User:Bill/Chronicles of Kenafin

Setting

To be evil. What does that really mean? In the real world it's a very muddy question. One can justify virtually any behavior when acting in the service of a greater good; a term that is equally slippery as evil. In D&D we have pretty clear cut descriptions of what is good and what is not. Alignment is defined by a character's actions and effective DMs will shift characters alignments in accordance with the declared actions of a player, sometimes creating additional problems for the player in the process.

The Kenafin Chronicles are about evil. Necessary evil, in fact. All players in this game will be taking the role of a member of House Kenafin of the Drow. A junior member. If you know anything about the drow, reading that last sentence chilled your blood a little. The drow are ruthless, cruel, and perverted monsters that are constantly embroiled in a society wide game of power that makes the Machiavellian workings of any court that ever existed look like a kindergarten field day. Young drow, as precious as children are to elves of any kind, are consistently used as pawns or viewed as potential rivals that must be controlled, manipulated, or murdered. Every move must be thoroughly thought out though, for rival families will move to take advantage of any perceived weakness.

This is where the necessary evil part comes in. Your characters will be a step up from the bottom of the power hierarchy. If only to survive, you must take part in these courtly intrigues. How far will you go to secure power for yourself? Will you manipulate? Will you enter into bargains with enemies of your house? Will you sell rivals into slavery? Will you poison children? How far will you go?

Obviously the primary antagonists of this campaign would be other drow, probably your own family members. In addition to them, the underdark as a whole is a hostile place where your characters will encounter dire threats at every cavern. The drow are in competition with dwarves, illithids, svirfneblin and several other races that dwell in the underdark.

Characters

Drow. No other race will be acceptable. Any class that makes sense is fine; rogue and wizard are recommended. Everybody starts with one class level. Given that your characters are as close to the the bottom of drow society as drow can get without being cast out, I strongly suggest that you consider including some social acumen in your character build. You're going to be treated like crap by the people above you without recourse to violence.

Recommended Reading

If this is the game you're most interested in playing, I strongly recommend that you purchase a copy of The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. It will provide a firm background in social manipulation that you simply won't get from a book on role-play. Obviously it's not required and at about 400 pages, you may not have time.

Rules

I can run this with any version of D&D. Really, I can run it with any rules; and a game like Exalted, which includes highly detailed rules for social manipulation might be better for it. All else fails, I can adjust these rules to use a d20 die mechanic and splice them onto standard D&D.