What I Would Do With the Drow
This is another post following up on the previous post, "Regarding the Drow..." which looked at their background and racial connotations. In comments on that post, eyebeams wrote:
What you have to ask yourself is whether or not your suggestion, if followed back in the 70s, would have been followed in such a way as to create anything as compelling, and if not, whether this loss of expression was a reasonable price to pay in order to avoid being embarrassed by cosplayers and assorted idiots 30 years down the road.
I might quibble about the assumption of loss of expression, but this is a reasonable question. I previously gave a hypothetical about what I would do if I was in charge of the D&D line now. Taken with a grain of salt that hindsight is 20/20, I can hypothesize about what it would be like if I was in charge 30 years ago. To reiterate my suggestion, I'm in favor of open dialogue concerning race. So presumably the drow would still be written as a concept, and probably after the first draft there would be first some internal feedback about what the racial connotations are. These would presumably include some views like eyebeams's and some views like mine.
Now, what would happen as a result of that? Well, I can't really tell how Gary Gygax as author would react to discussion of the racial implications. Perhaps he'd pull the whole module or excise the drow from it because I expressed that there were some racial connotations of all good elves being white-skinned except the evil ones who are black. I'd hope not, but it's hard for me to say.
But in order to continue the hypothetical, let's suppose that Gary died with Module G3 and its sequels half-finished, jumbles of notes to be filled in. By some twist, an adult version of me then took over and I had to complete it. I suspect the final product for Module G3 would stay more-or-less as-is, though I would likely add some depth to the two rival drow priestesses. Among the minor changes: I'd probably change the description calling her "strangely attractive" to simply say "attractive", and also comment on the appearance of her male attendants. I'd probably suggest that the illustrations look more like regular elves of unusual coloration rather than making them more curly-haired and swarthy.
The question is, where would I go from there?
Obviously, I would not approve the 1986 Keith Parkinson cover painting that eyebeams complained about. But that's what I wouldn't do, as opposed to what I would do.
The Dark Hollow Earth
As I see the popularity of the drow, I'd bring a team together to work on a Dark Hollow Earth sub-setting. Within the Dark Hollow Earth as I picture it, there is a dark sun which makes infravision like normal sight -- able to see miles rather than 60 feet. There are lush mushroom forests, bizarre rock formations, and other juxtapositions of cave features and outdoor landscape. I'd would have some sort of relatively common magic to give infravision to those who don't have it, with limitations.
Here, many of the underground races live lives quite different from those who live just under the surface. They have space to fortify and rich lands to till. There are a different set of gods. There are variants of the various races, that don't fit many of the alignment and patterns above-ground.
Case in point: the drow of the Hollow Earth. Free of Lolth's tyrranical influence, they are the guardians of the Hollow Earth's natural world in parallel to the surface elves. They are good-aligned, but still with many strange reversals. To them, the forces of nature are stone and metal and fungus rather than wood and leaves and sunshine. They are still matriarchal, with priestesses worshipping the new gods of the Hollow Earth.
I might also have "good" variants of certain races -- probably orcs and kobolds -- but it wouldn't be an exact reversal. Instead, the races would be mixed up. There would still be many of the same evil monsters like illithids and kuo toa, and perhaps there would be evil dwarves/duergar and evil human enclaves (obsessed with fire and light) -- but still the good deep gnomes (svirfneblin) and some good humans (though they are viewed with suspicion because of the predominantly evil human cultures).
The cultures for the various races would draw from a somewhat wider variety of sources than is typical in D&D -- though in an eclectic fashion. I'm picturing Germanic/Teutonic model for the evil dwarves, and perhaps the good drow take more from the Rus. The civilized orcs might have more of a more Middle-Eastern feel of the Holy Roman Empire. Maybe we'd have a city module of the capital and its urban/urbane orcs.
There would be an appendix with rules for playing all of the good races of the Hollow Earth as PCs. The dungeons of the Hollow Earth would connect up at some point with the dungeons of the surface. So while the continuation of the Giants module would clash with the evil drow -- we'd also have writers working on the Hollow Earth.
Assuming I otherwise fell into similar trends as a company leader, particularly as we moved into the post-Dragonlance era of novel tie-ins and metaplot in the late eighties, there'd be modules which mix the two and have good drow who are horrified at their evil cousins. Surely we'd have some plotline about "Drow Wars" and there would be problems and controversy.
Implications
So, the question is: What was the point of all this? Well, for me as the hypothetical head of the company, I'd first of all want to make money. It could be that the Hollow Earth line doesn't achieve the same popularity and thus I have to agree to reduce the release schedule for it. I could live with that.
I also, though, want to make products which I'm proud of. I would enjoy having the line there which shakes up some of the assumed thinking about race, and hopefully might invite some gamers to think a little more about race through the course of playing a fun game. Besides have debate within the company about race, I'd probably invite feedback from gamers which includes questions about ethnicity and how open they felt our products are and whether that matters to them.
I'm sure that some players would jump at playing the good drow, and other players would scream about how the option X means that drow monks are unbalanced, and so forth. I'm sure that there would be some white gamers who put on black make-up to dress as either good drow or evil drow. My hope would be that given the culture of more open feedback, that would generate some controversy and debate rather than either (1) being shut down, or (2) being ignored. I'd also like to think that perhaps compared to real-world history, maybe a few more gamers are aware of race and ethnicity issues -- possibly after taking part in our feedback.
As hypothetical head of this company, I'd naturally defend my company and livelihood. I'd point to the bunch of positive black-skinned characters and role-models we have as part of Hollow Earth and other lines. But I'd also open dialogue to the people who are complaining either way -- for and against white gamers wearing black drow make-up. Hopefully I'd win over some people and get some good press about it, balancing out some bad press as well.
