Post-Apocalyptic Realms [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post-Apocalyptic Realms [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sucineri
06-20-04, 02:20 AM I got this idea (that is most likely not new at all) and it deals with playing in the FR setting..but maybe a decade or two after the current setting..possibly the Zhents or some kind of evil organization got the upper hand and ended up destroying pretty much every city on land.

*No nuclear stuff, just maybe some wild fireballs, possibly got into using explosives without quite working on the kinks..so they can't take down a building precisely, but they can take out a few city blocks.

*I was thinking that Paladins may or may not exist..but if they do, they would be more chaotic than lawful since law doesn't really "work" anymore..so killing evil without question is the "norm" for them. Wizards also don't exist because the world is so hectic there really is no time to relax or concentrate.

*Maybe also have around 80% of the population be illiterate since there is no time to be in school while street gangs run wild.

Anyone else have any ideas to add along with these thingies?
WizO_BigSister
06-21-04, 01:24 PM Hold onto your hats as I am whisking this thread to the forum where it really belongs. :)

Please check out the Forum Organisation ~ What Goes Where (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172646) thread. Thanks :angel:
Cunning Linguist
06-21-04, 02:01 PM Instead of using FR then working 200 years into the future, use something else, like Dark Sun, Steam Punk or Cyberpunk then adding FR lore into it. If you start on the wrong end, it will take forever to make, but if you the setting to start with, it's easier to work new info into it.
Sucineri
06-21-04, 02:18 PM What the hell? I said maybe a couple decades from the current FR setting..not centuries..I put it in the people/places area because the same people/places would basically be there..but not completely..eh whatever.
WraithXIII
06-22-04, 09:58 PM Actually one of my old DM's had a Faerun that was 95% under the influence of a Demon God. There was only about six gods left to help mortals and very few places one could go if you were a good aligned character. We had to assault the source of the demon gods power and even then things were still bad for us afterwards. We ended up in some sort of spatial rift that allowed us to get back home. One was the door we came through, one was the Prime Faerun, and the other six were alternate versions of Faerun. It was interesting meeting ourselves that worked for the demon god.
Sucineri
06-23-04, 05:51 AM See, that's the kind of thing I like to see. Sometimes the game can be boring if neutrality or good is the majority and evil is the minority..or even if all three are balanced it can be boring. But if you thrust them into a world where evil is so overwhelmingly strong, then they feel that whatever good they do actually might accomplish something.

I may try that alternate reality thing myself..seen it in a few movies, and even Stargate SG-1 (best show on the planet) had an episode all about it and it totally worked. So maybe I can have around 6 or so realities :)
Amoun
06-24-04, 09:19 AM if you find the FR to be overly good here are several options:
1. Make PCs play evil characters :)
2. Choose a different setting, perhaps Ravenloft would be more to your liking
3. Do your little apocalyptic thing, although I kinda find it distasteful.

But remember all in all its your campaign so whatever makes you and your players enjoy themselves do it :) If you are doing an apocalyptic campaign thingie.... use proper organizations, zhents would never raze and pillage cities unless they had something to gain, they are mostly a trading organization. Also the demon god idea is a bit overdone... Try the Shades or Shar or your typical BBEG.

