Ideas on customization:
Idea number one is related to this video, has any of you seen it before?
Secondly, it's also related to this link. Now, you are probably asking yourselves, what does customizing the Forgotten Realms have to do with the infamous Double Slit Experiment and a treatise on Orgone Energy? Answer, I'm customizing the Weave so that it would be directly Analogous to the Force in a certain trilogy of movies set "... A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away." But I'm also tying the Weave to Quantum Events, Wave Potential Collapsing, etc. in order to make the Forgotten Realms fit with our Earthly physics.
All the Weave represents is the Creative Force of Nature on Toril. How clerics and wizards work with it is the same way on how we interact our environment through the wierdness of quantum events. Only on Abeir-Toril, however, have they some how make magical events.
This also changes the nature of Mystra and Shar.
I think I'll have Mystra represent the Light Side of the Weave, and Shar represent the Dark Side of the Weave, like how Ashla and Bogan represents the two sides of the Force. They are represented by Deities still. Which brings me to my next point.
Idea 2: I want to downplay the deities' roles somewhat.
Instead of Bane and Cyric and Mystra running roughshod all over the realms terrorizing the people they all work behind the scenes. In the 3.x book, the deities have a big impact on the world. I want to lessen that a bit so that seeing a deity is truely awesome.
The Scope of Forgotten Realms is set too high, and I want to reduce it in my campaign. I bought the bloody book, I should -- by all rights -- downplay it and customize it to my needs. Thoughts?
You talk about alertering the deities, but also minimizing them. What effects do you envision this effort having on your players, their choices in the game and the type of campaign you want to run?
Yes, obviously you should customize it to your vision.
You talk about alertering the deities, but also minimizing them. What effects do you envision this effort having on your players, their choices in the game and the type of campaign you want to run?
One of my players whined about campaign customization. But I am using this:
As my magic system, since it fits how I think Magic should work, other than using Star Wars SAGA Force rules -- which is a whole other demon. Since I am using that, which allows a spellcaster to cast as many spells as he wants in so far as long as he can resist non-lethal drain damage, this:
Had to be discarded, so I'm using the other as base rules, although the above magic system is what players of spellcasters who use fourth really, secretly want. Plus, my players had a problem with fourth and I had a problem with fourth. When the players has a problem with fourth, and the GM has a problem with fourth, then there is something wrong with fourth.
Actually, Ad20M can be integrated into fourth quite easily.
--------------------------------------------
To answer your question in the context you meant:
Each to their own gifts. Although one of my players grew up with Forgotten Realms 1st Edition and he can't seem to grow up. Even when I announced that I'm customizing the setting to my tastes.
a). There is no change to the clerics of the deities. All their spells are fueled by their belief. A cleric of Mystra still can function in their spells.
b). All Spellcasters have the same source as their spells. The Weave or the Force.
c). Typically, what has to change is how the classes work in the other. According to AD20M, the sorcerer gets 80 spell slots, Wizards get an unlimited number of spell slots. The only problem is the cleric/priest. I'm thinking 80 spell slots on par with the Sorcerer. Discussion on how it works in the other can be best worked out the other's forums at Paizo.com.
d). The type of campaign I'd like to run is something like you would imagine when you look at a Frank Frazetta painting, or a Clyde Caldwell painting, or a Larry Elmore painting. I'd like it to be unforgettable.
I'm thinking of a campaign inspired by Frank Frazetta, John Norman, R.E. Howard, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars Series. Set in Chessenta with some savage lands beyond (Mulhorand, Unther, the Shar, and the Lake of Steam are foreign lands and considered Frontier).
As to the downplayed deities, I don't really see a problem there, or it requiring serious revision to the setting. Nothing says you can't replace the avatars with some powerful mortal servitors or other to keep any historical events intact, all you're really doing there is replacing some of the historical significance of events and 'changing descriptors' a bit. Take the battle between Sammaster and Lathander's avatar... nothing says you can't replace the avatar with a notable paladin (or cleric, or whatever really) of the faith who may or may not have been martyred defeating the lich, maybe even gaining sainthood within the faith or the like. It can be as straightforward or convulted as you like and feel comfortable.
As an afterthought, the issue with the Weave more closely mirroring our own physics, nothing really says it doesn't already. If one approaches it from the perspective of Asimov's Law, there doesn't have to be much of a functional difference between physics and magic beyond one requiring bulkier tools before they two divergent paths meet at some point in the future. Perhaps how people explain them might differ and be more primitive or superstitious compared to modern thinking, but if one simply thinks of science and magic as simply languages describing the same thing, while also providing means to manipulate the world around us though whatever method, be it tools or by taking advantage of natural phenomena or whatever, they can be virtually the same thing. Its not like the practicioners of either really has to truly understand what they're doing... we managed to build fission weapons without much of a grasp on nuclear physics compared to what we know now, so it shouldn't be much of a stretch to say the same thing about a magical staff.
Anyway, that's my take on it, for whatever its worth. Good luck.
Sounds like an interesting idea actually, so I say have fun with it. A few questions you might want to consider is how this affects magic users, and what, if any, difference is there between divine and arcane magic within the setting, or at least in how they're perceived by the practicioners, and of course by the masses? That's going to affect the players quite a bit, so I'd highly recommend at least considering it to at least give them some guidance when it comes to spellcasting classes.
As to the downplayed deities, I don't really see a problem there, or it requiring serious revision to the setting. Nothing says you can't replace the avatars with some powerful mortal servitors or other to keep any historical events intact, all you're really doing there is replacing some of the historical significance of events and 'changing descriptors' a bit. Take the battle between Sammaster and Lathander's avatar... nothing says you can't replace the avatar with a notable paladin (or cleric, or whatever really) of the faith who may or may not have been martyred defeating the lich, maybe even gaining sainthood within the faith or the like. It can be as straightforward or convulted as you like and feel comfortable.
As an afterthought, the issue with the Weave more closely mirroring our own physics, nothing really says it doesn't already. If one approaches it from the perspective of Asimov's Law, there doesn't have to be much of a functional difference between physics and magic beyond one requiring bulkier tools before they two divergent paths meet at some point in the future. Perhaps how people explain them might differ and be more primitive or superstitious compared to modern thinking, but if one simply thinks of science and magic as simply languages describing the same thing, while also providing means to manipulate the world around us though whatever method, be it tools or by taking advantage of natural phenomena or whatever, they can be virtually the same thing. Its not like the practicioners of either really has to truly understand what they're doing... we managed to build fission weapons without much of a grasp on nuclear physics compared to what we know now, so it shouldn't be much of a stretch to say the same thing about a magical staff.
Anyway, that's my take on it, for whatever its worth. Good luck.
That is some very good ideas there, Stigger.
However, I really think I want to get back to the roots of Adventure Fiction, and Forgotten Realms has a place for it in the Shining South (Chessenta, Unther, Chondath, the Lake of Steam, Mulhorand). You don't get much of that in the Dalelands, which resembles Medieval England.
I wanted to do a campaign that goes back to Sword and Planet stories, and I circled the Old Empires for inspiration.
Well, the Old Empires is a great place for that sort of story, which to be honest I hadn't really considered at all. The genre isn't usually my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal of it for others. As a small note of clarification, the Shining South actually refers to the regions that border the Great Sea farther to the south of the region you're talking about.
Yes. It does. Which is why I found copies of the Shining South and Unapproachable East.