text:
Spelljammer

Spelljammer is a campaign setting originally published for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition) role-playing game, which features a fantastic (as opposed to scientific) outer space environment. Subsequent editions have included Spelljammer content; a Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition setting update was released on August 16, 2022.

Spelljammer introduced into the AD&D universe a comprehensive system of fantasy astrophysics, including the Ptolemaic concept of crystal spheres. Crystal spheres may contain multiple worlds and are navigable using ships equipped with "spelljamming helms". Ships powered by spelljamming helms are capable of flying into not only the sky but into space. With their own fields of gravity and atmosphere, the ships have open decks and tend not to resemble the spaceships of science fiction, but instead look more like galleons, animals, birds, fish or even more wildly fantastic shapes.

The Spelljammer setting is designed to allow the usual sword and sorcery adventures of Dungeons & Dragons to take place within the framework of outer space tropes. Flying ships travel through the vast expanses of interplanetary space, visiting moons and planets and other stellar objects.

Like the Planescape setting, Spelljammer unifies most of the other AD&D settings and provides a canonical method for allowing characters from one setting (such as Dragonlance) to travel to another (such as the Forgotten Realms). However, unlike Planescape, it keeps all of the action on the Prime Material Plane and uses the crystal spheres, and the "phlogiston" between them, to form natural barriers between otherwise incompatible settings. Though the cosmology is derived largely from the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, many of the ideas owe much to the works of Jules Verne and his contemporaries, and to related games and fiction with a steampunk or planetary romance flavor. A strong Age of Sail flavor is also present.

Publication history
Shannon Appelcline, in the book Designers & Dragons (2011), highlighted that in 1989 Spelljammer was the first of a host of new campaign settings published by TSR. It was created by Jeff Grubb and "introduced a universe of magical starships traversing the 'crystal spheres' that contained all the earthbound AD&D campaign worlds. It suggested a method to connect together all of TSR's settings and at the same time introduced fun new Jules Verne-esque technology that had never before been seen in the game. It was innovative and popular". Appelcline commented that Spelljammer "offered a way to connect every single D&D fantasy world, was thus one of the first true crossovers" in role-playing games.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition)

The Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space space fantasy boxed set was released in 1989. Several of TSR's other campaign worlds had their own sections in the Spelljammer Boxed Set - Realmspace for the Forgotten Realms, Krynnspace for Dragonlance, and Greyspace for Greyhawk. Along with the new sphere - Clusterspace - they were known as the "Big Three and Astromundi". Dark Sun, Ravenloft and Mystara weren't included, as the first two did not fit with the setting and the Mystara only used the D&D rules, not the AD&D rules.

The product line would be expanded with a number of boxed sets and accessories such as Lost Ships (1990), Realmspace (1991) and The Astromundi Cluster (1993). Appelcline commented that The Astromundi Cluster acted as "a soft reboot of the Spelljammer line" and was more of setting focused sourcebook than previous Spelljammer books which acted more "as a conduit between all of the other AD&D settings". The first adventure module, titled Wildspace, was released in 1990; four connected adventure modules followed it. A longer campaign module, Heart of the Enemy, was then published in 1992 followed by an adventure anthology, Space Lairs, in 1993.

The monsters of Spelljammer were detailed in two installments of the Monstrous Compendium series, Spelljammer Appendix in 1990 and Spelljammer Appendix II in 1991.

In 1993, Space Lairs and The Astromundi Cluster were the final products of the line. Appelcline commented on the end of the setting in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons era: "TSR's fifth second-edition campaign world, Planescape (1993), was released to replace Spelljammer, which had just then ended. TSR wanted a new world-spanning setting and Slade Henson came up with the answer by suggesting a new setting built on Jeff Grubb's first-edition Manual of the Planes (1987). [...] Unlike Spelljammer this new setting had a strong geographical centre, the City of Sigil, resolving a flaw in the Spelljammer setting that denied players a good home base".

Dungeons & Dragons (3rd edition)
The Spelljammer line of products was discontinued by TSR before they were acquired by Wizards of the Coast in 1997.

In May 2002, Paizo published an article for Spelljammer in Dungeon #92 titled "Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon". Using the D20 system, it provided new rules for firearms and spelljamming, as well as skills, feats and prestige classes. Spelljammer monsters such as neogi and giff were not used. Instead, it featured creatures from the Monster Manual such as drow, formians and yuan-ti.

In May 2005, Wizards of the Coast updated the neogi to the 3.5 edition rules in the supplement Lords of Madness (2005). The book included a chapter with a sample map of a crashed Spelljamming vessel, cultural habits of the neogi, and the monster's stat blocks.

Dungeons & Dragons (4th edition)
A Spelljammer homage appears in the 4th edition Manual of the Planes; the sourcebook highlights Spelljammer ships as one method of traveling between planes and provides information for in-game use of Spelljammer vessels.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th edition)
Spelljammer content also appears in the 5th Edition adventure module Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2018). In the adventure, a spelljamming ship and its illithid captain appear stranded in level 19 of the titular dungeon. Then in October 2021, Wizards released the PDF Travelers of the Multiverse which is part of the "Unearthed Arcana" public playtest series. Of the six player races it included, four races (autognome, giff, hadozee, and plasmoid) are closely associated with the Spelljammer setting. Both Polygon and Bleeding Cool highlighted that this playtest could indicate a future Spelljammer reboot.

Wizards of the Coast released a new boxed set titled Spelljammer: Adventures in Space on August 16, 2022; this release updates the Spelljammer setting for the 5th Edition. The box set includes a Dungeon Master's screen, a double-sided poster map and three 64-page hardcover books: Astral Adventurer's Guide (a Dungeon Master guide), Boo's Astral Menagerie (a bestiary), and Light of Xaryxis (an adventure module). A special edition, with cover art by Hydro74, was also released. A prequel adventure module, titled Spelljammer Academy, was released for free on the Wizards of the Coast website and on D&D Beyond in July of the same year.

Monstrous Compendium Vol 1: Spelljammer Creatures introduced ten creatures from the Spelljammer setting to the 5th Edition in April 2022.

Spelljamming helms
Spelljamming helms are the central setting concept which allow interplanetary and interstellar space travel for vessels which would otherwise not be spaceworthy, in the form of a helm. Any spellcaster may sit on a spelljammer helm to move the ship. The mysterious race known as the Arcane is the sole manufacturer and distributor of spelljamming helms. Within the Dungeons & Dragons universe, they are a method of converting magical energy into motive power.

Gravity and air
All bodies of a sufficiently large size have gravity. This gravity usually (but not always) exerts a force equal to the standard gravitational attraction on the surface of an Earth-sized planetary body. Gravity in the Spelljammer universe is also an exceptionally convenient force, and almost always works such that "down" orients itself in a manner most humanoids would find sensible.

All bodies of any size carry with them an envelope of air whenever they leave the surface of a planet or other stellar object. Unlike real-world astrophysics, this air envelope is not dispersed by the vacuum of space. These bubbles of air provide breathable atmosphere for varying lengths of time, but 3 months is considered "standard".

Crystal spheres
A crystal sphere (also known as a crystal shell) is a gigantic spherical shell which contains an entire planetary system. Each sphere varies in size but typically they are twice the diameter of the orbit of the planet that is farthest from the sun or planet at the center of the sphere (the system's primary).

The surface of the sphere is called the "sphere wall" and separates the void of "wildspace" (within the sphere) from the "phlogiston" (that surrounds and flows outside the sphere). The sphere wall has no gravity and appears to be impossible to damage by any normal or magical means. Openings in the sphere wall called "portals" allow spelljamming ships or wildspace creatures to pass through and enter or exit from a crystal sphere. Portals can spontaneously open and close anywhere on the sphere wall. Magical spells (or magical items that reproduce their effects) can allow a portal to be located. Other magic can open a new portal or collapse an existing one. Ships or creatures passing through a portal when it closes may be cut in two.

Note that unlike the Ptolemaic system, the crystal spheres are not nested within each other.

Wildspace
Wildspace is similar to the outer space of science fiction, with planets, asteroids and stars, but with different physics. Gravity is either none or the same as that of Earth, and is directed towards the center of planet-sized bodies; on large objects in space like spacecraft and enormous creatures gravity is directed towards a flat plane running through the object's long axis, allowing characters to stand on the decks of ships.

The Phlogiston
The phlogiston is essentially a big ocean of a unique element that is neither air, fire, water, or earth. The phlogiston (also known as "the Flow") is a bright, extremely combustible gas-like medium that exists between the Crystal Spheres. A signature property of the substance is that it does not exist within the boundaries of a crystal sphere, to the degree that it cannot be brought into a crystal sphere by any known means up to and including the direct will of deities. Every crystal sphere floats in the phlogiston, very slowly bobbing up and down over time. Travel between Crystal Spheres is facilitated by the formation of "Flow rivers" — sections of the phlogiston which have a current and greatly reduce travel time. Travel through the "slow flow" (i.e. off the Flow rivers) is possible, but very dangerous.

The Spelljammer
The Spelljammer is a legendary ship which looks like a gigantic manta ray, and houses an entire city on its back. All spacefarers (people who live in wildspace) have heard of the Spelljammer but very few have ever seen it themselves. It is this ship that gives its name to "spelljamming", "spelljamming helms" and anything else connected with spelljamming. The ship has been reported to have been seen in countless spheres for as long as records go back. Even some groundlings (people who live on planets that have very little or no commerce with spelljamming communities) have legends about it. There are hundreds of conflicting legends about this ship, and a mythology has developed about the ship that is similar to the legends surrounding The Flying Dutchman.

As a living thing (although it does not consume any matter, it does absorb heat and light through its ventral (or under) side and uses them to produce air and food for its inhabitants), the Spelljammer has a complex life cycle and means of procreation. Normally the ship has no captain and wanders the cosmos seemingly aimlessly. When the Spelljammer has a captain, obtained through another complex process, it will create Smalljammers (miniature versions of the Spelljammer) that go forth as its spawn. Apparently there can only be one Spelljammer at any one time. One Smalljammer will mature into a full Spelljammer ship if its predecessor is ever destroyed.

