From: wiltinkm@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl (M. Wiltink.a73A.telnr-015-138378)
Subject: Re: A question on aging.
Organization: Delft University of Technology
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 13:38:39 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.171907.23215@oswego.Oswego.EDU> mccall@oswego.Oswego.EDU (D. Todd Mccall) writes:
>In article <78203@hydra.gatech.EDU> ccoprdj@prism.gatech.EDU (Jorge Diaz) writes:
>>In article <2521@cix.cict.fr> maillet@tls-cs.cert.fr (Luc Maillet) writes:
>>
>>>  I'd say that I've encountered both T$R-like ( rather small, and long-lived )
>>>and Tolkien-like ( rather tall, and immortal ) elves side by side in the same
>>>AD&D adventures. They were different, but they were still elves. They never
>>>discussed such strange topics as old age and death. That didn't affect their
>>>present state. So, once again, who cares ?
>>
>>Well, sorry, but I couldn't disagree more.  When you have things like age
>>affecting ability scores, whether or not they die of old age does matter.
>>Why would an elf lose points of Dex, Str, and Con if his body isn't "dying"?
>>
>>Not to mention the fact that wishes suddenly become no problem.  "Oh, I
>>age five years every time I cast one?  So what?  Didn't you know?  I'm
>>IMMORTAL."
>>
>>Age limits *are* important.
>>
> Not in ADND(1 or 2), since most elves can't get to a high enough level to 
> cast Wish (because of the IMHO indefensible level limits). So, the age 
> needed to keep elves from abusing Wish argument doesnt really work. Besides
> elves in ADND live about 1500 years or so, which is about 15 times a human 
> life span which means 5 years aging for a human has equivalent effect of 
> about 4 months on an elf,so 5 years matters little to an elf, even if they
> arent immortal.(Which BTW, I think they should, being a fan of JRRT, and
> never having seen the logic behind T$R's attempt to create a 'humanocentric'
> universe (to use T$R's own term), very few players I've know, 'want' to
> play humans, because they play humans all day long as it were.
>

This discussion seems to have gotten out of hand a long time ago. So I'll
add my point of view, which partially coincodes with that of most people
hereabouts, who also play AD&D most of the time (some MERP, Warhammer FRP
and Rolemaster, but not much).

I like role-playing and at times, I like hack'n'slash. For both, the AD&D
__RULES__ are just fine with me, with some exceptions. I hardly mess with
what I see as the core rules. But item descriptions and even more, monster
descriptions, I change as I see fit. So I play in Middle-Earth, by AD&D2
rules, with my own monsters based of the Lord of the Rings. If I see no
reasons for elves to die, they don't (I mentioned before that I modeled the
elves' different physical and mental makeup by stat bonuses (Con, Dex, Wis,
Cha AS I SEE FIT) and a 75% XP penalty). If I see no reasons for ghosts to
be able to age you, they don't. Actually, they probably would, because I
can't think of anything better for them to do, but it would affect humans
different than elves different than dwarves different than hobbits different
than BALROGS for all I care.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
wiltinkm@dutiws.twi.tudelft.nl
Maarten Wiltink

Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science
Delft University of Technology
The Netherlands
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd