What's new about the new Elfs?

[GreatWolf]

Ron,

For those of us on the fence about picking up the print version of Elfs, could you give us the lowdown on what you've tweaked/changed/added, etc.?  I know that you had mentioned some thoughts about what you would change, but I'm curious to hear what ended up making the final cut.

I suppose that I could have titled this, "Sell me on Elfs", but I'm sure that I would have received a (well-deserved) smackdown.  :-D

(And I thought that I'd put it here to avoid cluttering up your announcement thread.)

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Seth,

I thought I did this already ...

1. The rules for Personality Stages are different. They now only apply to (a) tattling on fellow players to the GM in order to receive a bonus and (b) to the circumstances surrounding player-character death. You no longer get bonuses or any other consequences for playing to Personality Stage with your own character, and individual rolls no longer need be monitored and cross-referenced with Stage.

2. There are now much clearer rules for character injury and death, as well as for complicated conflicts.

3. Now, a roll is successful using a single victory; degrees of success only affect combat and other quantified versions. In this sense, Elfs is now a lot more like Sorcerer. This rules-change has the added benefit of making Dumb Luck make a lot more sense.

4. The art now includes pieces by Ed Heil and Antti Karjalainen, as well as a map of Nurth by Ben Morgan.

5. All the mean digs at D&D have been removed, although many references to it remain.

6. A number of on-line dialogues about playing Elfs, especially those which clarify rules or explain the necessary attitudes for prep and play, have been added to the text.

And probably a few other things I've forgotten ...

Best,
Ron

[Zak Arntson]

Don't forget my character sheet as the shining example of proper Elfs play: http://www.harlekin-maus.com/images/elfs.jpg (warning - vocabulary isn't work safe) Okay, not really. I just wanted to point to my old character sheet (Actual Play thread here).

I'm glad to hear the Personality Stages rules are toned down. That could be my experience with a pair of players who really identified with their characters and played as if it were their regular old D&D session (shudder). Circumstances surrounding pc death? That sounds awesomely icky.

And why take out the mean digs on D&D? Or are they meaner than I remember?

Lastly, I remember not fully grasping Dumb Luck, so I'm happy to hear it's been clarified.

I'll be buying a copy, and I'll be playing it sober. Honestly. I think it'll be the only way to get Clinton to join in with me.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Zak,

The personality rules are toned down in terms of mechanical effect and how much they have to be monitored, but I'd like to point out that the extreme behaviors of characters in many Elfs games is not at all supported even in the original text. I'm still pissed off about people claiming that rape of any kind was implied or mentioned in those rules - it wasn't.

Also, it might not have seemed out of line to you, but a couple of people did think that the explicit D&D-bashing here and there was small-minded, and they had a point. After all, you get the Elfs joke or you don't, and if you do, there's no need to call further attention to it.

Seth, one thing I suddenly realized is that I failed to acknowledge you in the indicia page for your extremely helpful comments a few months ago. Expect to see that acknowledgment added in subsequent print runs.

Best,
Ron

[stingray20166]

After just having gone through a particularly brutal (and boring!) D&D session, I would love to see the bashing posted on-line somewhere.  ;-)

[GreatWolf]

Seth, one thing I suddenly realized is that I failed to acknowledge you in the indicia page for your extremely helpful comments a few months ago. Expect to see that acknowledgment added in subsequent print runs.

Cool.  Glad that I was that helpful.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf