The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

allows the drow to join the party as a Player Character, it
compromises the roleplaying of the other Player Characters
who would normally be hostile towards the drow, and
cheapens the game experience for their players. This is
not merely limited to elves, dwarves and other traditional
enemies of the drow. A paladin, for example, would be
unlikely to trust a drow under any circumstances.
Keeping the Mystery
A Games Master may decide against allowing drow Player
Characters into the campaign simply because he desires to
keep the drow a mystery to the Player Characters. Perhaps
he is intending the story arc of the campaign to eventually
draw the Player Characters into the Underdeep, even into
a confrontation with the drow. A drow Player Character
could create all manner of unwelcome complications for
the Games Master, from smoothing the adventurers’ travels
through the Underdeep to providing intimate knowledge of
the dark elves which the Games Master would rather keep
secret until the first confrontation with the drow. Using
the many Houses and Lost Tribes available in this book
can help obviate this problem but if the Games Master
has taken the drow in an entirely different direction than
what the knowledge the Player Characters have available
suggests, he may wish to keep the Player Characters, and
the players themselves, in the dark until he is able to spring
his surprise on them.
The Final Decision
Ultimately, the inclusion of a drow Player Character in a
campaign will carry both benefits and disadvantages, and it
is the responsibility of the Games Master to decide which
outweighs the other. A drow Player Character can bring
some interesting twists to the campaign, reinvigorating a
group of players who have fallen into stagnancy. However,
the Games Master must handle the integration of a drow
into a party of Player Characters and into the campaign
itself with great care.
In most fantasy settings, the drow are infamous as a race
that is held to be as cruel and evil as any in the world.
Further, the appearance of the drow is so distinctive that,
when combined with the widespread reputation of the race,
it is exceptionally difficult for a drow not to be recognised
for what he is unless he is constantly disguised, whether he
is travelling in a great metropolis or a tiny farming hamlet.
This does not mean the Games Master should constantly
have the drow Player Character pursued across the
countryside by mobs of farmers with torches and pitchforks,
but it does mean the Games Master should remember the
hatred and/or fear with which much of the world views the
drow. The reputation of the dark elves is one of the few
disadvantages of playing one as a Player Character, and
one which should be kept in mind by the Games Master at
all times. If the drow Player Character is merely treated as
any other elf or indeed as any other Player Character, the
campaign loses some of its realism and the Games Master
is cheating himself and his players out of the opportunity
for some interesting and unusual scenarios, not to mention
making the life of the drow Player Character much easier
than it ought to be on the surface world.
There are many options for bringing a drow Player Character
into a campaign. Listed below are a few possibilities.
� The drow Player Character does not appear to be a drow
at all, being in fact one of the albino spies of House
na'Khotan. This can easily play out in one of two ways.
First, the drow Player Character might be there to spy
on or merely use the rest of the Player Characters for
a specific purpose, eventually betraying them. This is
not highly recommended, as such actions by a Player
Character can easily lead to a sense of betrayal and hurt
feelings not just among the other Player Characters, but
among the players as well. The second option is both
more heroic and more likely to generate some longrunning
and interesting plotlines. In this scenario, the
albino na’Khotan has decided to turn his back on the
drow and embrace life as a surface elf, as much as he
is able. In addition to the roleplaying possibilities as
the na’Khotan attempts to adjust to his new life, this
scenario lets the Games Master bring a whole new
enemy into the campaign, the drow House na’Khotan,
which will stop at nothing to reclaim its treasonous
spy.
� The good drow is a now-famous archetype, a dark elf
that either never fell into evil or has undergone some
climactic event that turned his heart to good. Hated in
the surface world for his race, and hunted by the drow
for his treachery, the good drow needs the protection and
company of a group of heroes who can see past his race
to his noble heart. Though this scenario has certainly
been used before, it remains a powerful storyline for the
Games Master to incorporate into his campaign.
� Sometimes common cause can make strange bedfellows.
Perhaps the Player Characters and a drow are both
pursuing the same goal, and decide to join forces to
increase their chance for success. After the goal has
been accomplished, the drow may choose to remain
with the other Player Characters, or he may return to
the Underdeep. In this scenario, the drow begins almost
as a glorified Non-Player Character, joining the Player
Characters with the stated intention of not remaining
once the mutual goal is accomplished. This is one of the
best scenarios to test out the inclusion of a drow Player
Character in the campaign. The presumably temporary
nature of the association between the drow and the
other Player Characters will not only help the players
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