How would you run a game set in the age of elves, before the rise of man and fall of the elder people?

How would you run a game set in the age of elves, before the rise of man and fall of the elder people?

This would require an entire group of gay players.

Think about it. They have better things to do. Namely, each other.

If you're talking Tolkein then you run a mythic pathfinder, exalted or fate game where everyone is an elf

Otherwise just run a regular game with your preferred rule-set but everyone is an elf, basically having elves take the place of humans in the setting.

This OP. You run every single run if them as greek heroes with larger than life traits. The reason why all the elves you meet are wise, kind, and badass? Natural selection and their own fuck ups have literally left only the best alive.

With the elves licking the boots of their Dwarven overlords as they hand over entire forests in tribute to fuel the forge fires.

>How would you...

I wouldn't. That sounds gay as fuck

Run it in the twilight of the elven civilization.
The original elves, eldren, are becoming less, their children are being born mortal and lesser. (High elves, wood elves, dark elves, winged elves, sun elves, moon elves, snow elves, ect)
Have the PCs be born these lesser elves and play out the collapse of their civilization due to fighting between these new elves, none of which can agree are the true people. The original elves are far and few, they left the world, fell into a great sleep or some other thing that you make up.
Then next time you feel like working on your setting, base the elves of that setting on how the PCs handled themselves.
They all play different types and try to unite the elves? Then they different types of elves are not splintered and full of hatred for each other, they are allies and hope that by cross breeding they can become the true elves again.
Did the party all pick one type and work to eradicate dark elves because they are a blight and an abomination? Then the dark elves are viewed as evil by the others when you write the setting.
Make their game the history of the elven people that happened long before humans crawled out of their caves and discovered fire.

I've built my settings on players making the history like this, through games, and it's always cool to see their reaction when they learn or see something they caused.

>gay elf memers

but seriously OP, I don't want to have to read the Silmarillion again. The first time was rough enough.

I would set it to Blind Guardian playing in the background.

>being closer to perfection also means being gay
hmmm....

>dwarves
>using wood to fuel their forges
>not a chained up dragon's fire powering the clans grand gorge
>not coal powering the home forges
Do you even dwarf, user?

I already did. The world was flat and set on pillars, the sky was a dome, magic was common place, and there were magically lit cities of the Elves filling the glorious West. Man was young and barbaric.

In practical terms there was these high fantasy Elven cities existing far to the west of Dark Age low fantasy human settlements, which was in turn north of two isles home to the Hobbits, who had far less magic then everyone but better [read: 1600s with no guns but steamboats] tech.

It was a hexcrawl and the world was filled with savage places, ancient ruins, and every OSR cliche I could think of. Like prehistoric animals. Lots and lots of prehistoric animals.

Especially at sea.

I would have the entire campaign be set in the time when the elves are overthrowing their precursor race.

Make the elves seem like even bigger dicks than they usually are portrayed.

Fuuuuuuck yes.

I feel like we could turn this into a magical realm somehow.

What if... the players travel to an elf kingdom (magic time travel or some other means), they're the only humans who have ever traveled here and all the elf women want to sleep with them because they're so manly. So everything from the elf queen to an elven barmaiden would try to capture the party members and lock them up in their love dungeons. Heck even the nearby dark elf queendom might invade (or at least send spies) to try and grab the player characters for themselves.

Epic level investment in either sailing, smithing, or bardic lore, and knowledge of spears and archery, and tools, but nobody can have swords or helmets unless they meet up with Feanor. To do this they might need to go to Fornost and deal with him and his kids, and they'll definitely need to do something to win the fire prince's favor.

>Look, hairy short ruffians
>They must be agents of Melkor, armed for war like that
>Aye, happy hunting!

>dwarves
>not using Runes of Petrification on elven forests so they can harvest them for coal
>not using Runes of Incineration on other elven forests to get charcoal for steelmaking
>not slaying every filthy dragon they come across instead of "le awesome creative innovation XDDD"

You think like an Elf. A fat Elf, too. Keep your Dwarf Fortress-tier autism out of this.

Simple OP, set the game in Tolkien's First Age, before Men/Dwarves appear, and have your players stab orcs and get into singing contests with Sauron. Put together a playlist of Dio/Rainbow, Blind Guardian, Summoning, Cirith Ungol, Accept, Sabaton, and Manowar. Whenever your players manage to accurately role-play a bunch of fatalistic immortal beings obsessed with revenge and wallowing in their own self-importance, give them a free re-roll or some XP or something.

Nigger, you clearly don't dwarf at all. All this magic? Dwarves aren't know for magic most of the time. Crazy near magical craftsmen, sure.
Also, an old 2e adventure did the dragon enslaved by dwarves thing first. Buncha duegar had a red dragon powering the city. It was pretty well detailed and actually kinda cool. PCs have the option of taking one of its eggs to raise their own dragon and depress the dragon powering the city, crippling the duegar. The adventure didn't answer how the fuck they kept the thing fed though

This is one of the instances where drawing from Tolkien for a campaign is a good idea since it's so similar to the First Age. You could make the players absolutely larger-than-life, world-changing heroes - it's better if it's done in a established setting so you can take every previously established rule and guideline about what the PCs are capable of so you can break it to hell in the most grandiose ways you can think of.

