toying with starting a campaign, with a large part in the underdark, had a question

[Saito Takuji]

So i was toying with starting a campaign based at least partially in the underdark, at the least, starting there. in the backstory i am working out the drow have all but been eliminated. so my question is, what race(s) could have potentially moved into the vacated cities that the drow used to inhabit. not sure who it will have been who elimenated the drow, but i do know why, and it was due to a prophecy that the drow would be thier undoing, so to prevent the undoing they commited genocide on the drow and left the underdark to its own devices.


hrm could also make the prophecy have ultimatley been false and rendered by someone else who wanted the drow eliminated, for their own reasons.

[ArcturusV]

Well... the Dark/Deep/Grey Dwarves (I can never remember which one they are called, seems to keep jumping around on me) are a natural fit for someone who would move into former Drow cities, and likely massively restructure them as most Drow Cities are not soundly designed by the lore (such as using shapestone to make a "pretty" and artistic ceiling that will collapse if the spell gives out, rather than using proper bracing like a dwarf would, is actually listed in one of the drow handbooks as a defining characteristic of the drow. All appearances, no practicality).

Honestly the way the Drow operate nowadays it wouldn't be that hard to kick them out of the Underdark. They can't work together even when they are threatened with imminent demise.

[Saito Takuji]

well looks like lloth is in for a wake up call when she... wakes up to find no more drow, or only a small handfull left, if that. but the dureguar makes sense, or however they are spelt, mabey some deep gnomes as well, do those to races get along..... guess if it was my campaign i can make them get along if i want to.

[ArcturusV]

If I recall the Deep Dwarves are "Always Evil" and the Deep Gnomes are just Neutral. So probably not too well. Well, no more so than Humans and Goblins/Orcs would in your setting. In Faerun pretty much nothing in the underdark gets along with anything else in the underdark. Unless you could the "As a slave..." status as "Getting along".

[tbok1992]

If you want to do something out of the ordinary, maybe import Jon Hodgman's classy, democratic, acid-spitting Mole Men to the Underdark. Maybe they just recently evolved and are trying to stake their claim by reshaping the cities in their own image.

I know I keep mentioning this, but that's because somebody really, really needs to do it.

[Saito Takuji]

different races could have different areas, and i do have it planned that the drow have been gone for several thousands of years, and it will be a Major plot point that they are gone. not familliar with the mole men tho, where would they come from?

[ksbsnowowl]

If you are looking to running a game in the Underdark, I'd suggest getting your hands on the Forgotten Realms supplement Underdark.

It has some good, interesting info and options. It also has a couple interesting races that may fill the roll you want. Gloaming and Slyth are both interesting and sort of unique.

[Saito Takuji]

might actually have that book, somewhere, got a large wealth of books a while ago, and havent made an extensive listing of all of them

[hamishspence]

Deep Dwarves and Duergar are different. I think the MM said Deep Dwarves are Usually Neutral and Duergar are Usually LE.

[tbok1992]

different races could have different areas, and i do have it planned that the drow have been gone for several thousands of years, and it will be a Major plot point that they are gone. not familliar with the mole men tho, where would they come from?

It's from Jon Hodgman's book "More Information Than You Require, which is also a must-read for anyone doing an Unknown Armies game (or should be at least).

[Saito Takuji]

deep dwarves, different than deruegar, nice, i could have a dwarf-war going on at some point in the history, and a begrudging peace, that could be a plot hook at one point, and depending on what the PC's do i could change the politics of the area, they could ignore it, work with either side, pit both sides against each other, work towards strengthening the peace. or even bring in a 3rd faction somehow, this i like. heck they could even decide to do some kind of combination of options or something completly out of the blue.