looking at adding a drow or half-drow PC to the group and te question came up around how they would be received by local populations. Obviously elves would instantly perceive the drow heritage, but in human population centres would the locals have ever seen or heard of drow?
Best I can figure so far:
- the more cosmopolitan and educated the population the more likely someone might pick up the drow heritage e.g. Greyhawk
- nations along the Hellfurnances might have seen drow before (e.g. Geoff, Sterich)
Any there any other locations or nations that might have suffered from drow raids etc?
looking at adding a drow or half-drow PC to the group and te question came up around how they would be received by local populations. Obviously elves would instantly perceive the drow heritage, but in human population centres would the locals have ever seen or heard of drow?
Best I can figure so far:
- the more cosmopolitan and educated the population the more likely someone might pick up the drow heritage e.g. Greyhawk
- nations along the Hellfurnances might have seen drow before (e.g. Geoff, Sterich)
Any there any other locations or nations that might have suffered from drow raids etc?
-Also, time period. The later, the more likely. Knowledge would have been more widespread among non-Elves after explorers brought back knowledge of the Vault of the Drow.
Also, it really depends on what you want your version of Greyhawk to be like.
If you want it to have drow, dragonborn, tieflings, half-giants, etc. walking the streets of the City of Greyhawk and other major metropolitan areas, then most people across the Flanaess will have heard of those races, if not seen one of them.
If you want those races to be myths and legends, then almost no one has seen one of them. A few sages may know more about them from studying ancient texts and speaking to the few adventurers that have encountered them. There may be a few villages in the borderlands that have suffered nighttime raids by drow coming to the surface, but such raiders would be very careful not to leave any witnesses alive, so most of the rumors will be based on conjecture, etc.
If you make such races too common, you'll end up with Sigil.
P.S. I'll note that canon places drow cities, or conclaves, in the Pomarj, below the Drachensgrab Mountains. Edralve(?), of The Slavers fame, is one that is prominent enough that a few leader-types in the Pomarj may be aware of their existence. Plus the fact that drow in that area would certainly be involved in the slave trade, so more individuals would know of them.
Yes, SirXaris, I agree with you. A lot depends on how you want your Greyhawk to be like.
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If you want it to have drow, dragonborn, tieflings, half-giants, etc. walking the streets of the City of Greyhawk and other major metropolitan areas, then most people across the Flanaess will have heard of those races, if not seen one of them.
Yes, exactly. There was a reason why I planted my Dragonborn in a far away place from the Flanaess (it makes sense that they would be in the Draconic Imperium of Lynn). I wanted my Greyhawk to be Heroic fantasy. Although I admit, I purchased Red Hand of Doom in order to try something more epic one day.
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If you make such races too common, you'll end up with Sigil.
Yep, you would end up with Sigil, and this is another point where I agree with SirXaris. In the D&D Cartoon, the group was in a city. And they had all sorts of races there. I thought it was wild, but there was other aspects that affected my suspension of disbelief (they had a Griffon in that episode of D&D).
I think the question is better, how complicated do you want to make the character's life?
Even in Greyhawk, the two dark elves mentioned in the Boxed Set live very circumscribed lives. One is a criminal outcast who dwells in a graveyard or in the sewers if I recall, and the other is effectively confined to the Wizards Guild.
Anyone who sees someone that different is going to ask something along the lines of "where are you from?" and while they may not recognize a dark elf on sight, they will surely have heard legends or stories.
+1 to Tarelton's points. As recently as 576, drow are a myth to virtually everyone in the Flanaess, even surface elves, according to the 1e Monster Manual. Snow elves remember their cousins, as do valley elves according to Roger Moore's old web article. The oldest grey elves would be aware of their ancient enemies, as would archmages, Iuz's inner circles, higher-ups at Greyhawk Guild of Wizardry, spelljammer spacefarers, and travelers from the Western Oerik Chainmail lands.
After Greyhawk scenarios like Giants, ToEE, Slavers, Kingdom of Ghouls, City of Skulls, and Night Below, reports of drow would spread through elite adventuring circles and elven realms, but they'd still be a myth for practical purposes. They don't do anything flashy during the Greyhawk Wars.
The CoG box is set roughly 580.
Drow PC's will likely be met with immediate aggression from high, grey, and sylvan elves and hostility from most dwarves. Gnomes, halflings, half-elves, and highly-educated folk probably know enough folklore to be exceedingly cautious and make a quick departure. All others would greet them with extreme curiosity or superstition. Low and moderate evil would probably want to capture, study, or rob them. Highly evil characters would want to ally with or coerce them.
FYI IMC, even demihumans from basic PHB races meet superstition and prejudice in all but the most lawful and cosmopolitan places. Elves and dwarves constantly have to special order armor for high-prices and they make parties extremely notorious and easy for their foes to track and keep tabs on.
I think the question is better, how complicated do you want to make the character's life?
Even in Greyhawk, the two dark elves mentioned in the Boxed Set live very circumscribed lives. One is a criminal outcast who dwells in a graveyard or in the sewers if I recall, and the other is effectively confined to the Wizards Guild. thomas joseph crossword
Anyone who sees someone that different is going to ask something along the lines of "where are you from?" and while they may not recognize a dark elf on sight, they will surely have heard legends or stories.
Totally agree!!! The real question is how much friction you want baked into the character’s everyday existence. Playing a dark elf in Greyhawk isn’t impossible, but it’s definitely not a free pass to wander around Greyhawk City buying potions like a regular adventurer. Even the two canon examples are essentially outsiders on the fringe of society, tolerated more than accepted.
looking at adding a drow or half-drow PC to the group and te question came up around how they would be received by local populations.
Lots of good responses, but you've yet to reply, so I hope this is helpful: after 1e UA was published, I created a drow F-Th-Mu character, mostly just to explore the rules. Later, I deployed a version of that character as an NPC in a 2e FtA campaign, in which I introduced the PCs to him through a nighttime battle in the streets of Dyvers after one of the players complained about the lack of combat in that session. The NPC was being hunted by several drow, and the PCs got caught up in the melee, helped drive off the hunters, and treated briefly with the NPC.
The players were a few years younger than me and more familiar with FR, so I used the encounter to present something different, darker or more grey, than the Drizzt Do'Urden model with which we'd all become familiar by that time.
In my current campaign, set in the Hold of the Sea Princes, one of the PCs is a sylvan olve from the Dreadwood, and we emphasize how rare olves are in the Hold (drawing on the WoG and FtA encounter tables fro the Sea Princes). Another is a half-olve, with a sea olven mother, who favors his human father and therefore is less obviously different than the sylvan olve. Neither are ostracized, but the sylvan olve draws attention wherever he goes, which as another poster noted, makes it easy for enemies to locate the PCs.
In my current campaign, I'd be unlikely to include a drow olve PC though open to a half-olve with a drow parent (probably the father) if one of my players really wanted such a character.
As published / canon Greyhawk shows, once UA was published, authors / designers started to include drow, which somewhat undercutt the 1e Fiend Folio presentation of them as nearly forgotten legends, so to me the key, as others have stated, is what you, and your player, want to do with (or have already established in) your "Alternate Oerth."
Given how old the game is, I'm trying to avoid retreading old tropes IMC, but depending on how young your players are, they might not even be aware of Drizzt Do'Urden.
Final comment for now: depending on which edition you are using, you'll need to avoid the power-creep that drow PCs tend to introduce / exacerbate.
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