Races
Alien races inhabiting the Spelljammer universe included humans, dwarves, xenophobic beholders, rapacious neogi, militant giff (humanoid hippopotami), centaurlike dracons, hubristic elf armadas, spacefaring orcs called "scro", mysterious arcane, the Thri-kreen insectoids, and bumbling tinker gnomes. Illithids were another major race, but were presented as more mercantile and less overtly evil than in other D&D settings. The Monstrous Compendium series added many more minor races. The simian Hadozee were also introduced into the setting, and later incorporated into the 3.5 rules in the supplemental book Stormwrack.

Official products
Spelljammer has acted as the official campaign setting for multiple Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying adventure modules, sourcebooks and accessories.

Comics
Fifteen comics set in the Spelljammer universe were published by DC Comics between September 1990 and November 1991 with the creative team of Barbara Kesel, Michael Collins and Dan Panosian. Spelljammer comics also uses Jasmine, a winged human character originally introduced from Forgotten Realms comics, as one of the lead characters.

Novels
Six novels set in the Spelljammer universe were published by TSR, before TSR was incorporated into Wizards of the Coast. The novels were interconnected and formed "The Cloakmaster Cycle". The novels tell the story of Teldin Moore, a 'groundling' farmer on Krynn who has a powerful and apparently cursed magical cloak that was given to him. He then ends up on a quest, which takes him first into wildspace and then away from his home sphere to distant crystal spheres. The series showcases the wonders and perils of the Spelljammer universe. The novels are now out of print.

 * Beyond the Moons by David Cook, (July, 1991) (ISBN 1-56076-153-9)
 * Into the Void by Nigel Findley, (October, 1991) (ISBN 1-56076-154-7)
 * The Maelstrom's Eye by Roger E. Moore, (May, 1992) (ISBN 1-56076-344-2)
 * The Radiant Dragon by Elaine Cunningham, (November, 1992) (ISBN 1-56076-346-9)
 * The Broken Sphere by Nigel Findley, (May, 1993) (ISBN 1-56076-596-8)
 * The Ultimate Helm by Russ T. Howard, (September, 1993) (ISBN 1-56076-651-4)

Computer games
The only Spelljammer computer game ever produced was Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace, published by SSI in 1992.

In 2002 a team of freelance game modification developers created "The Arcane Space Tileset" for Neverwinter Nights. This tileset included Spelljamming ships, space and atmospheric terrains, along with monsters and NPCs, all set within the Spelljammer Campaign setting.

Web series
Legends of the Multiverse is an official actual play streaming series broadcast on the Dungeons & Dragons channels which premiered on April 27, 2022 and is set in the Spelljammer campaign setting. It stars Deborah Ann Woll, B. Dave Walters, Gina Darling, Meagan Kenreck, and Todd Kenreck. It will also feature guest stars such as Brennan Lee Mulligan, Aabria Iyengar, Ginny Di, Anna Prosser, Deejay Knight, Emme Montgomery, Travis McElroy, SungWon Cho, and Jim Zub.

Reception
In the January 1990 edition of Games International (issue #12), James Wallis was not a fan of the initial release, Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space, finding inconsistencies in the combat rules, saying that the cumulative effect of these inconsistencies is to make space combat unplayable. He did find the background "imaginative and consistent", but very little of it. Although he admired the production values of the components, he found the book disorganized to the point of "disarray and confusion". He concluded by giving the game a poor rating of only 2 out of 5, saying that "Spelljammer may score well physically but fails mentally [...] Scavenging AD&D players who enjoy stripping tasty ideas from the carcasses of dying games may find it of interest, but I cannot recommend it to anyone else".

Alexander Sowa, for CBR in October 2021, commented that Spelljammer should be one of the classic settings Wizards of the Coast brings back for the 5th Edition. Sowa wrote that "players have been asking for Spelljammer to be introduced to 5e since the release of the first setting sourcebook. Wizards tossed them a bone with the Dream of The Blue Veil spell added in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, but it's not a replacement for the niche Spelljammer previously filled. It's not just a way to travel between different campaign settings; it's a simultaneous fulfillment of sci-fi and fantasy dreams of exploration, venturing deep into unknown depths and contending with the strange and otherworldly".

Spelljammer was #3 on The Gamer 's 2022 "The 8 Best Dungeons & Dragons Settings Ever" list — the article states that "Spelljammer is one of the most unique settings on this list, with endless possibilities brought up in its planet-hopping realms. The Spelljammer setting can almost best be surmised as 'pirates meets sci-fi fantasy' with its blend of magical worlds and galaxy-traversing galleons". In a separate article for The Gamer, in February 2022, Paul DiSalvo commented that "while D&D's second edition was home to a wide range of Spelljammer books including several adventure modules, the setting has since faded into obscurity, with it not being prominently featured within the game's third, fourth, and fifth editions".

title: Spelljammer


text:
Drow

The drow ( or ) or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of elves connected to the subterranean Underdark in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have traditionally been portrayed as generally evil and connected to the evil spider goddess Lolth. However, later editions of Dungeons & Dragons have moved away from this portrayal and preassigned alignment. More recent publications have explored drow societies unconnected to Lolth.

Creative origins
The word "drow" originates from the Orcadian and Shetland dialects of Scots, an alternative form of "trow", which is a cognate with "troll". The Oxford English Dictionary gives no entry for "drow", but two of the citations under "trow" name it as an alternative form of the word. Trow/drow was used to refer to a wide variety of evil sprites. Everything about the Dungeons & Dragons drow was invented by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax except for the basic concept of "dark elves". However, in the Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson wrote about the black elves: "... the dark elves however live down below the ground. ... [and] are blacker than pitch."

Gygax stated that "Drow are mentioned in Keightley's The Fairy Mythology, as I recall (it might have been The Secret Commonwealth—neither book is before me, and it is not all that important anyway), and as Dark Elves of evil nature, they served as an ideal basis for the creation of a unique new mythos designed especially for the AD&D game." The form "drow" can be found in neither work. Gygax later stated that he took the term from a listing in the Funk & Wagnall's Unexpurgated Dictionary, and no other source at all. "I wanted a most unusual race as the main power in the Underdark, so used the reference to 'dark elves' from the dictionary to create the Drow." There seems to be no work with this title. However, the following entry can be found in abridged editions of Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language, such as The Desk Standard Dictionary of the English Language: "[Scot.] In folk-lore, one of a race of underground elves represented as skillful workers in metal. Compare TROLL. [Variant of TROLL.] trow "

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
The drow were first mentioned in the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1st Edition 1977 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual under the "Elf" entry, where it is stated that "The 'Black Elves,' or drow, are only legend." No statistics are given for the drow in this book, apart from the statistics for normal elves. The drow are described as purportedly dwelling deep beneath the surface world, in strange subterranean realms. They are said to be evil, "as dark as faeries are bright", and pictured in tales as poor fighters but strong magic-users. From 1978 to 1980, the Greyhawk adventure module series explored the drow in depth, including statblocks for drow and an introduction to their Underdark society.

The first hardcover D&D rulebook featuring statistical information on the drow was the original Fiend Folio (1981). Gygax wrote this entry, listed under "Elf, Drow", according to the book's credits section. The text is a slightly abridged version of the text originally found in modules G3 and D3. Likewise, Lolth's description from module D3 is reprinted in the Fiend Folio under the "Demon" heading.

The drow were first presented as a player character race in Unearthed Arcana (1985), also written by Gygax. Several elven sub-races are described in the book, including gray elves, wood elves, wild elves, and valley elves; the dark elves are described as the most divergent sub-race, and dark elf player characters are considered outcasts from their homeland, either by choice, differing from the standard chaotic evil alignment of the race, or having lost in some family-wide power struggle.

Greyhawk module storyline
It is hinted in G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (1978) that there is a "secret force, some motivational power behind this unusual banding of different races of giants." G2 The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (1978) mentions this guiding force again in its introduction. The third module in the series, G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (1978) again mentions the party's need to find out whatever is behind the giants' alliance, and this time mentions the drow specifically by name. In the adventure, the player characters can discover the first hint of drow involvement in the fire giant king's council room, on a scroll which promises "powerful help from the Drow", signed by Eclavdra. Actual drow can be encountered starting on level #2 of the king's hall, beginning with a group of drow priests, and then other drow later.

Having discovered that the drow instigated the alliance between the races of giants and its warfare against mankind, in D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (1978) the party follows the fleeing drow into the tunnels leading northwest and deep into the earth, to eliminate the threat they pose. Examining a golden spider pin found on one of the drow priestesses, the party can discover runes in the drow language reading "Lolth, Death Queen Mother". The party continues to pursue the drow in D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa (1978). In D3 Vault of the Drow (1978), the adventurers eventually make it to Erelhei-Cinlu, the vast subterranean city of the drow, which is thoroughly described in the module. An extensive overview of the drow power structure is given for the purpose of creating any number of mini-campaigns or adventures taking place inside the drow capital. The characters travel on to the Egg of Lolth, where they must enter the dungeon level and fight the demoness herself. The statistics and information for drow are reprinted from Hall of the Fire Giant King in the back of this module, along with statistics for Lolth herself.

The story concludes in module Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits (1980). The astral gate from D3 leads to the Abyssal realm of Lolth, goddess of the drow elves and Demon Queen of Spiders; Lolth is the architect of the sinister plot described in the two previous series of modules. At the very end of the module, the players face a final confrontation with Lolth, an exceptionally difficult challenge. The G1-G3 modules were later published together in 1981 as a single combined module as G1-2-3 Against the Giants, and the entire series of modules in which the drow originally appeared were later published together in Queen of the Spiders (1986).

