Hi everyone
I currently run a FR game in the Western Heartlands where the players have a sort of “benign conquest” mentality. One of them has become king of what is essentially a small kingdom (more a barony than anything) located in the Trielta Hills. They have also seen fit to lay claim to the Troll Claws to pursue some mining opportunities that arose there (which has presented its own problems). Okay, okay all that was kinda off topic to my real question.
My game is taking place in the year 1375 DR and it looks like they will be taking time off from adventuring to do a great deal of powerbase building and governing which will eventually take the campaign well into the year of 1385 DR and beyond.
Here’s my question: Should I provide the players with an opportunity to stop the murder of Mystra and the ensuing spellplague? While it would be easier to just go with the history as written my sense of fair play is telling me no and that I should at least engineer some sort of clue that might lead the PCs to perhaps help stop the coming catastrophe.
Lol, sadly the only hook I can think of is having a portion of the plague-changed lands (say an earthmote) be flung back in time by the disaster itself to provide a glaring warning of things to come.
Any ideas, help, or arguments against this would be welcome. Thanks all.
That's really up to you and your group and what you all think of the new setting and what your gaming requirements are. Like it, hate it? Want to end your campaign and retire the characters? Or do you want to carry on with what you have? The adventure would only provide a means of making that choice in game, but you should probably decide before hand.
The Cormyr, Shadowdale and Anauroch adventures seem purpose built to allow a way for PCs to help thwart the death of Mystra at the hands of Shar and Cyric. That's the way I'm spinning my Cormyr: Tearing Of The Weave campaign.
That area really wasn't to badly affected by the Spellplague.
Are you using the 3E Rules or 4E?
Maybe play your campaign, have the PC's build their Kingdom, and then fast forward and have your PC's play their desendents. Or you could ignore the Spellplague. Have your PC's defend the southern flank of their Kingdom from a Genasi invasion from one of the Skyfire Immirates. Defend the North and Eastern Flank from the Yuan'ti of Najara. Lots of potential.
Hope I helped. Good Gaming.
I'm still using 3.5 to run this one. I've tryed to get them to give 4th a try but I've met with a lot of resistance (mostly from my insane min/maxer guys). I must say the thought of a generational game has crossed my mind and I may start to take the campaign in that direction but again it all comes down to what kind of world I want the descendants grow up in.
Here’s my question: Should I provide the players with an opportunity to stop the murder of Mystra and the ensuing spellplague? While it would be easier to just go with the history as written my sense of fair play is telling me no and that I should at least engineer some sort of clue that might lead the PCs to perhaps help stop the coming catastrophe.
Lol, sadly the only hook I can think of is having a portion of the plague-changed lands (say an earthmote) be flung back in time by the disaster itself to provide a glaring warning of things to come.
Any ideas, help, or arguments against this would be welcome. Thanks all.
One question that comes to mind is would they even be high enough level to interfere with the gods? Do any of them even serve Mystra?
Otherwise, as others have remarked, it is your campaign and you know your players best; you've played with them long enough from the sounds of it that they should trust your judgment. 
You must give players a choice whether they want to influence what will happen to Mystra. But do it subtly, so that they don't notice. Something simple, for example do they care more about local problems happening to them at the moment or some strange omens from faraway lands.
Here’s my question: Should I provide the players with an opportunity to stop the murder of Mystra and the ensuing spellplague? While it would be easier to just go with the history as written my sense of fair play is telling me no and that I should at least engineer some sort of clue that might lead the PCs to perhaps help stop the coming catastrophe.
PCs don't necessarily need to save Mystra in order to stop the ensuing spellplague. According to wikipedia (it does not offer a citation) Azuth and the Chosen carry roughly half of Mystra's power. So they could save the weave perhaps in some reincarnated form? Or you can let Shar achieve her goal and become the new goddess of magic. (What do you expect: CN Mystryl, LN Mystra, NG Midnight, NE Shar... :-)) Or what about Velsharoon as the new NE god of magic? (It will be a nice twist: for millennia, the goddess of magic was on Selune's side, now the god of magic is on Shar's side.)
Actually with so many options of what could have happened to the Weave, it is amazing that 4e designers decided to still cause the spellplague - probably just to push in the Abeir-Toril stuff and to kill a few more gods...
The Weave still exists, in a manner of speaking. From what I have read in the 4E Novels. When the Spellplague flares up in the current time period, its because some one or something uses magic in an area where the Weave still exists. So if a god of Magic was to reform, or come on the scene...they could reform or stabilize a very damaged Weave.
Now think about this...what if someone or something were to perform a major Ritual in the areas where the Weave still exists? Talk about MAJOR flare up of the Spellplague in the Realms.
The Shades are trying to recreate the Shadow Weave in Sembia.
Food for thought.