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Originally Posted by Simple Man
I have a sneaking suspicion you know Bellona and Trap personally (judging by join dates and post counts, both of them have only posted to this thread in all of RPGnet, which makes it all rather suspicious.)
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Yep, I know them. Nope, I didn't put them up to it. And, yep, they played the game before I got to know them. As for you suspicions, let me place your mind at ease... there wasn't a review on Prophecy on the forums yet, so there was hardly a time nor place for players of the game to pop by and post. Besides, now that this is a discussion thread as opposed to simply a review thread, isn't it a good thing to have opinions from both sides of the fence?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simple Man
I'm cool with making new races.
But if your race is pointy eared (but otherwise humanoid), long lived, arrogant and aloof, you are describing ELVES. It's tattooed on their forehead, whether you call them Drakken, Drafdar, or something else that begins in "Dr". Throw as many apostrophes as you want at it, those are Elves my friend....
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Like Vulcans? (Sorry, had to! My brother's a major Trekker.)
Prophecy assumes that physical races intertwine with cultural aspects derived from a detailed history. When you say "Elf" you are referring to a physical being as well as a culture. If both the being and the culture are different, when is an Elf not an Elf? P If the NelVan were short, would they no longer be Elves? (Wood Elves, of course, are usually depicted as short.) If they were shorter lived? What if they hated nature instead of being aloof of it? Would they be non-Elves then? Or if they got along with everyone? They don't have pointy ears (to use your words), they don't have infravision, they are not in harmony with nature, they are not eternal, and magic is uncommon among them. I will be honest in saying that, apart from playing D&D when I was 12 and reading Lord of the Rings growing up, I really haven't studied Elves in the works of other authors much.
Prophecy was written for fantasy game players looking for something different; but I only see you grinding on what similarities you can find. Noted. Everyone is allowed to have their opinion, and I think you and I have pretty much flogged a dead horse posting ours (for which I apologize, for my part). I really do hope you find some material useful or inspirational in the remaining text in the game, even if there are parts that rub you the wrong way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simple Man
I just told my wife about the Felinor for the first time and she was rather angry about how sexist the race was. She pointed out an element that I didn't really catch on to, that it was just an unattainable sex object (and generally horrible exemplification of women). She asked if you would do the same treatment to men, then gave me a colorful description I'm not about to repeat here (just take Macho to the Nth degree and you'll get the idea).
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I appreciate her point of view. I work with a Navy veteran and she is also a devout modern feminist, and she had no problem viewing the Felinor as just a different culture... they are not Americans, nor are they modern Europeans. An interesting note is that the males of the race are treated in an identical manner and, in fact, they
are completely unattainable. (The females got more press mostly because they dominate the race by such a large ratio). Perhaps I should have made them attainable sex objects, like the vast majority of other fantasy fiction? Somehow, that seems ... less dignified.
Again, I appreciate the players have different tastes in races, characters, setting, details and systems. I'm sorry Prophecy is such a thorn in your side (or at least the Felinor are), but at present those who like (or simply don't dislike) the race outnumbers those who have taken issue with them by about 20 to 1. Not wrong, just different.
Thanks for being open and honest about the game.
*** EDIT ***
I want to add an apology to the readers of this thread if I have offended anyone. Prophecy and its world have been a part of some 20 years of my life, and it is easy to get snippy when someone picks your baby apart. That's no excuse nor reason for being unprofessional or hostile. Every person has a unique taste for fantasy and has the right to their opinions and feelings. My hope is to create a better product for more people to enjoy and to find inspiration for gathering together and having a good, creative time.