Novels
Gary Gygax's 1986 novel for TSR's "Greyhawk Adventures" series, Artifact of Evil, was the first novel to feature the drow prominently. Gygax's subsequent Gord the Rogue novels, published by New Infinities, Inc., continued the story and the drow's involvement, in the novels Sea of Death (1987), Come Endless Darkness (1988), and Dance of Demons (1988).

R. A. Salvatore's 1988–1990 The Icewind Dale Trilogy featured the unlikely hero Drizzt Do'Urden as one of the protagonists, and the 1990–1991 followup The Dark Elf Trilogy focused on Drizzt and the drow of the Forgotten Realms setting. Salvatore continued the story of Drizzt and the drow in his subsequent series Legacy of the Drow (1992–1996), Paths of Darkness (1998–2001), and The Hunter's Blades Trilogy (2002–2004). Other works continuing the story of the drow in the Forgotten Realms include Elaine Cunningham's Starlight and Shadows series (1995–1996, 2003), the War of the Spider Queen series (2002–2005, various authors), and Lisa Smedman's The Lady Penitent series (2007–2008).

Keith Baker's The Dreaming Dark trilogy (2005–2006) featured the story of the drow in Baker's world of Eberron.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition
The drow appear first for this edition in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989), which expands the information on drow society. Also included in the entry for drow is a description and statistics for the drider. This entry is reprinted with some minor modifications in the Monstrous Manual (1993).

Drow society, religion, history, magic, craftwork, and language for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting is detailed significantly in The Drow of the Underdark (1991), by Ed Greenwood. Greenwood appears in the book's introduction as a narrator, explaining how he came across the information in the book: a discussion with Elminster, and chance encounter with a former apprentice of Elminster—the drow lady, Susprina Arkhenneld—as the two explain the drow of the world to the narrator.

The drow are presented as a player character race for 2nd edition in The Complete Book of Elves (1992). Drow deities Lolth, Kiaransalee, Vhaeraun, and Zinzerena are described in Monster Mythology (1992). The drow are later presented as a playable character race again in Player's Option: Skills & Powers (1995).

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
The drow appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000). The drow of the Forgotten Realms setting appear in the hardcover Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001), and in Races of Faerûn (2003). The drow also appears in the revised Monster Manual for the 3.5 edition (2003).

The Underdark hardcover for the Forgotten Realms setting (2003) features the drow yet again as a player character race, as does the Player's Guide to Faerûn (2004). Lost Empires of Faerûn describes the drow werebat (2005). The drow paragon 3-level prestige class appears in Unearthed Arcana (2004).

In 2004, the new Eberron campaign setting introduced drow in a world where Lolth doesn't exist; various drow societies were then explored in more detail in Secrets of Xen'drik (2006). Additionally, the umbragen for the setting appeared as a player character race in Dragon #330 (April 2005).

The arcane guard drow, the dark sniper drow, the drow priestess, the Lolth's sting, and the Lolth-touched drow ranger appear in Monster Manual IV (2006). The deepwyrm drow is presented as a player character race in Dragon Magic (2006).

The drow are presented as a player character race for the 3.5 edition in Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (2007) and Drow of the Underdark (2007). Drow of the Underdark also features the arcane guard, the drow assassin, the house captain, the house wizard, the drow inquisitor, the favored consort, the drow priestess, the drow slaver, the spider sentinel, the albino drow (szarkai), the szarkai fighters, the szarkai druids, and the drow warrior, along with numerous prestige classes and other monsters related to drow.

Open gaming
The release of the Open Game License and the System Reference Document's inclusion of the drow race also led to a number of books related to drow being published by companies not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast, such as The Quintessential Drow, The Complete Guide to Drow, and Encyclopaedia Arcane: Drow Magic.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition
The drow appear in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the drow warrior, the drow arachnomancer, the drow blademaster, and the drow priest. The drow appear as a playable race in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (2008) and the Essentials rulebook Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010).

The drow feature in a pre-written playable module called Demon Queen's Enclave (2008) which takes adventurers from levels 14 through 17 into the Underdark to battle the forces of Orcus and possibly ally with members of the treacherous dark elves and/or their minions. The drow of Xen'drik are also outlined in the 4E Eberron Campaign Guide (2009).

Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition
The drow appear as a playable elf subrace in the Player's Handbook (2014) for this edition. They also appear in the Monster Manual (2014) for this edition. In the adventure module Out of the Abyss (2015), the players are captured by the drow at the beginning of the adventure. The drow are also discussed in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015) and in the Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018) supplements, including write-ups for their pantheon updated to the 5E Forgotten Realms status-quo.

The drow of Xen'drik are again outlined in Eberron: Rising From The Last War (2019). The new Exandria campaign setting added a non-Lolth based society of drow which was introduced in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020). Per Wizards of the Coast, the drow of these settings are presented as more "morally and culturally complex". On June 26, 2020, Netflix and Hulu removed the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" episode of the TV series Community from their platforms due to scenes with Chang playing a dark elf by wearing elf ears and makeup resembling blackface. A statement from Sony Pictures Television said that the studio supported the decision to remove the episode.

Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com, highlighted a 2021 update on Drizzt Do'Urden by Wizards of the Coast and wrote, "it also notes one major change to D&D canon that relates to the drow culture that Drizzt ultimately abandoned. The website points out that while Drizzt grew up in a 'cult of Lolth' [...], there are two other entire cultures of drow who have no ties to Lolth whatsoever. [...] The reveal of the Lorendrow and Aevendrow seem to suggest that Dungeons & Dragons is officially moving past some long-held canon about the drow". Tika Viteri, for Book Riot, highlighted that Salvatore's Starlight Enclave (2021) "contains a singular shift in the narrative of the story of the drow; Salvatore reveals that drow are not, in fact, the only dark-skinned elves in the Forgotten Realms".

Reception
Made famous by R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt novels, these dark elves from the game influenced subsequent works of fantasy. Drow have a gender-based caste system that one author claims says "a great deal about attitudes towards gender roles in the real world".

The drow originally created by Gary Gygax are now "essentially the drow of fantasy fiction today", according to Ed Greenwood, who believes them to be "arguably Gary Gygax's greatest, most influential fantasy creation" after the D&D game itself. Designer James Jacobs considers the drow to be a rare example of a D&D-invented monster becoming mainstream, with even non-gamers recognizing them. Rob Bricken, for Io9, named the drow as the eighth most memorable D&D monster. In the 1990s, products which featured drow produced higher sales. While Paizo Publishing was printing Dragon and Dungeon, covers featuring drow often sold better than other issues in the same year. Academic Steven Holmes noted that drow "remain highly visible in successful media projects".

Holmes highlighted that Gygax created drow as "perfect villains—endpoints on a divide of good and evil". However, Holmes thought R. A. Salvatore's depiction was more complicated than Gygax's and Salvatore's work "in many ways" ended up as the definitive portrayal of the drow. In the Io9 series revisiting older Dungeons & Dragons novels, in his review of Homeland by Salvatore, Bricken says that "its greatest strength is how it explores drow society, which up to that point was best summarized as 'very evil.' Prior to Drizzt, in the vein of orcs, trolls, and primary-colored dragons, the Drow were essentially categorized as more monsters for players to battle and defeat. Their skin was obsidian black, earning them the alternate name of dark elves, and marking them as the evil counterpart to the good and heroic lighter-skinned elves of the surface."

As player characters
The drow, especially when used as player characters, are surrounded by much controversy, especially after the release of Salvatore's novel, The Crystal Shard. Game designer James Jacobs has said that the drow player characters often spark arguments, with some players refusing to play in a campaign that allows drow PCs. Jacobs says that "even the name" is controversial, having at least two pronunciations. Rob Bricken, for Kotaku, wrote that there "has been one good Drow in the history of D&D, and that's Drizzt Do'Urden, who is one of the Mary Sue-iest characters in all of fiction—and he's been the star of countless novels and is the only reason any D&D player has even been interested in the Drow, of which now there is a terrifying amount of material".

Matthew Beilman, for CBR, highlighted multiple reasons to play as a drow character: "You will love playing a drow if you enjoy making others uncomfortable. In most D&D settings, the drow civilization is evil. [...] This makes them excellent campaign villains but also gives them great potential as antiheroes who lack traditional heroic attributes [...]. Playing a drow can also present an opportunity to play against traditional gender norms. [...] The drow are outsiders, even in settings that do not include Lolth and her corruptive influence. These campaigns might not have evil societies of dark elves, but they still tend to make them into foreigners with strange customs [...]. Playing a misunderstood, feared yet potentially heroic character can be great fun."In contrast, in his review of Menzoberranzan: City of Intrigue for DieHard GameFan, Alex Lucard wrote, "I'll be honest: I've never understood the appeal of the Drow at all. They just seemed overly angsty and dark for the sake of being dark. I've been bored by the novels where they are the featured race and I've generally avoided them unless someone is making fun of them".

Inherent characteristics
Some critics have highlighted that the drow are "dark skinned and inherently evil" and are connected to the "racist idea that non-white people are inherently bad". In the academic journal Mythlore, Holmes argued that the depiction of drow was an example of various creators using "negative estrangement" within the narrative "to create a 'more evil' antagonist to serve as a foil for narrative protagonists" and this narrative process "warps" and "strips" stereotypes "of their context in order to use them like ingredients in a recipe for a compelling villain". Holmes also highlighted the inconsistent artistic portrayal over time as "the black skin of the drow is not" consistently used across all products – this meant that when "some saw the drow as a fantastical race of spider-themed elves, others saw them as one of the very few depictions of black-skinned people in Dungeons & Dragons" and the inconsistent "visual representation" then "further compounds the complexity of discussing the relationship of the drow to real world race, given that some players may see the drow as obviously modeled on real world black bodies, and others seeing them as a fantasy race with no realworld analogue".

