones that live to their west have been their forever. That civilization has little to learn from the elves. The one to the east, however, was built from a raiding community that went big. While their own magical tradition is quite extensive by now, they often ask elves to serve as tutors and advisors, which elves like to do because it moves toward cementing elven cultural superiority.

Mechanically elves are represented with a -2 Con, +2 Dex, +2 Chr, proficient with short bows and long swords, and a -2 to Will Saves in D&D. In the d20 version, I use Clinton Nixon's Sweet20 Keys for experiance, so elves get -1 Con mod, +1 Dex Mod, an automatic Sorcerer feat (they can start taking limited sorcerery for free,) and an Elemental Key, which goes up in levels as the character earns points for acting an a nature that resonantes with his element. (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, or two recent happenings - Wood or Metal). As elves grow older, they become more and more like a force of nature and less like a rational person. It makes them powerful, but batshit sorcerers.

They're decadent and cruel in my game, with a Byzantine power system that stops them from putting up a good threat to the humans, because they can bearly tie their shoes without trying to off their kin. Elves seem romantic to most peasents, because they've never met them. Elves, once met, are more like long lived nutters in nice clothing then anything else. Dangerous, powerful, but really they're their own downfall.

wow that sounds pretty sweet to me. In my little campaign world I cooked up a while ago. Elves are racist snobs, with dark secrets. While I wouldnt call them evil. They sure as hell are not out to better the world.

Quote from: zombenI fucking love this.  

David is a phenomenon. Check out the stuff in his sig.

Rob, I loved your take as well. Besides the Tolkien/Silmarillion vibe, it manages to account for a lot of things, but in a very simple, economical way, which is part of what an epic feel is about.

In running Elves in my campaign, I had only a handful of Elven PCs. Of the two most recent, the first couldn't role-play out of a wet paper bag. He had this quirk that he always played elves, I think like the look, and was alway a mage using fire. For him it ended badly. He torched a village midway through the campaign, it started because somebody in a tavern stiffed him and escalated from there, regular DM of the Rings stuff for that player.

For various reasons the Elves of the region heard about it and judge him insane. They hunted him down, with the rest of the party backing off captured him. He was hauled in front of the Elven King. The king's judgement is recorded.

"Since you treated others as animals, so say you be treated as an animal. A beast of burden you shall be. For 100 years you shall stand outside the gate of this city as an ass and give rides to all those enter."

Then he was polymorphed into an ass. And that was the end of his character. Understand the way I run my Wilderlands is very free form with the player picking out the their own directions and areas to explore. However I work hard at portraying that they exist in a world that has stuff going on beyond their own adventures. That their actions have consequences and while I will try to pick the more fun of alternatives, if they insist on going off the deep end I will let them do that and let the hammer fall.

The 2nd player is an odd case, to get him to play GURPS I came up with a plot to let him play his live-action character in the wilderlands (He was sucked through a portal). Compared the first player, he would take to the Elven story because he like to learn about stuff and explore. However right now issues keep piling up in-game for him to deal with and until he gets those sorted out he won't be moving to other areas for a while.

What I would like to do is run an all-elf campaign. One reason I developed a deep mythology and background for my version is that I ran theme campaigns periodically. The first was an all-mage campaign where everyone played a mage no exceptions. I had a city-guard campaign where everyone was a member of the city guard.  

I had an all-thief campaign. Developed the fact that my thieves had unregistered mages working for them called foggers who specialized in spells that defeated divinations. Where I developed distinct but rival thieves guilds in the Brotherhood of the Lion and the Beggar's Guild.

http://home.earthlink.net/~wilderlands/brotherhoodlion.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~wilderlands/beggarsguild.html

50 pt parish priest (in City-State) campaign where everyone played 50 pts characters. One player was the parish priest and the other inhabitants of the pariah. The defining moment of the campaign was when they mobbed a vampire (a Ventru from GURPS Vampire the Masquerade.)  finally knocking it out with a frying pan.

This theme campaign became background material for future campaigns including the standard mixed party fantasy. For DMs that run long term campaign I really recommend doing themes periodically to flesh aspect of your world. They can be even short four to six sessions.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityRob, I loved your take as well. Besides the Tolkien/Silmarillion vibe, it manages to account for a lot of things, but in a very simple, economical way, which is part of what an epic feel is about.

Thanks, part of the problem I had to deal with over the years is the infodump which I want to avoid like the plague. This why I don't have funky god names in my games. And why I try to use standard memes/tropes/ideas but with a "twist".

A player encountering my elves can say "Oh they are tolkein elves". They wouldn't be too far off base, close enough for initial gameplay. However if they choose to dig there is a whole backstory they can uncover. And explain why these are Rob Conley's Elves and not J.R.R. Tolkien Elves. (although they are cousins)

Hopefully by easing the infodump. I get the players comfortable enough to explore my wilderlands. I do good plot but my game's main appeal hist them when they realize I am about freeing their character to do their own thing.

The sign I know this going to happen is when I hear "Oh I can do this? Cool."

Rob Conley.

P.S. I try to pick god names from history that evoke the feel of the god I am using. So Set, Mitra, Kali, etc. I have notes on their "real" name when I use them in a short story or for whenever I get to publish my version of the Wilderlands. Sarrath for Set, Delaquain for Mitra, etc.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityDavid is a phenomenon. Check out the stuff in his sig.

uhm...shucks...that's kinda embarasing...

Really a bad campaign to be in, I kept changing what everything was from one session to the next.  The one player started out with an elf and wound up with a half dain / half alfair spawned from a romeo and juliet scenario.  There were pcs that started out as centaurs that got retconned into deer centaurs with deer heads.  Never mind the poor guy who started out playing a dragon newt.

I wonder if I've still got those notes.

I blame Avalon Hill for wanting $30 for the Glorantha box...