| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Tyranthraxus |
Posted - 14 Aug 2008 : 01:05:34
I was wondering what kind of changes you have in your campaign. Somewhere on the forum I saw someone mentioning the ToT didn't happen in his/her campaign.
Most of my changes are listed here (and done by accident, "no, don't hit me in the face  "): http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11107
For example, the PCs in my campaign have built their castle on Haptooth Hill and are the lords of Battledale and are the heroes of Phlan (not Shal, Ren and Tarl). But mostly I try to stick to the canon. |
| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Na-Gang |
Posted - 21 Aug 2008 : 19:32:19
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Na-Gang, that is an excellent background plot!
I love that you used Graz'zt and Gargauth - To me, Graz'zt always seemd more like a Devil, whereas Gargauth seemed like he should of been a Demon (just my personal feelings, mind you). Considering that both these guys have some traits of the 'other side', it is a natural fit to have them working together.
In older canon, this would have seemed very out-of-place, but considering some of the changes/retcons recently, this fits better then ever.
I really like it - great job. 
Thank you very much.
It all got very complicated and the players (and their characters) were never really sure whose side they should be on, but most of the time they were working for agents of an unknown power (who they believed to be Graz'zt) or latterly knowingly and begrudgingly working for Gargauth (who relished their unease, of course). The main protagonist in the campaign was in fact Pale Night who wanted to raze the surface of Faerun and give it as a fourth layer of his domain to her favourite son - Graz'zt. Gargauth clearly couldn't allow that since Faerun was his domain.
It would've been a perfect lead-in to 4E if I'd wanted to do that (or even known about it) because I had Far Realm creatures, Amaunator, and a freed Titan - maybe my current campaign will unknowingly foreshadow 5E...
Anyway, it all got very complicated towards the end because they didn't go in any one of three directions I imagined they would which would have given them all the answers they'd been missing and instead had to sort of railroad them and bludgeon them with deus ex machina otherwise Faerun would've been destroyed and they would never even have had a chance to save it. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 21 Aug 2008 : 17:35:52
Na-Gang, that is an excellent background plot!
I love that you used Graz'zt and Gargauth - To me, Graz'zt always seemd more like a Devil, whereas Gargauth seemed like he should of been a Demon (just my personal feelings, mind you). Considering that both these guys have some traits of the 'other side', it is a natural fit to have them working together.
In older canon, this would have seemed very out-of-place, but considering some of the changes/retcons recently, this fits better then ever.
I really like it - great job. |
| Alisttair |
Posted - 21 Aug 2008 : 17:01:25
I think I will change the fact that a new power has taken over the Wailing Dwarf and killed all the Trolls n stuff within. My PC dwarves are still trying to reclaim it back in 1373DR. |
| Na-Gang |
Posted - 21 Aug 2008 : 14:45:49
quote:
Originally posted by monknwildcat
Very well-thought out! I like the Sune subplot. Were they also self-destructive, Na-Gang?
No, not at all why should they destroy themselves if they found themselves beautiful?
I had Gargauth being the archetypal corrupter fiend, and during the course of events of my campaign he stole the essence of Moander's Corruption portfolio that Finder Wyvernspur was holding but not using.
He had an on-off alliance/enmity with Graz'zt and when he was an Archdevil the two would send information to the other about rival archdevils/demon princes and their forces to allow the other to benefit during the Blood War. It was this betrayal that had Gargauth cast out of the Nine Hells. |
| monknwildcat |
Posted - 21 Aug 2008 : 14:37:05
quote:
Originally posted by Na-Gang
My last campaign focussed quite heavily on Gargauth and how he has manipulated cultures and people throughout Faerun for much longer than most sages imagine. I had his meddling being instrumental in the early formation of Imaskar and their hatred of gods and godlike extraplanar beings, then I had him as a servant of Shar during the height of Netheril, finally becoming trapped beneath Peleveran in a mirrored shield worn by Paladins of Sune after he corrupted one of Lady Firehair's congregations into a cult known as the Flawless who were only interested in perfect beauty and they had set about destroying anything that didn't meet their exacting standards.
Very well-thought out! I like the Sune subplot. Were they also self-destructive, Na-Gang? |
| Na-Gang |
Posted - 21 Aug 2008 : 09:52:15
My last campaign focussed quite heavily on Gargauth and how he has manipulated cultures and people throughout Faerun for much longer than most sages imagine. I had his meddling being instrumental in the early formation of Imaskar and their hatred of gods and godlike extraplanar beings, then I had him as a servant of Shar during the height of Netheril, finally becoming trapped beneath Peleveran in a mirrored shield worn by Paladins of Sune after he corrupted one of Lady Firehair's congregations into a cult known as the Flawless who were only interested in perfect beauty and they had set about destroying anything that didn't meet their exacting standards.