My suggestion is let your pcs play evil characters... trust me its a lot more fun in the goodie goodie infested realms :) Thats why I love playing in the realms, cause I love playing evil hehe.
WraithXIII
06-24-04, 09:41 PM Of course it seems a bit overdone. Of course when you place a runed covered individual in the mix, whose kind is used to power the demon god's reign, then it got more interesting for me. That was my character in the crossfire at that point. The Thayans were directly benefitting from this demon's rule, and so ran things as far a Faerun were concerned. This version of Faerun wasn't so much like some type of Terminator future, where everything was in ruins, just dark, evil, and completely subjugated. Truth be told we didn't want to get involved but we appeared in the middle of hostile ground and had to travel to the south just to find a gate to take us home. We were actually able to pass ourselves off as our evil alternates, which was fun. It was the view of what would've happened had we failed in our reality. We were currently fighting Thay and the demon in our reality, and so at some point in the alternate reality, something skewed (Probably our alternate selves life choices) and created this world. That is what made it so interesting, to see what might have happened had we joined with our enemy. My character ending up killing the alt of his best friend, which bothered him for awhile indeed. It wasn't the fact that it was a demon god, or some post-apocalyptic Faerun, it was just the possibilities. Though for awhile my character thought about tracking down his fiance's alternate and taking her with us too! :smirk:
Monsoon28
06-26-04, 06:26 PM Originally posted by Sucineri
*I was thinking that Paladins may or may not exist..but if they do, they would be more chaotic than lawful since law doesn't really "work" anymore..so killing evil without question is the "norm" for them. Wizards also don't exist because the world is so hectic there really is no time to relax or concentrate.

*Maybe also have around 80% of the population be illiterate since there is no time to be in school while street gangs run wild.

The apocolypse could be god-based (something that makes the godswar/ToT look tame in comparison.) The gods are sort of out of the picture many of them dead, and the rest disconnected from the realms (think Dragonlace Chronicles). Clerics and Paladins therefore are powerless or near powerless.

As for the illiteracy issue, its already at around 80% (or more.) There aren't schools in a general sense. The wealthy may have private schools (or better yet private tutors), and those who get accepted into the 'church' or wizards college will get formal training. Remember adventures are an exception and not the norm.

Cheers.
Sucineri
06-27-04, 01:05 AM As for the illiteracy issue, its already at around 80% (or more.) There aren't schools in a general sense. The wealthy may have private schools (or better yet private tutors), and those who get accepted into the 'church' or wizards college will get formal training. Remember adventures are an exception and not the norm.

Yeah..but I don't want any "wealthy" people because it would be an apocolypse setting..money doesn't exactly mean much to anyone anymore..it gets back into bartering items instead. And the only ones that would in effect be "wealthy" would be evil warlords that rule their little groups with an iron fist..there is a movie that is like this, but I can't think of the name of it for the life of me..but it deals with if that happened now..and having broken skyscrapers..but I want it to happen back then instead..know what I mean?

People have to constantly be on their toes because these gangs come out and try to steal all they can constantly..and if someone finds some kind of relic (or even a healing potion) then you better have a really good hiding spot or it will be jacked. :P
Laveral
06-27-04, 11:34 AM If you are going to go apocalyptic I would say you should have a city or place that is a safe haven for people. I would choose Waterdeep myself and make Khelben the last chosen of Mystra still alive, but he is using all of his power to keep Waterdeep safe.
Thay could have taken over Aglarond, The Old empires and maybe even Rashemon, but you might want to keep Rashemon as a last hold out.
Make the High Forest part of the Anaroch, and Silverymoon is now a city run by clerics of Shar. Put more flying cities of the Shades around the world.
The Zhents could have taken over the Lake of Steam region and all of the Dalelands, Sembia, and maybe even Cormyr, but again you will need places where heroes will come from.
Make the Harpers the underground network trying to combat everyone, but their forces are small.
As for the southern portion of Faerun, you might not want to worry about it. Halruua seems like the only place that would be worth anything to any of the evil groups, and it could be taken over by Shar.
I would make Amn and the Western Heartlands a Cyrisist domain. Maybe have a road that leads into the region with impaled bodies lining the road. Make it look really evil.

For ideas on how to do an apocalytic universe look at the X-men series Age of Apocalypse. I think it was one of the best that was done in changing a complete universe into something different.
WraithXIII
06-28-04, 08:46 PM Originally posted by Laveral
For ideas on how to do an apocalytic universe look at the X-men series Age of Apocalypse. I think it was one of the best that was done in changing a complete universe into something different.

