I've been running a different game than usual, trying to drag the player-characters into the weird Underworld ... a new opportunity for this arose with the death of one character, and me suggesting that the player roll up a Drow as replacement.
Which means that suddenly I'm grasping through mists, trying to draw together something suitably interesting for a culture of Drow as I envision them, and for a PC to be embroiled in that society.
So I hit on the idea of repurposing the Ancestry and Birthright tables from AD&D Oriental Adventures, plus plundering the concept and table for Honor ... What I've put together is still just a rough draft, but I need to use it before the end of the week if I'm going to run the game this week, so I'm going to vomit forth what I have now for the player to use, and maybe return to write a new post later.
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In Greek, an agon is a contest, often physical (a footrace, boxing match, or chariot race), but potentially literary, or otherwise. One in agony, therefore, is someone experiencing the contest as a competitor. I envision it as the pain or anguish one feels when uncertain of victory, or even the trouble at heart in knowing that someone else is better than you.
Thus "agony" for the Drow: the acute sense that all is conflict, and that every competition--even a simple conversation--creates the opening for victory or defeat, and that victory is rewarded with greater status and appreciation, while defeat brings revilement from those once deemed your betters or equals, or worse, those formerly beneath you! The honey of success is vanishingly sweet, while the gall of humiliation hangs bitter in the throat forever.
For a Drow, then, agony is an inverse score from 100 (essentially an outcast, reviled by everyone) to 0 (the height of status, envied by everyone--and the target of every assassin's blade ...). Individuals have their own personal sense of agony, but derive a base value from their House; the individual sisters mostly seek their own betterment, but clear victories on their own part also reflect well on the House, while terrible individual defeats also reveal to all just what a failure the individual's House is. Any change in agony during the course of adventure by a single Drow in multiples of ten reflects on her House in the same way (positive or negative) in increments of one (so -20 agony for the individual grants the House -2 familial agony).
For an individual, shedding certain amounts of agony come with rewards (and envy) ...
At 25 agony, a Drow is allowed to participate in the Troll-Bacchanals, rather than creating offspring merely through parthenogenesis or the use of male slaves. This increases the likelihood of "breeding-true" and having an actual Drow daughter to continue the House. Naturally, I'll need to write something like a carousing table for this, and it will involve bonus xp.
At 20 agony, she becomes "the talk of the town". Assassination attempts against her become more likely, and other Drow wishing to prove themselves may challenge her to duels or drinking contests, or whatever. The base suggestion from OA is a 10% chance per week.
Having written this after the table below, I'm already going to have to rejigger the table to include more of this, but not right now, because it's almost 2 am. Regardless, refusing a challenge causes a +10 increase in agony, while surviving an assassination attempt would naturally cause a decrease in same, depending on the potential effectiveness of the would-be-assassin and her plan.
At 15 agony, a Drow may be sought out by a cousin of a lesser House, or even one of the slave-races that serve the Drow, essentially to establish a patron-client relationship between the Drow and the person seeking her out. Recognized as a creature of status, the character basically has the sway to change the fortunes of those less glorified than herself. My immediate thought would be to create a relationship or institution which the character could begin to cultivate, and reap reasonable rewards from, so long as her agony remains low.
At 10 agony, a Drow is approached with various offers of alliance. These need not all come strictly from Drow Houses; there's no reason that Duergar or Serpentfolk wouldn't necessarily court powerful Drow for semi-mutually-beneficial alliances. The referee should make some interesting pitches from likely enclaves, and generally write them to be mutually incompatible. Accepting any one alliance should be beneficial in particular ways, but invite greater envy/enmity from other factions ... assassination attempts or open conflict could well follow!
At 5 agony, a Drow is able to cut herself off from her own House and establish a House for herself and her own descendants, if she wishes to cut ties with her own sisters, mother, and grandmother ... this is, of course, both dangerous and exhilarating! Creating one's own lineage comes with a variety of assassination attempts by those hoping to inherit/take one's possessions and inheritances for themselves, but also comes with the advantage of being the Great Grandmother of a House, and able to decide one's own path and alliances without the interference of older generations ...
Any Drow who achieves 0 agony and dies with the same is able to pass her success in life on through "genetic" memories to any newly created Drow character by the same player (or in the same House). There is a formula for this in OA that basically allows one to bump up ability scores and such, though no greater than +3 to any one roll. So that's the general idea there ...
Some ways to affect agony:
Agony --- Action
-5 --- avenging a Sister
-2 --- avenging a Cousin
-7 --- avenging an Elder
-1/HD --- taking a prisoner (Drow)
-1 --- taking a slave
+10 --- taken AS a slave/prisoner
-6 --- defeating an Ancestral Enemy / Feuding House
+3 --- calling in a Favor
+2 --- entering into Debt
-2 --- reaching Name Level
-2 --- being asked a Favor
-4 --- successful Assassination
-8 --- successful Assassination in-House
+8 --- failed Assassination
+20 --- failed Assassination in-House
-variable --- attaining Noble Title
+variable --- losing Noble Title
+4 --- losing House Heirloom
+6 --- causing a Feud through blundering
-3 --- creating a Feud strategically ...
+12 --- defeat by an Ancestral Enemy / Feuding House
-2 --- forging an advantageous Alliance
-1 --- acquiring Property
+2 --- losing Property
-1 --- lending Money
-1/2000 xp --- defeating a Monster
-1/coffle --- purchasing Slaves
+8 --- regularly associating with Slave-Races (non-Drow)
This isn't exhaustive ... like I said, it's a rough draft, and largely culled from the Honor table in OA. I expect it'll need fine-tuning with play, and expansion as the mists obscuring Drow culture clear for me through running this thing.
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