I did read a bunch of FR books back in high school, but like other people here, I’ve had bad experiences playing in FR games through canon-lawyering (mostly from DMs telling me that I couldn’t play the character I wanted to play even when I justified it.)

I was really impressed with P2: Demon Queen’s Enclave giving me an insight into Drow society, actually. I’m running through it now, and there’s all kinds of arrangements being made, with the party trying to come out on top.

Anyway, whenever I have a question about the Forgotten Realms, I consult the Forgotten Realms Wiki at http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page . Because of them, I’ve gotten a much better idea of how the world works. Best of luck, and I hope to read about what you’re doing with the Drow. Sounds like you got some interesting ideas going!

This is one of the major reasons why I only run homebrew settings. I’m not going to DM a world that my players know more about than I do. Half the point of DMing is that no one knows more about the world than you.

I’ve only read one FR book, but it had no Drizz’t. The drow seemed classy.

I’m set to get into reading the campaign setting a bit more and I have some ideas percolating already. Keep it comin’!

Depictions of dark elf society have, in my readings, typically involved strict theological matriarchies (worshipping Lolth). They also tend to be incredibly sadistic and prone to Machiavellian intrigues (that often result in the deaths of political nobodies and prominent figures alike) and blood sports (or more precisely, torture of captured prisoners as entertainment) and, if memory serves me right from a reading from a while back, weird sadomasochistic BDSM orgies. Seriously, it’s really messed up and probably way too graphic for most games.

Moreover, drow societies IMO would not actually work – there needs to be a certain level of trust that you won’t be randomly killed off by your matron for fun in order to generate buy-in to the society. This trust allows for the development of long-term institutions and allows governments to function. Drow as commonly depicted would be too busy trying to kill each other off to actually be a threat outside of their weird society. From the individual drow’s perspective, why participate in drow society when you stand a better chance of surviving by going the way of Drizzt and striking out on your own?

Oh yeah, and they have spider-themed decor for just about everything.

I think that if you stick to the spider-theme (the spider-fashion-sense, if you will), the theological matriarchy, extreme social darwinism combined with manifest destiny, and general lack of value placed on the lives of individuals, you’ll create a drow society that is true enough to canon that players won’t be confused.

This has zero to do with criticism of the works or authors – from what I understand some great things have been done with the setting and fiction, and I admire that.

But for me, I don’t like it for a game – it has killed all the mystery for a setting.

When you have a campaign where the players can sit there and say “no, in this book XXX happened, so YYY couldn’t be in your campaign,” or “wood dragons are always susceptible to extra fire damage, except the ebony variety of course, which requires penetrating weapons of +3 or better,” I lose my interest in a setting. IMHO too many people have spent too long building the canon and reading the works for me to enjoy it as either a player or a GM anymore.

Of course, this is just my opinion and enjoyment – for the thousands who love the Forgotten Realms settings rock on. Just as there are plenty of ideas in that and any other work free to poach for your own campaign…

It’s the same reason I could never get into MERP as purely run – too much canon to the world, so where is the magic for me?

IMHO is all…