Share your stories of how a questionable campaign premise crumbled!

[KoDT69]

So I tried to run a game for 5 players that decided they wanted to be 5 Drow Necromancers, all siblings, and adhering to Drow lore of AD&D. I had them roll initiative to select birth order because the eldest was defacto in charge in a Drow family. They all lived in the family home in a small city.

They had some reason to go across town for the afternoon (all their own wishes I hadn't even gotten to a plot element yet) and they started arguing over which was stronger and who would be the leader etc. They flexed ability scores, arm wrestled, and finally it turned into a rumble in the house. PvP free for all. Magic Missiles through windows. Shocking Grasp tag. The whole thing took 2 hours and we had the eldest brother end up last man standing. Yay! Still the leader. Sole owner of the house. 4 bodies to Necromance.

So tell me how a campaign idea turned out to be just as bad as you knew it would be!

[Particle_Man]

Gotta admit it was thematically appropriate.

[ff7hero]

Wouldn't the eldest daughter be the leader? Or was the matriarchy a 3.X addition to the lore?

[Jervis]

Wouldn't the eldest daughter be the leader? Or was the matriarchy a 3.X addition to the lore?

Parents must have tried for a girl and failed.

So I tried to run a game for 5 players that decided they wanted to be 5 Drow Necromancers, all siblings, and adhering to Drow lore of AD&D. I had them roll initiative to select birth order because the eldest was defacto in charge in a Drow family. They all lived in the family home in a small city.

They had some reason to go across town for the afternoon (all their own wishes I hadn't even gotten to a plot element yet) and they started arguing over which was stronger and who would be the leader etc. They flexed ability scores, arm wrestled, and finally it turned into a rumble in the house. PvP free for all. Magic Missiles through windows. Shocking Grasp tag. The whole thing took 2 hours and we had the eldest brother end up last man standing. Yay! Still the leader. Sole owner of the house. 4 bodies to Necromance.

So tell me how a campaign idea turned out to be just as bad as you knew it would be!

Tried to run a ADnD module that involved a forced TPK which lead into a it was all a dream revelation. It was a Ravenloft module involving a battle with Strahd at the start to set up creepy crap happening. Problem is I ran this game on a 3.5 organized play server where everyone made TO characters. So what was suppose to be 5 minutes turned into a four hour long slot fest of players not dying. The end was them waking up to find themselves in a peaceful town. Problem was this was a one shot and no one could finish the game. Moral of the story, never make a suppose to loose boss in a 3.5 game. Really I guess never run a suppose to loose boss in dnd period, that was a terrible idea on the writers part.

[KoDT69]

Don't remember the son vs daughter thing, but all 5 were boys anyway lolz!

[Jervis]

Don't remember the son vs daughter thing, but all 5 were boys anyway lolz!

In modern lore at least Drow are a matriarchy, I can’t remember the ADnD lore but I think the matriarchy thing started as a forgotten realms thing and eventually made its way to the default.

[ShurikVch]

In modern lore at least Drow are a matriarchy, I can’t remember the ADnD lore but I think the matriarchy thing started as a forgotten realms thing and eventually made its way to the default.

That's depends on the dominant religion: while Lolth, Kiaransalee, and Eilistraee worshipers are matriarchal, Vhaeraun and Ghaunadaur are don't concerned with gender of their servants
Among the Hidden, the only female drow are wererat and half-drow (neither of which is the leader);
Ilthivaar Daemonscar is male;
Jaezred Chaulssin is patriarchal;
Ka'Narlist was the ruler of Atorrnash;
In the Llurth Dreier (AFAIK), all known authority figures were male;
Misstyre is male;
Solom Ned'razak became the ruler of Szith Morcane;
Vokkrzyr Rualfren was leader of the drow settlement in Ultoksamrin, and leader of the Vault of Cloaked Midnight...

[Quertus]

Since “Drow” means “follower of Lolth”, all Drow are matriarchal, since forever afaict. Also, iirc, noble houses are limited to two males (not sure about commoners).

So… if it was a noble Drow house with 5 brothers? They were long overdue to be stamped out.

[KoDT69]

I told them like " hey guys you know Drow traditionally just kill each other to get ahead right". They were like no way we'll resolve things with other types of contests... Like a fight to the death contest I guess 😂