(This isn't terribly heretical, but it does have some pretty far-ranging effects.)
I'm frustrated with Elves and other races' longevity. It really throws a curveball into some of the mysteries that a DM can use.
NPC: "We need you to find out more about the Suel migrations after the Twin Cataclysms. We're willing to pay a lot for your research, and think that there may be answers in an abandoned keep in the Crystalmists."
PC: "Hey, let's agree to research it, and ask that old Elf. He remembers it firsthand, and we get free money."
DM: "..."
So with that in mind, I will be using the following stats:
Race: average lifespan, record lifespan in years
Humans: 60-80, 100
Dwarves: 100-140, 180
High Elves: 250-350, 450
Half-Elves: 100-180, 250
Grey Elves: 800-1000, 1200
Wood/Aquatic Elves: 80-100, 120
Gnomes: 130-170, 200
Halflings: 80-100, 120
Half-Orcs: 40-60, 80
FWIW, Dwarves maintain their physical stats much later in life than most other races. Hybrid races have the widest variety in lifespan, depending on who donated the longevity gene. Grey Elves are so rare as to be near-mythological; almost all have removed themselves from the turmoil of this world. Drow have lifespans similar to Half-Elves, but most never see death by natural causes.
The "common knowledge" that Elves live a milleneum is nothing more than an exaggeration of the fact that an Elf may well have known your great-great-grandfather.
Heh. Given that one of the most common complaints about the changes in demihumans between editions is the shorter lifespans of elves, I'd say this is extremely heretical. Particularly since you put all the demihumans on the chopping block.
As a note, it does cause some issues with a few of the NPC rulers who have been given extreme lifespans, but I think you have a very important point regarding investigating ancient mysteries from a DM and adventure plotting standpoint. While it might be "cool" as a designer to run around saying "Yes, there are certain old elves that remember every single bit of this from personal experience," stopping players from wanting to short circuit any quest for ancient lore by just wandering over and asking one as though they were nagging the ancient librarian to explain the library of congress filing system to them for the hundredth time shows the differences between design and use.
I never bought into the "Elves live forever, but can't remember anything but the last century" answer that seems to be the default.
From a design standpoint, I kept the Grey Elves long-lived just so the DM still has the option of 'someone old enough to remember everything'.
However, they are pretty much mythological, although their aeries can be seen atop many a mountain. I also made them as arrogant and stand-offish as possible. Don't want the PCs running to the Library of Congress for answers to everything...
Well, when considering matters like this its also important to realize the limits of 'first hand experience'. An elf who fought in the trenches in WW1 may not have much of a clue about the big picture. And just because someone saw something 'first hand' doesn't mean they know the truth of the matter. Or are willing to divulge it.
Sure, there are some Elrond-esque elvish lore masters out there (though even the most impressively aged grey elf will pale in comparison to Elrond), but they are few and far between. And finding one and gettign him to talk to you is likely just as much of an adventure as exploring some old keep.
Memory, even elvish memory, isn't perfect and further is limited by what the character in question actually noticed and cared about. Just think about all the things you've done that you couldn't answer definitively about 20 years later....
Like most game issues, the longevity of Elves is workable; a decent DM can usually handle it through faulty memory, apathy, lack of direct knowledge, etc.
But I don't want to have to work around it, especially when I see no real reason or purpose for the longevity of Elves. (Aside from the legacy of early D&D's Tokienesque flavor.)
I feel that 300 years gives enough longevity to add flavor, but not enough to make every abandoned temple be at least 2000 years old. When we were discussing it after a game, someone pointed out that an old Elf alive today not only would remember the American Civil War and Revolution, but would remember Columbus's discovery of the Americas, and may even have been alive during the Battle of Hastings.
And I have no idea why Gnomes, Dwarves, and even Halflings live that long, either. FRP gaming seems to occasionally gravitate towards the xenocentric... (i.e. Why are Humans the only PC race that makes war upon itself? - But that's another topic entirely.)
Welll, there is no real reason or purpose for anything in a fantasy game except that it suits the DM's purpose. Dunno if you play 3.x edition or not, but the lifespans for the non humans in that rules set is much closer to what you are suggesting.
I do think that folks overemphasize the supposed Tolkein influence on D&D issues like this. Its very superficial, since EGG actually greatly dislikes Tolkein. Elves, dwarves, and gnomes are long lived in the faerie tales they spring from. Halflings, of course, are stolen from Middle Earth and they had longer than human lifespans there, too.
Regarding war, I'm not sure what you mean. There's no evidence that gnomes and halflings went to war with each other. But then there is no evidence that either race actually had anything a human would think of as a 'realm' either. Elves and Dwarves have certainly fought each other. Where do you think drow and duergar came from? ;)
A point about the demi humans is that they are normally Lawful Good or Chaotic Good on average in D&D. Unlike humans, whose base alignment is neutral. Beyond that issue, the non humans generally have neither the population density nor the territory lust and other factors that make wars so common amongst humans. That, and there isn't a new generation of elves every 20 years to forget just how sucky war really is. :P That elf from Hastings also fought in the Hundred Years' War, Wars of the Roses, English Civil War, Revolutionary War, American Civil War, World War I, World War II, etc. Plus a bazillion minor wars, rebellions, etc. That's a lot of war for one guy...
Anyway, I'm just rambling here. There's no reason to have the elves live extremely long times if that doesn't suit your vision. Heck, there is no reason to have elves at all, for that matter. My home brew campaign used the Traveller races (Vargr, Droyne, Aslan, K'Kree, etc) instead. :P
Regarding the "demi-humans don't war on themselves" comment...
