Dark Elf Tutorial

By Tony Dowler

I get more questions about the Dark Elves than any other thing in How to Host a Dungeon. Their weird little civilization seems to spiral into cascading slave revolts very quickly. This isn't actually a bad thing, but it can be annoying. If you're one of the annoyed, use this variant rule. I highly recommend it.

The Dark Elves are the most unstable of all the civilizations, and making a slightly different interpretation of the rules can make a radical change in how they behave.

Here's a pretty generic Dark Elf development schedule. If you interpret the rules a bit differently, that's OK, you might just get a faster revolution.

First year starts, the Dark Elf city has 3 nobles (N) and 3 slaves (S).

Spring: a new colony is founded
 * City: 2N, 2S
 * Colony 1: 1n, 1s
 * However, if there are no colony sites, the city adds 1S instead.

Summer: the colony mines and grows
 * City: 2N, 2S
 * Colony 1: 2n, 2s
 * If there's nothing to mine, every Dark Elf site adds slaves instead, and you're on the fast track to a massive slave revolt

Fall: Build stuff
 * Winter: city adds 1 slave
 * City: 2N, 3S
 * Colony: 2n, 2s

Finally, the city gathers new slaves if there are any around, which can also help trigger an early revolt.