Drow books: comparative reviews?

[Psion]

It's supposed to rhyme with cow. There's a pronouciation guide at wotc.

While I agree with it for most things, I daresay that their pronunciation of bullette throws the entire thing into doubt. In the motley English language, there are words that end in "ow" that rhyme with either cow or crow, so I can see the confusion. But I am not aware of ANY word for which "ette" makes an "ay" sound, and wond what the author of the Dragon article the pronunciation guide was smoking when he wrote it.

 

[Psion]

To stray back on topic (but not long), there's P&P, and there's the Complete Guide to Drow. Here's a review of the latter, made by Forrester. I know nothing about the former, except that it's made by GRP, which is generally seen as a good quality publisher.

As over the top as forrester is, I say generally he's right on the money on this one. The Complete Guide to Drow has some way overpowered and wacky tidbits. Not totally useless, though. It has a few interesting items that could be used with caution. (For example, if you miss disintigrating drow weapons, there is a passable method for handling them in there.)

The Green Ronin book is much better. I can only think of a few things I wouldn't use. (There are a few metamagic feats that let you discriminate which magic to negate with things like anti-magic shell.) A lot of it is really well thought out, and there are lots of twisted ideas for drow, all the while adding a fresh spin. For example, the drow's obsession for spiders has been generalized to vermin, and new categories of monstrous vermin and vermin based magic items have been added.

 

[Gez]

While I agree with it for most things, I daresay that their pronunciation of bullette throws the entire thing into doubt. In the motley English language, there are words that end in "ow" that rhyme with either cow or crow, so I can see the confusion. But I am not aware of ANY word for which "ette" makes an "ay" sound, and wond what the author of the Dragon article the pronunciation guide was smoking when he wrote it.

Probably the same thing that the author of "coo day grah" for "coup de grâce". By the way, pronounce that "merciful blow", you'll see, that's easier. If you want to make a French laugh, you can try to stick with CDG, but it's not really needed in English I think. Anyway, that would looks like "coo duh grass", with the 'a' as in "father".

I don't know for bulette. It looks like a French word, and in this case, it'll end with a "-et" sound like trinket; and the "u" is that "u" sound, between "ee" and "oo", that plagues all native English-speakers trying to learn French, German or Greek.

Drow ? I must admit I pronounce it with no diphthong. Like "no". (As in, "say NO to DROW"). Is that the "crow" pronounciation ?

Bah, I don't think I pronounce correctly any single English word. Don't need it to type.

What I find puzzling is that English-speakers never know how to pronounce a word they see written. In French, we have the reverse problem, writing correctly a word we hear. Fortunately for us, it's easier to understand the latin alphabet in a dictionnary, than the Internation Phonetics Alphabet in the same dico...

 

[Psion]

Probably the same thing that the author of "coo day grah" for "coup de grâce". By the way, pronounce that "merciful blow", you'll see, that's easier. If you want to make a French laugh, you can try to stick with CDG, but it's not really needed in English I think. Anyway, that would looks like "coo duh grass", with the 'a' as in "father".

I don't know for bulette. It looks like a French word, and in this case, it'll end with a "-et" sound like trinket; and the "u" is that "u" sound, between "ee" and "oo", that plagues all native English-speakers trying to learn French, German or Greek.

Right. But that's the rub. -ette is commonly found in French (and French-derived English) words. Now I know French has some pronunciations that seem bizarre in English. But -ette isn't "-ay" in French, either.

 

[Gez]

Right. But that's the rub. -ette is commonly found in French (and French-derived English) words. Now I know French has some pronunciations that seem bizarre in English. But -ette isn't "-ay" in French, either.

Yes. It's "-et" or "-ett", Final 'e' being mute.

I've spent two minutes staring at the IPA codes in my Fr/En dictionnary, and trying to find an Internet resource that would both provide French-pronounciation equivalent (even if only rough) of IPA codes, AND use images rather than weird fonts that displays everything as empty little squares without offering to download the correct font...

I still don't really know the difference between the -ow in now, cow, crow, prow, know, sow, how...

 

[Desdichado]

Drow ? I must admit I pronounce it with no diphthong. Like "no". (As in, "say NO to DROW"). Is that the "crow" pronounciation ?

The cow option is the dipthong 'au'. In most English dialects and accents, the crow option is also a dipthong, technically, 'ou' or "long 'o'". For all practical purposes, though, you can assume that crow is not a dipthong and just use it as 'no'.

Me? I say it like crow!