It's not something concrete I can point or link to, except maybe a long-remembered comment or two of 'Race X rarely fight amongst themselves'. It's more of a feel that you get... for instance, I can't think of an adventure where multiple factions of demi-humans are competing for political power, but every predominantly Human city has that built in. (I'm not including Half-Orcs, or the "evil twin" races - Duergar, Drow, etc.)
And it's fading, thankfully. Eberron has factions of Dwarves fighting over their homeland. Elves and other 'nominally Good' demi-humans are showing up more often as antagonists in published adventures.
Oh, I understand what you are saying. I just don't think it was ever as much that way in reality as it sometimes appeared. But certainly, most of the open warfare was "in the past" or "someplace else". One rarely sees it up close in anything published. Not enough of the rabid tolkein cloners have read The Silmarillion, I think :P
Still, I think it is important to make the demi humans more than just humans in funny suits. And that means making them behave differently. Humans like to resolve power conflicts by chopping each other up, but that doesn't mean that the elves necessarily do so. (Of course, they do in it that way in Tolkein....). I don't necessarily think that elves want the same sorts of things as humans and the ability to tell others what to do and take all their stuff may have little interest for most elves., whereas its of great interest to most humans.
Yeah, obviously if no one can play them that's bad :)
As for the 'just better', its amusing that folks thought so, especially since EGG goes out of his way to emphasize that humans are center of the universe and everyone else is supporting cast. Rules wise, you could make various arguments, especially if you don't use level limits, in the earlier editions. In 3e, its pretty clear that humans are as good or better than the other standard races.
I continue using the 1e DMG age rules both because they were what I first used and also because I like their middle ground between Tolkien's immortal eldar and what 2e et al. did.
Vormaerin wrote:
"That, and there isn't a new generation of elves every 20 years to forget just how sucky war really is. ... Plus a bazillion minor wars, rebellions, etc. That's a lot of war for one guy..."
IMC, the demi-humans, especially the longer lived ones, like olves and noniz, tend to war much less than humans because most of them have lost someone dear because of physical violence. IMC, the Good alignment's privileging of "innocent life" is highly significant. Demi-humans, especially olves and noniz, value the lives of their loved ones (and children) more than almost anything else -- certainly more than human life...
After significant reflection, I also find the 1e DMG age rules adequate because the maximum venerable age is far longer than the average (mean or median) age for all the olves, noniz, etc.
I use aging tables based on the 1st edition table. I made a few small changes to make things fit in certain places, but most of the significant numbers have not changed (such as when a character reaches the Mature stage of life, or Middle Age, etc.) I think the most significant change I made from the official 1st edition aging was for determination of maximum age.
When I made my aging tables, I took the numbers given in the DMG 1st edition and filled in the blanks. So, I have charts that can tell you how old a mountain dwarf would need to be to be the human equivalent of 67 years old (for example).
In my system, to determine the age a character will die of natural causes, you first roll a d12 and add to 60. If the roll is 11 or 12, you roll again, but add 70 instead. If you got another 11 or 12, you roll again and add 80 this time, etc. This means most individuals will live to the Biblical "Three score and ten" and not likely to live much past that. Since there's only a 2 in 12 (AKA 1 in 6) chance of getting an 11 or 12 each time, the odds of reaching the "Roll and add to 80" point are quite slim.
The odds are as follows (in case anyone is interested):
1d12 + 60: (Automatic)
1d12 + 70: 1 in 6
1d12 + 80: 1 in 36
1d12 + 90: 1 in 216 (Same as rolling an 18 using 3d6; it can happen, but not often)
1s12 + 100: 1 in 1296 (I'd definitely be suspicious of a player's d12 by this point)
1d12 + 110: 1 in 7776 (Only a 0.01286% chance of this happening)
A grey elf reaches Old Age (Human equivalent of 60) at 1,000 years, and would reach the equivalent of 70 at about 1,200 years. This is the age you'd need to find in a grey elf that would remember the events of the Twin Cataclysms which occurred about 1,000 years ago. (The 1,000 year old elf would have been an infant at the time, and would not really remember it personally.) Even the 1.200 year old elf might not have any exceptional knowledge of the event, since he/she would have ben in adolescence at that time. (Who says elven adolescents can't be a little wrapped up in themselves like their human counterparts? And it's also possible the parents of evlen adolescents might try to shield them from the ugly truths of what's going on in the big bad world around them, much like humans parents sometimes do.) A grey elf who was an adult at the time would have to be more like the human equivalent of 80. Now, my tables give a character a 1 in 35 chance of living to that age, but that does not take into account deaths from disease, accidents, or battles. Adding in those factors, you may have only about 1% (if that) of the grey elven population living long enough to have a mature perspective of the Twin Cataclysms, and still be alive 1,000 years after the fact.
Grey elves are supposed to be rare enough to start with, so finding one who is at least 1,200 years old may border on the impossible. And to make it even more difficult, the elf may not have cared much about it, especially the elves in the eastern Flanaess. ("Well, it's way the hell over there. It's not going to affect me.")
So, with all that in mind, the PC group may find it even more difficult to "just go ask an old grey elf" than it would have been to go digging through the ancient ruins for written records that may have survived.
Why are Humans the only PC race that makes war upon itself?
Because humans are the only PC race that have the demographics to support within-species war.
If demi-humans like elves and dwarves DID fight with each other, the losses would not be replaced for decades or centuries, leading to the eventual extinction or exterpation of the race by others.
There is a detailed discussion of demographics on the thread
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When we were discussing it after a game, someone pointed out that an old Elf alive today not only would remember the American Civil War and Revolution, but would remember Columbus's discovery of the Americas, and may even have been alive during the Battle of Hastings. 
FRP gaming seems to occasionally gravitate towards the xenocentric... (i.e. Why are Humans the only PC race that makes war upon itself? - But that's another topic entirely.)