In 2010, scholar Cory Lowell Grewell found that in the Baldur's Gate video game series, "issues of contemporary race relations are brought to the fore in the player-Character's interactions with the dark-skinned Drow Elves." In the book Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy (2012), author James Rocha states that the difference between drow and dark elves in the Forgotten Realms setting is rooted in racist stereotypes: "an acceptable lighter skinned dark race side by side with only the most rare exceptions in the darker race, which is thought to be inherently evil, mirrors American history in a very uncomfortable fashion". In a retrospective on the legacy of Dungeons & Dragons, academic Daniel Heath Justice also commented that the "Forgotten Realms was explicitly based on the civilized-versus-savage binary and leaned in hard on racial essentialism in its sadistic black-skinned drow led by vicious matriarchs and their terrible spider goddess, firmly melding anti-Blackness with misogyny, a once-civilized people gone feral under the debased rule of women".

In response to this criticism in 2020, Wizards of the Coast stated: "we present orcs and drow in a new light in two of our most recent books, Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. In those books, orcs and drow are just as morally and culturally complex as other peoples. We will continue that approach in future books, portraying all the peoples of D&D in relatable ways and making it clear that they are as free as humans to decide who they are and what they do". Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com, highlighted a 2021 Forgotten Realms lore update on the Wizards of the Coast website: "While Drizzt himself is proof that all drow aren't inherently evil, many fans still think that Dungeons & Dragons lore needs major updates when it comes to the drow. The main issue is that the drow (like other 'evil' races) are presented as a large monolithic society dedicated to evil instead of a group with multiple competing interests and beliefs. It's not that some drow, or even a city or country of drow, are seen as evil—it's that Dungeons & Dragons lore has traditionally considered evil drow to be the default. [...] By bringing in two entirely new cultures of drow that have rejected Lolth, it seems that the lore will show that drow are just as complex and multi-faceted as the many other elven subraces in the game."Holmes commented that "to some extent, the current revisions being applied to race, half races, and the drow specifically reflect longstanding tensions in gaming spaces" and how audience views around "narrative subjects change over time". Holmes thought Wizards of the Coast appears to be aiming for a "middle ground" where "drow are not intrinsically evil" by allowing players to decide if they want to play as an evil drow who adheres to Lolth or play as a "good drow" who deals with "overcoming the racism of the world based on the violence of Lolth-sworn drow. This allows Wizards of the Coast to retain the brand identity of the drow that drove sales of drow-related products for thirty years, while shifting emphasis away from an implied endorsement of naturalized racism".

Fictional description
The drow made their first statistical appearance in the Greyhawk adventure module Hall of the Fire Giant King (1978) at the end of the module, and received a lengthy writeup. The history of the drow within the game is revealed; in ages past, the elves were torn by discord and warfare, driving out from their surface lands their selfish and cruel members, who sought safety in the underworld. These creatures, later known as the "dark elvenfolk" or drow, grew strong in the arcane arts over the centuries and content with their gloomy fairyland beneath the earth, though they still bear enmity towards and seek revenge against their distant kin, the elves and faeries who drove them down. They are described as chaotic evil in alignment, and highly intelligent. They are described as black-skinned and pale haired in appearance, around 5-feet tall and slight of build with somewhat sharp features, with large eyes and large pointed ears. Drow are difficult to surprise as they are able to see very well in the dark, have an intuitive sense about their underground world similar to that of dwarves, and can detect hidden or secret doors as easily as other elves do. Drow are highly resistant to magic, while all drow have the ability to use some inherent magical abilities even if they are not strictly spellcasters. The module also reveals that there are rumors of vast caverns housing whole cities of drow which exist somewhere deep beneath the earth, and now that the drow have dwelled in these dark labyrinthe places they dislike daylight and other forms of bright light as it hampers their abilities. They are able to communicate using a silent language composed of hand movements, and when coupled with facial and body expression, movement, and posture, this form of communication is the equal of any spoken language.

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game's second edition product Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989) describes the world of the drow, where violent conflict is part of everyday life, so much so that most drow encountered are ready for a fight. Their inherent magic use comes from training in magic, which all drow receive. Not long after the creation of the elves, they were torn into rival factions, one evil and one good; after a great civil war, those who followed the path of evil and chaos were driven far from the world's forests and into the bleak, lightless caverns and tunnels of the underworld. Drow society is fragmented into opposing noble houses and merchant families, and they base their rigid class system on the belief that the strongest should rule. Female drow tend to fill many positions of great importance, with priests of the dark goddess Lolth holding a very high place in society. Drow fighters are required to go through rigorous training in their youth, and those who fail are put to death. Drow constantly war with other underground neighbors such as dwarves and deep gnomes (svirfneblin), and keep slaves of all types - including allies who fail to live up to drow expectations.

The Complete Book of Elves (1993) by Colin McComb focuses some of its attention on the drow. The Elfwar is presented, an elven myth in which the elves were one people until the Spider Queen Lolth used the dissent among the elves to gain a foothold; the elves of Lolth took the name Drow to signify their new allegiance, but as they massed to conquer the other elves, Corellon Larethian and his followers drove Lolth and her people deep into the earth, where they chose to remain. The dark elves who became the drow were originally simply elves who held more with the tenets of might than those of justice, and as they quested for power they became corrupted and turned against their fairer brethren. Any elf character of good or neutral alignment, even drow, is allowed into the realm of Arvanaith where elves go upon reaching old age. The book notes that drow player characters have a large number of benefits while suffering few disadvantages, but that "the major disadvantage to being a drow is being a drow." Drow characters are extraordinarily dexterous and intelligent, but have the typically low elf constitution; also, their personalities are described as grating at best, and all other elves hate the drow which affects their reactions to a drow character.

In the 5th Edition Basic Rules, drow are described as a subrace of elves with a connection to Underdark magic. Additionally, it states, "the cult of the god Lolth, Queen of Spiders, has corrupted some of the oldest drow cities, especially in the worlds of Oerth and Toril. Eberron, Krynn, and other realms have escaped the cult's influence—for now. Wherever the cult lurks, drow heroes stand on the front lines in the war against it, seeking to sunder Lolth's web". Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018) retells the story of Corellon and Lolth; the elves who supported Lolth were cast "into darkness. They became a people wholly dedicated to Lolth and her scheming and for many, many centuries were viewed in the multi-verse as a people of evil". However, since all elves are descended from Corellon, the drow have the ability to "break free of Lolth's influence" and turn to "the light within themselves".

Abilities
With the ability to resist magic and powerful darkvision, drow are more powerful than many of Dungeons & Dragons' races. Drow possess natural magical abilities which enables them to summon globes of darkness, outline targets in faerie fire which causes no harm but makes the target brightly visible to everyone who sees them, and create magical balls of light. They can also levitate for short periods of time. They live to extraordinarily long ages if not killed by violence first, over a thousand years in some cases. Their hearing and vision are better than that of a human being and they are difficult to sneak up on because of this. They naturally excel at moving silently. Drow also employ the unusual hand crossbow, firing small, though very lethal, darts.

In Lolth based societies, noble drow males are commonly wizards or fighters. Female nobles are almost always clerics and almost never wizards.

Alignment
As a race, drow were traditionally portrayed evil. There were unusual exceptions, the most notable being Drizzt Do'Urden, Jarlaxle Baenre, and Liriel Baenre. Originally, drow were chaotic evil in alignment. Beginning with 3rd edition D&D, drow were usually neutral evil. There have been encounters with non-evil drow, but these are distrusted as much as their brethren, due to their reputation. In the Forgotten Realms setting, the Drow followers of Eilistraee were originally the largest group of good Drow, as Eilistraee is the patron goddess of all Drow that have a good alignment.

The 4th Edition Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010) does not suggest any typical alignment for drow player characters; however, it highlights the drow that break away from the evil Lolth based societies. The 5th Edition Player's Handbook (2014) described drow as "more often evil than not". In 2021, official errata removed the suggested alignments for playable races, including drow, in all 5th Edition sourcebooks. As of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (2022), creature stat blocks that also have playable races "now state that they can be any alignment".

Environment
Within the context of many Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, the drow were forced underground in what is now known as the Underdark after the great war amongst the elves, a vast system of caverns and tunnels spanning much of the continent. The drow live in city-states in the Underdark, becoming one of the most powerful races therein.

The drow are well adapted to seeing in the dark, and they loathe, are terrified of, and are easily blinded by the light of the surface. Some magic weapons, armor, and various other items of the drow disintegrate or lose their magical properties if exposed to the sun.

Typical physical characteristics
Drow characters are extremely intelligent, charismatic and dexterous, but share surface elves' comparative frailty and slight frames. Females tend to be bigger and stronger than males. Drow are characterized by white or silver hair and obsidian black skin. Their eyes are red (or rarely gray, violet, or yellow) in darkness and can be many different colors in normal light. In 5th Edition, drow typically have "white hair and grayish skin of many hues" along with better darkvision and a sensitivity to sunlight.

Drow have several kinds of innate spell powers and spell resistance. This is balanced by their weakness in daylight. Half-drow are the result of crossbreeding between another race and a drow, and share characteristics of both.

Society
Lolth based drow society is primarily matriarchal, with priestesses of their evil spider goddess Lolth in the highest seats of power. This society is based upon violence, murder, cunning, and the philosophy that only the strong survive. Hence, most drow plot endlessly to murder or otherwise incapacitate their rivals and enemy drow using deceit and betrayal. Drow, particularly in higher positions, are constantly wary of assassins and the like. One of the quirks of this constant infighting is the relatively short lifespan of the average drow. While being just as long lived as their surface cousins, living as long as a thousand years, elderly drow are rarely encountered. Consequently, they are the only race of elves that matches the fertility of 'lesser' races, such as humans. Their society, as a whole, is seemingly nonviable. The only reason they do not murder themselves to extinction is by the will of Lolth, working primarily through her clergy. Lolth does not tolerate any drow that threaten to bring down her society, and the clergy make certain that perpetrators cease their destructive actions by either threatening or killing them. Matron mothers lead the various noble houses and act as "high priestesses of Lolth". Matthew Beilman, for CBR, highlighted that Lolth based "drow society is a lethal cloak-and-dagger affair – like a constant Game of Thrones but if every character were playing by Lannister/Bolton rules. That is to say, playing dirty and playing to win".

