Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 master-hand Jun 08, 2008 20:58:47	I recently started reading the Forgotten Realms: Dark Elf Trilogly, and am entirley new to the Forgotten Realms world. I am also very new to Dungeons and Dragons. My question is: What is the meaning of "station" in the beginning of book one, Homeland? It says it is "the paradox of the world of my people", but I'm not sure what that means. If anyone can shed some light on this subject I would be most appreciative.
#2 merrikcale Jun 08, 2008 21:06:32	Its been awhile since I read those books but I am assuming Drizzt is referring to the fact that although the Drow as a people are chaotic they are still very structured in their society with a strict heirarchy although chaos is continually upsetting the apple cart, usually in the form of assassination and power struggles
#3 dav Jun 08, 2008 21:18:01	In this case ones position in a hierarchy is ones station.
#4 jimmyjimjam01 Jun 09, 2008 7:14:13	"Station" was Bill and Teds adorable alien sidekick in the movie "Bill and Ted's bogus journey".
#5 zanan Jun 09, 2008 7:20:57	I recently started reading the Forgotten Realms: Dark Elf Trilogly, and am entirley new to the Forgotten Realms world. I am also very new to Dungeons and Dragons. My question is: What is the meaning of "station" in the beginning of book one, Homeland? It says it is "the paradox of the world of my people", but I'm not sure what that means. If anyone can shed some light on this subject I would be most appreciative. This is essentially all about the drow, i.e. that very militaristic and hierarchic race living beneath the surface of Faerûn. "Station" here revers to rank in the hierarchy of a drow House, much like people vying for the highest or "nearest-to-the-king" place in a medieval society. It is very prominent a feature in drow society, but less common elsewhere in Faerûn.
#6 suin_bahhar_02 Jun 09, 2008 8:09:47	Does anyone use social class like in 2nd edition to determine background and starting cash for your players?
#7 zanan Jun 09, 2008 8:36:24	Does anyone use social class like in 2nd edition to determine background and starting cash for your players? Not really. I did introduce for my current campaign some sort of background levels. That is, people could take one or two levels in NPC classes alongside with a regional feat or something alike. So we have a wizardess who started off as an aristocrat, a barbarian lass who was an adept ... and all nice stories going along with that. While in game, all abilities of the classes come into play, only "real character levels" can be used to e.g. determine requirements for PrC. Works nice so far.
#8 suin_bahhar_02 Jun 09, 2008 8:48:55	So one level of a NPC class for your "zero'th" level. Think this has its merit with a roleplaying oriented group who wont take those classes to just dump skillpoints and think about their concepts first. Great idea! Especially alongside a general bump of the toughness of NPC's along their age (0th level youngsters, 1st level adolescents and 2nd+ level adults).
#9 zanan Jun 09, 2008 9:01:02	So one level of a NPC class for your "zero'th" level. Think this has its merit with a roleplaying oriented group who wont take those classes to just dump skillpoints and think about their concepts first. Great idea! Especially alongside a general bump of the toughness of NPC's along their age (0th level youngsters, 1st level adolescents and 2nd+ level adults). Obviously, you have to look at the "power" of the NPC classes and the common sense of your players. We decided that aristocrat, adept, and expert - users get one level, while warriors and commoners get two. As becoming an adventurer is meant to be a significant change in lifestyle (e.g., you village gets raided by orcs and you decide to root this evil out -> peasant to ranger) I asked my players not to go over board here and don't look for min-maxing. Said aristocrat "spent her life" in acquiring enough wealth to join a mage guild, said adept had her barbarian tribe's healer's home raided by orcs and thus went on the rampaging barbarian trail. While it would be sensible for a hunter to become a ranger or a warrior to turn into a fighter, I discouraged that for mechanical reasons. One could obviously hand out more "background levels", though one needs to balance that with the adventure and all.
#10 suin_bahhar_02 Jun 09, 2008 9:13:27	Great! Thanks for those tips. I even think playing out some of those backgrounds in solosessions could work. I love setting up stories like that. Giving some meat to the reasons why they become heroes helps alot in longterm campaigns.
#11 lord_karsus Jun 09, 2008 23:37:48	Does anyone use social class like in 2nd edition to determine background and starting cash for your players? -Nah, I just use the starting money charts in the PHB.
#12 stryfe Jun 10, 2008 2:36:20	Drow "station" is exactly like the idea of human "station" throughout RL history. Kind of always found it funny that a Lawful Evil society worships a Chaotic Evil goddess but...that's just me.
#13 zanan Jun 10, 2008 2:57:38	Drow "station" is exactly like the idea of human "station" throughout RL history. Kind of always found it funny that a Lawful Evil society worships a Chaotic Evil goddess but...that's just me. If you refer of the drow, throughout their D&D and AD&D history, the race was Chaotic Evil. Only in 3.xE they have changed the racial alignment to a more befitting Neutral Evil.
#14 stryfe Jun 10, 2008 3:14:43	Don't care what alignment they have in the book, just read the novels with drow society in them and you'll see they're Lawful Evil ;) (well, FR drow are but they're the only drow books I know of)
#15 lord_karsus Jun 10, 2008 9:25:45	Drow "station" is exactly like the idea of human "station" throughout RL history. Kind of always found it funny that a Lawful Evil society worships a Chaotic Evil goddess but...that's just me. -I wouldn't exactly say that their society was Lawful Evil. It was certainly Chaotic, but it did indeed have rules governing the chaos.
#16 suin_bahhar_02 Jun 10, 2008 9:42:52	-Nah, I just use the starting money charts in the PHB. This goes along nicely with starting characters out with a few levels of Aristocrat for example, they do get signifcantly more starting wealth. I do not follow the PC wealth by level charts very closely. Feel they are too artificial. Sometimes having broke PC's makes sense. The familybased station system of the Drow is very intricate, with a lot of strange idosyncratic values for ruthlessness and cunning. Lawful in so far that they follow rules yes, but truly chaotic when its actually practised. This is Lolths perfect trap, a web of rules and nodes of power to ever sharpen the tool that the drow are for the chaotic Spider Queen. Elves live in a famliy based caste system as well, but their culture and customs make them act chaotic as a whole although they often act lawfull towards their own family and its customs.
#17 lord_karsus Jun 10, 2008 10:02:19	This goes along nicely with starting characters out with a few levels of Aristocrat for example, they do get signifcantly more starting wealth. -I have thought of that, in the past. But, overall, it's not worth it. At higher levels, a character's wealth has grown so exponentially that it makes those extra couple of GP not worth it, in relation to an entire level.
#18 merrikcale Jun 11, 2008 22:27:50	-I wouldn't exactly say that their society was Lawful Evil. It was certainly Chaotic, but it did indeed have rules governing the chaos. It was controlled chaos
#19 lord_karsus Jun 11, 2008 22:49:21	-It all goes back to my mantra that there are laws governing chaos.
#20 merrikcale Jun 12, 2008 12:22:15	-It all goes back to my mantra that there are laws governing chaos. you have a mantra?
#21 lord_karsus Jun 12, 2008 12:26:28	-Hare Krishna.