There were only four Ruins box sets, so I had to find another Forgotten Realms box to grumble about. Menzoberranzan (1992) seemed like a good choice.

So, Drow. The evil dark elves have been a weird player obsession since they became a (ill-advisedly) playable race in Unearthed Arcana (1985) and it only got worse with R.A. Salvatore’s introduction of Drizzt in 1988. Feeding on Drizzt’s popularity, a number of Forgotten Realms supplements were released, including this one, based on the prequel Dark Elf trilogy of novels that depicted Drizzt’s origin.

I guess if you like drow (side-eye), Menzoberranzan is a dream come true. It is a detailed look at the city, its houses and its intricate politics. Aside of some spells and rules for drow character creation, its all in-world detail. If you have a burning desire to learn about Drizzt’s hometown, this box set is for you, but if you’re going to use this as the foundation for a campaign, you’re either going to have a lot of dual-wielding drow with hearts of gold in the party, or you’re going to have a heck of a time keeping your evil, manipulative, untrustworthly PCs from killing each other.

I have nothing inherently against the idea of an evil campaign, and, honestly, the idea of a highly political urban fantasy campaign is highly appealing. I just think that D&D, with its rigid alignment and combat focus, is a poor system to run that sort of game in and a drow campaign probably winds up being a weird power fantasy more often than not. Compare to, say, Grant Howitt’s drow-centric game of revolutionary politics, Spire: The City Must Fall, or even the dark fantasy heist game Blades in the Dark.

Anyway, Drow are boring. I look forward to all your middle finger emojis in the comments.