Firefly: Freedom Flyer

This month's "Lost Episode" saw the Crew helping an old war buddy, Maggie Miller, get her life back together after the Alliance decide to renew old scores.

This was probably the most satisfying of the series so far, partly because there was absolutely no "evil mayor" character getting in the way (and, indeed, the obligatory Alliance commander barely featured), partly because it made more use of the sci-fi part of Firefly's foundations, and partly because I did a slightly better job in editing the adventure for the time.

The Crew this time was four members: Ali (Zoe), Josh (Wash) and Emma (Mal), and the newcomer Finlay (Jayne). This slightly new group composition did give me a moment's pause: I opened the adventure with the inciting incident, then stopped talking in the expectation that they'd take over and... silence. Fortunately, they quickly got going from there, and once things were in motion they stayed suitably active. So, that was a relief.

The other thing that this group did was that they took the acts of the adventure in a rather different order: I'd already edited Act One down to almost nothing to save time, so they tackled Act Two, then Four, and than an entirely new act, and then Act Three. That was, of course, absolutely fine - a good adventure, and especially story-based adventure, should only ever provide a suggested order of events, with the PCs having flexibility on how they actually tackle things. Plus, their final approach was rather novel, I thought, and in keeping with the character of the show.

One thing I'm increasingly unhappy about is the difficulty of the game, or lack thereof. All too often, it really seems that the PCs are being set laughably low Stakes to beat. This has three effects, two of which are distinctly negative: firstly, it means they pass almost every task handily (which is fine). Secondly, though, it means they're racking up huge numbers of Big Damn Hero dice, which makes later tasks in the game easier again, which can sometimes hamper the drama of the episode climax (though it actually worked fine last night, as the dice 'turned' at a key moment).

And thirdly it removes an Interesting Choice from the game - one of the good things about Firefly is that the Stakes are set first, the acting character then rolls, they take their best two dice automatically, and then they can spend Plot Points to add more dice to the total if they wish. Which means, in theory, they get to choose: is it worth spending those points to get the win, or is it better to accept the loss now but keep the points for later? But if the Stakes are too low, those "best two" dice probably beat them already, and so there's no choice to be made.

I think I'm going to have to give that some more thought. In the first instance, I think I'll need to make sure I'm rolling more dice in pools in general - make sure to keep the Complications widely applicable, be sure to add environmental dice generously, and try to ensure the PCs are mostly rolling against NPCs, rather than generic Difficulty Dice. But in the second instance, I think I may need to claim more Plot Points for my own pool at the start of the session, and then use those more generously. (This latter is much more controversial, though, so I'll need to consider that carefully.)

But that's an aside from what was otherwise another very satisfying session of what is quickly becoming a favourite game system.

Despite being the longest episode in the book, this was actually the shortest of the five sessions to date - everything was neatly wrapped up by 10:15. Which was nice. Due to excessive busy-ness, I've decided to take June and July off, so the next session is now scheduled for August, where the story picks up with "Strawberries" - my first homebrewed "Lost Episode".

The Four Civilisations

For the "Life Under the Wheel" setting, I want to focus on a relatively small area of land, something roughly the size of England. That being the case, I want a few nations of men but not too many. Specifically, four.

I want each of these four nations to have a couple of iconic motifs that make them unique, but each should also be a reflection of an underlying theme - which in this case is actually two-fold: firstly that power is an illusion, and secondly that all things decay.

And so...

Uthia, the Realm of Water: The core area of the campaign is Uthia, the realm of water. The northernmost of the four realms, Uthia is positioned on the east coast of the peninsula. To the north and west lie unclaimed lands dominated by orcs, while across the sea to the east lie the lands claimed by the hobgoblin empires.

Uthia is a land without a monarch or any central authority, where power is held by local rulers who can claim and hold land. It is also a land with a long history that was once the centre of a much more powerful nation. However, as water erodes all things, the land was gradually brought down, first into decadence and indolence, and then into outright ruin. Uthia is also the site of a localised apocalypse that has left much of the land ruined, as well as bringing the mysterious Wheel into the world.

Kayland, the Realm of Stone: The dual nation of East and West Kayland lies to the south of Uthia, and has always dwelt in the resentful shadow of that more ancient nation. Kayland is the most prosperous of the four realms, but also the most rigid, with sprawling noble families that control almost all aspects of life. However, Kayland has split into two halves, neither of which has the strength to expand alone, and neither of which is content to become subsumed within the other.

