My Take on Elves

[Emerikol]

So I'm just going to detail out my take on the Elven race in the campaign world I'm working on right now. I'm seeking comments and questions so that I can better prepare when I do start with players.

So elves in my world are physically much like they are in most rpgs. A little shorter than humans and a bit thinner. They are unaging so they only die by violence. This applies only to natural aging though so if magically aged they can still "appear" older. Their lifespans are no longer than humans if magically aged. Based on region and kingdom, elven appearance will vary across a broad spectrum of hair and eye colors. As a rule elves are highly respected and thought to be of great beauty as a race though of course it varies but in general elves will be more attractive on average than humans and most other races.

Elves have psionic power including psionic talent to a high degree in their bloodlines. All female elves who marry are connected to their male and able to read his mind and in theory control his behavior. Males culturally would consider resisting unnatural and anyone who did would be shunned. In the distant past this was far more up front than it is nowadays with outsiders likely not even perceiving the connection or thinking there is such a connection. The noble families value psionic power greatly and spend inordinate amounts of time on geneology to determine the best mate and most noble females are expected to marry for the family and not for love though love is not of course forbidden.

Elves pride themselves on honesty and some elves claim they cannot lie. Other races are dubious but can't deny elves seem unusually honest. Elves also pride themselves on their respect for life and will not take it lightly. For this reason they typically do not entangle themselves in the affairs of men as such entanglements lead to war. The death of the elf is of infinite consequence to another elf and in the case of a mate the grieving period can go on for years.

Elves are a matriarchy. Each house is ruled by a Lady of House X where X is the name of the house. These noble houses when in close proximity may choose a Queen for their "kingdom". Loyalty to house though is very high. The Lady of any house will always have a personal fanatical bodyguard to guard and defend her with their lives.

Elves do not worship the Gods. They do recognize they exist and are powerful forces but they do not accept their divinity. Some believe this is because at some point in the past they were involved in some wars between the Gods and became disillusioned. They are great respectors of nature and many become druids. Elves also respect magic and are said to possess may rare spells unknown to the rest of the world. They have no greater affinity for magic than humans but their long lives have enabled some to grow very strong. Males often excel at magic more than females but this is no hard rule and just a tendency.


Okay so that is a quick first pass. What do you think?

[Donny Brook]

Are escaped Elf males welcomed in human society?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Emerikol

S

Okay so that is a quick first pass. What do you think?

It's a little hard to come up with a Template out of this. It's more like a "gazetteer" entry.

I get Unaging and Attractive with some behvioral tendencies that might or might not be sufficiently universal to go on the Template. Even Traits that are near universal among Elves may only count as Quirks if they do not impose serious Disadvantages.

Due to the nature of psionics in 4e psionics are very hard to put on a Template. Generically and Universally what we have in 4e is a meta-system of Powers that each individual GM has to shape into a system of psionic powers for his gameworld.

A specific problem to 4e psionics is that powerful ones tend to be extremely expenisve. If built on the same cp total non-psionic elves will swamp psionic elves in all non-psionic areas.

As i said you've got a gazetteer entry and it's not bad one but it's not that close to a Template for PC or even NPC Elves.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It's a little hard to come up with a Template out of this. It's more like a "gazetteer" entry.

I think a gazetteer entry is what he was going for, not a template.

My first question when seeing someone tell me all about their elves is, "What exactly ARE elves to you?" Just another humanoid species? A metaphysically superior race? The people of the "old world" being supplanted by the "new world"? What makes elves something other than humans with pointy ears and k3wl p0w3rz?

[Tymathee]

When I think of Elves... I think of Tolkien Elves, or more specifically Peter Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's Elves. Both the men and women are beautiful, tall, graceful. They're all almost universally over-the-top archers with Heroic Archer and high Acrobatics, capable of amazing cinematic stunts. Very appropriate to DF's 250 point default.

Psionic powers (although depending on the exact nature of them) could make these a race that PCs would be foolish not to have, especially if you also have wholly distinct magic system within the setting. Magic is usually counterbalanced by opposing magic and features of the setting that lessen or nullify magic use, like Magic Resistance or No Mana Zones. Psionics are counterbalanced by other Psionics, and what's inherent to the setting that would lessen the effect of or nullify the use of magic doesn't effect psionics.

