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I am a new DM. For my first campaign, I am going to kill off the entire race of non-Drow elves, except for the PCs who are the only survivors. Later on, I will be having them discover other survivors, good and bad, but not many. The world I am using is the Forgotten Realms. It happens all on the same day but over the course of 1 day, in the year 1374, right after The Silence of Lolth.

For clarity, the elves were killed off by a blood curse and all gear owned by elves has become tainted and no longer carries any of the magic abilities it once had. PC's could loot for better gear but it would be no better than what they already might have.

I am using C&C as my ruleset but using Faerun from D&D3.5 as my world.

Is there anything in the game or setting that the elves are specifically tied to, that by eliminating them would cause my campaign to be unplayable?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I revised the question to focus on the concept of unplayability. That leaves it up to potential answerers to use their expertise to judge how and why unplayability would happen, whether rules or setting or whatever, without needing the question to define what exact kind of rules you're worried about. \$\endgroup\$ Feb 24, 2016 at 20:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie Thank you very much for all the help in refining my question. \$\endgroup\$ Feb 24, 2016 at 20:39

1 Answer 1

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I don't believe that there are any specific rules-based issues to worry about, aside from some prestige classes, feats, gear, etc. being harder to acquire (if the prerequisite is that an elf makes the thing, or only elves know the spell, or it's an elf prestige class that requires training from another member, or ...). Changes to the world/rules-as-written are always important to discuss with your players, but this change raises that import by a few notches.

There is, however, a host of "issues" that will probably come up, even if only tangentially:

  • how do the other races respond when some of the oldest (and, one would assume, wisest) trading partners, allies, and advisers disappear?
    • are there shortages of magic (items)?
    • are the "evil" races more powerful for the loss of one of the "good" races?
  • how are the few remaining Elves seen by the world at large (lucky to have survived, or viewed with suspicion for not having fallen with their kin)?
  • how is the power vacuum left behind being filled?
  • what happened to the elves (which, I assume, will be a fairly central question for the campaign)?
  • what have the Elves been doing that is no longer getting done?
    • Mythals come to mind in particular.
  • what happened to all of the Elven gear (and, why can't the PCs just wander through an abandoned Elven city picking up all the loot)?
  • how did these few elves survive?
    • this is the mechanical portion of the question; due to the number of elves who died, the answer can't be as simple as "these 5 made their Fort saves".
  • what happened to elves on other planes?
    • or elves that were magicked into non-elves at the time (eg., Shapechange)?
    • or non-elves that were magicked into elves at the time (eg., Shapechange)?
    • or half-elves?
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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm also fairly confident that most answers will suggest another question or two. Recognize that you're not going to have all of the answers when the campaign starts, but will be coming up with them as they come up. Note your answers, and build a consistent world. \$\endgroup\$
    – minnmass
    Feb 23, 2016 at 20:10

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