I second that motion. Though I no longer have that entire series, it was definitely pivotal. The latest idea that I have lifted from the X-Men came from Apocalypse: The Twelve. You know, 'Death kills he who is become Death'....
Sucineri
06-28-04, 10:37 PM Hrm, that is the kind of info I really was after..atleast what you said before the xmen thing..then you lost me. I am not a cartoon watcher or comic book reader, so no clue what you are really talking about :)
master of storms
07-03-04, 02:35 AM Better still the mighty Talos begins destroying lesser deities and assuming their portfolios and powers and his faithful become very numerous and he becomes the most powerful deity and then he rallies all his followers and convinces other creatures like goblinoids to help him in exchange for what they want from the cities the destroy.He also tells Dendar the Night serpent it's time to eat the sun so she goes and does it then Talos kills her and he fulfills his job by destroying Faerun:D
All hail Talos the mighty
saankiip
07-03-04, 03:07 AM This may be a little off topic, but I fast fowarded the Forgotten Realms campaign I was running some 10 years into the future and played the Invasion articles that were included in Dragon/Dungeon a little while ago.

Over the last 10 years, the Githyanki had taken over most of Faerun and all but a small handful of resistance fighters were left to, yup you guessed it, save the world! :D

The players ended up playing 20th level characters as a one-shot adventure, and their mission was to assassinate the Lich Queen who was ruling over the Githyanki invaders.

Faerun was in a terrible state, with Githyanki troops everywhere and a lot of cities were taken over (Sundabar) or destroyed (Silverymoon and Waterdeep).

That was run at xmas time, and now I am running a different group through the actual war, at the start of the Invasion. Should be interesting to see how it all happened.

SaanKiip
ender
07-03-04, 06:38 PM I know you said you wanted to run an apocalyptic Faerun, so feel free to ignore my slightly off-topic suggestion:

