I read the Elfs book and have a question about monsters being able to hurt the PCs.

From the look of things, the only way a PC can get hurt is by attacking and failing. Thus, if they seriously aggravate a bear in a cave they can avoid being hurt by it simply by not attacking it, no matter how much the bear wants to eat them. Is this the case or did I miss a paragraph somewhere?

Cool book btw.

I'm glad you like it! Elfs is a very cathartic game to play. I am constantly aggrieved that it is not played more widely.

The thing is, though, rolling isn't merely up to the players. The GM can insist that the player must roll. Even though a roll is an elf's action, it can still be responsive. That's why there isn't a fight score, just Spunk + whatever.

So your assessment that the elf cannot be hurt unless he or she is attacking isn't quite right. The elf can be hurt when he or she is rolling in a dangerous situation, and that roll can be called for by the GM.

Which can be very nasty, sometimes. Elfs players can get overconfident, like the little fucker played by my friend Chris Weil who thought he could go toe to toe with a hydra. Roll. Roll. Gotta roll. Look, everything's on fire. Roll for that. Roll. With all of it not only in ordinary dangerous circumstances, but lethal ones.

Yes, it's not .... um, the fairest game in the world regarding the players relative to the GM. That's why the competitive elements of the game are best expressed among the player-characters, with the GM providing "dangerous ground" rather than the primary challenges.

Best, Ron