I’m wanting to write up a one shot DW game this weekend and I’d like it to be Drow flavored, but I’ve got writers block something awful. Any ideas for adventure?
I’m wanting to write up a one shot DW game this weekend and I’d like it to be Drow flavored, but I’ve got writers…
I’m wanting to write up a one shot DW game this weekend and I’d like it to be Drow flavored, but I’ve got writers…
Think of bonuses for drow over other elves then think of problems a small group to city might have. If a one shot keep it more condensed for new people as one shots great for that, then if you want expand on it if wanting to make it a campaign.
Drow players or Drow enemies?
Sorry forgot to say, Drow enemy flavored.
Yeah thanks David Guyll .
Well figure out if players are random mob of murder hobos/adventures lost or part of some underground city.
If nothing else, great underrated writer block killer, at least with fiction writing, pull a few cards off a tarot deck the throw that in story or find something better suited to the story.
Turn it on its ear. Find out what the high elves don’t want you to know.
I’m a little confused Adam Koebel . Do you mean what the high elves don’t want the PCs to know about the Drow?
Yes, exactly!
That’s interesting. Now just to figure out what, how, and “The hell is that?”.
And like that something hit me. How bout this for an unwelcome truth? The drow are way more powerful than the surface world knows. They could easily destroy the dwarves, man, and high elves if they were to march on them. The only reason the drow don’t is because they are waging an eternal war against a foe that is hell bent (maybe literally) on destroying all things. The drow become this necessary evil of the world for they keep this alien threat at bay and the high elves keep the drow from destroying the surface dwellers. (I lifted the general idea from a book which I’m not going to name to avoid spoilers). Now how to get the PCs involved.
One thing to remember with monsters in Dungeon World or fiction in general is that it’s rare for someone to become a necessary evil force as everyone feels they are the true heroes from their own perspective (no matter how twisted that might be to the world).
A lot of good ideas but the main trick with a one shot is writing short to get it there without it dwarfing every fiction series in word count. Good luck.
The players have inadvertently acquired something the Drow want and ambush the Players and as a result of surprise they get the better of the PCs and abscond with sed item. The players then attempt to tail the Drow into the underdark (whatever it is called in Dungeon World) and after some traps and trickery and maybe a random encounter or 2 the PC’s manage to catch up to the Drow raiding party as a result of blocked Terrain (Lava Flow? whatever) and a final fight ensues. If the PCs win the story can continue on with the PC’s trying to figure out what it is they have that the drow want and attempt to keep it from them as more drow come for the item. Simple, to the point. Done.
Whatever you do, try to make it something kind of different. There’s so little to be interested in when you’re doing the whole “eeeeevil underground black guys” thing.
What if there was a once-a-century Convocation of the Elven Peoples and the Drow must be invited by tradition. The heroes must somehow get into the drow lands and convince the High Lord to attend, even though they are at war with the surface folk. Tradition is tradition, after all.
Here’s what I have so far. If you have a sec to look it over for glaring plot holes or other directions I could go I’d appreciate it.
At one point in time the drow god and elf god were one being known as Tivmus. Then came Lyssa the god of insanity. Every stray thought from Lyssa became a creature of chaos incarnate. These creatures threatened to make their way into our world and only Tivmus knew about it. Any other creature that faced Lyssa and her minions went mad from the mere sight of them. Tivmus needed to create something to combat the insanity of Lyssa, but Tivmus knew that anything he would create would have to be cold, ruthless, and powerful. Not wanting to be forever known as the god that created another monster into this world, he instead created two races. The Drow and the Elves. The drow were the answer to Lyssa. They would not be phased by the madness and had the grace and cruelty to deal with Lyssa, but they were a threat to other races. The Elves would stop the Drow from taking over the rest of the world. When Tivmus created these races he broke himself into two gods. Lolth for the Drow and Correllon (or however it’s spelled) for the elves.
Time passed. The Drow continue their war against the aberrations of Lyssa and the Elves keep the Drow from taking over the surface world. Recently it has come to light that a piece of Tivmus survived as an artifact known as the Tear of Tivmus (or Mr. MacGuffin to those of you at home). This artifact is kept in a temple that is intended to keep all out. It’s said that the Tear can not be touched by elf/drow hands or it will kill them. (Being that close to your god will do that) The party is hired by the high elves to retrieve the Tear. The high elves plan to use the Tear in a ritual that will make Correllon much stronger than Lolth for a day and allow them to win the Drow/Elf war. The high elves for the most part don’t know about the war between Lolth/Lyssa, save for a few of the higher ups. They think that after they defeat the Drow the Elves will be able to beat Lyssa. The Drow are watching the temple and if the players make it out they will jump them to try to steal the Tear and make Lolth more powerful than Lyssa and wipe the aberrations out. Then the Drow can turn their sights onto their Elf cousins.
I realize that’s a lot of story to cover, but I’ll have a whole weekend to play through (so around 8-12 hours). My plan was to start at the entrance of the temple where the Tear is being held and going from there. The party will learn the truth/history of the Elves/Drow as they go through the temple so they can make informed decisions. I’m going for a shades of grey/no right answer type of game. The players can’t give the Tear to either side cause it would cause a shift in power that would cause untold destruction. Thoughts?
Purple worms have been spotted attacking on the surface. They are being driven from Underdark because the Drow have fired up a new Dread Furnace to forge large numbers of weapons. For what purpose is unknown but knowing the Drow this does not bode well.
Thanks for all the ideas folks. I think I got what I needed, but if you have any others feel free to put them down. I’ll compile them later into something easier to go through and read.
Eon Fontes-May had a great idea, I +1’d that.
I loved Eon’s idea as well as all the rest. Maybe we should do a monster of the week here at the tavern, or was that a thing and I just missed it?
I always ran Drow like fantasy-flavored Ayn Randian Objectivists.
I think the biggest mistakes with monsters are either “pure evil” or “total opposite of what you thought!” The best is to take one aspect and twist it a little, give it this one unexpected thing that makes the adventure unique without totally subverting the fantasy tropes we know. So like, yeah, maybe let’s keep them as the classic evil underground conspirators, but instead of just annihilating them, our goal is a little more complex. To me, those are the most memorable adventures.