Kayland is also threatened on all sides - from the east by hobgoblin raiders, from the west by the incursions from Oestia, and from the north by orcish forces. It is also threatened from within, as the nation has reached the height of its powers and is already slipping into decadence.

Sosocar, the Realm of Air: Sosocar, the Shining Jewel, is a city state nestled in the lands controlled by Kayland. Positioned between the two halves of that dual nation, it is a hotbed of intrigue for the nobles of that land. Sosocar is also incredibly rich, but also incredibly decadent.

Sosocar is ruled by an absolute monarch called The Veiled Queen, who lives in a palace that none in the city are permitted to enter. Daily edicts emerge from the palace and are enforced sporadically amongst a populace who care little for the absurdity and contradictions imposed by their ruler. Instead, they spend their days engaged in pointless philosophy, drug use, and sexual experimentation.

Given its great wealth and seeming weakness, it seems odd that Sosocar remains both independent and indeed thriving. However, it is widely held that The Veiled Queen has significant influence in the courts of both East and West Kayland, and as such could end the conflict between those nations at a stroke. As such, by balancing the two forces she is able to ensure the survival and independence of her realm. Or, at least, so it is said...

Oestia, the Realm of Fire: The youngest of the four nations, but also the only one currently expanding, Oestia lies to the south-west of Uthia and to the west of West Kayland. It is a wild and untamed realm, but one populated with a hardworking and happy people filled with great notions of manifest destiny.

Oestia was until recently a region with no central authority governed by petty nobles who each fashioned himself a king. However, following a recent Great Moot, the land has become united under a council of nobles who hold themselves equals. Under this council, they now seek to expand and civilise their lands, uniting all the lands south of The Wheel into a single great kingdom. Of course, once that is done the council of lords will determine amongst themselves which shall be first amongst equals, and so Greater Oestia will break asunder immediately after being formed.

About the Nations

Each of the four nations represents an age of man: Oestia is dynamic and foolish youth; Kayland is man at the height of his powers but defeated by his own need for control; Sosocar is the dissolute waste of a life misspent; and Uthia is man once he has slipped beyond his prime and lost everything.

Equally, each of the nations is ruled in a different manner: local tyrants backed with the threat of force in Uthia; in Kayland great noble houses and laws that constantly undermine one another; utter neglect and madness in Sosocar; and dynamic leadership but with inherent instability in Oestia.

Hopefully, this should give enough to distinguish the four nations and allow the PCs plenty of scope for investigation!

The Role of Monsters

D&D has a lot of monstrous humanoid races. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say D&D has too many monstrous humanoid races - do we really need Orcs and Goblins and Hobgoblins and Bugbears and Lizardfolk and Gnolls and Kobolds and...? Especially when each of these takes up a page or more of the Monster Manual that could instead be given to other, more distinct, creatures?

But that's an academic debate now. D&D has all these monstrous humanoids, so a better question is: what shall we do with them all?

I'm a big fan of Paizo's decision to recast a lot of the classic humanoids, giving each of them a new identity. (Incidentally, Eberron does much the same thing - it's not exactly a unique idea.) However, I'm also inclined not to simply reuse Paizo's redefinitions. In at least some cases, I want to have my own take.

So...

Kobolds: Kobolds are diminutive cavern dwellers. They thrive in large cavern complexes near the surface of the world, and clash extensively with dwarves. Kobolds are small, cunning, and cowardly.

Goblins: Goblins come into being in dark places where the Shadowfell comes close to the Prime Material Plane and where strong emotions are gathered. Sages are divided as to whether such a convergence gives rise to these creatures, or if it merely allows corrupted fey spirits to break into the world. Either way, goblins are monstrous little creatures that want to eat you. They are cruel, and sadistic, and utterly insane.

Orcs: Orcs represent the rejection of civilisation. They live in large semi-nomadic tribes that plague the borders of the civilised world. Orcs war on the nations of man, and also on each other.

Hobgoblins: Conversely, hobgoblins represent civilisation gone wrong. They have dark and complex nations built on cruel laws and slavery. Hobgoblin mercenaries are amongst the best in the world, but they are never entirely trustworthy.

