The Tome Of Drow Lore.pdf - RoseRed

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The Game of Bones - the
Sheathed War
The rules for the Game of Bones were originally presented
in The Quintessential Drow. They have been expanded and
updated to take advantage of the increased options made
available in The Tome of Drow Lore.
The drow appear, from the outside, to have an organised,
structured society. They have their castes of noble families,
the loyal merchants who oil the machines of commerce
and the servants and the slaves that see to the needs of
their masters. Law enforcement depends upon the city
and culture, of course, but is most commonly organised
and efficient, operating quickly and savagely to deal with
those who commit crimes and acting with no qualms about
using extreme force to put an end to disruptive behaviours
within the drow cities. To those who do not know better,
drow civilisation seems to mimic most of the same political
and societal structures as any lawful civilisation on the
surface.
It is, of course, a sham. The appearance is a façade, a
construct based around mutual fear and hatred. The drow
are ruled by those with the strength to hold the position,
their nobility cannot assume that birth assures their station
and their entire society is built upon the supposition that
those with the strength and cunning to take something
are entitled to have it. What keeps the drow from falling
upon one another like a pack of wild jackals are the ancient
customs and systems of battle they all respect. Only
barbarians fall upon their enemies like common brawlers
and the drow believe they are the pinnacle of civilised
development.
Informally, the drow refer to their systems of competition
and intraspecies warfare as either ‘The Game of Bones’ or
‘The Sheathed War’ and it is telling that the drow cannot
even agree on that. A complex system of owed debts,
granted boons and personal power is one of the few ties
that hold the society together and prevent the drow from
devolving into constantly warring tribes. Part religious
belief, part self-preservation, the Game of Bones or the
Sheathed War is a deadly social conflict. More often than
not, the deadly turns of this game are never even seen by
those not directly involved. Throughout this section, the
Game of Bones and the Sheathed War are phrases which
are used interchangeably.
The Frame of the Game of Bones
Within drow society, there are those who fight the Sheathed
War and those who do not. In general, players of the
Game are of the ruling nobility and the upper ranks of the
merchant class. The involvement of the religious class is
somewhat more complex, as clergy of some of the gods
actively involve themselves (indeed, the priests of Kez’Skul
could hardly help themselves) while others prefer to work
through proxies within the noble class (such as the cult of
the Dark Mother). Either way, the assistance of the clergy
can be critical in securing one’s place within the shifting
power structure the Game creates. Drow with considerable
personal power, particularly arcane spellcasters and
adventurers of all stripes, also enter the Sheathed War
but may find themselves without the social contacts and
interpersonal skills to survive the deadly web of alliances.
Once involved in the Game, a Player’s position (and
survivability) is based on two critical factors: his influence
and his power. Influence measures
the ability of the Player to
convince others to do things for
him, leveraging their power for
his own benefit. Power is the raw
ability of a Player to do something
himself, to get a job done using his
personal resources. The greater the
resources possessed by the Player,
the more impressive his Power and
the easier it is for him to get things
done.
The complexity in the Sheathed
War rises from the opposition of
its combatants. While having a
high Power is impressive, it is not
terribly useful without the Influence
to keep others from ganging up on