Allanaki City Elves

[FantasyWriter]

Just don't call them a tribe in your character report and you should be fine.

[Dakota]

That's all city elves. The Akai are closed.

Akai are open according to the website...

[Barsook]

But not when you request the docs, I think.

[Dresan]

I think making new tribes or clans might not be the best way to go with c-elves. Adding tribes would elevate them into their own distinct group, with their own goals and focus their tribes would need leaders and attention or else they would be boring to be in. It does sound interesting but with the current tribes that exsist in the world being dead or closed I think taking another approach is best. A few modest tweeks and changes to the docs would bring them in line, alongside dwarves and half-elves.


1. Remove the concept of theiving from their personality. They can still be considered theives and con artists by most humans due to racism. They are a smart race, they are often trying to use their heads to get an advantage. On top of that with their low social order and not many opportunities to survive its only natural that some of these agile creatures take to stealing. Still it shouldn't be something they are by nature.

2. Unlike their desert cousins, city-elves seek out and find their own 'tribe' when they come of age. Sometimes this mean returning home after they leave, other time it means going solo searching for many years before they find a group they can trust and dedicate themselves to.  

3. Once the thieving aspect is removed and their tribe mentality shifted a little then it would make sense to open the last two GMHs to them. Everyone would know that hiring an elf potentially makes for a very fiercely loyal employee should they decide to stay with you. No respectable noble house nor militia would hire them though.


Just these small little changes would make them infinitely more playable without much work at all. I don't see them being as liked as dwarves but not as looked down upon as half-elves. I just noticed this is an old thread, so i might have suggested this idea already. 

[spicemustflow]

Players of elves don't want or need to be 'liked'.

[Quell]

Players of elves don't want or need to be 'liked'.

I don't think that was the point of his post, if that's what you were referring to. It seemed like the point was to open up new avenues for city elves to join organizations. The change to make them secretly not that thieving, probably isn't going to do much for their reputation with the world as a whole. Just the people that get to know them really well.

[Delirium]

I like Dresan's suggestions.  Sometimes I think the documentation takes too much of a hardline stance and ends up stifling interaction between PCs. If we could massage it into fostering conflict AND interaction without overly segregating the playerbase, that would be ideal.

[spicemustflow]

I don't think that was the point of his post, if that's what you were referring to. It seemed like the point was to open up new avenues for city elves to join organizations.

I got his point. Mine was that if I roll up an elf I want to actually belong to an elven group, not join GMHs.

[Delirium]

Nobody would be forcing you to do so. It would simply be another avenue available.

[spicemustflow]

No, it would be the only avenue available since we don't have tribes. If an effort was made to change elves I would prefer that it goes toward making tribes workable.

and, honestly, I don't get what made Jaxa Pah unworkable. It's not that they were running the city.

[Narf]

I like Dresan's suggestions.  Sometimes I think the documentation takes too much of a hardline stance and ends up stifling interaction between PCs. If we could massage it into fostering conflict AND interaction without overly segregating the playerbase, that would be ideal.

The documentation probably takes a hardline stance to counteract viewpoints of PC exceptionalism.

The problem any game runs into when it talks about exceptions to the rule is that the PC's will turn that exception into the new rule. One way to deal with that is to pretend like there aren't any exceptions, even when you deep down realize that this doesn't make any sense. This solution creates a lot of issues with realism, but I can't say I've ever come up with a better way to deal with the problem it addresses.

And I want to be clear: I'm not talking about this from on high, I actually represent the (probably sizable) portion of the player base that enjoys playing exceptions. So when I say I can't come up with a way to address the problem that creates, I'm speaking with an insiders perspective. I don't know how staff could give me what I want to play without risking everyone else seeing how cool it was, and suffering Drizzt-syndrome.

[Spider]

No, it would be the only avenue available since we don't have tribes. If an effort was made to change elves I would prefer that it goes toward making tribes workable.

and, honestly, I don't get what made Jaxa Pah unworkable. It's not that they were running the city.

In my opinion, some of the documentation for that tribe was in purposeful contradiction with elven roleplay, and IG that contradiction didn't work out as expected.  I do believe Staff has said it is closed to work out some kinks anyway, so I imagine they will return again one day.

[bracken]

Just don't call them a tribe in your character report and you should be fine.

That T-word.
If  I call for a family of c-elves. Presumably we are a fragment of a triibe, a tribe almost lost, or filled out by virtual cuzzies.
The family PC's can say they are of the Midden maker Tribe?
Suppose miraculously our fragment survives for a fair while, long enough to gather a few more , after arduous testing. (I can dream)
Can "Tribe" be mentioned?
Or do we find another word from the Narrows to replace it.

The nature of elves suggests that a family based crew is more than a crew, even if it's fate is non-existence.

[spicemustflow]

No, it would be the only avenue available since we don't have tribes. If an effort was made to change elves I would prefer that it goes toward making tribes workable.

and, honestly, I don't get what made Jaxa Pah unworkable. It's not that they were running the city.

In my opinion, some of the documentation for that tribe was in purposeful contradiction with elven roleplay, and IG that contradiction didn't work out as expected.  I do believe Staff has said it is closed to work out some kinks anyway, so I imagine they will return again one day.