Bugbears: Bugbears are solitary, lurking terrors. They're the monster that lives in the wardrobe or under the bed, the unknown threat that comes seemingly from nowhere and ends you. Bugbears may well be nothing more than particularly large, particularly dangerous goblins. (And yes, this is essentially the same as Paizo's interpretation.)

Lizardfolk: Lizardfolk are the unknown and the alien. Their behaviours and their morality is utterly inhuman and therefore unpredictable. And yet lizardfolk aren't evil; they're just different.

Gnolls: Gnolls are the servants of decay and entropy. They dwell in the shadows of civilisation and gnaw on it as it collapses. In that way, they're much like the Skaven, only hyenas rather than rats.

And that's it, or the short version at least.

The Future of War

Having praised Battlestar in my previous post, I'm now going to tear it down in this one. And Firefly, Star Wars, Starship Troopers, Terminator... and indeed pretty much any setting that posits humans fighting in wars in the distant future.

The big problem, as we're already finding, is that the weakest part of an aircraft is the pilot. That squishy human part imposes a painful limit on the sorts of maneuvers that the vehicle can perform - change direction too fast and the G-forces will cause your pilot to black out.

Now, too be fair, a lot of settings posit inertial dampeners, or some other technobabble explanation to get around this limitation. But the big problem with that solution is that it's a hard and expensive way to avoid using a far easier solution: drones. And, later, AI-piloted craft. Indeed, the AI solution is particularly good because then it's a matter of software - you can have 50 copies of your 'pilot' all operating independently of one another for more or less the same cost as 1. Better to get rid of Luke, Wedge, et al, and just have Artoo pilot all the X-Wings.

Now, in fairness, Battlestar Galactica does explain why this is not done. And it also tackles a second problem associated with this situation, in that the fleet does indeed face the problem of running short of pilots to throw into battle.

But what Battlestar doesn't get around, and where Terminator also runs into problems, is that if the goal of the machines is to wipe out humanity, then they keep picking the wrong target. Rather than attacking the human populations, the point of weakness is our food source. They're large, they're immobile, and they take significant time to produce a crop. So a few well-placed strafing runs (or a few bombs planted by infiltrators on Galactica), and we're all starving to death.

And, alas, this means that the Rebel Alliance and Firefly's Independents just never had a chance. Because in the time it takes them to churn out a squadron of X-Wings, the Empire has produced hundreds of shiny TIE-AI craft that just swarm over their enemies. Only, actually, it doesn't even get that far, because actually the Clone Wars had the wrong result - it should be the heavily industrial Confederacy of Independent Systems that should have won with their AI-based robot armies, rather than the Republic and their slowly-grown clone armies. Yeah, the Kaminoans can produce a few million units for you in a decade... but in that time the CIS have not only built billions of droids, they've also implemented Moore's Law to improve the processing capabilities of those droids by a factor of 64 or more!

(Of course, that's part of the conceit - both Firefly and Star Wars, or at least the original trilogy, have roots in the American Civil War, where it does indeed appear that the South never actually had a chance, largely due to lacking the industrial base required to stay in the fight.)

All of which does leave me bubbling away with a good few ideas... After all, we don't actually see any evidence that Firefly's Alliance warships weren't largely automated, that much of their armed forces weren't actually based on AI or drone technology, and that therefore there were some vulnerabilities. And, indeed there are people who would know that secret, and thus represent a weakness in the Alliance's defences...

Equality vs Realism

Without a doubt, my preferred model for an RPG setting is what I term the "Battlestar model" - a setting where nobody even asks, "can a woman really be a starfighter pilot?" because the answer is so evidently yes. I call it the Battlestar model because that show is probably the best, and most successful, example of it at work, but it's obviously not the only one - and in particular, Firefly is another good example.

(Incidentally, one of the consequences of the Battlestar model is that the equality flows both ways. In BSG, there's an occasion where Apollo and Starbuck settle their differences in the boxing ring, and there's simply no question that Apollo wouldn't hit Starbuck (a woman) - he respects her as an equal with all that that entails. In the Firefly, or actually Serenity, context, it's funny that Jayne gets beaten up by "a girl" because River is both young and tiny, not because she's female - there's little doubt that Zoe could kick his ass, after all! But that's all an aside, and probably not a terribly well expressed one.)

Unfortunately, while the Battlestar model is great for sci-fi, science fantasy, and space opera settings, it's rather less ideal for fantasy settings, or at least those with a pseudo-historical basis.