What you have to ask yourself is whether or not your suggestion, if followed back in the 70s, would have been followed in such a way as to create anything as compelling, and if not, whether this loss of expression was a reasonable price to pay in order to avoid being embarrassed by cosplayers and assorted idiots 30 years down the road.
I might quibble about the assumption of loss of expression, but this is a reasonable question. I previously gave a hypothetical about what I would do if I was in charge of the D&D line now. Taken with a grain of salt that hindsight is 20/20, I can hypothesize about what it would be like if I was in charge 30 years ago. To reiterate my suggestion, I'm in favor of open dialogue concerning race. So presumably the drow would still be written as a concept, and probably after the first draft there would be first some internal feedback about what the racial connotations are. These would presumably include some views like eyebeams's and some views like mine.
Now, what would happen as a result of that? Well, I can't really tell how Gary Gygax as author would react to discussion of the racial implications. Perhaps he'd pull the whole module or excise the drow from it because I expressed that there were some racial connotations of all good elves being white-skinned except the evil ones who are black. I'd hope not, but it's hard for me to say.
But in order to continue the hypothetical, let's suppose that Gary died with Module G3 and its sequels half-finished, jumbles of notes to be filled in. By some twist, an adult version of me then took over and I had to complete it. I suspect the final product for Module G3 would stay more-or-less as-is, though I would likely add some depth to the two rival drow priestesses. Among the minor changes: I'd probably change the description calling her "strangely attractive" to simply say "attractive", and also comment on the appearance of her male attendants. I'd probably suggest that the illustrations look more like regular elves of unusual coloration rather than making them more curly-haired and swarthy.
The question is, where would I go from there?
Obviously, I would not approve the 1986 Keith Parkinson cover painting that eyebeams complained about. But that's what I wouldn't do, as opposed to what I would do.
The Dark Hollow Earth
As I see the popularity of the drow, I'd bring a team together to work on a Dark Hollow Earth sub-setting. Within the Dark Hollow Earth as I picture it, there is a dark sun which makes infravision like normal sight -- able to see miles rather than 60 feet. There are lush mushroom forests, bizarre rock formations, and other juxtapositions of cave features and outdoor landscape. I'd would have some sort of relatively common magic to give infravision to those who don't have it, with limitations.
Here, many of the underground races live lives quite different from those who live just under the surface. They have space to fortify and rich lands to till. There are a different set of gods. There are variants of the various races, that don't fit many of the alignment and patterns above-ground.
Case in point: the drow of the Hollow Earth. Free of Lolth's tyrranical influence, they are the guardians of the Hollow Earth's natural world in parallel to the surface elves. They are good-aligned, but still with many strange reversals. To them, the forces of nature are stone and metal and fungus rather than wood and leaves and sunshine. They are still matriarchal, with priestesses worshipping the new gods of the Hollow Earth.
I might also have "good" variants of certain races -- probably orcs and kobolds -- but it wouldn't be an exact reversal. Instead, the races would be mixed up. There would still be many of the same evil monsters like illithids and kuo toa, and perhaps there would be evil dwarves/duergar and evil human enclaves (obsessed with fire and light) -- but still the good deep gnomes (svirfneblin) and some good humans (though they are viewed with suspicion because of the predominantly evil human cultures).
The cultures for the various races would draw from a somewhat wider variety of sources than is typical in D&D -- though in an eclectic fashion. I'm picturing Germanic/Teutonic model for the evil dwarves, and perhaps the good drow take more from the Rus. The civilized orcs might have more of a more Middle-Eastern feel of the Holy Roman Empire. Maybe we'd have a city module of the capital and its urban/urbane orcs.
There would be an appendix with rules for playing all of the good races of the Hollow Earth as PCs. The dungeons of the Hollow Earth would connect up at some point with the dungeons of the surface. So while the continuation of the Giants module would clash with the evil drow -- we'd also have writers working on the Hollow Earth.
Assuming I otherwise fell into similar trends as a company leader, particularly as we moved into the post-Dragonlance era of novel tie-ins and metaplot in the late eighties, there'd be modules which mix the two and have good drow who are horrified at their evil cousins. Surely we'd have some plotline about "Drow Wars" and there would be problems and controversy.
Implications
So, the question is: What was the point of all this? Well, for me as the hypothetical head of the company, I'd first of all want to make money. It could be that the Hollow Earth line doesn't achieve the same popularity and thus I have to agree to reduce the release schedule for it. I could live with that.
I also, though, want to make products which I'm proud of. I would enjoy having the line there which shakes up some of the assumed thinking about race, and hopefully might invite some gamers to think a little more about race through the course of playing a fun game. Besides have debate within the company about race, I'd probably invite feedback from gamers which includes questions about ethnicity and how open they felt our products are and whether that matters to them.
I'm sure that some players would jump at playing the good drow, and other players would scream about how the option X means that drow monks are unbalanced, and so forth. I'm sure that there would be some white gamers who put on black make-up to dress as either good drow or evil drow. My hope would be that given the culture of more open feedback, that would generate some controversy and debate rather than either (1) being shut down, or (2) being ignored. I'd also like to think that perhaps compared to real-world history, maybe a few more gamers are aware of race and ethnicity issues -- possibly after taking part in our feedback.
As hypothetical head of this company, I'd naturally defend my company and livelihood. I'd point to the bunch of positive black-skinned characters and role-models we have as part of Hollow Earth and other lines. But I'd also open dialogue to the people who are complaining either way -- for and against white gamers wearing black drow make-up. Hopefully I'd win over some people and get some good press about it, balancing out some bad press as well.