Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 jese_us_crist Jul 07, 2009 9:56:03	I have been a long time 3.5 fan and my group has finally made the switch to 4.0, I am currently DMing for them and in the spirit of change I am going to attempt to run a campaign in the Forgotten Realms. As you may have guessed by the title, I plan to centralize the story around Chult but I don't know exactly where to begin. There is extremely little information on Chult after the spell plague but since the whole continent was pretty much raped I cant use much of the old stuff. I was pretty much just going to go with the classic hellish jungle feel(poisonous plants, cannibals, demon spirits, etc...) but wanted to check here to see if there is a web enhancement or something that goes a little more in-depth. Any help(from lore to monster suggestions) would be greatly appreciated. This is my first FR campaign and although I am somewhat familiar with it through NWN I don't think that is enough.
#2 lord_karsus Jul 07, 2009 12:25:10	-For Chultan thematics, imagery, and all of that, The Jungles of Chult still works as a place to draw inspiration and ideas from.
#3 markustay63 Jul 08, 2009 12:33:32	Map of Chult, with 1e/2e/3e locales, many of which should be ruins, buuut with the whole thing 'disconnected', as itshould be in 4e (so you decide what survived and what is a ruin). Note that some of the names - especially those along the southern coast - are of my manufacture, but are mostly based on stuff mentioned in the old 2e Chult product. The city of Kuluth-Mar is from the Savage Tide (IIRC) adventure path from Paizo, which came before the 'split' between the company, and a very nice conversion for it is available for use with FR (that location is taken from the official conversion). As for Samarach and Thindol - it's YOUR Realms... you decide. ;)
#4 old_sage Jul 08, 2009 19:53:32	Samarach and Thindol are detailed in Serpent Kingdoms.
#5 markustay63 Jul 09, 2009 23:17:57	Well, he did say he was switching to 4.0, and AFAIK, those two nations were pretty-much destroyed by the Spellplague, making most of the info in SK useless. However, I also made a point of mentioning that it was HIS game, and he should decide what survived and what didn't - sourcebooks are just the official version, and not necessarily the version you need follow for you and your players. ;) Ergo, SK could prove very useful if he decides their were some survivors...
#6 Steeljaw Jul 09, 2009 23:46:54	If you read the new FR novel The Fanged Crownit takes place in Chult and gives you some idea of what is there for 4E. Jungle Dwarves and Yanti seemed very prominant. I thought the book was pretty good too.
#7 markustay63 Jul 10, 2009 7:22:06	Jungle Dwarves and Yuan-ti have always been there, as were dinosaurs, even though 4e likes to claim that they are 'new' to the region (the only thing new is the 4e term for them... and even that ain't new). The only thing that has changed in Chult is that it is now seperate from the mainland (something I did years ago), and the culture there is now reduced to primitive savages (not that those weren't already there as well, but now they all are). Personally, I think they should have had the Spellplague 'devolve' the humans of Mezro into Simians - FR could use a 'Gorilla City', even if it is a bit comic-bookish. Then again, the backlash on that may have been pretty bad...
#8 lord_karsus Jul 10, 2009 9:38:32	Jungle Dwarves and Yuan-ti have always been there, as were dinosaurs, even though 4e likes to claim that they are 'new' to the region (the only thing new is the 4e term for them... and even that ain't new). -How can it be claimed that dinosaurs are new, when the cover of The Jungles of Chult has a dinosaur!? Personally, I think they should have had the Spellplague 'devolve' the humans of Mezro in Simians - FR could use a 'Gorrila City', even if it is a bit comic-bookish. Then again, the backlash on that may have been pretty bad... -Being that Maztica was evaporated, I would have taken the interesting and cool concepts found there (Pluma/Hishna, Couatl, Ziggaurats, among others), and imported them into the "new" Chult, to keep those things around, and not completely flush Maztica's flavor down the toilet. Though Chult isn't exactly Mesoamerican, it's fairly 'generic' jungle exploration, which could apply to Africa and South America both.
#9 markustay63 Jul 10, 2009 12:19:40	-How can it be claimed that dinosaurs are new, when the cover of The Jungles of Chult has a dinosaur!? From pg.102 of the FRCG (and reproduced from the Free online preview, so its okay for me to post it here): Streetwise DC 30: In the Year of Blue Fire, the Chultan jungle was interpenetrated by pockets of Abeiran landscape that now lie scattered in the skies and the forests. Strange, savage behemoths now prowl the shadowed jungles and wandering motes alike. Several Chultan tribes were hunted to extinction by these voracious new predators; those that remain have learned new methods of coexistence. Obviously the 4e designers want folks to think that it is their idea. -Being that Maztica was evaporated, I would have taken the interesting and cool concepts found there (Pluma/Hishna, Couatl, Ziggaurats, among others), and imported them into the "new" Chult, to keep those things around, and not completely flush Maztica's flavor down the toilet. Though Chult isn't exactly Mesoamerican, it's fairly 'generic' jungle exploration, which could apply to Africa and South America both. They left an 'out' in the GHotR - according to one entry, a group of Mazticans 'escaped' from the Amnites who brought them back to Faerûn... which means they could have made it to Chult, and given a hundred years, they could have merged parts of their culture with the natives, or even remained seperate and built their own civilization all over again (bringing the Maztican gods east with them). Edit: Given the little we can gleen from the 4e section on Chult, it seems more then feasable (However, it seems those strange pyramid-building peoples are supposed to have been there for quite some time, not just a century, which doesn't fit with established lore). I know, the Spellplague caused time to function differently in Chult, and while only a hundred years have gone by for the rest of Toril, the Isle of Chult has undergone a full millenia of history. There... that ought to cover all the inconsistencies...
#10 jese_us_crist Jul 10, 2009 18:56:11	Thanks for the tips they have saved my butt. I really liked the Jungles of Chult although I felt it kinda drifted onto some wierd topics. I think I am going to centralize the theme around the undead swarming over Chult in the wake of the plague. If anyone has any tips for cannon undead I should use please advise. Also any other suggestions are always appreciated.
#11 markustay63 Jul 10, 2009 23:45:49	You should look up some African mythology and find some cool undead types (although I think they were more fond of the non-corporeal type). You can go the VooDoo route, and add-in some cool Juju Zombies and a crazy Witchdoctor. Undead dinosaurs would be kinda cool, too... maybe even zombie raptors! Thats just plain evil...
#12 lord_karsus Jul 12, 2009 21:45:56	From pg.102 of the FRCG (and reproduced from the Free online preview, so its okay for me to post it here): Obviously the 4e designers want folks to think that it is their idea. :bored -Wow. Just, wow. Undead dinosaurs would be kinda cool, too... -That is exactly what I was thinking. -There could be plenty of room for "regular" ghosts and whatever else, from Mezro. Angry spirits, as well.