My Campaign - 4th Edition Allegory

[Totally Guy]

I'm running a 4th edition campaign and I was trying to think what was going to happen next when an army of eladrin representing old gods confronts a town of humans worshipping new gods.

Then an idea struck. What if the Eladrin were to represent older D&D editions and the human town represented 4th edition. I've done something similar before. My previous campaign, with the same characters, featured a situation whereby the villain benefitted by turning a town into an MMORPG.

I'm just trying to think of how a group of Eladrin can, in character, draw a comparison between the worship of new gods and the worship of a new edition. And how a group of humans can, also in character, draw a comparison with tradition and the dislike of 4th edition.

So in short I need your help turning 4th edition into an allegory of itself. Understood?

[Tacoma]

You could do the Nodwick 13th edition of magic storyline. But that's an allegory for operating systems and Microsoft.

[Flickerdart]

Half of them wouldn't be Wizards and hate them. The other half would be Wizards, but call themselves Abjurers and Fey Step becomes Abrupt Jaunt. For the hell of it.

[Tacoma]

You could have their spells work like the old 2E spells. Give any rules-savvy player a bit of a fit.

[fractic]

I can hear the conversations allready.

Eladrin: The new gods don't allow you to express yourself like the old gods did.
Human: But the new gods bring balance.
Eladrin: The old gods draw upon eons of tradition.
Human: Many of those traditions were horrible and should never have existed.
Eladrin: But the new rituals just consist of doing the same thing over and over again.

and so on.

[Kurald Galain]

It's funny that the race that has been around longer than first edition is the metaphor for 4E, whereas the race that didn't exist a year ago and nobody's ever used outside 4E is the metaphor for older eds

[bosssmiley]

It's funny that the race that has been around longer than first edition is the metaphor for 4E, whereas the race that didn't exist a year ago and nobody's ever used outside 4E is the metaphor for older eds

Eladrin (who in 4E are a hollowed-out vestige of what they were in previous editions) represent old editions? Think you got yer allegory a little muddled there Glug.

(never thought I'd click on a thread with both "4E" and "Allegory" in the title )

[Charity]

Ah but it is Glug and he is made of winsauce Bossman

This does sound pretty entertaining Glug, I do hope none of your players are harbouring any animosity about the new system though as that could get awkward.
As it happens our whole group embraced 4e with open arms... somehow that conceit broke down, anyhow you know what I mean.

[Hal]

One of the Old Gods could be named Thayco the Unhittable.

[Kurald Galain]

One of the Old Gods could be named Thayco the Unhittable.

He's probably the God of Subtraction, then?

[Nerd-o-rama]

It's funny that the race that has been around longer than first edition is the metaphor for 4E, whereas the race that didn't exist a year ago and nobody's ever used outside 4E is the metaphor for older eds

Except that Eladrin are just High/Grey Elves renamed in a silly and confusing manner. And re-textured as Blood Elves. As High/Grey Elves, they archetypically represent stodgy traditionalism and broken Mages/Wizards; however, their random renaming and art represents a lot of the complaints about 4e as well.

A clearer allegory might be Dwarves (who are always exactly the same as all previous dwarves, and are stereotypically even more stodgy than Elves) vs. Dragonborn (made up from whole cloth for the new edition, with possibly the silliest racial fluff).

[Kurald Galain]

(made up from whole cloth for the new edition, with possibly the silliest racial fluff).

You mean their Ancient Empire? Come on, every race gets one of those

[Nerd-o-rama]

I was more thinking of the PHB.

Play a Dragonborn if you want to...
* ...look like a dragon!

Okay, that's not actually fluff, it's just idiocy. I used the wrong term.

[Artanis]

...but they DO look dragon-ish.

Seriously, how is it idiocy to say that a race looks like dragons when it looks like dragons? That's like saying it's idiocy to say that Halflings are short or that Elves have pointy ears.

[Morty]

...but they DO look dragon-ish.

Seriously, how is it idiocy to say that a race looks like dragons when it looks like dragons? That's like saying it's idiocy to say that Halflings are short or that Elves have pointy ears.

Well, it does kind of imply that Dragonborn's sole puprose is to look like OMG dragonz.

[OrigamiSamurai]

...but they DO look dragon-ish.

Seriously, how is it idiocy to say that a race looks like dragons when it looks like dragons? That's like saying it's idiocy to say that Halflings are short or that Elves have pointy ears.

I can just imagine it now:

Play a Halfling if:
*... you want to be short!

Play an Elf if:
*... you want to have pointy ears!

Somehow I don't think people would accept those entries.

[niv78]

"You young whippersnappers! Back in my day we had to roll Thaco uphill in the snow both ways!"

There's how it would really go.

[Artanis]

You mean like how it says three times that you should play an Eladrin if you want to be a wierdo alien? Or how the Tiefling comes right out and says that they're emo?

If you dislike the Dragonborn fluff because one single sentence of it is somewhat silly, then at least you can be consistant and dislike the rest of the races as well.

[Tacoma]

I dislike the fluff on the dragonborn for the same reason I don't play RPGs with nothing but furry races in them. Some people like that. But ... the furriest thing in normal D&D is a Dwarf ;)

[Totally Guy]

Eladrin (who in 4E are a hollowed-out vestige of what they were in previous editions) represent old editions? Think you got yer allegory a little muddled there Glug.

I spotted the irony as well but thought I'd keep it quiet. I've already got the Eladrin in the story, the allusions to an edition war was thought up retrospectively.

The players have no issue with 4E. The advantage I have in using this literary device is that I can communicate that this is a low level conflict without actually needing to state it explicitally. Which is the absolute best thing that tropes do for everyday folks like you or me.

Edit: Fractic, I've made a note of all those lines and added a couple more for tomorrow's session. Very handy, thanks.