Kenneth Gauck wrote:

> On Wednesday, October 21, 1998 4:51 PM, Gary V. Foss
> wrote:
> >There is also the possibility that elves, like Cerilian dwarves, have a
> drastically
> >different diet than we often assume. Dwarves can live on rocks and dirt.
>
> I had a fit when I first read the Baruk-Azhik suplement. The point about
> dwarves eating rocks was one of the things that set me off. After writing a
> three page polemic against the supliment, I decided to just offer my players
> caveat. I told them that the information was not neccesarily reliable, but
> was how the dwarves see their own society, and not how it really was. If
> anyone wants my specific criticisms of the Dwarven Sup, I'll send it
> off-list.

Huh. You know, I really didn't have that much of a problem with it. Probably
because I bought into the whole Planescape thing in which Tieflings can eat
ashes and bones and stuff. I actually kind of like that Cerilian dwarves can
eat dirt. God knows I tried to as a four-year-old.... Besides, it makes the
dwarves more alien and I kind of like that. It's also a cute explanation for
their relative density in comparison to other creatures. Besides, I saw a guy
eat a whole box full of straight pins one time. THAT was weird. Dwarves can
eat mud pies? No problem.

> >Elves might be able to live on pine cones or even pine needles, tree
> >bark, daisies, grass, whatever.
>
> This is certainly likely as a supliment to diet, but creatures the size of
> elves (even with some leeway) would eat enough of this stuff to really harm
> the eco-system. pine cones are the seed bearers of trees, as are nuts.
> Often the nutrition we take from these sources is direct competition with
> the trees. Tree bark is obviously a protection for the tree. Some might be
> harvested, but one of the great causes of deforestation in Sub-Saharan
> Africa is the elephant which rubs against trees, and stripps the bark off.
> Grass has little nutritional value and is hard to digest.

Well, grass has little nutritional value for humans, but I think the point is
that elves might be able to process it much more efficiently. Like I said, I
don't have a problem with dwarves munching down rocks (which I'm pretty sure
have even less nutritional value to humans than grass) so elves eating
dandelions is perfectly fine by me. As for stripping the bark off trees, maybe
elves eat the WHOLE tree. I just said bark as an example....

Besides, I'm not sure I understand how elves would deforest an area by eating
naturally growing plants, yet not deforest that same area if they were farming
it.... There are a lot of elves, I grant you, but it's not like they go mowing
through the forests devouring the plantlife like weevils on crack....

> Some of these concerns might seem nit-picky, but when the people in a game
> session have trouble suspending their disbelief, the whole game suffers.
> The game should be simple, elegant, and capable of suspending disbelief.

Well sheesh, Ken, I wasn't having any problem suspending my disbelief before!
Now I'm all questioning the calorie intake of my characters and stuff. I'm
starting to think my female bard, Rowena, is anorexic. She's getting to look
like that chick on Alley McBeal.... And my favorite fighter, Kohvan, has a
cholesterol count higher than the Silverhead Mountains! That boy needs to lay
off the red meat....

Seriously, though. I don't mind at all the idea that elves and dwarves have a
fifth and sixth food group respectively. Especially since certain foods that
humans eat are inedible to dwarves (and probably should be for elves if we
extend the reasoning) so it evens things out.

Gary