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Have the Drow been ruined?

Started by RPGPundit, December 27, 2012, 03:22:49 PM

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RPGPundit

December 27, 2012, 03:22:49 PM
Let's start with the assumption that the Drow as Gary Gygax made them were once cool.  Are they now ruined beyond redemption, due to the mistreatment of them in the FR and especially that emo mary-sue Drzzt?

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One Horse Town

#1
December 27, 2012, 03:26:08 PM
Sorry, i can't start with the assumption that they were cool to begin with.

Blackhand

#2
December 27, 2012, 03:27:42 PM
Who outside a small portion of our hobby even know what you are talking about if you use the word "Drow" in a sentence?

I'd say no, unless you depict them as emo rebels who cannot be defeated.
Blackhand 2.0 - New and improved version!

Xavier Onassiss

#3
December 27, 2012, 05:17:16 PM
When the GM of my old gaming group (Miss you guys!) said "I'm sick of Drow; let's not have any in this game-world," not a single one of us disagreed with him. We substituted Shadar-Kai in their place. Much more interesting....

Sacrosanct

#4
December 27, 2012, 05:28:33 PM
Quote from: One Horse Town;611998Sorry, i can't start with the assumption that they were cool to begin with.

This is the last time drow were cool for me




When Salvator started writing, it was a WAY overplayed race.  Never should have been a PC race.
D&D is not an "everyone gets a ribbon" game.  If you\'re stupid, your PC will die.  If you\'re an asshole, your PC will die (probably from the other PCs).  If you\'re unlucky, your PC may die.  Point?  PC\'s die.  Get over it and roll up a new one.

thedungeondelver

#5
December 27, 2012, 05:36:39 PM
The Drow were cool as villains.  I know a lot of GMs think the whole "meta-knowledge we're not even telling you" part of game rules is a no-no but the dismissive "Oh, yes, well dark elves don't really exist" throwaway line in the Monster Manual...then BAM! they show up in G2! - really cool reveal.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there: and I won't even lay the blame on 2e etc. although I should.  These rare and mysterious folk then show up in the A series, then for some damn reason Gary made them playable in Unearthed Arcana.

So barring doing a temporary mind-wipe on yourself and traveling back to 1978 and playing the G series with a competent DM again, Drow are never going to have that zing again.
THE DELVERS DUNGEON


Mcbobbo sums it up nicely.

Quote
Astrophysicists are reassessing Einsteinian relativity because the 28 billion l

Planet Algol

#6
December 27, 2012, 05:40:11 PM
I like having evil subterranean elves that aren't drow. Just a bunch of spindly, Art Nouveau fairy villains.
Yeah, but who gives a fuck? You? Jibba?

Well congrats. No one else gives a shit, so your arguments are a waste of breath.

Benoist

#7
December 27, 2012, 05:45:31 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit;611994Let's start with the assumption that the Drow as Gary Gygax made them were once cool.  Are they now ruined beyond redemption, due to the mistreatment of them in the FR and especially that emo mary-sue Drzzt?

RPGPundit

No, they're not ruined.

They can still be cool in your campaign, if you ignore all that shit of course.

crkrueger

#8
December 27, 2012, 06:00:28 PM
Being a Dark Elf player has been completely and totally destroyed.  As NPCs they can be salvaged if you leave off the lesbian-stripper-ninja-BDSM fetish fuel.
Even the the "cutting edge" storygamers for all their talk of narrative, plot, and drama are fucking obsessed with the god damned rules they use. - Estar

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Imp

#9
December 27, 2012, 06:11:34 PM
I dunno, it's been a pretty long time since they were ruined. I think you can pick 'em up and do something new with them today if you wanted.

Personally I think elves are more interesting the more nature-spirit-like they are, so I'd probably do the same for drow, only align them more with caves and fungi and arthropods and maybe give them terrific appetites for things from above, whenever they actually encounter them. But that's just off the top of my head right at this moment.

Looter Guy

#10
December 27, 2012, 06:17:10 PM
Quote from: thedungeondelver;612073So barring doing a temporary mind-wipe on yourself and traveling back to 1978 and playing the G series with a competent DM again, Drow are never going to have that zing again.

Im so glad I never read the Drzzt books... alot of friends urged me to do so in highschool but I was so adamant to DL books that I wouldnt switch over.
QuoteAnd they can smoke on it...

thedungeondelver

#11
December 27, 2012, 06:29:42 PM
Quote from: Looter Guy;612109Im so glad I never read the Drzzt books... alot of friends urged me to do so in highschool but I was so adamant to DL books that I wouldnt switch over.

I didn't either but sadly having friends who gushed about them - including non-gamer types, go figure - still irradiated me.
THE DELVERS DUNGEON


Mcbobbo sums it up nicely.

Quote
Astrophysicists are reassessing Einsteinian relativity because the 28 billion l

Garnfellow

#12
December 27, 2012, 06:53:30 PM
Paizo made a game attempt to rehabilitate the drow in their "Second Darkness" adventure path. They tweaked D&D mythology in a couple of interesting and novel ways.

Unfortunately, I don't think it really took: I suspect most potential readers, once they saw drow were the major villains in that series, decided to pass it over, which is too bad.
 

everloss

#13
December 27, 2012, 07:24:15 PM
Quote from: Blackhand;612001Who outside a small portion of our hobby even know what you are talking about if you use the word "Drow" in a sentence?

I'd say no, unless you depict them as emo rebels who cannot be defeated.

Salvatore's novels were wildly popular even among people who didn't game. I got a friend to start gaming after I told him he was reading DnD novels - he'd read dozens of them and had no idea Forgotten Realms or Drow had anything to do with DnD.
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