Consider for a moment a Pirates! campaign. Now, it is of course true that there are examples of notable female pirates and there were no doubt some women who disguised themselves as men and served on board ships. But these were very much exceptional cases.

If you instead posit a BSG-model world here, you immediately run into some awkward questions: where do people sleep? What toilet facilities do they use? And, indeed, what about contraception, pregnancy, and so forth?

I don't think there is necessarily any 'right' answer to any of these questions, nor indeed do I think they represent any fundamental bar on the use of that model in that setting. But the answers to those questions probably do change the nature of the setting - and beyond a certain point, you start to lose the versimilitude that such a setting probably depends on.

(Pathfinder, for what it's worth, deals with these questions by the expedient of totally ignoring them. Which is valid, I guess, but something I found rather weak - especially when reading the two "Pirate's..." novels after reading the Aubrey/Maturin series.)

But the Pirates! issue is only the easiest place to spot the problem, since that's an environment where you have lots of men (only) pressed together in a small space for long periods of time. If you instead look at a pseudo-historical setting with the various ranks of royalty and nobility, once you dig in a little it becomes very apparent that marriage and heredity are very important to how power was accumulated and passed on. But that's quite at odds with the Battlestar model where anyone can be and do anything.

Again, these issues aren't insurmountable. But from a world-building perspective, they're somewhat vexing. Especially since versimilitude is very important in the game - if it doesn't 'feel' true (even if it actually is true!) then it doesn't work.

I don't really have any conclusion to draw here. It's just something I've been musing on for the "Under the Wheel" setting, where I'm trying to both have a pretty egalitarian setting (with, in particular, a lack of formal noble titles and the like) while at the same time keeping a somewhat realistic-ish setting. I'm not sure those two rub along together very well... unless I ditch any pseudo-historical connections.

Building a Better Adventure: Monte Cook Does It!

A few weeks ago, I was pointed to an adventure product coming from Monte Cook Games titled "Weird Discoveries". This is a collection of adventures for the "Numenera" game, a game that I've enjoyed playing but don't ever expect to run, so the product was of limited interest to me for itself.

However, the press release for the product mentioned a new adventure format that Monte had developed that should help the GM run the adventures with zero (or near-zero) preparation, which is obviously an interesting proposition. And so I hunted down the free preview, and took a look.

And the new format is very, very good.

It all centres around a map of the adventure location, which is presented as a double-page spread (although, tragically, the age of the tablet has just made the double-page spread obselete!). But in addition to the map, that page also pulls out all the key data points so that the GM can see these at a glance.

Where the adventure has clues (or 'keys' as he terms them), these are also marked. But, cleverly, the keys don't have fixed locations but instead have several locations where they could be found. This is an elegant way to square the circle of the "required clues" problem - the PCs might miss the clue in one location, but should probably find it in one of the three!

The map is then surrounded with a few pages of background text that can be read quickly if time permits, but which can be skipped if necessary. But the product places a lot of trust on the GM to improvise things as needed - the map gives you a couple of bullet points on an NPC and then leaves you to it. Which is good for the more experienced GM who doesn't need everything spelled out for him.

Of course, the format is helped immensely by Numenera's rules-lite nature: an entire encounter can be summarised in a sentence. However, it's not impossible to think you could do the same in D&D but break the encounter out to a separate page with the requisite information. Which, of course, starts to get reminiscent of the unlamented Delve Format, but...

At the very least, I think it's worth checking out the preview. There's definitely some ideas there worth... borrowing.

Elves and Sex

My previous post had a throwaway comment on elves being like bees, which led me to note that I needed to say something about elves and their society. So...

One of my pet peeves in gaming is the "human with a funny nose" approach to playing a non-human race. This is most commonly the case with power-gamers, who probably chose the race purely for some mechanical benefit (which, in turn, is why I don't like races having ability score adjustments). The player duly writes 'elf' on the character sheet, and then proceeds to play the character exactly the same as if he was human.

Yet if we are to accept the in-game conceit that elves start at 100+ years old and that they potentially live for many more centuries, it is absurd to imagine that they might be indistinguishable from a human. Either they have grown up in a radically different culture, or they were raised by humans and have seen every single person they knew as a child die of old age.

