(You know not what you trifle with. . . .)
Yamma, is there a story at the bottom of the elf-hating, or is it just a gut, semi-instinctual thing?
Even I have had elven characters.
In RM2, the mage Fee Werland was one of my all time favorites. Honestly. Of course, he knew his place and worked to help usher in the age of man, being a middle earth campaign. Yes, I ran a campaign were a group of powerful elves, mostly 2nd agers with a few 1st agers, tried to over throw the will of Eru and supplant mankind as the natural inheritors of the world. As someone posted, they make great villians. Court of Ardor was an amazing module to boot.
I dislike the elves are superior approach. I dislike them as PC's because most players make no attempt to portray the alien, immortal personalities of being elven: THE RACE IS ALMOST ALWAYS A STAT GRAB.
Munchkins can't leave elves alone. Elven archer rangers in any system...yuck. Their long lives provide players with all sorts of weird advantages. I also don't like the high level elf that retires then wants to sponser every future PC the player makes cuz the elf is lecherous and constantly spawns bastard offspring it wants to give a part of its heritage too: like a +15 flaming sword for the fighter or that staff of lightning to the lay healer.
Legolas against the elephants was fun to watch, but my game has physics in it. Magic, yes, AND physics.
I am plain and simply tired of em. Superior and immortal or live 1500 yrs (read: immortal). The dumbest mechanics are entered to explain and compensate (look at the old dnd age tables; elves start adventuring at 90 years old or so...overwhelmingly stupid and...and...nonsense).
Next up; why elves? Why does every gaming world have them? Tolkien had a reason, and I accept them easiest (though I have learned to not like them much over the years). Elves will be part of the world, and have absolutely no reason to exist (this is true of more races than justthe elves).
Elves and dwarves hate each other (why?). It's almost always "just cuz" or some long ago war. Yawn.
Elves and orcs hate each other...elves are inheriently "right" cuz they protect the forest and nature. Elves are masters of magic. Elves have superior perceptive abilities: sight, smell, hearing, seeing magic, visions, but mostly I hope, my butt in thier face.
This elven fetish completely ignores the amazing and complex reality of being human. In fact, every superior elven trait is only an exageratted human trait. Their is nothing alien or mytical about them, they are only exagerrated supermen with abilities we wish we had. Of course, rather than working to develop the experience and skill set and go through the blood and tears of gaining those abilities in a game setting, why not just play an elf because they START with so many of them, or provide a short cut to higher bonuses? As previously stated, elven characters draw munchkins.
In the game, other races are so much cooler and interesting. Humans are at the top of my list, orc types probably next. I enjoy playing a disadvantaged PC that seeks to find a niche for itself in the world while being hated on by most, particularly the elves, who define all we should like and love and admire and want to be and by golly, if the elves say its bad, well jeepers creepers it just must be bad.
I say stick a knife in the elf and move on. Their is no way I, as a mortal, am gonna try and base my life style on elvish anything. On a more positive note, if elvish children take 90 freaking years to actually reach level one, lets abduct their children, use them as free slave labor for 60-80 years, and when they grow old enough to become a threat, they can support nature as fertilizer in our orchards and we can go get more young elves!
