White-skinned Drow

[Vraille Darkfang]

I keep the Underdark Races, well, Dark.

When I ran 2nd Edition I toyed with basing them more off the Real-World Albino, Blind things that inhabit our own cave systems.

Then 3rd Edition came out with a Brand-New Mechanic.

Infravision was gone:

DARKVISION was here!

Just like normal Sight, except Black & White Only. Our modern Cave Systems went out the window. Darkvision allowed the rules of Vision that dominated the surface to apply to the depths as well.

I keep Drow, Duegar, Swirvfneblin, and others Dark-Skinned so they blend against rock when viewed via Darkvision.

Most Underground Races gain a +2 Bonus to Hide in those situations.


PS. Black Hat White Hat.

Gary grew up on the Black & White Westerns of the 50's. Watch one some time.

THe guy in the Black Hat is the Bad Guy. The Guy in the White Hat is the Good Guy.

It's a pretty basic storytelling techinque. Take a very visual stimulas (color) and apply a not easily noticed attribute to it (Alignment).

I'd say White Good, Black Evil is more a result of this Storytelling techniques than anything else.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I do rather like the umbragen 'shadow elves' of Xen'drik in Eberron. Those guys tend to be pitch black because their essence has been merged with the umbral shadow or something similar. I can get behind that.

 

[solkan_uk]

I just tend not to use Drow and make elves more morally ambigious.
Elves view themselves as caretakers who may intervene in the affairs of others, to shape races to their designs. Sometimes assisting them with problems and sometimes to knock them off their own pedestal.
Also as a note, alignment is fuzzy in my campaign, when you cast Detect Evil (or whatever) it works from your own moral compass so one person can detect someone as evil, while another may detect him as good...

 

[Particle_Man]

Also as a note, alignment is fuzzy in my campaign, when you cast Detect Evil (or whatever) it works from your own moral compass so one person can detect someone as evil, while another may detect him as good...

So a paladin has detect 'I don't *like* you' at will?

 

[Umbran]

So a paladin has detect 'I don't *like* you' at will?

Sounds more like, 'I *shouldn't* like you.'