Are you familiar with the Midnight setting? It seems to have everything that you are looking for: evil dominating, demon-god-kings, shattered economies, illiteracy, starvation, and all that jazz. At the very least, I would suggest taking a look at it to raid for ideas.
Sucineri
07-10-04, 11:49 PM Well, I like Faerun because I feel more comfortable with it..and no I haven't heard of the Midnight setting, but I will try to take a look at it..I may use the basic rules and setup of it and adapt it to faerun so I am not so confused :)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sucineri 06-20-04, 02:20 AM	I got this idea (that is most likely not new at all) and it deals with playing in the FR setting..but maybe a decade or two after the current setting..possibly the Zhents or some kind of evil organization got the upper hand and ended up destroying pretty much every city on land. No nuclear stuff, just maybe some wild fireballs, possibly got into using explosives without quite working on the kinks..so they can't take down a building precisely, but they can take out a few city blocks. I was thinking that Paladins may or may not exist..but if they do, they would be more chaotic than lawful since law doesn't really "work" anymore..so killing evil without question is the "norm" for them. Wizards also don't exist because the world is so hectic there really is no time to relax or concentrate. *Maybe also have around 80% of the population be illiterate since there is no time to be in school while street gangs run wild. Anyone else have any ideas to add along with these thingies?
WizO_BigSister 06-21-04, 01:24 PM	Hold onto your hats as I am whisking this thread to the forum where it really belongs. :) Please check out the Forum Organisation ~ What Goes Where (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172646) thread. Thanks :angel:
Cunning Linguist 06-21-04, 02:01 PM	Instead of using FR then working 200 years into the future, use something else, like Dark Sun, Steam Punk or Cyberpunk then adding FR lore into it. If you start on the wrong end, it will take forever to make, but if you the setting to start with, it's easier to work new info into it.
Sucineri 06-21-04, 02:18 PM	What the hell? I said maybe a couple decades from the current FR setting..not centuries..I put it in the people/places area because the same people/places would basically be there..but not completely..eh whatever.
WraithXIII 06-22-04, 09:58 PM	Actually one of my old DM's had a Faerun that was 95% under the influence of a Demon God. There was only about six gods left to help mortals and very few places one could go if you were a good aligned character. We had to assault the source of the demon gods power and even then things were still bad for us afterwards. We ended up in some sort of spatial rift that allowed us to get back home. One was the door we came through, one was the Prime Faerun, and the other six were alternate versions of Faerun. It was interesting meeting ourselves that worked for the demon god.
Sucineri 06-23-04, 05:51 AM	See, that's the kind of thing I like to see. Sometimes the game can be boring if neutrality or good is the majority and evil is the minority..or even if all three are balanced it can be boring. But if you thrust them into a world where evil is so overwhelmingly strong, then they feel that whatever good they do actually might accomplish something. I may try that alternate reality thing myself..seen it in a few movies, and even Stargate SG-1 (best show on the planet) had an episode all about it and it totally worked. So maybe I can have around 6 or so realities :)
Amoun 06-24-04, 09:19 AM	if you find the FR to be overly good here are several options: 1. Make PCs play evil characters :) 2. Choose a different setting, perhaps Ravenloft would be more to your liking 3. Do your little apocalyptic thing, although I kinda find it distasteful. But remember all in all its your campaign so whatever makes you and your players enjoy themselves do it :) If you are doing an apocalyptic campaign thingie.... use proper organizations, zhents would never raze and pillage cities unless they had something to gain, they are mostly a trading organization. Also the demon god idea is a bit overdone... Try the Shades or Shar or your typical BBEG. My suggestion is let your pcs play evil characters... trust me its a lot more fun in the goodie goodie infested realms :) Thats why I love playing in the realms, cause I love playing evil hehe.
WraithXIII 06-24-04, 09:41 PM	Of course it seems a bit overdone. Of course when you place a runed covered individual in the mix, whose kind is used to power the demon god's reign, then it got more interesting for me. That was my character in the crossfire at that point. The Thayans were directly benefitting from this demon's rule, and so ran things as far a Faerun were concerned. This version of Faerun wasn't so much like some type of Terminator future, where everything was in ruins, just dark, evil, and completely subjugated. Truth be told we didn't want to get involved but we appeared in the middle of hostile ground and had to travel to the south just to find a gate to take us home. We were actually able to pass ourselves off as our evil alternates, which was fun. It was the view of what would've happened had we failed in our reality. We were currently fighting Thay and the demon in our reality, and so at some point in the alternate reality, something skewed (Probably our alternate selves life choices) and created this world. That is what made it so interesting, to see what might have happened had we joined with our enemy. My character ending up killing the alt of his best friend, which bothered him for awhile indeed. It wasn't the fact that it was a demon god, or some post-apocalyptic Faerun, it was just the possibilities. Though for awhile my character thought about tracking down his fiance's alternate and taking her with us too! :smirk:
