Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;953862Ooooh, you're evil!  I like that!

I'm trying:)!

Quote from: Willie the Duck;953864What would be the point of dropping elves into Star Trek?

Vulcans and Romulans are elves.

Quote from: David Johansen;953898Vulcans and Romulans are elves.

Yes, that's why he thought it was pointless and provided a link to back it up.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;953774No, that fetish is why I got married.

What, you marrried an Elf? :eek:

Quote from: soltakss;953991What, you marrried an Elf? :eek:

No you read it the wrong way. It's his wife's fetish. Gronan is a dwarf

Quote from: Trond;954016Gronan is a dwarf

Quote from: Spinachcat;720846I have to respect that. If someone's fun is "being a dwarf with an axe and Scottish accent", then as long as they're fun at the table, I guess as a GM, I should make room for that PC in my game world.

Just because someone thinks such-and-such is fun doesn't mean you need to allow such-and-such in your game. Maybe your game isn't about such-and-such, or doesn't include such-and-such. That's not an issue of respect or lack of respect, it's just the way your game works. I wouldn't sweat it as long as you and your players are having fun. That's the point, right? I don't think you should worry about not spreading the OSR to the largest potential audience. Are you playing the game to have fun, or to evangelize the OSR? I'd concentrate on having fun doing your thing, and let the OSR take care of itself.

I have no problem dropping the Iron Fist on my home table. That's my normal stance. THIS was about public play. AKA, I have run OD&D / S&W for years at cons and FLGS game days and my pregens are all human in the current campaign. Over the years, I've noted a demand for non-human PCs and disappointment among some players who skipped my game for the lack of elves / dwarves.  I am NOT looking to recruit these people for my home game, only to put on a good time at the public event.

And I definitely run OD&D publicly to evangelize (not entirely, but its a big part). The OSR is an online phenom that's 90% unknown to actual players (I have been asking for years).

BTW, its been a looong time since I wrote the original post (it was Jan 2014). I didn't even remember I wrote it when it got necro'd!!

Flash forward to my 2017 elf problem...

I've been playtesting a Space Fantasy RPG...and here's the BIG feedback from my players: we love it, but we wanna to play elves, dwarves, and weird stuff.

It's not a sci-fi game. It's not Traveller, much more D&D in Spaaaace.  It's space fantasy - robots and magic - OSR system-ish - but again, my whole focus was Humanocentric Swords & Sorcery in Space. Nope, they are totally wanking on playing non-humans.

I strangled one of the mouthy bastards, but the rest kept talking. The end result? We now have transhumans who download into crafted bodies, and there is an entire cult of otherkin among the transhumans.

So our next playtest involves an Indigo Elf, a Crimson Dwarf and an Amethyst Shroom...all with rayguns and psionics.

Damn them to hell, but writing up the weirdness has been fun. In some ways, mutants have been overdone, so having "transhuman shells" with strange powerz fills in the niche, especially as you can do some custom mods on your inhuman shell before downloading.

And in contrast...

I just started playtesting a Futuristic Military RPG too (non-OSR system, kinda Fading Suns-ish). Fortunately, the same players haven't balked about non-humans. So far they feel the tight nature of that game (Twilight 2k-ish survival behind enemy lines), and the big issue of conflicting cultures and crafted vs. natural humans is enough variety.

Quote from: Necrozius;952944My awe overcomes my ignorance. I will investigate.

In my own investigation, I found that while it had nothing called 'elves', it had a bunch of shit that were 'elves' by any other name.