Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 willfuqua Dec 21, 2009 5:53:51	Hey All, I'm going to start DMing the 'Scales of War' series and  two players want to play Drow.  The series isn't in Forgotten Realms and I'm a bit hesitant to allow that race to be used by a player.   If  you know a decent amount about 'Scales of War' and can give your thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it. Cheers, Will
#2 DanTracker Dec 21, 2009 6:37:36	i created a homebrew setting and had a drow player. i wasn't immensely pleased after allowing it, but it worked out okay. he couldn't stay with the game forever; because, he moved after the first ten-something sessions. initially, i had created the first adventure for a good aligned or lawful good aligned party, but i knew that i was going to place several moral dillemmas that G or LG PCs should have shuddered to undertake. so, i thought that having an evil or chaotic evil PC would offer a different perspective and create some in-party drama. it turned out that i got his PC and another evil PC and several unaligned, so the moral dillemmas became more baout how much money than would this really serve the greater good enough to justify it. so, tell the players about the sort of world you hope to run and what might be already existing in the party. ask about their character concepts and compare that against what you'd likely spotlight from SoW adventures. since that line is in a default setting, you have some room to place drow as a spotlight element or to leave them in the stereptyped role as evil and untrustworthy. one such example could be that during the higher level adventures, one such has the death of Bahamut carried out by Tiamat; you could consider adapting that to the fight between Corellon and Lloth if the entire party would find themselves more affected by that. in my table group, i know that none of the PCs would feel very much connection to the death of Bahamut, but if i set up a god death that involved RQ or Melora that would create a major stir for them. ultimately you get to decide how the drow culture developed and exists. i created a homebrew in which the influence of Lloth is serioulsy falling apart in the underdark drow and most are turning toward secular pursuits. many have begun to create ties above ground for trading and they group will learn in time of an entire drow city that has created a major tourism trade by inviting top dwellers down below to see the museums of their more ancient and benighted culture before the great awakening. [that drow player is planning a visit and i hope to provoke him to kill a tourist or two as he sees what is going on in his drow culture.] so, you'll get to do with it what you will, but you need to make sure that the players understand hwo they ought to respond to those drow characters as well by setting the backstory for your own setting.
#3 Neutronium_Dragon Dec 22, 2009 3:48:57	Ask yourself whether the character's overall persona would be a problem if it was a human rather than a drow. If it wouldn't, the fact that they're a drow shouldn't create any issues. If it would then the PC's race isn't the concern. Mechanically they're no different than any other PC race, so you're not going to have an unbalanced character (at least not due to race).