There are exceptions to the rule, of course. Some communities of drow worship other gods (like Vhaeraun or Eilistraee), and thus, their hierarchy changes, reverses the roles of males and females, or (such as in the case of Eilastree) even approaching something like a workable, progressive society. Drow societies can also vary vastly depending on the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting.

In various campaign settings
Different campaign settings portray drow in various ways.

In Eberron
Inhabiting the jungles and Underdark in the continental isle of Xen'drik, the drow in Eberron have a much more tribalistic culture than their other Dungeons & Dragons counterparts. They are not an offshoot of the elven race like in many other worlds but rather a separate, if similar, race. Instead of the spider goddess Lolth, most tribes worship a male scorpion deity known as Vulkoor, though exceptions are common. It is believed that Vulkoor is actually one of the forms of the Mockery (a member of the Dark Six). The tribes are often xenophobic, and the social structure varies from tribe to tribe. It is known that the drow mastered elemental binding before gnomes did- including a cultural group of fire-elemental binders called the Sulatar. There is also a subgroup called the umbragen, or shadow elves, who worship the Mockery in the form of a scorpion god and Khyber or the Umbra, the Consuming Shadow, for whom the umbragen are named; the umbragen dwell underground beneath Xen'drik and are noted for producing many warlocks and soulknives.

Drow in Eberron run the gamut from almost feral in nature to being fully civilized and on par with the cultural level of Khorvaire, varying from tribe to tribe.

In Exandria
The region of Xhorhas, the eastern side of the Wildemount continent in the Exandria setting, is governed by the Kryn Dynasty and ruled by the Bright Queen Leylas Kryn. The Dynasty was founded by drow who escaped to surface after rejecting Lolth for a god of light known as the Luxon. The nation is now home to many creatures others in Wildemount would see as monstrous or evil. Due to the Luxon, the Kryn Dynasty also established a new source of magic called Dunamancy which "involves the manipulation of entropy, gravity, and time" where "dunamancers draw power from alternate timelines and unseen realities, subtly affect the flow of time, and even tighten or loosen the grip of gravity". Compared to their neighboring country, the human-run monarchy of the Dwendalian Empire, "the Dynasty is freer, both politically and culturally. They accept anyone and everyone while the Empire is restrictive and nearly inaccessible to outsiders". The Kryn Dynasty was first explored in depth in the second campaign of the web series Critical Role before being added to the Dungeons & Dragons canon in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020).

Critics have highlighted that this setting breaks from traditional fantasy tropes especially around evil races. James Grebey, for Syfy Wire, highlighted "it's a country of cast-offs and scrappy upstarts who are simply trying to thrive in a world that's prejudiced toward them. Due in no small part to a religion that allows for souls to be reborn in another body, the Kryn society is race-neutral in a way that's rarely seen in fantasy lore. It's borderline progressive, even. Crucially, while there are bad actors among the Kryn, they're not evil solely because of their race".

In the Forgotten Realms
1991's The Drow of the Underdark, a 128-page sourcebook all about the drow, expanded the drow significantly for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition version of the Forgotten Realms setting. In the Forgotten Realms, the dark elves were once ancient tribes of Ilythiir and Miyeritar. They were transformed into drow by the Seldarine and were cast down and driven underground by the light-skinned elves because of the Ilythiirian's savagery during the Crown Wars. The drow had fallen under the influence of Araushnee, who was transformed into Lolth and was cast down into the Demonweb Pits along with her son Vhaeraun by the elven god Corellon Larethian because of Lolth's and Vhaeraun's attempt to take control of the elven pantheon (which included Araushnee's seduction of Corellon Larethian). Drow society, being strongly matriarchal, allows the females to hold all positions of power in the government, and to choose and discard mates freely. Social station is the most important thing in drow society, making ascension to greater power a drow's ultimate goal. Drow have a strong affinity for arachnids, as most worship the spider goddess Lolth, and spiders dwell freely among drow communities. The largest drow civilization is the subterranean city of Llurth Dreier. However, Menzoberranzan is featured most prominently in the novels.

Prior to the Spellplague descendants of the Miyeritar, dark elves later succeed in reversing their transformation and are recreated as a distinct dark elf race. According to The Complete Book of Elves, drow are not welcome in Evermeet and are turned away. Drow could also worship Ghaunadaur, Kiaransalee, Selvetarm or Vhaeraun. A special case is Eilistraee, the only drow goddess who is chaotic good instead of chaotic evil; she wants the drow to return to the light. However, all of these alternative deities (except perhaps Ghaunadaur) were killed or forgotten in the last years before the Spellplague,  but they managed to return to life and regain their followers, about a century later, during the Sundering.

Amongst the most infamous of drow are the members of House Baenre, while Abeir-Toril is also home to some famous benevolent drow including Drizzt Do'Urden and his deceased father Zaknafein (both of House Do' Urden), Liriel Baenre (formerly of Menzoberranzan's aforementioned House Baenre), and Qilué of the Seven Sisters. The drow Jarlaxle is also well-known, as he is one of the few males in Menzoberranzan to obtain a position of great power. He is the founder and leader of the mercenary band Bregan D'aerthe. These characters are from The Dark Elf Trilogy (1990–1991), a series of books by R. A. Salvatore (except for Liriel Baenre and Qilue). The six drow in the War of the Spider Queen series have also gained some renown since the novels have been published.

In 2021, two new Underdark based drow societies, the Lorendrow and the Aevendrow, were introduced; both of these societies have rejected Lolth and are not evil. The Lolth based society of Menzoberranzan is now referred to as Unadrow. This retcon "suggests that the beliefs and evil practices once seen as common to all drow are specifically related to the 'Unadrow,' the culture of drow who have become corrupted by the evil spider goddess".

In Dragonlance
In the Dragonlance setting, Drow are not a native race. However, a colony of them exists in a connected pocket dimension called the Valley of Perfect Silence. These arrived by means of a crashed Spelljammer vessel, and are now worshippers of Jiathuli, an evil daughter of Takhisis. "Dark Elves" is a separate term in Dragonlance, referencing elves who have been cast out by the other elves for various crimes, such as worship of the evil deities. Dalamar, a student of Raistlin Majere, is the most notable of Krynn's dark elves. However, over the years Drow have accidentally appeared in a few Dragonlance modules and novels. Similar mistakes have occurred with other standard AD&D races, such as orcs and lycanthropes, which are not part of the Dragonlance setting. Some theories say that these rare Drow may have accidentally been sent there during a plane shifting spell or related magic, a misfire as like as not that is corrected before the respective timelines are tampered with too drastically.

In Greyhawk
In the world of Greyhawk, the drow were driven underground by their surface-dwelling relatives because of ideological differences. There they eventually adapted to their surroundings, especially by attracting the attention of the goddess Lolth, "Queen of Spiders". The center of drow civilization is the subterranean city Erelhei-Cinlu, and its surrounding Vault, commonly called the Vault of the Drow. Drow rank structure was based much more on personal experience level and proven personal abilities rather than on gender. Males were just as likely to have positions of authority over both males and females, and the tradition of matriarchy, where the highest-ranking member was always a female, was not a special directive of the Demon Queen Lolth. The vast majority of Drow Elves both male and female in the original campaign setting of Greyhawk have no authority or ranking at all and live an idle and degenerate life in the great city of the Drow.

Known drow of Greyhawk include Clannair Blackshadow, Derken Gale, Jawal Severnain, and Landis Bree of Greyhawk City; Eclavdra of House Eilserv; and Edralve of the Slave Lords. In the drow city Erelhei-Cinlu, player characters may freely enter the city and spend time there, unless they attempt to organize any escaped slave groups for open warfare against the drow; the threat of a slave uprising will bring the chaotic drow into full cooperation.

Some drow worship a nameless Elder Elemental God (said to have ties to Tharizdun) instead of Lolth. The module Vault of the Drow showcases that the House of Eilservs, led by Eclavdra in Erelhei-Cinlu, turned from worship of Lolth to the Elder Elemental God when the city's other noble houses allied against them after proclaiming that their mistress should be the Queen of All Drow. Eilservs attempted to establish a power base through a puppet kingdom in the surface world dedicated to the worship of their new deity, so that their demands of supreme power in the Vault can no longer be denied, but this scheme was ruined.

In other campaign settings

 * In the Mystara / "Known World" setting, shadow elves are a race of subterranean elves who have been mutated via magic. Aside from living underground, they have nothing in common with Drow and are not known as Dark elves.
 * In Mongoose Publishing's Drow War trilogy, the drow are recast as lawful evil villains and likened to the Nazis. The author of the series has stated that this was a deliberate reaction to the prevalence of renegade, non-evil drow characters.
 * Drow appear as a playable race in Urban Arcana, which is a d20 Modern setting based on Dungeons & Dragons. They are shown as very fashionable, often setting new trends. The symbol for most drow is a spider, and they often take the mage or acolyte classes.
 * A supplement book about the drow was produced by Green Ronin Publishing called Plot & Poison: A Guidebook to the Drow in 2002 and is based on the d20 System. It introduces several drow subtypes including aquatic drow and vupdrax (or winged drow) plus fleshes out drow life, such as how they treat slaves of the various fantasy types like elves and humans. Wizards of the Coast, seeing the heavy sales of the GRP supplement, released their own supplement book called Drow of the Underdark in May 2007.
 * Drow in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting used to be elves but stayed on Golarion when the other elves left the world. Over time, the remaining elves turned into drow by powerful magic, and at this time any elf who is evil enough can spontaneously turn into a drow. The existence of drow in Golarion is virtually unknown to non-elves. Drow are also the main antagonists in the Second Darkness Adventure Path and the Rise of the Drow Trilogy. In 2023, Paizo announced that drow would be retconned out of Golarion's lore and replaced by serpentfolk as the publisher transitions away from Wizard of the Coast's Open Game License.