I think I know what you mean, but I was under impression that it was closed for other reasons. The original Jaxa docs from early 2010 didn't have those kinks, IMO. It would be easy to rollback to that.

[Dresan]

I was thinking more about city elves and wondered what would happen to the game if suddenly 80% of the mud decided to roll one. This would be putting aside population documentation because people are allowed to role what they want so this is looking more at a gameplay experience.  

With humans, things would go on normally. If people mostly rolled dwarves, think would still go on normally with only a couple  clans suffering a tad. You'd still have a human leader followed by a group of dwarves. If people mostly rolled half-elves the game would still go on normally. Some clan suffer a tad more but not by much since some half-elves would just look human. I don't think the same can be said about elves. Imagine human byn sergeant with a unit full of elves being asked for an escort mission accross the known or to do any of the routine tasks/contracts the byn are asked to do outside the city. What about kurac, asked to escort a merchant to redstorm. Even if the jaxa pah and akai opened those would be the only two clans thriving in either city state, everything else would come to a stand still.


I don't think this race should be so gimped that people need only to choose them in order to begin shutting down the world. It is almost comical that they can't even effectively participate in all the activity the two clans they can join offer. At this point, it is not only a documentation issue but coding one too. They need some more love and changes in order to make them a cool race to play. Even if documentation changes allow them to join more clans, I feel the race itself still needs just a little bit more to make them as enjoyable to play as any of the other races.

My coded suggestion would be giving them desert WALK. This would allow them to walk through the desert more effectively then other races but it would not as effectively in both speed and stamina drain as being able to run like their cousins. This ability would allow them to hunt around cities, or get from allanak to luirs more effectively. If you want to hunt in the thornlands, hunt deep in the pah or the valley or just explore the world a human/dwarf/half-elf ranger should still be the way to go. City elves would still not get the option to role rangers. In the wilds mounted combat is still king and charge an awesome skill to have.City elves being able to walk around would allow them to participate in the same things other races do a little bit more. Of course there are the normal draw backs, being on foot is more dangerous, fleeing is exhausting, sneaking is exhausting. I think a change like this along side the documentation changes I propose would make them an all around fun unique race to pick while still not making them require karma.

In their current state though I feel we need to do to bring more attention to the city elves is just to begin rolling them in higher numbers. All the clans including the ones elves can join would begin to suffer.  Roll an elf (2014).     

[Reiloth]

I don't think it's like a 'Don't buy gas for a day' conspiracy. I think city-elves have their problems, but if the whole player base rolled dwarves, half-giants, or half-elves, you'd see similar problems in different arenas. Noble Houses would all be shut down, and without Nobles as an economy fluid for the player base, you'd see everyone playing an Indy or in the GMH's. It'd be a pretty boring PvE game. Hunting, skinning, selling products to people, more hunting, skinning...Not to say that Nobles are the be all end all of fun for the game, but you'd also have a lack of Templars, and minions.

If anything, I think the population count of Elves could be dropped in the documentation, from 60% or whatever to 20%. That might reflect the lack of popularity in playing elves, and massage the need to address these perceived issues.

Because honestly, fuck elves.

[RogueGunslinger]

That is the opposite of problem solving. "Nobody is playing elves, well, let's make the documentation reflect that then and just delete elves."

[Patuk]

Removing even virtual power from a race that's already awfully weak, in pc terms. Right. Bet that'd improve the game.

[Reiloth]

I'm just throwing out the facist 'problem deletion' scenario for kicks.

[Malken]

Might as well just replace 'elf' with 'goblins', would make a lot more sense.

In every RPGs ever, goblins are weak, numerous and live in filth and are proud of it (our city elves).

Then people would at least know what they're getting themselves into when they play a city goblin and expectations wouldn't be as high as when they think they're playing an "elf", since the elf documentation really doesn't work well in a game where it's nearly impossible to count on virtual numbers and backings.

[Fujikoma]

Might as well just replace 'elf' with 'goblins', would make a lot more sense.

In every RPGs ever, goblins are weak, numerous and live in filth and are proud of it.

Then people would at least know what they're getting themselves into when they play a city goblin and expectations wouldn't be as high as when they think they're playing an "elf", since the elf documentation really doesn't work well in a game where it's nearly impossible to count on virtual numbers and backings.

Keep elves, add city-goblins, feck, city-gith! Half-gith! Finally, something to hate more than breeds and elves! OMG elf I hate you, but I hate that goblin and his gith mate more, let's team up on them!

[BadSkeelz]

I've seen half-gith get more gainful employment than city elves.

[Patuk]

I don't think flavor tweakings and virtual power is what elves need at all. Elves need no tweaks, there has to be a straight up boost. Slight alterations just aren't going to cut it.

[BadSkeelz]

I don't think flavor tweakings and virtual power is what elves need at all. Elves need no tweaks, there has to be a straight up boost. Slight alterations just aren't going to cut it.

"As an expansion on the elven hive mind idea, all City Elf Pcs now have the ability to target PCs that abuse them with 'reverse crim code,' which will cause elven NPCs to seek out and attack that PC."

[Patuk]

City mantis elves OP