Think about balrogs in the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings. In LotR the most powerful member of the fellowship has to stay behind and sacrifice himself to just barely contain one balrog, in the Silmarillion you have Feanor kicking the asses of 3 balrogs at once until the king of the balrogs has to show up just to even the odds, after which he dies a prolonged, rasputinian death, says his last words, and dramatically turns into ash.

Even then, you have to make it clear the PCs are not all powerful, and in fact may be the small fish in a cosmically big pond

This sounds fantastic!
I wish I could run something like that.

user no-one ever *wants* to be taken to someone else's magical realm

>dramatically turns into ash
that's a really understated way of saying he violently exploded

My group has thrown together a bunch of lore about the elves in the world they're playing in. Some tidbits:

Duels can be fought with words or swords, at the preference of the aggrieved. (Slam poetry and songs are popular mediums.)

The Queen is an immortal. Actually, all elves are immune to the ravages of age, but the Queen has ruled for time immemorial. Most elves who live over a millennium find some way to die; Elven heaven is "The Summerlands," much like the Elysian Plain but woods. It also may be accessible from the prime plane.

The Queen has a force of elves called Gardeners who act as her eyes, ears, and hands in the kingdom and abroad. They're trained as gardeners -- meaning they know herbatology and poison -- and most outsiders never suspect they're anything more than that.

Elven Bards form an information sharing network that passes news in the form of song; as bards encounter each other they trade songs and the whole network can pass a song from one end of the known world to the other inside of three months. Some non-elven bards actively participate in this network, and it's not exactly secure, but it is fast and most people never even notice it.

Dark Elves have been twisted by the arcane energies their forebears made infernal pacts to access. This is why they tend toward amorality and arcane magics. But they also produce the finest wizards and sorcerers, so the Queen tolerates their pettiness.

Half-elves are considered a blessing and treated in high esteem by their elven relations. As they're widely accepted among humans as well, half-elves tend to find themselves serving as bureaucrats and diplomats where interacting between elves and outsiders is necessary.

Contrary to the stereotype, elves tend to see bows as useful tools but not weapons of war. Elven warriors almost invariably favor swords and knives. There are many elven schools for two-handed sword technique, single blade, blade-and-dagger, sword and board, and paired blades.

You're probably going to want different subarea of Elves available, or do what I did when I ran one and just have people pick the stats of any playable race and say they're (that) off of what Elves normally are. So if they pick Elf, they're an even more agile (and fragile) than normal Elf. If they pick a Halfling they're an unusually short Elf (and also unusually agile), and so on.

The real question is what system would you run it with?

If it's not Exalted you're wrong

Well, it might be a bit awkward if you're in a room with some of your closest friend and then suddenly one of them tries to make a "hot girl" voice and seduce your character but since I play most of my RPGs over the internet in text-format this doesn't ever become a problem (since I don't hear the other players and they don't hear me).

Fetish-play happens quite easily once there is no face-to-face conversation going and all you have is pictures and written actions/dialogue.

(and me playing games on j-list might also be a contributing factor)

>in the Silmarillion you have Feanor kicking the asses of 3 balrogs at once

What? There's no indication he was hurting any of them.

Players start at level 11. Everyone's an elf, maybe.

The players are demi-gods. Just run a supers campaign set in fantasy medieval world.

Terrible, terrible advice, don't push your trash. Just look at Stormbringer / Elric (BRP).

i think that user is referencing some of the stuff in unfinished tales. in sil feanor is just described as fighting balrogs, which could be anywhere between 2 and infinity balrogs.

Make them christmas elves, immediately before before they were enslaved by Santa (an evil god? or perhaps the prospecting humanscum's mortal representative) and forced to churn out presents for the less fair folk.

I'm running a LotR game and I set it in the Second Age because the First was just too badass. Good luck OP.

You. I like you.

tell us more

It's set in 3316, three years before the Sundering of Numenor. I populated the setting for multiple games so there's no real main plot, just multiple dramas unfolding across the various geopolitical situations that could each take up a whole game. In short, I have codified the four elven nations (+Edhelllond), invented six dwarven nations to add onto Khazad-dum, hugely expanded the Middle League's characteristics for some Game of Thrones-style mannish civil war (Numenor-loyal vs. Lindon-loyal, each side backed by their counterparts in Numenor), and divided the orcs into four races across eight nations.
I plundered Tolkien mercilessly for ideas. For example, the sea-orcs, which I named the gorgons, are ruled by Tevildo, Prince of Cats, who gained sapience via the tiara of Queen Beruthiel.

Not Sundering. Sinking. Now I look like a pretentious fag (as if I didn't already).

what system?

5e because I just needed something I could mod on a whim. Pathfinder would probably be better if you're willing to do a lot more work.

sometimes i wish there was a Middle-Earth general but i realize it would just be people bitching about eagles and erotic fanfiction about gimli and legolas

Moviefags are the worst.

Sure, so long as I get to be a savage humie.

I've read all the unfinished tales. There's nothing in that, or anywhere in HoME, that describes Feanor's reckless charge after the Battle Under the Stars as being effective in any way at all.