MS Paint Doodles!
I like to scribble and doodle with my mouse (no drawing pad because I'm a career noob) using MS Paint, so I pixelled up some...
Dark Elves!
Completed a couple of these dark elven (aka. "drow") fighters in the style of the original kind by Gary Gygax (from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons). This "style" is actually quite different than anyone uses for drow nowadays.
See, in the early days (late 70's and early 80's), Gygax's drow wore all black armor and weapons made from a strange black metal called adamantite steel. They also almost universally wore black cloaks and boots of a spidersilk material. The combination of the materials and the radiations of their sunless underground homeland made the cloaks, boots, armor and weapons take on magic-emulating properties. Exposure to sunlight would ruin this equipment though, so dark elves would never venture onto the surface during the day.
So what we got here pictured, is a couple of "fighters," probably of 2nd level who possess adamantite chainmail armor, buckler shields, long dagger and short sword (standard drow weapons which were dual wielded because another standard drow trait was ambidexterity) as well as one of them holding a hand crossbow. This is literally the prototype for the basic drow elf soldiery.
Going Off Course
Neither D&D authors (for newer editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game) nor artists render dark elves according to Gary Gygax's original intent. They've deviated pretty far, and they continue to veer off course. That's alright, sometimes they come up with interesting stuff.
It all started when authors Ed Greenwood and R.A. Salvatore decided to overhaul and change a ton of stuff regarding drow during TSR's (the original company that owned AD&D) transition into 2nd Edition AD&D... especially for the Forgotten Realms setting for the game. Unfortunately, World of Greyhawk's original drow ended up mutating in the direction of this "artistic license" as well, and thus, all "accurate" concepts of original drow were lost to the files of those who still possess the original D series of AD&D dungeon modules (D1 Descent to the Depths of the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, D3 Vault of the Drow and Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits).
Original "D3 Vault of the Drow"
Speaking of the original modules, I have all of them luckily. This is a photograph of MY current copy of the D3 module... it's pretty beatup. The rest are in similarly bad shape... because they're old, like me! Well, actually, I'm not THAT old... if we measure in dark elf years.
The paper copies of these are through the roof now, especially for mint conditions, but you can buy electronic PDF versions of these modules at DriveThruRPG for much cheaper. Including my own affiliate link (shameless plug) for you to click if you want to check them out and see what they have; just click on this banner:
What's Your Take on MS Paint?
So, if you don't care much for nerdy roleplaying game stuff, that's cool, maybe you like MS Paint. You know I love it! It has a certain charm and you can get stupid with it and nobody can judge (or maybe they can, but, whatevs...). Let me know if you ever like to get crazy with MS Paint and conjure up mad pixels. Also, if you have a take on dark elves (new or old), or any other related nerdy roleplaying game stuffs then share that in the comments too!
Oh, and comment if you know what kind of critter that is below... hint: it's a favorite "hunting" pet of the old school dark elf nobles.
