History - Tell me about the GDQ series (Giants, Drow, Queen?)

[billd91]

Yes, it was and "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

After cutting a bloody swath through giants of multiple sorts, ogres, white and red dragons, assorted humanoids, running into the drow at the end of G3 was like having the floor drop out from beneath you. It was a great, great moment, probably never to be truly repeated again. And heck, Gygax had given us foreshadowing in the 1E MM of all places, and everyone was pretty much still surprised.

It is largely for this reason that I keep the drow as NPC only. They are a powerful DM tool and not for PCs to use at all. In fact, in my Greyhawk, the drow haven't even been rediscovered yet. Nor are they exactly like the original drow so my players might encounter one soon and never even know it.

 

[woodelf]

GDQ1-7 also had a slight difference. The PC's were working for Archmage Lashton of Keoland and the 'fane of Lloth" fell over Sterich.

It's not just you, you just got the privilege of being quoted, but:

It's "Lolth", folks, not "Lloth".

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

And that was about as far as we got in that module, sad to say. As I recall, the PCs ran away from the entire thing at that point. Some Heroes!

Man, I hated Karl. His buddy Lenny was no picnic either.

 

[Darkness]

It's "Lolth", folks, not "Lloth".

Yeah. "Lloth" is the name for her used in Menzoberranzan - which is in the FR, not in GH.

 

[jokamachi]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

And yes, it was my first epic campaign. I was eleven or twleve at the time. GDQ was simple, yet elegant; straightforward, but with an air of mystery; it required courage, planning, and luck at every step...

but we did it.

 

[woodelf]

Yeah. "Lloth" is the name for her used in Menzoberranzan - which is in the FR, not in GH.

Are you sure? I was pretty certain that FR consistently used "Lolth". Drow of the Underdark definitely does. [I don't think i have anything else to check.]

 

[Darkness]

Are you sure?

Very.

I was pretty certain that FR consistently used "Lolth".

"Lloth" is the name for her used in Menzoberranzan

(As well as some other city.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Are you sure? I was pretty certain that FR consistently used "Lolth". Drow of the Underdark definitely does. [I don't think i have anything else to check.]

"Lloth" is an FR name. It may or may not be used universally, but it is not the original/Greyhawk version, which most definitely was Lolth.

 

[TimSmith]

"Lloth" is an FR name. It may or may not be used universally, but it is not the original/Greyhawk version, which most definitely was Lolth.

Yes, Lloth is the FR name, used by Salvatore and Cunningham, FOR THE DROW WAY OF PRONOUNCING HER NAME (which is how they got away with it, I think). FWIW I agree with them and much prefer it, as it somehow feels linguistically better to my ears. After all, these 2 authors have pretty much defined FR Drow society.

Lolth, as you say, was the Greyhawk name. In an email she sent me recently, Elaine Cunningham mentions that the "Official" spelling of the Spider Queen's name, even in FR, has been reverted back to Lolth with the advent of 3rd edition. So in "Windwalker" you will see Lolth as the spelling (and probably "War of the Spider Queen", but I am waiting for the whole series before reading so i wouldn't know).

 

[mythusmage]

The Spider Queen's Name (etc.)

I am lolth to get involved in this discussion.

As to the 'final' module in the series. The Col. had a module in mind when he wrote up the first six, but TSR ended up using a different one instead. And that delayed. You ask Gary and he'll tell you the one published was not what he wanted to end the series on.

As to endings, keep in mind that Queen of the Demonweb Pits was but one of two alternatives (that I could find). One of the locations detailed in Vault of the Drow was a quay by an underground river. At the quay was a galley captained by a ghoul and manned by skeletons. With a special magical dohickey (located elsewhere) you could use to take command of the ship and crew. Gary's aim was for the party to take possession of the galley and crew and go sailing off on more adventures in Greyhawk's underground world. He expected DMs around the world to use the Giant/Drow series as inspiration to design adventures of their own.

I had vague notions in that direction, but didn't flesh it out. The working title was, Sailors on a Sunless Sea. The party would go gallivanting around this great underground sea about the size of the Caspian having adventures, upsetting the natural order, and in the long run locating the people behind the drow, the mindflayers. (Ask yourself this, would a bunch of Italian Renaissance aristocrats with paranoid schizophrenia ever get organized enough to form a conspiracy against the surface world without help?) Think of it as a place to kill people and take their stuff with lousy ventilation.