What exactly does the team mean between "UD" and "Surface" drow? As in, where the PC spends a majority of its in-game time or where it lives off-screen?

The thing that historically kills "traditional" Drow RP(in my experience) is isolation and lack of interaction with any other groups. I would hate to see any misunderstanding feed into the idea that drow in the Underdark should only be interacting with other things in the Underdark. If players don't know where the line is on getting their shiny new toys taken away, I fear they might turtle up even more.



-Signed, someone who had to sift through an unfortunate amount of Jarlaxle/Artemis fanart to make a dumb meme that three people will get.

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If the drow in question primarily lives in the Underdark, they're Underdark-based. If they primarily live on the Surface, then they're Surface-based. To make things simpler, any drow who isn't based in either L'Obsul or Nec'perya/Thran'daariv will, for all intents and purposes, be considered a Surface-based drow unless the player can provide a damn good, compelling argument otherwise.

This does not mean drow have to spend 100% of their time in the Underdark to be considered Underdark-based. However, there is the expectation that a good chunk of time spent in-game will be in the Underdark. The occasional foray to the Surface is fine and dandy, so long as time on the Surface does not exceed time spent in the UD. I would say at least 60-70% of a UD drow's time should be spent in the UD. This gives ample opportunity for them to go level/explore/spy on the opposition without having to fear about getting anything taken away.

For those who spend all of their time on the Surface in-game, but "off-screen" return to the Underdark... that's not going to fly. If you want the goodies Underdark-based drow are now able to get, you need to spend time in-game, in the Underdark, period.

Those who are worried about whether they qualify as UD- or Surface-based, well... I can easily be reached via Discord or PMs here on the forums.

Khy covers it really well here. The off-screen dwellings I agree won't work for the additional powers as an IC reason for their connection to stay when they otherwise are associated with the surface while on-screen.

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I've played it all before, and I agree with you on that.

Ultrinnan, Edonil, Nec'Perya. Underport. L'Obsul. I've had characters in all five, and not all of them Drow. I've seen the flaws in the "Amian traditional way," and its no secret that I'm very vocal about my opinion of said ways. Underdark, by the book, is isolationist and evil: every race hates each other and most of them hate themselves. Its fantastic for a PnP session using such evil and selfish races as the villains. As a persistent world server, unless the entire server goes all in or nothing, the traditional way doesn't work.

In saying that, substantial effort has been made by the players over the last 12 months to include the Underdark into the wider server narrative, specifically to target and avoid that old habit of becoming "a server within a server." The DM team are onboard with this in their own way as well: the Underdark is now linked with Chalkcliff and its plotlines for example, and is getting more non-Drow foot traffic through L'Obsul. If this course continues, then "staying in the Underdark" is not necessarily a negative: our actions in the greater narrative impact the surface, just as the surface indirectly impacts us.

As for the shaming of surface-based Drow, they -should- feel bad in a tongue-in-cheek way. They gave up everything that makes them Drow to be surface elves. By all accounts they should be a separate subrace because their link with the Faerzress is broken: no spell resistance, no supernatural abilities, no light sensitivity etc. Only the ability bonuses from generations of selective breeding and Darwinism on Steroids. [edit]: (lets hope it doesn't come to that. Common sense should kick in at some point as to the difference.)

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Plays:

"I'll think of something once Amia:EE drops."

Cool. Thanks for the explanations, guys.

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