The Shadar-kai are NEVER going to be the next drow

[Nifft]

Bah. I think there's a lot of biases throwing this discussion to the wind. I've seen nothing that says "woe is me" in the Shadar-kai, and everything that says, "I suffer for power."

So they're Blood Elves?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Clavis]

Reveling in your own pain is totally EMO. Metal would be reveling in the pain of those who oppose you, walking on a carpet made of their corpses, in order to make out with the irrationally proportioned blonde wearing the chainmail bikini who is being held captive in the Lust-Palace of the Demon Queen B'thaglu.

Yes! Bring back the days when D&D was F'ing METAL already! Cue the Manowar albums!

 

[Fallen Seraph]

This conversation reminds me of this joke:

* POWER METAL
The protagonist arrives riding a white unicorn, escapes from the dragon, saves the princess and makes love to her in an enchanted forest.

* THRASH METAL
The protagonist arrives, fights the dragon, saves the princess and s her.

* HEAVY METAL
The protagonist arrives on a Harley, kills the dragon, drinks a few beers and s the princess.

* FOLK METAL
The protagonist arrives with some friends playing acordions, violins, flutes and many more weird instruments, the dragon falls asleep (because of all the dancing). Then they all leave........ without the princess.

* VIKING METAL
The protagonist arrives in a ship, kills the dragon with his mighty axe, skins the dragon and eats it, rapes the princess to death, steals her belongings and burns the castle before leaving.

* DEATH METAL
The protagonist arrives, kills the dragon, s the princess and kills her, then leaves.

* BLACK METAL
The protagonist arrives at midnight, kills the dragon and impales it in front of the castle. Then he sodomizes the princess, drinks her blood in a ritual before killing her. Then he impales the princess next to the dragon.

* GORE METAL
The protagonist arrives, kills the dragon and spreads his guts in front of the castle, s the princess and kills her. Then he s the dead body again, slashes her belly and eats her guts. Then he s the carcass for the third time, burns the corpse and s it for the last time.

* GRIND METAL
The protagonist arrives, screams something completely undecipherable for about 2 minutes and then leaves...

* DOOM METAL
The protagonist arrives, sees the size of the dragon and thinks he could never beat him, then he gets depressed and commits suicide. The dragon eats his body and the princess as dessert. Thats the end of the sad story.

* GOTHIC METAL
The princess in a velvet costume starts singing soprano. The protagonist completes the duet by adding the beast part, while the dragon plays the flute. Suddenly he swallows up the pipe and accidently scorches the beauty and the beast and suffocates to death. All their souls are damned in hell's eternity.

* PROGRESSIVE METAL
The protagonist arrives with a guitar and plays a solo of 26 minutes. The dragon kills himself out of boredom. The protagonist arrives to the princess' bedroom, plays another solo with all the techniques and tunes he learned in the last year of the conservatory. The princess escapes looking for the HEAVY METAL protagonist.

* INDUSTRIAL METAL
The protagonist arrives wearing greasy overcoat, makes obscene gestures towards dragon, and gets escorted out of fairy tale land by security guards.

* SPEED METAL
Suddenly there, short solo, dragon is confused, someone's screaming weird stuff, princess realizes she's been deflowered, dragon and princess are still looking for the one who did this.

* CHRISTIAN METAL
The protagonist rides in on his way home from church and sings a mushy power ballad to the dragon about how much Jesus loves him and that the dragon should turn to Him. The Dragon is immediately converted, and when the princess wants to thank the protagonist he replies, "Sorry, but I don't believe in having sex before marriage."

* GLAM METAL
The protagonist arrives, the dragon laughs at the guy's appearance and lets him enter. He steals the princess' make up and tries to paint the castle in a beautiful pink colour.

* BATTLE METAL
The protagonist arrives with a legion of a hundred brave footmen, war chariots and a dozen elite warriors and, as a master tactician, flanks the dragon in a bloody siege that lasts six hours. The princess gets bored.

* NU METAL
The protagonist arrives in a run down Honda Civic and attempts to fight the dragon but he burns to death when his moronic baggy clothes catch fire.

* EMO
The protagonist sees the dragon and moans about how hard it will be to get the princess to fall in love with him. He gets eaten. The princess is very happy, because he was a whiny dork anyway.

* GRUNGE
The protagonist doesn't get eaten by the dragon because he stinks too much from not washing his hair in months. The princess won't go near him either, and he ends up dying on the town hall steps with the other grungers due to the over consumption of white cider.

* POP-PUNK
The dragon can't eat the protagonist because he can't catch him because he keeps bouncing up and down. The princess won't him either, because he likes ska.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They forgot that in Glam Metal, the Dragon is extra happy since he now has 2 princesses.

 

[Contrarian]

This conversation reminds me of this joke:

Wow, jokes about rape are hilarious. Thanks a bunch for that.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Wow, jokes about rape are hilarious. Thanks a bunch for that.

I actually LOL'd because while totally crass, it really did manage to capture the feel for each of those subgenres. ALTHOUGH! GRUNGE! IS! NOT! METAL!

 

[Sol.Dragonheart]

I have always enjoyed that joke. Humor does not have to be gentle and polite to be amusing.


In any case, as far as the original topic goes, the Shadar-Kai are interesting, but I do not believe they, or any race will match the successful races that have filled the role until they are detailed in the same manner. Use them in several adventures that also provide insights into their culture and general modus operandi, and, given that those two elements are interesting, and clever, the race will naturally reach that apex.

As an aside, how many times have people used the Githyanki as a central villain in their campaign plots? From what I've seen, they are generally only used as a side event to the main battle or villain, and are rarely used as the crux of the campaign.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I should point out that I say grunge is not metal because I really do like grunge.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

This conversation reminds me of this joke:

Oddly enough I've always equated rpgs and campaigns with music styles. It just provides a quick handle to encapsulate the overall feel of the game you're trying to convey.

And D&D should aim for the first of these categories most of the time. But you know it tends to turn into 2 or 3 fairly frequently.

* HEAVY METAL
The protagonist arrives on a Harley, kills the dragon, drinks a few beers and s the princess.

* VIKING METAL
The protagonist arrives in a ship, kills the dragon with his mighty axe, skins the dragon and eats it, rapes the princess to death, steals her belongings and burns the castle before leaving.

* BLACK METAL
The protagonist arrives at midnight, kills the dragon and impales it in front of the castle. Then he sodomizes the princess, drinks her blood in a ritual before killing her. Then he impales the princess next to the dragon.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I should point out that I say grunge is not metal because I really do like grunge.

I'd guessed. Only a fan would have that sort of passion.

So are Orcs metal or grunge?
And I still haven't heard any suggestions for which race(s) may be New Romantic. C'mon, I know there's someone out there who's thought about it.

Rustrum: No idea why I had a Q thing going on. It wasn't an alphabet thing (which I will now do sometime. Each adventure in the campaign arc is a letter of the alphabet! Fantastic idea!) It certainly wasn't Trek related. All I can say is, it just was.