Mind you, I haven't really looked at GURPS's psionics much, so maybe take this with a grain of salt? Just speculating based on my existing knowledge of tropes surrounding these things and/or what I know from DnD.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Tymathee

Mind you, I haven't really looked at GURPS's psionics much, so maybe take this with a grain of salt?

What I was getting at is that it takes about 50 pts to get almost anything that's more than a vague feeling and 100 or 200 pts is not out of the question.

So if some Elf gets 100 pts worth of psionics all the other PCs will have 100 pts to spend on non-psionics (and of course powerful npcs will too). That's where the balance comes from with psionics. It's not like old versions of D&D where psionics were a special bonus goody bag.

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

What I was getting at is that it takes about 50 pts to get almost anything that's more than a vague feeling and 100 or 200 pts is not out of the question.

So if some Elf gets 100 pts worth of psionics all the other PCs will have 100 pts to spend on non-psionics (and of course powerful npcs will too). That's where the balance comes from with psionics. It's not like old versions of D&D where psionics were a special bonus goody bag.

Fair enough. Although this really depends on what exactly the 100 points in psionics amounts to in comparison to the non-psionic 100 points amounts to in terms of in-game utility. Not all point expenditures are equal in GURPS as I've noticed, but I'm sure you don't need me telling you that. I don't want to sound like a smart-mouthed brat, just trying to be intelligently perceptive.

If I recall correctly, (or Emerikol, if you want to correct me when you're online again), he wants to run a 100 point game? An Elf template plus psionics sounds a bit farfetched for that point total.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Due to the nature of psionics in 4e psionics are very hard to put on a Template. Generically and Universally what we have in 4e is a meta-system of Powers that each individual GM has to shape into a system of psionic powers for his gameworld.

There is the "Unified Metaphysical Theories" alternative in GURPS Powers (pg 181): "In some settings, “magic” and “psi” both tap the same energies, in one case by study and formal disciplines, in the other by raw talent and willpower. ... psi might even use the standard GURPS spell system. (“Mana levels” would probably not vary much in such a setting, although some areas might be more “psi-friendly” than others.) The most important practical effect is that “magic” and “psi” could always interact directly, able to detect, negate, and even enhance each other."

Basically Magery (Psi ±0%) with the same point cost.

Bad joke: Psi? What does Pounds per Square Inch have to do with having great power? :-)

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It's a little hard to come up with a Template out of this. It's more like a "gazetteer" entry.

I get Unaging and Attractive with some behvioral tendencies that might or might not be sufficiently universal to go on the Template. Even Traits that are near universal among Elves may only count as Quirks if they do not impose serious Disadvantages.

Due to the nature of psionics in 4e psionics are very hard to put on a Template. Generically and Universally what we have in 4e is a meta-system of Powers that each individual GM has to shape into a system of psionic powers for his gameworld.

A specific problem to 4e psionics is that powerful ones tend to be extremely expenisve. If built on the same cp total non-psionic elves will swamp psionic elves in all non-psionic areas.

As i said you've got a gazetteer entry and it's not bad one but it's not that close to a Template for PC or even NPC Elves.

I was not writing a template. Sure a template as you say could be take from my text but this was just a free form take on my elves. I was more looking for what you thought of them as a cultural twist on the traditional elven concept.

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

I think a gazetteer entry is what he was going for, not a template.

My first question when seeing someone tell me all about their elves is, "What exactly ARE elves to you?" Just another humanoid species? A metaphysically superior race? The people of the "old world" being supplanted by the "new world"? What makes elves something other than humans with pointy ears and k3wl p0w3rz?

Well behind the scenes, the elves migrated to the new world from an old world. They had a bitter civil war before and during the migration and wiped out one of the opposing factions. While that faction was very evil, they still regret the slaughter and with hindsight have vowed to avoid as much as possible the spilling of elven blood. That opposing faction were the most magical of all elves and towards the end they began cursing their own magic inventions to prevent others from using them. One of the great artifacts of my world is one of these items gone very very bad.

The elves are ancient people and they've seen a lot so they are mostly just skeptical of the Gods. They believe the gods exist but that their motives and divinity are in question. They believe humans should not reverence them as they do because they are unworthy of worship.