I hate elves... or at least the preferential treatment they get in fantasy. Elves get all of the subraces, and more text space than any other race in general. I hate it.

Crack open your PHB and you'll find three to four elf races... and one orc, and at best two of everything else. Go two chapters farther and you'll see four different height x weight rows for elves. Dwarves get two. All other races get one. All halflings are built the same. All gnomes are built the same. Dwarves stop getting special heights and weights after the PHB, just following in the footsteps of the Hill Dwarf... but not Elves. All elves are perfect and unique.

Then move on to Sword Coast Adventurer's Guilde and you get several takes on the Half-Elf.

Then you get Mordenkainen's Tomb of Foes and you get three to seven more elves! There are a million ruddy elves and nobody else gets any love (stay out of this Tieflings).

Worse yet, most Elves don't even fit the best Elf Model that WotC has made. For that you need the M:tg packet made for Zendikar.

Sure, I don't hate elves in the abstract, just in the execution... and over execution. Anybody else with me?

I don't think there are different "races" or "sub-species" or Orc in D&D.  You can add them of course, but I don't think they exist in lore.  You could treat different tribes or Orcs as a different subspecies I suppose, and there are definitely different classes, as much as NPCs can have classes.  

Obviously a player can be any class they want too.  

So, I don't see why you cant make different races or Orcs in your game, but I don't think they are canon.

Quote from Erokow32 >>

I hate elves... or at least the preferential treatment they get in fantasy. Elves get all of the subraces, and more text space than any other race in general. I hate it.

Crack open your PHB and you'll find three to four elf races... and one orc, and at best two of everything else. Go two chapters farther and you'll see four different height x weight rows for elves. Dwarves get two. All other races get one. All halflings are built the same. All gnomes are built the same. Dwarves stop getting special heights and weights after the PHB, just following in the footsteps of the Hill Dwarf... but not Elves. All elves are perfect and unique.

Then move on to Sword Coast Adventurer's Guilde and you get several takes on the Half-Elf.

Then you get Mordenkainen's Tomb of Foes and you get three to seven more elves! There are a million ruddy elves and nobody else gets any love (stay out of this Tieflings).

Worse yet, most Elves don't even fit the best Elf Model that WotC has made. For that you need the M:tg packet made for Zendikar.

Sure, I don't hate elves in the abstract, just in the execution... and over execution. Anybody else with me?

Yeah, I guess there's a lot of elves and whatnot. But I'm finding it a little difficult to understand why this is bothersome. I mean, there's like a gazillion different kinds of goblins.. you've got your standard short little goblin, then there's orcs (Tall, Big-Mac-With-A-Large-Order-Of-Fries & mean about it goblins), then hobgoblins, then kobolds (X-Small happy meal goblins), Trolls (Mr. I can grow my eyeballs back goblni), Ogres.. no one is complaining about that though.

I like Elves.

I like the classic depiction of Elves in Lord Of The Rings.  I imagine their grace, their beauty, their long lives, and their ability in battle.  The standard issue Elf from the Player's Handbook is a pale intonation, but the idea is still there.  Call them the Sidhe, the Fair Folk, or call them the Tuatha.

I don't have much use for any of the sub-races.  Most of them get powers or abilities that put the basic Player's Handbook Elf to shame.  Why would I let someone play a Drow, and not suffer any of the penalties for being a Drow, just because they painted it white and called it a "Chilly Elf"?

I'm not with you.

Have fun.  Good luck with your games.

This is how I would feel about Tieflings if I got worked up about these kinds of things. But eh, I like elves so I don't mind.

I don't hate Elves, but yes, they get a lot of play.

Treebeards poem in LoTR describing the various races, first one?  Elves.

You ask someone to name fantasy races?  First one most of the time?  Elves.  

Google search Fantasy Race, click the first article, whats the first image?  Elf.

So when you think of it that way, there's an inherent understanding of why Elves are so prevalent.  They're also easy to explain.  Classic Elf 101:  Fairer than a human, prettier than a human, more long lived than a human.  Still very much a human, but just "All the best parts" and throw in some magic.  It's lazy, but back when fantasy as a genre really started taking off?  It's all we had, it was the farthest reaches of the imagination for most.  Now, with 100 years of fantasy under our belts we have all of these other whimsical lineages, but since Elves have been around the most, it's what gets used the most.

I don't think there are different "races" or "sub-species" or Orc in D&D.

Half-Orc, Orc of Exandria and Orc of Eberron all are different races of sub species, but to the OPs point, they don't exist beyond that and I honestly agree that there should be more love.  Why are elves the only ones officially influenced by their surroundings?  

Quote from scatterbraind >>

This is how I would feel about Tieflings if I got worked up about these kinds of things. But eh, I like elves so I don't mind.

I don't think the OP is "worked up", its a criticism.  These are discussion forums, the OP is entitled to discuss and debate criticism.  I don't understand why the initial gutcheck of a lot of people is to go "Well, I don't get worked up about this and I LIKE IT so its not a problem".  

I absolutely understand getting annoyed at the constant deluge of elfery.  Every book has its own new elf or elves.  There's more elf subspecies than there are playable species in Mordekainen's Tome of DM Headaches.  Everywhere you go there's more elves, and elves are always the prettier, more graceful, morally superior, just downright better species in most any D&D world.  To say nothing of their ridiculous lifespans that require severe handwaving to make any elven PC work, or the fact that elves are mechanically superior to all other PHB species except maybe dwarves.  All the Species Power Creep in later books is mostly just those species being comparable to elves, rather than comparable to the PHB median line.