Lolth
Lolth is a fictional goddess in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Lolth (Lloth in the Drow language), the Demon Queen of Spiders, is the chief goddess of the Drow. She is also known as the Spider Queen and the Queen of the Demonweb Pits; her realm, the 66th layer of the Abyss, is referred to as the Demonweb Pits. Lolth usually appears in two forms: drow and arachnid. In drow form, the Spider Queen appears as an "exquisitely beautiful" female dark elf, sometimes covered in clinging spiders. In her arachnid form, Lolth takes the appearance of a giant black widow spider with the head of a female drow or human peering from between the eight spider-eyes. Sometimes, the two foremost pair of her spider-legs are actually humanoid arms. In third edition, her arachnid form has taken more of a drider-like appearance, due to the events of the "War of the Spider Queen" novel series.

Conception and creation
Lolth was created by Gary Gygax for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, later appeared in the Forgotten Realms setting, and in the 3rd edition became a member of the default pantheon of D&D gods. In those various settings, the drow pantheon of gods consists of the leader Lolth, as well as Kiaransalee, Vhaeraun, and Zinzerena and also the one good goddess Eilistraee. Other drow gods may be present in different campaign settings.

According to the Forgotten Realms storyline, Lolth began as an intermediary goddess abiding in the sixty-sixth layer of the Abyss, the Demonweb Pits. Through the events that transpired in War of the Spider Queen series, she transformed herself into a greater goddess as depicted in 4th edition, the Demonweb Pits becoming its own plane.

Publication history
Lolth was first mentioned in the modules Descent into the Depths of the Earth (1978) and more fully described in Vault of the Drow (1978), and was the main antagonist of the module Queen of the Demonweb Pits (1980). These modules were later reprinted as part of the Queen of the Spiders collection in 1986. Lolth's role as a deity was first explored in Deities & Demigods (1980). Her game statistics were reprinted in the Fiend Folio (1981).

Lolth's role in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting was first detailed in Ed Greenwood's second edition AD&D sourcebook, Drow of the Underdark (1991). Lolth was detailed as a deity in the book Monster Mythology (1992), including details about her priesthood. Her role in the cosmology of the Planescape campaign setting was described in On Hallowed Ground (1996). Lolth received a very detailed description of her role in the Forgotten Realms in Demihuman Deities (1998).

Lolth is detailed in Defenders of the Faith (2000), and Deities & Demigods (2002), and her role in the Forgotten Realms is revisited in Faiths and Pantheons (2002). Lolth's priesthood is detailed for this edition in Complete Divine (2004), and her role in the Abyss is detailed in the Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss (2006). Lolth and the Drow are further detailed in both Drow of the Underdark (2007), and the adventure Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (2007). Dragon #359 (September 2007), the final print issue of the magazine, described Lolth as one of the 20 most memorable villains of the Dungeons & Dragons game.

Lolth appears as one of the evil deities described in the Dungeon Master's Guide for the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons (2008). The story of her dissent from and war against Corellon and Sehanine is fleshed out in the supplements Underdark and The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea. A slightly different (and arguably more powerful) version of Lolth is presented in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. Lolth in the Forgotten Realms has a different appearance, dogma and personality than the core Lolth. Wizards of the Coast's D&D Compendium and D&D Character Builder record the core Lolth and the Realms Lolth as separate entities. Lolth (Demon Queen of Spiders) appears in the 4th edition's Monster Manual 3 (2010). She is the mascot for this volume, which includes statistics for Lolth in both drow and spider form.

In 2021, Lolth was featured on two cards as a "legendary planeswalker" in the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms line from the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. Lolth will be featured on the alternative cover edition of the upcoming 2024 Revised 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide with art by Olena Richards.

Reception
Lolth was named as one of the greatest villains in D&D history by the final issue of Dragon. Witwer et al., in the book Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana, considered Lolth one of the "iconic D&D characters", present throughout the decades of the game.

Lolth was #10 on Screen Rant's 2018 "Dungeons & Dragons: The 15 Most Powerful Villains, Ranked" list—the article states "The War of the Spider Queen series would show Lolth's transformation into a greater goddess, making her one of the most powerful beings in the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. [...] Lolth can appear in the form of a monstrous spider, which many fans have mocked, due to the fact that it only has sixty-six hit points. You likely won't get a chance to get close enough to harm Lolth, due to the fact that you are battling her in her home dimension, which is filled with an army of demonic spiders. Lolth can also transform into the form of a high-level magic-user/cleric, which gives her access to a wide-range of powerful spells. This is to say nothing of her psionic abilities, though these are given to her at the discretion of the dungeon master".

Lolth was #8 on CBR's 2020 "Dungeons & Dragons: 10 Endgame Bosses You Need To Use In Your Next Campaign" list—the article states "the DMs can even get rather creative with the stage; since Lolth is a creature of the Underdark, the fight leading up to her and the boss herself can take place in a dark and nightmarish cave that requires some spelunking and vertical maneuvers. Bonus points if the fight happens in a web network suspended midair with an abyssal drop".

Related creatures
Like elves, drow have other creatures associated with them either by environment or by blood. The drider, a drow transformed into a half-drow half-spider creature as a punishment, is one of the most often cited examples.

Drider
Only high-level priestesses in good standing with Lolth are able to initiate the transformation of a dark elf into a drider. This transformation is very painful, and lasts at least 12 hours. Driders develop a poisonous bite. Their digestion changes and they must drink blood of living creatures for sustenance. Driders still maintain the spells and special abilities they had developed as a drow. There can exist any character class of drider. They retain intelligence and memories. This usually makes them bitter, spiteful creatures. Some hunt for magic powerful enough to undo the transformation.

In previous editions, driders appear sexless due to bloating, but able to magically reproduce. In Dungeons & Dragons edition 3.5, driders seem to retain their gender and characteristics after the transformation, but fertility is debatable.

Driders play many roles in drow society. The dark elves both fear and are revolted by driders. After transformation, they are usually pushed to the wild area around a drow city. Driders are usually found in company with tiny, huge and giant spiders. Driders speak Common, Elvish, and Undercommon. In the first and second editions of the game, Driders spoke Drow. Driders are almost always Chaotic Evil.

In the Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, becoming a drider is actually considered holy and a blessing from Lolth.

Draegloths
Draegloths are half-demon, half drow monstrosities. Found in any campaign setting, they are particularly numerous in the Forgotten Realms. They are created by the unholy union between an ascending high priestess of the drow goddess Lolth and a glabrezu.

Draegloths are about ten feet tall and have four arms, the upper pair being much larger than the lower. They have large claws on the upper arms and they use them for hand-to-hand combat, for they usually prefer the feeling of tearing flesh and sinew under their claws and fangs. Their face is stretched so it resembles that of a dog. Their flesh is as dark as a drow's, and they are covered in a fine coat of fur; they also have a white mane. They are sacred creatures to the Lolthites and are usually treated with respect.

Triel Baenre of Menzoberranzan, in the Forgotten Realms, had a draegloth son, Jeggred.

V3.5 statistics for the draegloth can be found in Drow of the Underdark.

Chitines and choldriths
"The chitine and the choldrith are part-elf, part-spider abominations created by magic as servitors of the spider goddess Lolth" appearing in the Forgotten Realms setting. Chitine resembles a sickly, white, four-foot tall humanoid with vaguely spider-like features. They are depicted with wavy hair and sly faces with a set of spider's fangs protruding from their mouths. Chitines also have four arms which feature an additional joint (compared to a human), giving them great flexibility and dexterity. They were created inadvertently by the drow as a result of failed experiments on normal humanoids.

Chitines typically hate their former masters, the drow, but keep worshipping Lolth. The role of priests in their society is taken up by a closely related but completely separate race, the choldriths. Chitines strongly live up to their spider heritage; in their underground cities and villages, they build with webs in the same way that humans build with wood and stone. They build everything out of it, homes, traps, clothing, weapons, and more.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Drow


text:
Talk:NetHack

Sources tag?
D. Brodale, I would appreciate it if you could explain why you feel this article is insufficiently sourced. I suppose the YAAD, YASD, and DYWYPI sections of the article are undersourced, but I don't see how they can be improved, and I would rather not cut them entirely. Other than that, I honestly have no idea what you want us to do, unless perhaps you want us to cite some sort of peer-reviewed walkthrough of the game. If you feel that the gameplay-related parts of the article lack sources, I again have no idea how this may be corrected, assuming that Wikihack is an unacceptable source. Inyssius (talk) 13:26, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The problem is that there aren't third-party sources for a lot of the article. If there's no way to get third-party sources for some information, then that information can't stay.  Wikipedia is not a game guide.  Therefore, if you want to have it kept, you'd do well to try to find sources.  Nyttend (talk) 13:24, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * It may be a good idea to review WP:V on the subject of sourcing. Nethack certainly has some geek culture surrounding it, and there must be some reliable, independent sources available on it. Maybe something of Google Scholar or Google Books? Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 13:28, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Apparently, it's unclear to others that I agree with the sentiments of both Nyttend and Martijn Hoekstra above. I saw no need to "me, too" the above replies at the time, but in partial response to the query below (and also to those in the main article's editlog), consider this a belated "me, too" to the points raised above. The tag in question is meant to highlight a standing deficiency in the article. Let's not lose our collective heads over it. D. Brodale (talk) 20:12, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

PrimarySources tag
"Primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources, or discuss the issue on the talk page." Right, let's discuss it then. Would whoever applied this tag please explain how it's appropriate to software, in particular to open source software, or else remove it? If you tag one piece of open source software like this you're on a slippery slope to tagging everything, since the primary source for information on an open source program is the source, and very often there quite simply isn't an independant corpus of discussion in the way there is on the bible or Malthus. MarkMLl (talk) 22:24, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

