Elfquest in DnD

I have been exploring DnD stuff more of late. Im sure this came up on the old forum in the past, but was curious about a current perspective on it: how do you think Elfquest adventures would be played properly in Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons?

Spoiler:

Hm, I did not play DnD but the Midgard RPG, which is most likely DnD. And I say absolutely yes to the dwarf and Halfling situation that you suggest in your Spoiler.
In the Halfling description was a picture of Cutter (and I didn`t knew him and EQ until then-But the image of Cutter made me choose this species for my first roleplay char. Funny to remember this detail in this very moment, LOL. Btw. I played a healer, who was ugly as the night-a saying in Germany- but very sensitive and he had a strong bond to plants. The name was Garheri-et)

Preserver: I would always count them to the Fairy/Pixie department.

I so loved my old days of RGP at a table with friends from my school.

The Pinis did come up with an Elfquest RPG system complete with rulebook from Chaosium, But I don't think it had an alignment system. What it did have was information on new potential tribes, such as desert nomads, plains dwelling elves bonded to jackals(Plainsrunners), sea elves with dolphin friends (dolphins were Wavedancers not elves), humans at odds with a polluting tribe of trolls not related to Greymung, Guttlekraw or Firstcomer Troll and other tidbits. Chaosium RPG is definitely more interesting than the mess that Final Quest or Stargazer's Hunt is to say the least.

Well. RPG is about playing roles. Experiencing an adventure with friends, though one will simulate the world and its inhabitants, and probably have a story, a hook to get you into, a task to be fulfilled (e.g. the classic save the princess).

There are countless RPG systems, different in background world and rule set. Thus, there are many rule sets that could be applied to various backgrounds, though a few interact with modern background which you would not need.
Rule systems can be simple to complex, I have seen a lot of them. Complexity usually doesn't help that much, as no complexity can really map reality into fair rules, or it will suffer from complexity and calculations completely taking you out of the flow. (Some people mistake RPGs for tabletops...)

You could just apply any rule system to the world of Elfquest, though the Chaosium one (not sure where that one was derived from) should do an acceptable job. However, getting hold of it isn't too easy as it was published iirc. somewhere in the mid 80s. (Wow, that is long ago.)
(A)DnD's background... well, it is in my opinion geared to a hack and slay audience. It does not feature the fine nuances of elven life and yes, it might feel like the elves are just humans with pointed ears and agility + 1 or something. Though it depends on your players to fill the figures with appropriate life and character.

I am aware of the chaosium RPG (though not as much to have seen the rules, just the map and some of the artwork), and not sure if its just their normal system they had at the time or custom for that scenario. I took a quick look to see if I could get some clues bit struck out. I might have found a character sheet, but there was nothing tieing it to EQ other than my search. If the sheets I found are any indication, theres a little bit of interesting stuff for a different project, might have to look at it more.

Im probably overthinking things with a lot of it... its kind of wierd: I like the nuts snd bolts of any system of anything (programs, machines, games) to understand how they work, to see what interacts with what, how things are represented and so on, but when it comes to actually using the system, I dont want to messnwoth the muts and bolts I found, I jist want it to work. I guess the obsessing about nit-picky details stems from messing around with things in the past, investing a bunch of time into a project, then having to dump it because this one little detail derails the whole thing and cant be worked around... Anyway.

Chaosium aside, what characteristics of EQ elves define them to you? I figure, at least;

Size (small or medium, depending on if they are WoTM elves or starfolk)
Ability to Send
Random ability to manipulate: air (gliders), earth (rockshapers), water (wavedancers), fire (energy-Rayak), flesh (healers), mind (mother of memory, egg, rayak, suntop/stream), aether (several)
Able to see better than average in the dark
Nimbleness and strength disporpotionate to their stature
Long lived
Magic that has strain limits but not a set number of "spells" per "period", more like 'innate ability x amount practiced x difficulty of task - how exhausted they are.' Like Leetah could probably be just fine healing the whole tribe if they walked through a thorny bramble barefoot, no big deal, but two close-to-mortal wounds back to back and she is at her limit.

Like I said, probably overthinking things, but it seems I do well reducing complexity and smoothing things out once I understand the whole issue, all the details, and all of the tools available, then I can digest it and reduce it to simplest terms. The nuts and bolts of RP systems are available, and I can play with that, but I have little experience playing, so the actusl RP is alien to me except what "sounds right" to me in my head....

Anyway, currently messing with DnD because its available and I have a group of maybe players for it that are familiar with it more than any other.

jaRf wrote:

(A)DnD's background... well, it is in my opinion geared to a hack and slay audience. It does not feature the fine nuances of elven life and yes, it might feel like the elves are just humans with pointed ears and agility + 1 or something. Though it depends on your players to fill the figures with appropriate life and character.

I have this same issue with DnD adaptations of the LOTR setting; the "murder hobo" rules set just does not fit well with the tone of the source material, and it requires so many adjustments that it feels like you almost shouldn't bother. That said, the tone of a DnD campaign is way more dependent on the GM and players than the system. I put together the bones of a DnD-compatible Elfquest game ages ago, as 3.5 was being phased out, and we did alright with it because my group was more interested in running an EQ-flavored game than in the combat/XP/loot cycle.

Anduinel wrote:

jaRf wrote:

(A)DnD's background... well, it is in my opinion geared to a hack and slay audience. It does not feature the fine nuances of elven life and yes, it might feel like the elves are just humans with pointed ears and agility + 1 or something. Though it depends on your players to fill the figures with appropriate life and character.

I have this same issue with DnD adaptations of the LOTR setting; the "murder hobo" rules set just does not fit well with the tone of the source material, and it requires so many adjustments that it feels like you almost shouldn't bother. That said, the tone of a DnD campaign is way more dependent on the GM and players than the system. I put together the bones of a DnD-compatible Elfquest game ages ago, as 3.5 was being phased out, and we did alright with it because my group was more interested in running an EQ-flavored game than in the combat/XP/loot cycle.

Would you be willing to share examples of how you adapted it?
I understand there is a bit of a sidestep between 3.5 and 5, in particular, as I understand it, 3.5 was "crunchier" and had things like targeting the weapon of an opponent (as to disable or knock it away) that 5e doesnt have. I can see 3.5 being easier to describe with mechanics, if that were the case, to have Cutter try to use the manacles to capture ho-humps, or the Sun Villagers trying to capture Zwoots without killing them (not sure how such things would work mechanically without handwaving "charm" or something in 5e).

Finally looked at roll20.net and the gears are turning. Is the only major prerequisite fot using EQ stuff still that we dont use the Warp logo, etc, mark things as being warp's property, and not make money off of it? Like if one were to compile and process the images necessary for a RP session on roll20 and followed those rules and made a module for some system that it worked with, it could be shared here, right? Would that be of interest to anyone?

(Oh, and thinking about it, could be tempted to put together a trisl run for the TnL, or something inconsequential like that if there is any interest)