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| monknwildcat |
Posted - 20 Aug 2008 : 22:51:46
I took a watered-down RotAW, and, although we're still around the RotAW time-wise, I've nixed everything since (no polar icecaps melting, no dracomythal, no Nameless Dungeon v Gatekeeper's Crystal, no resettling Myth Drannor, et al). I'll use the WotSQ, well-thought out with no affect on my campaign when it occurs (currently no dhaerow-lovers).
My retroactive deviations involve ancient history in the Yuirwood and Arocorar for a long-running, setting-jumping Dlardrageth campaign, but nothing involving Sildëyuir proper or the überportal mythal. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 20 Aug 2008 : 21:30:51
My game takes place in 1390 DR, and there was an RSE in 1385 called the Great Conjunction (inspired by Ravenloft's Grand Conjunction). Basically, I was moving my long-running GH campaign into the Realms in the early 90's, and I moved many locales, NPCs, and even the PCs from one world to another. I did this origianlly because I knew very little about the Realms, and a great deal about Greyhawk. At the time, though, I never bothered to come up with any explanation for it.
Years later, when I became FR-savy, I decided I needed an explanation for my adds, and also decided I needed a 'BIG' event, because I also wanted to 'correct' a few things I didn't like about the map. So years before WotC came up with the Spellplague and Abeir, I had something similar.
My RSE started off in GH, revolving around the then-current plotline of the Greyhawk wars and the stuff from the From the Ashes boxed set. I also borrowed a bit of lore from pLanescape - when a place becomes almost entirely of one alignment over all others, it is automatically 'shunted' into the matching plane on the great Wheel (this is what continuously happens to Border Towns). I had it where on Oerth the War broke out once again, and all 'goodly' lands were eventually subjugated by Iuz (CE) or the scarlet Brotherhood (LE). Those two groups finally went at each other, and the confrontation escalated until both sides had opened up numerous portals to the lower planes and using fiends to fight it out (creating a veritable 'Hell on Earth' scenario).
This destabilized the planet, and parts of it began slipping into the various lower planes. The Circle of Eight (GH), along with the real Khelben Araunson, contacted friends in both FR and DL (Mordenkainen is friends with Elminster and Dalamar), trying to look for a way to stoip it. Elmimnster got together the greatest wizards of Toril (including evil ones!), and Dalamar did the same with Krynn, and a massive muti-planar spell was cast opening up vast portals from Oerth to Toril and Krynn, allowing refugees to flee their dying world (which was breaking apart around them).
That was the plan... however, Dalamar, being the jerk he is, took the opportunity to use the spell to get rid of certain 'undesirables' on his own world; instead of portals allowing GH people to enter Krynn, the DL portals scooped up large numbers of Krynnish people and dumped them into Toril (along with the GH refugees). Elminster and others managed to detect the betrayal and close the portals, but the ensuing backlash caused a few locales to switch places between all three worlds.
At this time, certain gods and groups (who were also participating in the magic circle) used their own participation to make certain changes happen that would benefit them (similar to what happened when Myth Drannor's Mythal was raised).
So, years after the fact, I had an RSE-style reason for why there are Kender and DL Minotaurs and Ogres in my Realms, and why there are so many GH locales present (like the City of Greyhawk on the Sea of Fallen Stars). So my maps have been greatly altered for years, and I got everything I wanted into FR, right alongside the official canon stuff.
Of course, the GHotR and 4e have now made my game diverge heavily from canon (since I'm not 'in the future' anymore), but I still prefer my RSE to the Spellplague.
It also allowed me to 'undo' the ToT as well - after the catastrophe that the Great Conjunction turned into, Ao punished Midnight, Kelemvor, and Cyric (all participants) by demoting them and restoring the Dark Three. Midnight is now just the Goddess of Spells (not magic itself), Cyric is the god of Insanity and Chaos, and Kelemvor is just the Judge of the Dead (under Jergal - Myrkul's the god of Death, not The Dead).
You may think that the Spellplague and Abeir should have been right up my alley after what I have done... but I put a little more thought into mine.  |
| Asche |
Posted - 16 Aug 2008 : 01:28:14
When I still played 3.5 FR, I mostly skipped or avoided even touching on the Chosen concept, and most of the high-powered iconic characters. Yes, they existed, but never really did anything noticable.
