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better dark elves?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9183216" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>A good option these days is to <em>not</em> give an entire race a tendency to have a certain alignment, behavior set or personality. Instead, let them be individuals.</p><p></p><p>If handled well, I believe you can still have an origin story for a heritage like the drow that will result in many of them still being subject to a situation that limits their options. For example, a common story for drow is that Lolth's priestesses have used force to gain control of many drow cities and rule them with an iron thumb. I still have this as a common situation in my games. I do not feel it is problematic to have in my game. </p><p></p><p>Why?</p><p></p><p>1.) Because players are not encouraged to be subject to or part of this regime. While I have these drow in my game, I also have drow that are not part of these cities. Instead, they've made their way elsewhere and incorporated into other cities. A player can be any type of PC they want while playing a drow. </p><p></p><p>2.) Further, I put the spotlight on the individuals, not the drow heritage, as the villians. This is a game filled with bad actors. The heroes fight the bad actors. We need bad actors. Just as in the real world, some bad actors are beings that were raised within a culture that encourages acts that most other cultures call bad acts. The belief trained into them through that cultural act is part of who they are when the PCs encounter them. They lead their cities while prescribing to these beliefs. The PCs might fight them, or try to convince them their path is wrong, or engage with them in any other way. I try to emulate frictions we've seen in the real world as inspiration and focused my attention on the people that broke from the stereotypes.</p><p></p><p>There is criticism that having dark skinned drow be bad sends a wrong message. I was concerned about it, so in my world drow come in many shades. There are some that are dark skinned, but they cover a spectrum of tones including lavender, red, black and white. Most of my heritages come in at least 4 shades to reduce this concern.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 9183216, member: 2629"] A good option these days is to [I]not[/I] give an entire race a tendency to have a certain alignment, behavior set or personality. Instead, let them be individuals. If handled well, I believe you can still have an origin story for a heritage like the drow that will result in many of them still being subject to a situation that limits their options. For example, a common story for drow is that Lolth's priestesses have used force to gain control of many drow cities and rule them with an iron thumb. I still have this as a common situation in my games. I do not feel it is problematic to have in my game. Why? 1.) Because players are not encouraged to be subject to or part of this regime. While I have these drow in my game, I also have drow that are not part of these cities. Instead, they've made their way elsewhere and incorporated into other cities. A player can be any type of PC they want while playing a drow. 2.) Further, I put the spotlight on the individuals, not the drow heritage, as the villians. This is a game filled with bad actors. The heroes fight the bad actors. We need bad actors. Just as in the real world, some bad actors are beings that were raised within a culture that encourages acts that most other cultures call bad acts. The belief trained into them through that cultural act is part of who they are when the PCs encounter them. They lead their cities while prescribing to these beliefs. The PCs might fight them, or try to convince them their path is wrong, or engage with them in any other way. I try to emulate frictions we've seen in the real world as inspiration and focused my attention on the people that broke from the stereotypes. There is criticism that having dark skinned drow be bad sends a wrong message. I was concerned about it, so in my world drow come in many shades. There are some that are dark skinned, but they cover a spectrum of tones including lavender, red, black and white. Most of my heritages come in at least 4 shades to reduce this concern. [/QUOTE]
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