Monsoon28 06-26-04, 06:26 PM	Originally posted by Sucineri I was thinking that Paladins may or may not exist..but if they do, they would be more chaotic than lawful since law doesn't really "work" anymore..so killing evil without question is the "norm" for them. Wizards also don't exist because the world is so hectic there really is no time to relax or concentrate. Maybe also have around 80% of the population be illiterate since there is no time to be in school while street gangs run wild. The apocolypse could be god-based (something that makes the godswar/ToT look tame in comparison.) The gods are sort of out of the picture many of them dead, and the rest disconnected from the realms (think Dragonlace Chronicles). Clerics and Paladins therefore are powerless or near powerless. As for the illiteracy issue, its already at around 80% (or more.) There aren't schools in a general sense. The wealthy may have private schools (or better yet private tutors), and those who get accepted into the 'church' or wizards college will get formal training. Remember adventures are an exception and not the norm. Cheers.
Sucineri 06-27-04, 01:05 AM	As for the illiteracy issue, its already at around 80% (or more.) There aren't schools in a general sense. The wealthy may have private schools (or better yet private tutors), and those who get accepted into the 'church' or wizards college will get formal training. Remember adventures are an exception and not the norm. Yeah..but I don't want any "wealthy" people because it would be an apocolypse setting..money doesn't exactly mean much to anyone anymore..it gets back into bartering items instead. And the only ones that would in effect be "wealthy" would be evil warlords that rule their little groups with an iron fist..there is a movie that is like this, but I can't think of the name of it for the life of me..but it deals with if that happened now..and having broken skyscrapers..but I want it to happen back then instead..know what I mean? People have to constantly be on their toes because these gangs come out and try to steal all they can constantly..and if someone finds some kind of relic (or even a healing potion) then you better have a really good hiding spot or it will be jacked. :P
Laveral 06-27-04, 11:34 AM	If you are going to go apocalyptic I would say you should have a city or place that is a safe haven for people. I would choose Waterdeep myself and make Khelben the last chosen of Mystra still alive, but he is using all of his power to keep Waterdeep safe. Thay could have taken over Aglarond, The Old empires and maybe even Rashemon, but you might want to keep Rashemon as a last hold out. Make the High Forest part of the Anaroch, and Silverymoon is now a city run by clerics of Shar. Put more flying cities of the Shades around the world. The Zhents could have taken over the Lake of Steam region and all of the Dalelands, Sembia, and maybe even Cormyr, but again you will need places where heroes will come from. Make the Harpers the underground network trying to combat everyone, but their forces are small. As for the southern portion of Faerun, you might not want to worry about it. Halruua seems like the only place that would be worth anything to any of the evil groups, and it could be taken over by Shar. I would make Amn and the Western Heartlands a Cyrisist domain. Maybe have a road that leads into the region with impaled bodies lining the road. Make it look really evil. For ideas on how to do an apocalytic universe look at the X-men series Age of Apocalypse. I think it was one of the best that was done in changing a complete universe into something different.
WraithXIII 06-28-04, 08:46 PM	Originally posted by Laveral For ideas on how to do an apocalytic universe look at the X-men series Age of Apocalypse. I think it was one of the best that was done in changing a complete universe into something different. I second that motion. Though I no longer have that entire series, it was definitely pivotal. The latest idea that I have lifted from the X-Men came from Apocalypse: The Twelve. You know, 'Death kills he who is become Death'....
Sucineri 06-28-04, 10:37 PM	Hrm, that is the kind of info I really was after..atleast what you said before the xmen thing..then you lost me. I am not a cartoon watcher or comic book reader, so no clue what you are really talking about :)
master of storms 07-03-04, 02:35 AM	Better still the mighty Talos begins destroying lesser deities and assuming their portfolios and powers and his faithful become very numerous and he becomes the most powerful deity and then he rallies all his followers and convinces other creatures like goblinoids to help him in exchange for what they want from the cities the destroy.He also tells Dendar the Night serpent it's time to eat the sun so she goes and does it then Talos kills her and he fulfills his job by destroying Faerun:D All hail Talos the mighty
saankiip 07-03-04, 03:07 AM	This may be a little off topic, but I fast fowarded the Forgotten Realms campaign I was running some 10 years into the future and played the Invasion articles that were included in Dragon/Dungeon a little while ago. Over the last 10 years, the Githyanki had taken over most of Faerun and all but a small handful of resistance fighters were left to, yup you guessed it, save the world! :D The players ended up playing 20th level characters as a one-shot adventure, and their mission was to assassinate the Lich Queen who was ruling over the Githyanki invaders. Faerun was in a terrible state, with Githyanki troops everywhere and a lot of cities were taken over (Sundabar) or destroyed (Silverymoon and Waterdeep). That was run at xmas time, and now I am running a different group through the actual war, at the start of the Invasion. Should be interesting to see how it all happened. SaanKiip
ender 07-03-04, 06:38 PM	I know you said you wanted to run an apocalyptic Faerun, so feel free to ignore my slightly off-topic suggestion: Are you familiar with the Midnight setting? It seems to have everything that you are looking for: evil dominating, demon-god-kings, shattered economies, illiteracy, starvation, and all that jazz. At the very least, I would suggest taking a look at it to raid for ideas.
Sucineri 07-10-04, 11:49 PM	Well, I like Faerun because I feel more comfortable with it..and no I haven't heard of the Midnight setting, but I will try to take a look at it..I may use the basic rules and setup of it and adapt it to faerun so I am not so confused :)