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branmakmuffin
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
 Posted - 02 May 2003 : 16:18:38
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I know one of mournblade's pet peeves is vampires.
Mine is Elves. There are too many friggin' Elven PCs in FR games. Elves and Half-elves make up, what, maybe 10% of the population of Faerun, but half of the Hall of Heroes characters are Elves. I know a few who do a good job RPing Elves (no names, but you know who you are  ), but so many people play Elves for the bonuses. And with Drow available as a PC race, there're more and more Drow PCs. Give me a break!
There's a reason I bought Dwarves Deep but not Elves of Evermeet. As a player and GM, I am tired of Elves, except in the hands of the few, the proud, the role-players.
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Hymn
Senior Scribe
Sweden
514 Posts |
Posted - 02 May 2003 : 21:51:03
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| Interesting relflection, and a true one if I am to be honest. |
Sauro moki kara ochiro - Even monkeys falls from trees.
The path that leads to truth is littered with the bodies of the ignorant - Miyamoto Musashi |
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Mournblade
Master of Realmslore
USA
1287 Posts |
Posted - 02 May 2003 : 22:09:48
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Mine is REALLY renegade Dark Elf as well. SO MANY MUNCHKINS think it is a 'new' idea... Dark Elf character favouritism is VERY close to VAMPIRE favourotism (sp?).
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A wizard is Never late Frodo Baggins. Nor is he Early. A wizard arrives precisely when he means to... |
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branmakmuffin
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 02 May 2003 : 22:30:52
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I have seen people RP Elves well, doing a combination of aloof disinterest and wry humor well, but I have seen the truth of "Elvenism equals Munchkinism" far more frequently.
Only once in my RPing career have I played an Elf (also the only time I ever played a mage). I quit playing the character after a short while because I realized I had picked Elf just for the bonuses. I wasn't RPing him any differently from the way I RP humans. By far the most common FRPG race I have played is human, with Half-elf and Dwarf a distant second and third.
Gnomes, Halflings and Half-orcs give me a pain, too. |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 03 May 2003 : 06:47:44
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The only character that I've created for role-playing is a half-elven mage. I picked that as a character before I ever even bought the PHB. (Which is probably why I still say 'mage' more often than 'wizard.' That and it's a dig against Elrond.  ) Once I had, I realized that a human would be better for my sort of playing (extra skill points, etc.) but the actual reason I picked the half-elf was due to a role-playing (not roll-playing) reason. My character is a loner, and a half-elf is nearly always a loner. It just seemed to follow.
The mage/wizard part followed from that -- he felt so out of touch with the people around him, aside from his mother and father, that he retreated into books instead. His arcane talents are equal parts learning and natural skill. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
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Elrond Half Elven
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
322 Posts |
Posted - 03 May 2003 : 13:20:53
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Ha! Bookwyrm, thank you very much! Actually i think that the word 'Mage' should only be used to describe high powered Elven Wizards. And before any one complains i have been playing 2nd Edition for 5 years now and i love it, just please start calling an 'Mage' characters wizards .
I did see a DM handle the Race situation very well receintally. It was in a group with 10 players (Which i must say is great fun!) he limited the number of non human races to 2. This meant tht only two players could go humanoids. So far the game has been exeptionally fun, even thought my human swashbuckler is begining to get annoyed at the Dwarf sharpshooter. Saying that however in this game we ended up rolling two sets of stats capible to be paladins. We now have two ghost hunters (paladin kit), a Galant (Bard kit), a cleric of Tymora, an Elven Theif, A swashbuckler, a Mage (Wizard ha! bookwyrm! ), a ranger (human)and a Dwarven Sharpshooter. Playing a big game like this is fun, however it must be very taxing on the DM!
Hanx
Elrond |
Once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While i nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
-The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe |
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branmakmuffin
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 03 May 2003 : 16:48:21
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| My post was not meant to impugn anyone's role-playing skills. I was merely stating what I have observed in my experience, which, while far from universal, is rather extensive. |
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Yasraena
Senior Scribe
USA
388 Posts |
Posted - 04 May 2003 : 08:30:03
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Great observation there Bran.
Yeah, there are a LOT of players who play elves as nothing more than abilities, and never really get the 'role' of them. These people are usually the gamers who are into the hack & slash/monty haul type games. You know, the 'roll players' as opposed to the 'role players'. But, you have to admit, we were ALL muchkins when we first started out at this hobby. It's just that some of us are still there.  
I can remember the first year of gaming for me, all I wanted to do was kill monsters and get treasure and have the most powerful PC. (jeez, did I actually just say that?  ) I'm just glad that I saw that there was more to the game than just 'kill the monster, loot the treasure'.