And yet, non-human races also shouldn't be too inhuman in their manners, and in the case of the 'known' non-human races (elves, dwarves, halflings), they equally can't stray too far from the common portrayal of these races. In either case, players will find themselves having difficulties getting into the mindset, or simply won't recognise the races for what they are 'meant' to be.

So the challenge, then, is to find a portrayal that is different, but also one that is not too different.

In my campaigns, or at least in my homebrew settings, elves have a strict caste system. However, unlike human caste systems, this is based not on social conventions and/or inheritance, but rather is a function of birth and diet. Yes, like bees.

The vast majority of the elves in a colony are of the Worker caste. These are the lowest ranking elves in the colony, who dedicate their entire lives to a single mundane pursuit. Some are soldiers, some are farmers, some are craftsmen of various sorts. None are wizards. Worker elves are likely to be exceptionally skilled at their one chosen field (as centuries of practice are likely to cause), but they are almost mindless and totally without imagination. Worker elves are therefore unable to adapt to changing circumstances, are without ambition, and must be directed.

The mid-ranking elves are the Lords and Ladies. These are the elves most commonly encountered by outsiders - both lower and higher ranking elves tend to remain in or near the colony, while the Lords and Ladies may travel abroad. And, similarly, when a visitor to an elven colony must meet an ambassador, it is a Lord or Lady who serves in that role.

The elven Lord or Lady is essentially the 'known' elf - they tend to be skilled in swords or spells, be skilled trackers or archers, and so on and so forth. Elven Lords and Ladies are somewhat larger in stature than Workers. There is little difference in height and weight between Lords and Ladies.

A subset of elf Ladies are elf Maids. Treated in all respects as being a Lady, a Maid is distinct in only one respect: an elf Maid has the potential to be promoted to Queen.

At the top of any elven colony there is a single Queen. The largest, wisest and most powerful elf in the colony, though not necessarily the oldest, the Queen in the lynchpin that holds the colony together. She sets the direction for the colony, directs the Workers, and in many ways she is the colony. Of particular note, in all elven colonies other than those of the drow, the Queen is typically not a child of the colony. Instead, as the old Queen reaches the end of her life, the colony will arrange to bring an Elf Maid from a nearby colony to be promoted to Queen and succeed from the old.

Ambrosia, and the Elven Lifecycle

As soon as a new elf Queen ascends, and at periodic times during her long life, she will select a consort from amongst the Lords of her colony. She mates with the consort, and will shortly thereafter lay a multitude of eggs. Over the course of a year, these eggs will grow, and eventually hatch the next generation of elves.

The overwhelming majority of young elves will be Worker caste. These grow to maturity over the course of a decade or so, being apprenticed into the roles they will follow all the rest of their days.

About ten percent of young elves will be nascent Lords, Ladies, or elf Maids. However, if left alone at this stage, their development will halt at the same stage as that of Workers. They will remain near mindless, and could be apprenticed to roles in the same way as their kin.

However, elven colonies maintain a supply of Ambrosia, a foodstuff of unknown composition. To races other than the elves, ambrosia is little more than a slightly alcoholic but fairly anaemic beverage. However, when fed to a young elf Lord, Lady, or Maid, it provokes a transition from Worker caste into their full selves. This transition, and the full training to maturity of the elven mind, takes the better part of a century; it is not clear whether an elf must be fed ambrosia regularly during this process or only once.

When an elf Maid is to be promoted to Queen, she is fed a second, much more concentrated, diet of ambrosia. This provokes a very painful, but thankfully short, transition from Maid to Queen.

It is possible for a colony that has been devastated to promote Worker caste elves to the rank of Lord, Lady, or even Queen if this is essential. However, elves promoted in this manner are seldom as wise or powerful as those born into those ranks. Elven colonies therefore only do this if some disaster has forced them to that point. They do so to enable them to produce the next generation of elves, who will be in all respects normal examples of their kind.

The Grand Tour

Most elven Lords and Ladies, shortly after reaching their maturity, engage in a period of wandering away from their colonies. They travel in the wider world, either in the societies of other races or entirely on their own, simply to gain experience of things away from their insular colonies. This grand tour may last just a few years, or may last for the remainder of their lives - eventually, most elven Lords and Ladies return to a colony, though not necessarily their former homes, and make their homes with their kin thereafter.

