Shattered Kingdoms

I remember one of the first things that attracted me to SK was the opportunity to play as a dark elf / drow in Chyzzrm.

As a young person, I read most of R.A. Salvatore's books, and really enjoyed Homeland the most of all of them.

There was another series called Daughter of the Drow as well.

I just discovered there is a new-to-me series called The War of the Spider Queen. I am looking forward to reading some sword and sorcery fantasy: I haven't read any for probably two decades now.

Have you read this series? Do you like the Chyzzrm area? Is it kinda cool that DnD has transitioned into Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms as the default? Baldur's Gate III is on the Sword Coast as well isn't it?

The war of the spider queen for me was one of the best in the serries. If I recall every book is written by a different author and you can tell, but overall it was very engaging.

I have to say SK has actually become one of the few types of 'fantasy' media I am able consume in written format.

I was so thoroughly ingrained in the world we collectively built in SK in my formative years, including thinking about it from a creator perspective (e.g. how to make that world and those characters interesting), that I found myself hyper-critical of fantasy writing/media as a whole. It's kind of annoying. I'm pretentious now (and probably was a long time ago, too).

I think that sort of realization also coincided with (what felt like a) mid-late oughts fantasy/sci-fi media movement that heavily transitioned to more of a serialization/'perpetuate the world' style rather than 'tell a specific story'. More books in a series sells more. It drives me batshit crazy when a story's writing drives at keeping a world spinning rather than telling a generally intentional arc of story.

Has playing SK with meaningful hours given you a different perspective on these fantasy books than you think you'd have otherwise had?

I do love that those larger arcs of D&D novelizations became an assumed setting for the game as whole. That's when you know stories are truly prolific and impactful, and I know so many people who hold them dear. But it ends up something I appreciate from afar.

I have a friend with a dungeons & dragons podcast. I showed him some of SK's stuff and he was impressed. Not impressed enough to play a text-based MUD tho lol

I looooved the Daughter of the Drow ones

I'm not huge into people's friends podcasts about D&D, but if you would PM me a link, I'd like to check it out at least once as someone who does semi-regularly play.

No clue about the books the others talk about, but I had a Dark Elf Bard named Django who's instrument of choice was the Kazoo... May he rest in peace.

I loved the Drizzt books.

I used to consume any and all fantasy novels I could get my hands on, but I've kind of fallen out of the habit of reading much these days. I still need to catch up on the Stormlight Archive.

Definitely one of the things that got me into MUDs/MUSHes/etc though.

I am a huge proponent of audiobooks. I am literally never going to sit down and read a book (I bought one 5 years ago to take on a vacation with Sadal, and it's still unread!), but I can listen while I'm commuting, doing chores, trying to fall asleep, etc.

I now consume about 100 books a year. Most libraries use Libby or Overdrive to offer audiobooks with your library card as login credentials, so I have never paid for an audible account.

The only thing is that some readers grate on my freaking nerves.

Also, I don't have any dark-elf specific recommendations, but I really LOVED the Mistborn and Night Angel trilogies.

The original Mistborn trilogy is probably one of my favorite sets of books ever, absolutely loved them.

Brandon Sanderson is wonderful.

And yeah, been meaning to give audiobooks a shot for a while, I really should get on that.