I believe the hate against Elven origins in that big, unnamable RPG-system.
I never played it, but I believe there it is simply
the munchkin race.
So any good roleplayer with such experience would have a "gut feeling" against them.
Good points are stated and I will reconsider them for use.
I'm also one of the Elf-lovers (and could easily play S*m G*mgeeÂ
)
I was the first in our group who played an elf, in a not so good RPG system (not D*D).
Later while GMing I let an Elf stated (take over the PC): "Oh a dragon guards the pass ? We wait until it died of old age and then go ..." Today, 20 years later it is still quoted.
"Nobody knows how an immortal being thinks"
I heard this quote often, it must be stated in a famous RPG-network.
Here I heard it again and I have to reject.
But let me first ramble a bit (not much).
We now play some mages with a kind of implanted second mind (like in some Perry Rhodan books, sorry don't know more). It gives us some special abilities (mainly for centration on spell while casting others and a chance to hold concentration even if attacked) and it makes us emotionless, total logical - a sociopath (hope it is the right translation).
As I'm an very emotional, I tried to avoid it (OK, this is lame of me)
And I told them:
"You think playing an Elf is difficult ? It is more difficult to play a sociopath !
Any human believes s/he is immortal, but I can't imagine to kill a child w/o hesitation."
That is it, human as a being believes in its own immortality.
LordMiller summarizes "the curious vs the cautious Elf" problem,
but it might be questionable if the cautiousity is a genetic factor.
As I was told it occures even with rats: some are curious some a cowards,
but it doesn't seem to follow Mendel's rules. (cautious parents, curious off-spring)
The other points are the starting level and here I want to state another quote:
"Old swords are desirable, because only good swords get old ..."
So there is the issue with the 1000 year old Elf who has many skill ranks in every skill.
Of course the PC are one of the curious kind and of young age.
But would this mean that Elrond would has to be a master in every skill ?
RM has dimishing returns and we could go the way for rank reduction for unused skills (a possible resolution: NPC and PC need DP to hold the number of skill ranks
maybe first DP-cost for each dekades of skill ranks).
Why didn't Elves outnumber the other races ?
Surely there are some races hunting them and because they just reproduced at low level.
The half-elves are proof that they can reproduce with other races successfully.
The T*lkien kind of Elves are 'good' they help the humans and don't want to kill their younger brethen with diseases.
IIRC: Glorfindel lead an elven army to defend Gondor. (Maybe dutch206 can confirm this).
I don't have any problems with Elves and won't reject if a player wants to create one (depending on the background). And even if the starting age is about 1000 years she would have the same starting level.
One of the last campaign should start with humans, but one girl wanted to play an elf and I let her roll on the M**p race table and got an half elf. The other also want to roll and got silvan elves. This way it got a better plot and I even can't remember the planed story line with the humans.