Drowville Comment

FrdNwsm

My group has entered Ust Natha. I can't comment coherently at the moment, since I'm nowhere near done, but I am favorably impressed with the work that went into designing the whole thing. There are a number of choices to be made, and it sort of reminds me of first arriving in Athkatla, with a dozen folks trying to get you to do this or that. And the whole thing rather well captures the ... how to phrase this ... "competitive" ... nature of Drow society.

I have a sheet of paper with lists of who wants me to do what to whom; heck, this might even need a flow chart. And I see what you folks mean about having done things out of sequence. All that nonsense with the beholders and the Kuo-toa makes a lot more sense now.

Jarrakul

Yeah, I rather like Ust Natha, as much as its many timed quests can be annoying. Glad you're enjoying it, too. I'm looking forward to your next update.

FrdNwsm

Jarrakul said:

Yeah, I rather like Ust Natha, as much as its many timed quests can be annoying. Glad you're enjoying it, too. I'm looking forward to your next update.

The timed quests are actually good for you. They lend an air of urgency that most other quests lack. A definite change of pace from "You say that people are disappearing? ::yawn:: Maybe I can squeeze it into my schedule for next week."

When they say "be there in an hour" and MEAN it, you don't even have time to rest up and restock your spells. It's the SoA equivalent of a "come as you are" party. It's also a lot more realistic.

Jarrakul

True. I find myself torn between my dislike of time limits in video games, and my dislike of resting a ton because the game doesn't punish you for it. But BG2 definitely could've handled it worse in Ust Natha, and it is a nice change of pace.

DreadKhan

Its somewhat par for the course with Drow to expect things to be done punctually, otherwise they're going to assume you're ratting them out to the Matron for Brownie Points. Its a chaotic-leaning society (NE, but Lolth is CE in the extreme), and a decidedly evil one, so failure to follow the rules is interpreted as insubordination, especially since everyone's position is inanely precarious, being dependent on the subservience of lessers, and in turn complete obedience to superiors.

Throw in the fsct that you're not a part of the cities structure, and nobody knowing strictly how powerful your party is, and obviously everyone is pretty on edge about you; they'll use you, but nobody trusts you, even in the very limited sense a Drow trusts anyone.

Incidently, this is usually why I find 'evil society/empire' stuff to tend towards silly. Too unstable to make much sense. Sure, you can oppress people or have an underclass of thralls/slaves/serfs, but the Drow seemed to be crossing the line to 'non-functional society that will collapse utterly at the slightest challenge'. This ignores the fact too that more altruistic societies will end up vastly outproducing an excessively selfish one, and frankly, money is a huge advantage.

FrdNwsm

I suspect what we have here is something like a cross between late Imperial Rome and the Italian city states of the Renaissance. Assassination was not uncommon as a means to power in the latter milieu.

Drow society is supported by a large population of slaves and peasants, of whom we see almost nothing. There is a small middle class, and we meet a few merchants and such. But the ones we mainly interact with as heroic adventurers are the important nobles and power brokers. I mean, talking to peasants all day isn't going to get us anywhere with our quest, so we interact very little with the economic base of their society.

At the uppermost levels, the House rulers jockey for supremacy, both inside and outside of their own Houses. This leads to changes in the ruling class power structure, but leaves the bulk of the society upon which it rests stable. Now, this won't be as successful as a freer society, which may well be why the Drow are fragmented into city states instead of running a unified Empire. Just as well; they are less a threat to the other races this way.