I have to admit, that I am in the group that tends to gravitate toward elven characters when I create new PC's. It's something about the race, the regalness and haughtiness of them that I really like. Also, I tend to play multi-class spell casters, and elves and half elves (Drow included) are the ones that really excel in those classes. I like to think I'm in the class of players who can actually roleplay elves fairly well, but only my fellow players and GM can say for sure. 
I think my biggest pet peeves are as follows:
Player - playing with people who constantly flub their dice rolls.
GM - having players not prepared to play. |
"Nindyn vel'uss malar verin z'klaen tlu kyone ulu naut doera nindel vel'bolen nind malar."
Yasraena T'Sarran
Harper of Silverymoon |
Edited by - Yasraena on 04 May 2003 08:30:50 |
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Bookwyrm
Great Reader
USA
4740 Posts |
Posted - 04 May 2003 : 11:02:11
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quote:
Originally posted by Yasraena
[font=Tahoma]But, you have to admit, we were ALL muchkins when we first started out at this hobby. It's just that some of us are still there.
I can remember the first year of gaming for me, all I wanted to do was kill monsters and get treasure and have the most powerful PC. (jeez, did I actually just say that? ) I'm just glad that I saw that there was more to the game than just 'kill the monster, loot the treasure'.
I guess I'm lucky -- being a writer who prefers to concentrate on character development more than action (often at the expense of the plot -- it's a hard thing to balance) and only recently getting 'into' the role-playing, I'm more predesposed to the unmunchkin side of things.
Of course, another thing in my favor is that the first things I did with D&D as a game were the computer games. I have to admit that I was very munchkinnish with those. Still am. But then, at least with the ones I have (2e games) there's not much room for anything else, is there? At the very least, it gets it out of my system. |
Hell hath no fury like all of Candlekeep rising in defense of one of its own.
Download the brickfilm masterpiece by Leftfield Studios! See this page for more. |
Edited by - Bookwyrm on 04 May 2003 11:03:04 |
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branmakmuffin
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 04 May 2003 : 17:17:59
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I agree, Yasraena, we were all munckins at the beginning.
Ufortunately, my experience tells me more don't grow out of it than do. That's why my current gaming circle has remained totally static for the last 20 years.
We used to try to bring in new people, but they ranged from players who had no idea how the game worked mechanically to those who claimed their characters were friends of gods, and who expected that to carry over from previous GM's games.
New GMs whose games we tried ranged from "Unearthed Arcana is too complicated!", to a 2nd edition Twilight 2000 GM who claimed he had changed the Soviets being the bad guys to Germans being the bad guys. This was shortly after the dissolution of the USSR, and GDW (or whoever was making the game at the time) themselves had made that change in the 2nd edition of the game. He was also a humorless son of a bitch, in addition to thinking we were as stupid as he thought we were. |
Edited by - branmakmuffin on 04 May 2003 17:20:54 |
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Mournblade
Master of Realmslore
USA
1287 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2003 : 20:03:37
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quote:
Originally posted by branmakmuffin
I agree, Yasraena, we were all munckins at the beginning.
HAH when I first started playing in 4th or 5th grade, my Fighter used to where Leather armour UNDER chainmail UNDER platemail. Giving me something like a -17 armour class. He also used to use two Halberds (one in each hand They did 1d12 damage each. We eventually figured it out.
When I was a stupid DM I also screwed the party over by having them attack a Gold Dragon who had black paint spilled on him. That is one of my favourite munchkin DM stories. It is just so ridiculously stupid I love it. Nothin like the face of shocked 6th grade colleagues...
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A wizard is Never late Frodo Baggins. Nor is he Early. A wizard arrives precisely when he means to... |
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zemd
Master of Realmslore
France
1103 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2003 : 22:38:15
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quote:
Originally posted by mournblade94
quote:
Originally posted by branmakmuffin
I agree, Yasraena, we were all munckins at the beginning.
HAH when I first started playing in 4th or 5th grade, my Fighter used to where Leather armour UNDER chainmail UNDER platemail. Giving me something like a -17 armour class. He also used to use two Halberds (one in each hand They did 1d12 damage each. We eventually figured it out.
When I was a stupid DM I also screwed the party over by having them attack a Gold Dragon who had black paint spilled on him. That is one of my favourite munchkin DM stories. It is just so ridiculously stupid I love it. Nothin like the face of shocked 6th grade colleagues...
Hmm, since the beginning, i play anti munchkins characters. I began with an elven cleric and my stats were so low that my dm adviced me to change, but i didn't cause i just liked it |
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branmakmuffin
Senior Scribe
USA
428 Posts |
Posted - 06 May 2003 : 00:55:55
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| So it's best to play a male PC who looks like Hugh Jackman if you're going to an amazon city. |
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DMing (and playing) pet peeve