Sex and Fertility

Elves of the Worker caste are completely unable to procreate, and indeed have little to no interest in sexual activity. Elven Lords, Ladies, and Maids are capable of sexual activity, but are infertile amongst themselves. The next generation of elves are born of the mating of the elf Queen with her chosen consort, who will be one of the Lords of her colony.

Because of this infertility, and because also of the elves' chaotic nature, elves have no concept of marriage, commitment, or monogamy. Elves take lovers as suits them, and the couple remains together as long as they wish it. Because of the conventions of their society, elves rarely feel any great jealously or pain about such partings; after all, they might well be lovers again at some future time.

There is one oddity in elven physiology, however, that sometimes causes elves problems while on their grand tour. Although elven Lords and Ladies are not fertile with other elves, they are entirely able to have children with humans. However, young elves are frequently unaware of this fact, and very few give it any serious thought. After all, the conventions of their society are such that such matters don't occur.

Thus, an elf Lord in human society may think nothing of sleeping with any women who take his fancy, and with the otherworldly glamour of the elves, they seldom lack for willing partners. And, equally, they may think nothing of departing quickly thereafter, perhaps even without a word, and potentially leaving any number of half-elves behind them. Needless to say, this can cause some amount of strife in human villages, and leads to no small amount of suspicion aimed at newly-arrived elves!

Perhaps more difficult, however, is the plight of an elf Lady in human society who, for exactly the same reasons, may think nothing of taking lovers. If she should subsequently find herself pregnant, she is likely to be scared and confused by this experience, and is unlikely to have anyone able to explain or assist her. Perhaps fortunately, most such elf Ladies return to the nearest colony, where the Queen typically takes a great interest in her wellbeing for the next year. The half-elf child may then be raised by the colony, or may be fostered amongst humans.

Of Drow

Drow maintain the same castes as other elves, but the vast majority of drow Workers are simply left to starve in the Underdark - drow simply do not have the food to feed large populations, nor the interest in raising young. The vast majority of drow who live to adulthood, therefore, are Lords and Ladies.

Drow also lack any supply of ambrosia. However, these exiled elves have become adapted to the strange radiations of the Underdark that suffuse their environment. As such, those drow who survive, and who have the potential of advancement, will automatically advance to the rank of Lord or Lady. (Some elves postulate that the radiations that suffuse the Underdark are also responsible for the twisted nature of the drow. They speculate further than drow who were raised on the surface and fed ambrosia instead might return to the light. Naturally, neither the elves nor the drow are keen to test this theory.)

It is not known how drow Maids advance to the rank of Queen. It is known that the elven convention of Queens moving from one colony to another is not practiced by drow, and it is believed instead that a drow Maid may perform some ritual to take on the mantle of the former Queen when she dies. However, the details remain unclear.

And that's basically it. Any thoughts?

Rethinking the Drow

I actually quite like the drow, both as a concept and also as depicted by R.A. Salvatore for the Forgotten Realms. The books clearly aren't high art, and certainly can't be considered 'literature', but they're fun, entertaining dross.

However, the drow suffer from a number of problems. The first of these is nothing really to do with me, but is a distinct problem for WotC: they're a black-skinned matriarchal race of psychopaths with a definite psycho-sexual/bondage element to their depiction. Given that WotC would really like to license Drizzt for a film, this is a distinct problem.

(If I were WotC, then, I would be strongly considering a redesign, probably along the lines of the dark elves from "Thor: The Dark World" - give them a mix of skin tones and a propensity to wear masks, especially while on the surface. And while they should remain matriarchal, they should probably lose the bondage gear.)

But the problem that does affect me is that the drow suffer from a serious case of Villain Decay (warning: TV Tropes can be addictive). Like the Borg, when they first appeared they were cool and mysterious, and indeed somewhat scary (perhaps), but over time we've seen the more and more, and learned more and more about them, and now they're just not scary at all.

And so it's time for a rethink.

It's perhaps worth noting that Eberron has already had a rethink of the drow - in that setting they're (mostly) surface-dwelling primitives with a scorpion fetish, who live in Xen'drik. Which is okay, I guess, but doesn't do what I want - Eberron's drow are aimed at making it easier for them to be used as player characters, not villains. Since I have no use for drow PCs, this is irrelevant to me.