 * This has nothing to do with NetHack being open source software. Please read the linked Wikipedia articles that explain what is called for in the editor hatnote. The intention was never to prompt removal of the article, but rather the improvement of such by supplying sources distanced from the subject in question. Please don't misconstrue the meaning of the hatnote, attribute malice to other editors, or ramp up the rhetoric when perusal of the linked explanations makes it quite clear what has been asked for. If it's still unclear what "primary sources" means in this context, that can be discussed. However, the above comment doesn't express that effort has been made to comprehend standing Wikipedia discussion of sources. Hint: there's at least one non-primary source in the External links section. Others exist, as well, for NetHack. The hatnote is a call to improve the article by incorporating such. D. Brodale (talk) 19:21, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

 * PS: It's usually best to draw attention to queries such as this by posting to the specific editor's Talk page (if urgent attention is required). We all don't trawl individual articles on a daily basis. Or, at least, I don't. To reiterate: there is no jihad against open source software here, and I'm unaware any slippery slope has been trod upon. D. Brodale (talk) 19:27, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you D. Brodale for your response. Nothing urgent here.  No hostility.  Some things (like open sourced software) are difficult to source because they are always changing.  In the case of a game like Nethack this is even more true.  Aside from game reviews from magazines the source (nethack official webpage) itself is the best place to get information.  Its true no article is perfect and all may be improved but is the tag really necessary? Garycompugeek (talk) 23:03, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes. D. Brodale (talk) 23:20, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Origin of term 'hack'
The intro says, without citation: "The "hack" element refers to a genre of role-playing games known as hack and slash for their focus on combat."

I thought it came from the MIT usage of the word 'hacking' to mean crawling through basements and attics. Would somebody please find out which is right and cite this? - David McCabe (talk) 20:48, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
 * This is correct. Notice Hack being the unofficial sequel to Rogue and the Hack and Slash page link. Garycompugeek (talk) 21:28, 16 July 2008 (UTC)

Article Rating
Examining the current assessment scales I feel this article should be graded a B with High importance. The article has been complete for many years and is the father of the dungeon crawl. Garycompugeek (talk) 23:00, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Father of the dungeon Crawl? No...try Wizardry, Zork, or Hunt the Wumpus -AMO

 * One suggestion would be to bring this topic up with the folks associated with the Wikiproject Video Games, as both measures are relevant to that project and its goals and relate to its assessment department. It would seem that the largest obstacle for B-rating, by the relevant criteria, is the general lack of suitable references among other things. "Father of the dungeon crawl" is a gloss that doesn't meaningfully convey the point you're making relative to importance, though I'm sure if you talk to WP:VG membership involved with assessment, or draw them here for same, it would generate useful discussion. I do hope you understand that neither measure is a reflection on NetHack itself, being "primarily intended for the internal use of the project, and [they] do not necessarily imply any official standing within Wikipedia as a whole", per the assessment FAQ. D. Brodale (talk) 23:22, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Does the rating refer to the importance of the article or the subject? Nethack is clearly game of massive importance in the history of computers, right up there with Colossal_Cave_Adventure and Doom_(video_game). Mtpaley (talk) 23:09, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Wikiproject videogame assessment
I've kept the rating as-is, this is very much a start-class article. If the game's claim to fame is being a derivative/child of Rogue, which is High importance, then a Mid rating seems reasonable. Even mid-importance is a step above the majority of articles - there are about 9 Low-importance articles for every Mid. A good example of a B-class article is Silent Hill Homecoming. If the article were cleaned up it would have a robust gameplay section and a few stub sections, that's not a C-class article let alone B, and it still needs cleaning up anyway.

Some points to consider:
 * Quality references and well-developed sections on gameplay, development and reception are the key to higher ratings and better articles. Development information here is negligible, there is no reception to speak of.
 * Gameplay has been scattered across numerous unnecessary sub-headings which artificially stretch the article, which is worsened by having numerous small paragraphs of no more than a few sentences. Cleaning the excess headings out, merging paragraphs and some rewording to avoid redundancy would make reading the article much easier.
 * The interface info doesn't currently justify a separate heading, particularly when it contains a large redundant image (screenshots work fine) and a large amount of the text is little more than a key for this image. There's cleaner and simpler ways of describing the (ASCII?) graphics without going into "this is a chest and this is a door...".
 * Solid referencing from secondary sources is hardly there, a wiki is being cited as a source, most of them which are there are just verifying that different ports exist. Even to get to C-class a video game article needs to have much better sources in place. One of the strongest sources you could wish for (Salon) is currently languishing in external links, external links should be kept to a minimum and used for further reading, not potential sources.
 * The infobox is the software variant rather than the video game variant, the image within would more ideally be a logo for the game (if one exists) or a snapshot of the title screen.

Contributors interested in building the article up should take a look around the videogame project's Good Articles for examples of layout, sourcing, article sections etc. Hope that's of help. Someoneanother 00:52, 10 October 2008 (UTC)
 * It does and thanks. My confusion was brought on by the incorrect assessment that has been with the article for years and I was trying to see what had changed. Garycompugeek (talk) 13:11, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

 * It's possible that this is only a mid-importance video game, but it is probably high-importance for geek culture. I'm not sure if there's a wikiproject for that.  -- 204.169.54.225 (talk) 17:50, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

3rd party refereces boilers still needed?
I'm tempted to remove the "more 3rd party" references boiler. Does anybody feel that it is still necessary? It's kind of always implied that better references are needed for every article. I think the boiler now detracts from the article more than it tries to help. Other opinions? Jason Quinn (talk) 23:31, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

iPhone/iPod Touch versions
This might be splitting hairs, but there is no NetHack port for this platform, only a port of Rogue. Any objection to my removing the iPhone/iPod Touch mention, and maybe someone over at Rogue can add these ports there? Deltwalrus (talk) 15:59, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

 * It's not splitting hairs, so it seems a valid concern. There still does not appear to be a port of NetHack to Apple's iPhone/Touch platform, though progress appears to be underway in some quarters. It may be best to remove mention of such from the main article, or at the least, to reword any claim about availability. D. Brodale (talk) 20:14, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Just to make it clear for anyone reading, there are now at least two versions of nethack 3.4.3 for iOS: iNethack (c) 2009 Dirk Zimmermann NetHack for iPhone (c) 2008 gandreas software 90.211.114.219 (talk) 07:30, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Y2K Bug
My apologies if this has been covered in the past;

Shouldn't there be a line or two that reads something along the lines of

"Towards the end of 1999, the DevTeam issued a minor revision of the game from 3.22 to 3.23 to fix issues surrounding the Y2K (99/00 1999/2000 clock bug). Although the Y2K Bug turned out to be a largely over-ratted issue, the revision was necessary to fix an issue with (from memory) calculating the phases of the moon plus (again from memory) a year 32,000 bug on the Unix Platforms."

The above I feel has importance as it is one of the only examples I can think of where Y2K bug was (at least in part) the reason given for an upgrade.

Thanks for listening, --Timelord2067 (talk) 15:18, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Sure if you have a valid source that states this feel free to add it. Garycompugeek (talk) 17:05, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * NetHack 3.3.0: Main Page has some of the info; I guess the details can be found in the mailing lists or other documentation. --Kjoonlee 23:31, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

 * I know there was some mention on the rgrn at the time which made mention of it, there is a Y2K statement on this page http://www.nethack.org/v330/info.html#Y2K that states (paraphrase) NH322 & earlier are not Y2K compliant due to the two digit year issue - NH 323 will enable games already started to be finished. It goes on to say both NH 3.3 & NH 3.23 are Y2K compliant.

I will have a search through the rgrn and see if I can find mention of it there (and the announce pages too). I'm not online daily, so it's a work in progress... --Timelord2067 (talk) 03:27, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

 * The Y2K issue had nothing to do with the phase of the moon calculations (which won't be a problem until 2038); rather, it was with the recording of timestamps in logfiles, and more particularly with buffer overruns when reading those log entries back into the game. Example post from one of the DevTeam discussing the bug. --19:28, 29 June 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Psmith (talk • contribs)

 * So, we could add a paragraph which reads: "Towards the end of 1999, the DevTeam issued a minor revision of the game from 3.22 to 3.23 to fix issues surrounding the Y2K (99/00 1999/2000 clock bug). Although the Y2K Bug turned out to be a largely over-ratted issue, the revision was necessary to fix an issue with the recording of timestamps in logfiles, and more particularly with buffer overruns when reading those log entries back into the game. Example post from one of the DevTeam discussing the bug.." Timelord2067 (talk) 01:42, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

NetHack was originally created without a graphical user interface
Is this true? I have never heard of a command line version of NetHack. I am guessing that this implies that the ASCII graphics do not count - I dont agree, the original interface is graphical although crude. Comments anyone? Mtpaley (talk) 18:36, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

 * To call that a GUI is an abuse of the term. What, did the original Unix boast a GUI? Did ENIAC have a GUI since you could look at its guts and see what it was doing? TUI, sure. Even this description may not be flawless, since perhaps one could play Nethack the way the original teletype printers work: print one snapshot every command (although it'd be tedious to do something like $nethack up; nethack up; nethack up; nethack right...) But 'GUI' is right out. --Gwern (contribs) 18:04 2 June 2009 (GMT)

NetHack Still In Development?
It's been around 5 years since the last official release. If a game is developed in a forest, and there's no one around to play it, does it count? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.3.196.99 (talk) 19:49, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

 * There's still an active playing community, and "still in development" doesn't mean that the game's not stable, it just means that the DevTeam might come out with a new release or patch or etc. at any time.    Sophus Bie  (talk) 02:42, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

 * But considering the article seems to place the fact that it's 'one of the oldest computer games still being actively developed' in such importance, it's relevant whether that's accurate or not. And really, there's little to no evidence that Nethack *is* being actively developed. The possibility of it isn't enough for such a definitive statement on the main page - some mention of the ambiguity at the very least should be made.Contributions/212.219.74.10 (talk) 09:25, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually the dev team released a patch last year on the |public server and continue to release port varients. Garycompugeek (talk) 15:44, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