I also created an Inquisiton and a Knightly Order who hunt demons, devoted to the Triad (primarily Helm though) as I needed a sort of fallback Organization for my players that was a case of "be careful what you wish for".
More or less the Fire and Brimstone take on an Inquisition, and utilizing a lot of PrCs of various non-FR supplements.
Also, Thay has always been a major player overtly or covert, being quite a bit more aggressive and active than in the official lore. |
| Rinonalyrna Fathomlin |
Posted - 15 Aug 2008 : 14:36:48
quote:
Originally posted by Icelander
I have to admit, to my, perhaps, everlasting shame; that I liked Fzoul Chembryl as Chosen of Bane. I also didn't mind the elven Crusade (the Cormanthor being infested by tens of thousands of drow might have had something to do with it).
And that's fine--you certainly don't have to justify yourself to me.
With regards to the Chosen of Bane, et al--I have no real problem with Fzoul being a champion of Bane and having the role he does now. I just feel that the "Chosen this, Chosen that" that we've been hearing over the past several years makes it harder for people to understand what the true role of Mystra's Chosen are in the Realms (as a check on her power, not simply champions), in addition to it seeming like people (designers or players) just want their characters to have a laundry list of god-given powers. |
| Icelander |
Posted - 15 Aug 2008 : 03:33:39
quote:
Originally posted by Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
In my Realms, many of the more recent RSEs are either watered down from what they are in canon (Rage of Dragons) or didn't happen at all (the Elven Crusade and it's fallout). A few of my characters have created their own Realms, or are in other positions of power. The only real "Chosen" are the Chosen of Mystra. And of course, pretty much everything that happens in the canon Realms after the beginning of 1375 DR hasn't happened in my version, and in the vast majority of cases never will happen (there will never be a Spellplague, for example).
I have to admit, to my, perhaps, everlasting shame; that I liked Fzoul Chembryl as Chosen of Bane. I also didn't mind the elven Crusade (the Cormanthor being infested by tens of thousands of drow might have had something to do with it). Once I admitted certain 2e developments (Fzoul being the Chosen of Xwim and 'killing' Manshoon) or early 3e (Cormanthor the drow homeland), I found the following RSE easier to swallow. Plain and simple, it's better for my campaign to have elves and drow fighting in the Cormanthor than it was to have just drow there. And the Zhentarim becoming the secular arm of Bane invites interesting adventuring, especially if the Cyric clergy in the Black Network does not want to go gently into that good night.
But I'm adamant in stopping at 1375 DR or earlier. There's a difference between RSE that can be ignored, changed or downplayed and a 104 year timejump that invalidates more than 99.9% of prior Realmslore. |
| Patrakis |
Posted - 15 Aug 2008 : 03:20:46
The time of troubles exists in my version but no shades, no shadow magic, Tilverton is alive and kicking. In fact, pretty much everything that was writen after the TOT never happened. 3.0 never came to past in my realms.. but we do use the 3.5 rules. It seems i'll pass over the 4e realms also but this time, i wont buy the books either :)
Pat |
| Rinonalyrna Fathomlin |
Posted - 15 Aug 2008 : 01:27:34
In my Realms, many of the more recent RSEs are either watered down from what they are in canon (Rage of Dragons) or didn't happen at all (the Elven Crusade and it's fallout). A few of my characters have created their own Realms, or are in other positions of power. The only real "Chosen" are the Chosen of Mystra. And of course, pretty much everything that happens in the canon Realms after the beginning of 1375 DR hasn't happened in my version, and in the vast majority of cases never will happen (there will never be a Spellplague, for example). |
| Alisttair |
Posted - 14 Aug 2008 : 19:58:22
There might be something happening with/to the church of Tiamat in one of my campaigns that was going for 6 years until we suddenly stopped a few months ago  |
| Jorkens |
Posted - 14 Aug 2008 : 09:13:56
The list is to long. No real world ties, more of a Dark age/early mediaeval feel, less magic, no Uthgards, no Time of Troubles (come to think of it, few of the changes done since the Grey Box) Cormyr somewhat mixed with Karameikos, no Lords Alliance, the religions more mystery cults and more diverse from culture to culture, demons and devils more hidden, less human dominated, Thay and the east more "mysterious mages and devil worshippers far away", think Ashton- Smith and Moorcock's Pan-Tang.
That's what I can think of at the moment. |
| dwarvenranger |
Posted - 14 Aug 2008 : 04:13:12
Just certain PC have filled certain positions over the years, nothing too realms changing. |
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