What I'm Going to Keep

I intend to keep the basic concept of the drow as twisted and evil elves, who were once the same as their kin but who fell from grace somehow and were exiled. I intend to keep also their place as Underdark dwellers - they were exiled from the surface world, and indeed have been cursed the sunlight hurts them.

I will also be keeping the matriarchal nature of the drow, solely because all my elves are matriarchal - they're ruled over by a queen who is specially selected, bred, and indeed fed for the role (like bees).

What I'll be Changing

The whole spider-theme will be gone. Lolth, if she exists at all, will simply be one of several demons (note: not deities) that the drow might follow.

Any concept of a drow city, or of them maintaining slaves, will be gone. The simple logistics of feeding a fixed population of any size are pretty nonsensical - the drow don't have the space for any significant amount of farming, nor do they really feel like a race with any significant population of farmers amongst them!

Instead, the drow will be made up of very small, semi-nomadic groups who eke out a fairly desperate existence in the dark places of the world.

Combatting Villain Decay

I plan to combat the Villain Decay faced by the drow in three ways:

- Firstly, drow encounters should be very rare and very mysterious. They're a shadowy force that comes out of nowhere, strikes hard, and then disappears leaving the enemy reeling.

- Secondly, I plan to never use the 'stock' drow. Instead, drow bands should almost always be made up of named and unique individuals - instead of "6 drow", you get six individual drow with their own quirks. (This is workable solely because of their tiny numbers - you never get a typical drow because those six individuals don't need to represent a drow population - they are a drow population.)

- Thirdly, drow encounters should always carry a heavy risk. Ideally, every encounter with the drow should result in the death of a 'named' character - a PC or a significant NPC the players care about. Since that's not something that's easily guaranteed, I'll be adding one more quirk: due to the radiations that drow weapons and armour bathe in in the Underdark, they weapons carry an additional curse: anyone killed using a drow weapon (except in sunlight) cannot be raised. More powerful magic, such as resurrection, will still work, but something in the construction of the weapon will corrupt the corpse, rendering it beyond the power of that weakest life-restoring magic.

There's a little more... but I can't really post it here. After all, if the issue is that familiarity breeds contempt...

(I do notice that I'm going to have to post something about elves. Oh, the horror...)

The Fifth Edition MM

As I said in a previous post, I wasn't too impressed with the 5e PHB. However, by way of contrast I have been extremely impressed with the Monster Manual.

First up, it's a gorgeous book, filled with wonderful artwork and (mostly) well laid out. I also like the amount of lore they've provided for each monster, the layout of that lore, and the range of the monsters. Plus, at 350ish pages, it's a bit of a beast itself - certainly good value for money.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say that this is my second-favourite monster book, narrowly beaten only by 2nd Edition's wonderful Monstrous Manual (the hardback one, not the folders).

I should note here that I've never run 1st edition and so don't really have any opinion on the monster books it offers - they seem nice enough, I guess, but I've never been tempted to use them, so...

The 3e Monster Manual is a pretty solid book, too, as is the 3.5e version. However, in both cases the book falls foul of a serious weakness in the 3e design - although the game pretends to a high level of mathematical rigour, in practice it demonstrates no such thing. So, each monster type is built as a type of class, but there's no formula for converting "class + no of hit dice" into a Challenge Rating. And, indeed, some monsters (dragons) are intentionally designed to be powerful "for their CR", removing a key piece of value from an already iffy concept!

The 4e Monster Manual is, frankly, just bad. The monster statistics it provides are okay, I guess (except that the underlying math was entirely redone later), but the lore is presented badly - most monsters are given a handful of bullet points that might reveal information based on "knowledge" checks of one sort or another. Basically, it's one to skip.

(By all accounts, the Essentials equivalent is a vast improvement. I don't have that one, so can't comment.)

Which leaves the 2nd Edition MM. That one is actually pretty close to the 5e version - every monster is pictured, there's a well laid-out stat block, and a goodly chunk of lore. What puts the 2nd Ed one over the edge, though, is both the layout and the structure of the lore - in particular, every monster has some lore addressing its place in the game world, it's place in the ecology of the setting, and the internal organisation of the species. The 5e book has some of this, but it's more sporadic, and not laid out in the same formal sections. It may just be personal preference, but I prefer the 2nd Ed approach.

Still, the 5e MM is a great book, and one I look forward to making use of should I ever run that 5e campaign I'm now drafting.