That said, am I going to fetch my pitch and torchfork and storm Wizards' offices over it?  Nah.  Am I going to disallow elves in my games or never play an elf over it?  Nah.  I absolutely get being annoyed at the blatant favoritism, but I also just really like fey lore, Sidhe, and faerie stories.  Also it leaves room for me to, with a bit of spit and work and wrestling with the godawful homebrew builder here, even the score a bit with other species.  After all, if Wizards isn't going to expand on any of the other blood lineages in all these fantasy worlds?  I'll just have to do it my own-assed self.

There is no aesthetic that Elves have that Vampires don't do better, and in nicer clothes, while being more interesting.

Yes elf’s are annoying. There main flaw is Pride but with extremely long lifes, magical abilities and needing half the sleep of a human it’s more earned then a flaw. They aren’t putting humans down they are stating the obvious. In addition it’s never said that they can’t innovate like humans or that they need a short breeding window. So why haven’t elves taken over every thing.

Quote from xMakeRx >>

There is no aesthetic that Elves have that Vampires don't do better, and in nicer clothes, while being more interesting.

What about shopping at the market on a spring morning?  Or a duel at high noon?

In the Inheritance Cycle, elves are portrayed as usual -- magically adept, strong and fast, beautiful -- basically better than humans. But they have a critical flaw: Their vanity. Because of the common magical capability to magically change their appearance, they spend months and years and decades obsessing over it. However, they were a more isolated species in the Inheritance Cycle, so maybe it's not the best transition into your world.

Elves in Lord of the Rings are awesome (in the proper sense of the word) and I love them. Elves in everything else...well, it’s less an issue with Elves themselves and more with the people who play them and the preferential treatment they get. My theory is that this is because the sort of person who likes elves wants their special snowflake character, hence the way too many variations. And then they have the audacity to look down on the dwarves.

Quote from Kotath >>

Elves seem a lot less often played than Tieflings to me and you can play what you want, so not sure what the complaint is?

That other people like playing elves?

 

The complaint is pretty evident. OP just wants more race and subrace diversity. 

In my setting, the Elves have been gone for over 500 years.  One morning they just weren't there.  None of my players have ever tried to figure out why.

Quote from super_goblin_bros >>

Quote from Erokow32 >>

I hate elves... or at least the preferential treatment they get in fantasy. Elves get all of the subraces, and more text space than any other race in general. I hate it.

Crack open your PHB and you'll find three to four elf races... and one orc, and at best two of everything else. Go two chapters farther and you'll see four different height x weight rows for elves. Dwarves get two. All other races get one. All halflings are built the same. All gnomes are built the same. Dwarves stop getting special heights and weights after the PHB, just following in the footsteps of the Hill Dwarf... but not Elves. All elves are perfect and unique.

Then move on to Sword Coast Adventurer's Guilde and you get several takes on the Half-Elf.

Then you get Mordenkainen's Tomb of Foes and you get three to seven more elves! There are a million ruddy elves and nobody else gets any love (stay out of this Tieflings).

Worse yet, most Elves don't even fit the best Elf Model that WotC has made. For that you need the M:tg packet made for Zendikar.

Sure, I don't hate elves in the abstract, just in the execution... and over execution. Anybody else with me?

 

Yeah, I guess there's a lot of elves and whatnot. But I'm finding it a little difficult to understand why this is bothersome. I mean, there's like a gazillion different kinds of goblins.. you've got your standard short little goblin, then there's orcs (Tall, Big-Mac-With-A-Large-Order-Of-Fries & mean about it goblins), then hobgoblins, then kobolds (X-Small happy meal goblins), Trolls (Mr. I can grow my eyeballs back goblni), Ogres.. no one is complaining about that though.

 I think your ignoring the fact that all of those are completely seperate species of monsters with no relation to goblins at all (well a bit from hobogoblin but they are entirely distinct species with a distinct culture)

BajaMntDew is correct. Bugbears, Hobgoblins, and Goblins are all Goblinoid, but not "Goblins".

WotC has played favourites and it's just annoying... and I've never heard of people choosing to avoid a major release because it lacked a new elf subrace.

Heck, if you look at the SCAG, you'll see that the Half-Elves even get a better presented entry than the Ghostwise Halfling.

Quote from Vince_Snetterton >>

Elves are the superior sentient species on the Prime Material Plane in the game, of course after Dragons.

Accept their superior intelligence, physical grace which is manifested in their art and architecture. Then move on.

 This. Elves are always going to get the best treatment, in D&D and every other fantasy work. The entire point of the race is that they are smarter, faster, stronger, prettier, more powerful and better in every way then humans (and dwarves, halflings/hobbits, etc.). In most fantasy works, they outstrip every race in practically every way. Throw in a lot of magic powers and that is what makes them elves. As Vince said, accept it and move on.

Quote from Spideycloned >>

Quote from scatterbraind >>

This is how I would feel about Tieflings if I got worked up about these kinds of things. But eh, I like elves so I don't mind.

 

I don't think the OP is "worked up", its a criticism.  These are discussion forums, the OP is entitled to discuss and debate criticism.  I don't understand why the initial gutcheck of a lot of people is to go "Well, I don't get worked up about this and I LIKE IT so its not a problem".  

 Suppose use of the word "hate" and multiple instances of hyperbole and sarcasm in the post might not communicate emotional intensity to you, but that's what I was picking up. I also never said that criticism or even outright ranting doesn't belong on the forums. If I was saying anything beyond the face value of my words, it was that sometimes you need to accept the things that you cannot change. Elves' prevalence in fantasy media of all kinds for all time is one of those inevitable things.

One way to get to acceptance is to rant about it and get those feelings out, so let me explicitly grant my full support in OP's right to rant in case anyone further misunderstands me.