Making elves for GURPS

[Hide]

So far, there are several types of elves; I am most familiar with “Tolkien elves”, but I was wondering if you could tell me about the “other elves” in Fantasy and those in your GURPS campaigns.

Some elves are described as fairies, others are ghosts or monsters; then we have “D&D elves”, “drows”, "Numans" (Phantasy Star), and so on…

For starters,

What are elves?
Where did they come from? (IRL folklore, original creations, iteration, etc.)
How do you play them in your GURPS settings?
What kind of GURPS books would you employ to build them? For example, Sylvan War Lore (3e), Banestorm (4e), etc.

Thank you!

- Hide

[Refplace]

I have multiple kinds of elves in my Chalice World setting
Fae are a mix of Faerie (GURPS Dungeon Fantasy), and folklore heavily influenced with more modern fiction. I especially like the Dresden File take on them.
Basically they are embodied spirits, need magic to live and take Truthful to a whole new level. They use powers as magic which is mostly Noumena from Powers the Wierd with a Fae Morality power modifier.
So their innate connection to truth allows them to see through the illusion of reality and they can fool people with various illusions ability. The idea is they cant lie but can mislead and its up to others to be wise enough to figure out the truth.

I have a more classic fantasy elf type in The Land of Wood and The Empire of the Sky have light and dark elves inspired by Tinkerbell and some Disney takes on elves/fairies.

[Anaraxes]

A couple of variants I've used (ignoring the more-or-less standard D&D / fantasy elf):

- wilderness savages inhabiting forests and swamps, playing a role along the lines of jungle pygmies or Amazon/New Guinea tribesmen in pulp fiction. Mastery of bows, woodcraft, and stealth made them hazardous. Not a PC race, but monsters and enemies of civilization (as in the role of traditional orcs).

- Tolkien Noldor-esque elves, no holds barred. They really are immortal, smarter, more dextrous, more magical, older, more practiced, learned, and skilled than the lesser mortal races.
(A) It's not Elvish arrogance when you really are simply better than everyone else. They rule all the lands by right, of course. The game was much like Midnight, except the humans are rebelling against their superior Elvish overlords, handicapped not only by race templates but a TL disadvantages (TL 2 vs 3-4ish).
(B) A different game set much later on the same world, well after the (successful) human revolt, in which the Elves have retreated to their forests, and become extremely reclusive. In this version, their immortality turns out to have been a deliberate product of their biologically-based magitech, and they need proximity to their special magical elf trees to carry the immortality field, which they're struggling to maintain with their much-reduced resources. Other races don't have any fond memories of elves, though it's been so long they've moved on to other concerns and more recent and more pressing grudges. Still, it's a rare elf indeed that is willing to risk their immortal life by leaving their forest and its granted advantages behind for the sake of those inferior creatures that dislike them anyway. Civilization advantages are mostly in the form of cultural development at this point.

Creatures I'd call fey / faeries / etc I think of as a different kind of creature than an elf, but I've used those as well.

[Mr_Sandman]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

- wilderness savages inhabiting forests and swamps, playing a role along the lines of jungle pygmies or Amazon/New Guinea tribesmen in pulp fiction. Mastery of bows, woodcraft, and stealth made them hazardous. Not a PC race, but monsters and enemies of civilization (as in the role of traditional orcs).

I always liked the Pictii/Pixie concept from GURPS Camelot, which is more or less this. On top of survival, camouflage,, stealth, tracking and archery skills, they have high herbalist skills allowing them to use poisoned/drugged arrows from hiding, leaving their victims 'elf shot'.

Here's a post I made years back that goes into more detail on this take on elves: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...1&postcount=23

[jason taylor]

I based their origin on Jewish tales of Lilith and or Nephilim. I assumed they were an alternate strain of humanity habituated to sort of a shadowy realm what is not exactly a different universe but not not so.

I assumed that they were more in tune with nature while normal men are more in tune with technology (that does not make sense as technology is nature too, but you get what I am driving at I think). That gives an idea of why Fey dominate strange woods and waters and men cultivated lands and cities. They are not superior or inferior to men, just each is superior in their own realm. Some fey are good and some are evil like men but they are definitely strange. But equally they think us strange. On at least one occasion there is an elf colony that supposedly lives around a lighthouse near a mortal city. They are regarded as friendly if mysterious neighbors.

Fey do not go in for babynapping and they are not turned off by religion the way traditional fey are (that does not mean they are not nervous around such things; mortals do and fey have a heightened ability to sense such uncanny things). Evil ones of course are and good ones are at least reverent. But it is more ambiguous then simply keeping oneself safe by wearing a crucifix. They do live longer then mortals, indeed while they can die of injury they do not just shut off after a certain number of years and theoretically can go on until the end of the universe. This presumably means they breed far slower to make up for that. They do have a fear of iron but those that adopt/or get adopted by mortals (there are legends of cross-marriages, elven servants, rescues of stranded sailors, etc) naturally enough can build an immunity. One courtesy mortals do is only approach their lighthouse under sail or oar and turn off engine power except at need lest they be annoyed. Of course a lot of mortals don't believe in the fey or at least say they don't but it is a local ritual. Other things about them are similar to tradition. They like dancing and singing and feasting. They often shapechange (a common courtship ritual among them is to go on a date in various forms, dancing as dolphins then gulls, then humanoids and so on). They are good at story telling and according to legend one of the most famous bards had a fey-wife. They also are friendly on occasion to mortal children, or domestic animals, indeed more apt to befriend children openly then adults. There is one legend that when the wind blew that was the screams of a pirate being held captive by them for attempting to kidnap a girl who was a friend of theirs.

I don't use them as rpg's though. I use them to give a mythological aspect to worldbuilding a civilization for the fun of it. They are legendary in-verse rather then a part of the day to day universe. That is people say so-and-so saw a fey and sing songs about fey but no one actually meets one.

[Anthony]

Elves are whatever the elf template says they are. In GURPS, the default elf templates are roughly D&Dish elves, but if I were running something like Monster Hunters, they'd probably be a high point value supernatural template with a bunch of illusion-type powers and various supernatural disadvantages.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Hide

So far, there are several types of elves...

Several is such a small word for the plethora of types of 'elves' in roleplaying games let alone actual myth and stories.


My elves trend towards the Norse Alfar, tend to have lost their homeland and thus wander eternally trying to find it (taking time off for adventuring here and there) and have the ability to walk between worlds with 'Midgard' being the most comfortable, the most like home, to them.

[smurf]

I just liked mine to be brilliant archers.

ST10
DX11
IQ11
HT10
Move +1

Fit
Recovery
Strongbow Perk
Crossbow Perk

Embue level 3
Homing Weapon

Maybe an intolerance or phobia of dirt.

IMO simplicity and a trick is good enough


Bow Skill.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Elves are whatever the elf template says they are. In GURPS, the default elf templates are roughly D&Dish elves, but if I were running something like Monster Hunters, they'd probably be a high point value supernatural template with a bunch of illusion-type powers and various supernatural disadvantages.

Glamour is vaguely referenced in Tolkien. The elf-cloaks are one example and another the Hall of Fire where a storyteller can summon images of his tale (sort of a magical DVD).

[Proteus]

Then there are Gloranthan (Runequest) elves... which aren’t just allied with nature, but are actually, genuinely plants.

(I’ve always thought of running a fantasy campaign with actual-plant elves, actual-mineral dwarves, and fungal orcs that sporulate on battlefields....)