Subject: RE: Alternative Elves and Orcs (was: New Alien/fantasy races)
From: "Dr Kromm" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 13:04:50 -0500

My elves . . .

ELF (-20 points)

Attribute Modifiers: -1 ST [-10 points].
Racial Advantages: Unaging [15 points].
Racial Disadvantages: Delusion: "Time does not pass" [-15], Odious
    Racial Habit: Attribute all positive individual traits to racial
    superiority [-5], Reduced Hit Points -1 [-5 points].
Racial Quirks: A bow is actually useful in the woods [-1 point],
    Dislikes dwarves [-1 point], Dislikes orcs [-1 point].
Racial Skills: Racial Skill Bonus: +3 with Fast-Talk [3 points].

Elves are a slender folk who live in the forest. As they are unaging,
they occasionally live long enough to become incredibly wise, or
skillful warriors, or powerful wizards. This has led certain humans to
erroneously mark them all as intelligent and agile, with incredible
reflexes and magical talent. It has also led the elves themselves to
believe they have these natural gifts, and a species-wide psychosis
inhibits their sense of time, allowing them to study to for three
centuries to become a wizard and not realize it took them 300 years to
become "magically talented" or "a skilled warrior."

Likewise, the fact that elves are unaging and kind of scrawny means
that they rarely look old and fat, which has led humans who have known
the same elf for their entire life to perceive the elf as increasingly
attractive as time goes on. Of course, the elves themselves don't note
the passage of time, and upon hearing the compliments of their senile,
mortal friends, conclude that they've always been beautiful. Chalk up 
another wonderful benefit of being an elf!

There several other things that set elves apart. First, due to battles
that happened eons ago but which the elves claim happened just last
week, they really have it in for dwarves and orcs. Of course, since
elves have no better memory than humans, they can never really explain
their reasoning on this one. Leave it alone. Second, elves used to be
plains dwellers, but were driven into the forests by dwarves and orcs,
who mostly found them to be annoying. The bow was the elven weapon of
choice back on the plains, where it made sense. Once more, though, the
elves think this was just last week, too, and continue to use bows --
despite their effective range of one cat's-throw in the woods. Finally,
elves are really good at lying -- to themselves and others. This helps
them feed their psychosis and superiority complex.

Kromm.

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