 * If you don't interpret "The DevTeam" way more loosely than anybody else you've got your facts wrong. The DevTeam hasn't released any source code in five years. Claims of ongoing development by the developers themselves aren't usually valid citations for Wikipedia. --Bhaak (talk) 20:26, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I thought my facts were your facts... "There are some hints about the current development version, as one can see when reading Usenet postings by Pat Rankin (a member of the DevTeam). The last released bugfix is from 10 Dec 2007 and is linked from the homepage. Also, usually the DevTeam reacts to bugreports in reasonable time (at least the two times I reported a bug). But why they are taking so long to release the next version, nobody but the DevTeam knows for sure. --Bhaak (talk) 07:56, 29 July 2008 (UTC)" and I have never claimed to be a member of the Dev team. Garycompugeek (talk) 22:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It depends on what on-going development really means. The DevTeam hasn't disappeared. They still react to bugreports (you get a reply or they update the buglist on the homepage). They also claim to be still working on the next version. And for me as a person that's enough. I have no doubt that they do. But for Wikipedia I am not sure if this is enough and the claims of the developers alone surely aren't a reliable source. That's the problem. --Bhaak (talk) 08:04, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * So why not say that the Development Group say that development is ongoing? --Dannyno (talk) 09:09, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I think that's fair, or just add a section that talks about how this issue is a source of nethack community debate. There have been several different threads on rec.games.roguelike.nethack over the years that can be cited.  Wikipedia doesn't have to definitively say that it IS or ISN'T continuously developed.  In fact, I'm not sure who is claiming that it IS still being developed, since the dev team doesn't make that claim on the official web page... 152.3.196.99 (talk) 14:08, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Woah. Amulet Of Yendor?
So I was reading about NetHack, and it says you're looking for the Amulet Of Yendor. Now, I played an old DOS game titled "Amulet Of Yendor". According to this wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MS-DOS_games, the game came out in 1985, 2 years before Nethack. So I was wondering, is there some relation? I really doubt it's just coincidence. Any searches for "Amulet Of Yendor" are just giving me lots of Nethack information. If anyone knows about this connection, I think it should be mentioned in the Wiki, even if it turns out the name was simply lifted. 206.225.143.51 (talk) 06:07, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Rogue came out in 1980 and already had the Amulet. --Bhaak (talk) 08:45, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The DOS port of Hack was sometimes called "Amulet of Yendor". That was the game you played. Ntsimp (talk) 12:56, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I guarantee you that what I played had nothing to do with Nethack, besides the fact that it came out 2 years before. The game was a tower with 9 floors, where each floor had I believe 16 squares, and you walked from square to square until you found a wand that teleported you to the win square. It wasn't very rogue-like at all. But it's interesting to know that Rogue had an Amulet Of Yendor as well. Maybe it was just a fad to include that in roguelike games, or rpgs in general. The idea of "roguelike" as a subgenre probably hadn't occured to them in 1985. 206.225.143.51 (talk) 04:12, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Windows
When was the Windows version released? 2fort5r (talk) 19:44, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Weasels
"Many play without recourse to spoilers and regard their usage as cheating"

Sounds to me like the epitome of weasel words. Thoughts? --Unknownwarrior33 (talk) 17:05, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Although there's some loss of prestige to using spoilers, it seems to be generally accepted behavior - indeed, the article states "the achievement is so difficult that some question whether it has been or can be accomplished." I'll remove that note about spoilers being cheating - the rest of the paragraph seems to explain well enough the attitude toward them. --Brilliand (talk) 22:40, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Same old lame edit war
So now the same old lame edit war is in progress, over whether or not NetHack is still a going concern. I prefer the present tense version that currently exists, saying "The DevTeam rarely discusses [emphasis added] versions under development in public." The very sentence is making the point that it's rare, so the IPs who are bothered that a new version hasn't come out in years really shouldn't strain at this point. Also, Pat Rankin has made a number of recent rgrn posts that allude to the current development version. The past-tense version is therefore less accurate, IMO. Any other opinions? (Or is the reverting just going to continue?) Ntsimp (talk) 20:52, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I would also use the present tense. We have prove that the DevTeam doesn't have abandoned the game completely. The website gets updated once a while (mainly in the bug section), Pat Rankin posting to RGRN, the repackaging of the Mac distribution files. That means they still exist. If there will ever be another version is a completely different question and doesn't concern those sentences in question. --Bhaak (talk) 10:18, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * The facts that the Dev team still exists and posts things on the website doesn't mean that the game is still being developed. Plenty of old games still have dev teams around and some of those devs might even post things online.  The point here is that Nethack hasn't had an official update to its code in what? 3-4 years?  I love this game but there ought to at least be a qualification in the article that "under development" is ambiguous.  It's silly to just ignore this issue entirely.146.243.4.157 (talk) 20:36, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

NetHack as a Diablo inspiration
I removed the following passage from the Ports and Variants section:

"NetHack is acknowledged by Blizzard as an inspiration for Diablo."

First, this doesn't really belong there (even if Diablo was inspired by NetHack, that doesn't make it a port or variant), and secondly, the cited source (Blue's News Feb 7-13, 1998) does not actually prove the point. It just says:

"Inspired by the NetHack talk, Crack dot Com's Dave Taylor updated his .plan pointing out that NetHack is apparently acknowleged by Blizzard as the inspiration for Diablo, and goes on to plug another variant, NetTrek."

Since the .plan file in question is of course no longer available, it is not possible to verify this.—Graf Bobby (talk) 20:16, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

Variants
I think that as this edit may be OK variants should be somehow mentioned in this article (there is nothing wrong in mentioning things not notable enough to have separate articles). 89.74.119.184 (talk) 06:01, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Please read the edit comment. It isn't merely a question of whether they are notable enough for their own articles, it's a question of whether they are notable enough to be mentioned at all. Content in Wikipedia needs to have reliable sources in order to be mentioned. Just some random variant that's never been discussed anywhere other than the site promoting it is just a free ad. Wikipedia is supposed to be an encyclopedia first and foremost, not just a bunch of trivia.

DreamGuy (talk) 02:51, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The point of that paragraph was that NetHack has been forked and ported a lot over the years. One of its features is that it is available on almost every platform that exists. The current version of that paragraph is rather bad though.
 * --Bhaak (talk) 08:49, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

License
"The license is certified as open source by the Open Source Initiative."

The citation for this remark links back to Wikipedia, so I'm not sure it can be used. SharkD  Talk  03:48, 17 December 2015 (UTC)
 * It was easy to cite to the OSI website itself. Ntsimp (talk) 04:17, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

"Nethack-el" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Nethack-el. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 09:58, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

"YAAD" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect YAAD. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 11:59, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

"YASD" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect YASD. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 12:00, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

"Wizard Of Yendor" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Wizard Of Yendor. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 06:56, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

"Wizard of Yendor" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Wizard of Yendor. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 06:56, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

"NetHack/Amulet of Yendor" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect NetHack/Amulet of Yendor. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. Not a very active user (talk) 07:05, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

Platforms supported
Nowhere in the article does it enumerate the OS and hardware platforms that are supported by official ports or unofficial builds. However, the categories are rife with such claims. This is a violation of WP:CATV which specifies that all categories must be supported with prose in the body of the article and verifiable in reliable secondary sources. Soon I will remove the offending categories; I don't want to, because they are probably true and contain useful information, but they must conform to WP:CATV to remain. Elizium23 (talk) 05:40, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I disagree with your interpretation of CATV. Just check if those categories are factual. You easily can, which is what verifiable means. I agree with the ideas expressed in Verifiable, not verified. No need to make the article worse just to make a POINT. Ntsimp (talk) 20:06, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
 * I just added the platforms supported as of version 3.6.5. (Don't have the time/energy to add wikilinks right now.) I don't think this kind of thing is likely enough to be seriously challenged to require a secondary or tertiary source. Funcrunch (talk) 22:47, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Although NetHack can be completed by new or intermediate players...
New players, really?

Without research, new players are repeatedly killed before discovering Sokoban or Minetown. Maybe there's some sort of sheer lottery ticket of pure luck - but a *new player* wouldn't even know how to use a Wand of Wishing, let alone think to BUC test their gear on an altar, or not to drink from a fountain, or what needs to be eaten. The S in YASD is totally related to how well one knows exactly how NetHack works.

I contend that New players would find it hard enough to complete the game in Wizard mode.

(20040302 (talk) 13:14, 1 November 2021 (UTC))

title: Talk:NetHack


text:
User:PierreAbbat

I am a software engineer and mathematician, and have done some work on spread spectrum, including a patent on a pseudonoise generator and one on a type of direct-sequence spread spectrum modulation. I currently draw land surveys and do various computer work.

I have lived in the Charlotte, North Carolina area for over twenty years, with an interlude in California. I was born in New York shortly after Surtsey.

I am related on my mother's side to Alicia Lardé, who married John Nash.

I am a native bilingual, though a bit influent in French because I don't get much practice here in America. I speak Spanish pretty well, but sometimes mix Spanish and French. I also know various amounts of other languages and sometimes astonish foreigners by saying something in their language. I am also contributing to Lojban.

For the past couple of years I have been studying taxonomy. Most of the Lojban taxonomy chart (so far) is by me. I am a creationist (old earth), so I tend to dislike cladistics.

I am an aspie; I can remember vast information about computers, mathematics, and taxonomy (of languages as well as life) but may get baffled by interpersonal interaction.

These days I'm on Wiktionary more often than Wikipedia. I have contributed to Wikitravel (see my user page) and will on future trips.

[mailto:fesmri@ixazon.dynip.com ]  fr:Utilisateur:PierreAbbat de:Benutzer:PierreAbbat jbo:User:PierreAbbat

title: User:PierreAbbat