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Ari
Acolyte
40 Posts |
 Posted - 29 Jan 2017 : 01:57:35
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Trying to do a more politics/conspiracy-heavy campaign set in the realms, and run into a question: how much can change before it stops being relevant that this is happening in this particular universe?
Of course the Knights of the Shield would want to get leverage on the shifting ground of magic, Cormyr's proximity to wildlands full of monsters and cultural worship of ordered hierarchy would surely lead to at least efforts to tame drakes and wyverns en masse, surely the Netherese would want to at least try and give positive reasons for following them besides "We will not send shadows to tear your children into pieces", why wouldn't the Arcane Brotherhood have a Euron Greyjoy-esque view of their little piratical zoo of Luskan?
But how far down that road does the Realms lose its weird, silly and hypercharged high-fantasy soul? It doesn't matter if Klauth is a major player if he might as well be any other Tragic Villain, it needs to be something that COULDN'T happen anywhere else.
And I have not the least idea how to go about that. I started working on the campaign because I liked the realpolitik and pseudo-nationalism(really more regionalism) of the likes of the Black Network and Lord Dagult Neverembre. Netheril was charming because of the appeal of a total culture shift and point-of-view wholly at odds with the People of Light on Faerûn. But those bits and pieces don't make a world any more than random snippets of Dickens, Peake and Chesterton make a complete view of English literature.
And for context I'm sticking roughly to everything north of the Sea of Fallen Stars, besides Westgate.
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SaMoCon
Senior Scribe
USA
403 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jan 2017 : 20:22:05
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| Let me throw this out there - the Forgotten Realms can only be what you tell your players it is and if they are having fun then you are doing it right. The FR from the canon is contradictory, ridiculous, and often full of boring details that seem exciting when one reads it but is an irrelevant waste of time to explain to your players in a game. Just use what interests you, bring in only those elements that you feel your players want, and think about whether or not it is "Realmsian" when you are doing an epilogue write-up or after-action report of the campaign. |
Make the best use of the system that's there, then modify the mechanics that don't allow you to have the fun you are looking for. |
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Ari
Acolyte
40 Posts |
Posted - 29 Jan 2017 : 21:20:47
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| Thank you. That's a very helpful way to look at it. Collaborative make-believe isn't the same as writing a novel, after all. |
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Faraer
Great Reader
3308 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2017 : 01:37:20
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| On the other hand, if you want to capture something, would be disappointed if you didn't, but aren't sure what it is, 'what is Realmsian?' is a big question to answer. But in the terms you're talking about, for me, a campaign would cease to be Realmsian if it -- as opposed to some characters within it -- became cynical or hopeless or lost its joy in life. |
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Ari
Acolyte
40 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2017 : 05:10:25
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| It's no accident that there are like three or four goddesses of "Happy days all the time" and how the looming spectre of undeath is embodied in heartless, joyless tyrants who wouldn't know a friend if one bit them. |
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Odin Highhammer
Acolyte
Sweden
24 Posts |
Posted - 01 Feb 2017 : 10:59:39
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I have some of the same ideas that you have when I run my game. I have focused on some other groups (Lords Alliance, the Orc tribes, the Druidic circles etc) but I also have Shadovar in there.
So some insight on how I treat the Shadovar in my version, while trying to stay true to Faerun:
Shadovar are no longer under the heel of The Most High, and don’t have the military power that they once had, so time to focus on what they still have: Magic.
“We are a magical people” – is my core mantra when I think about “what would Shadovar do”.
Shadovar still in control of Sembia, but now need to figure out how to not be invaded. So double down on Trade, and providing favors to avoid ending up in a war situation.
The Zhentarim have been put as an analogous to the Mafia, and I think Shadovar are now more like the Yakuza, with a side business of for hire, high profile assassination.
Why team up with the Shadovar – Your trade routes will be safe, your paperwork will be easy, and if you end up in a jam, they can pull strings for you. Any smart merchant house would want to at least have a formal relationship with the Shadovar.
Shadovar are pro-civilization, magical and technological progress, trade and infrastructure. While my Faerun is nowhere close to this, the Shadovar strive for a magical steampunk world. Technology merged with Magic and would support most projects where this is the end-goal. Think of them as anti-druids, and they would attract those type of people.
I have also converted them to be followers of the Dark Moon Heresy, rather than nihilistic Shar followers. – Shar followers just rubs too many people the wrong way, for all the right reasons. |
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Ari
Acolyte
40 Posts |
Posted - 11 Feb 2017 : 17:09:48
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Odin, I do beg your pardon for not replying, your suggested tweaks are(almost entirely) perfect for what I have in mind.
Instead of some rando nation of anachronistic flying cities, the Netheril Shades as a high-profile cadre of power-brokers and invaluable enforcers works beautifully. Why beat people up and painstakingly establish the definition of a "Johnny come lately" power when they can just do what they're best at and turn everyone into their allies into the bargain. It also helps explain why the dragons haven't descended on the isolated and much-diminished enclaves and torn them apart looking for ancient treasures. They're protected by the larger societies they exploit and subvert.
Mr. Greenwood, for all his stylistic faults, was really onto something about the implicit metaplot of the Forgotten Realms being inextricably linked to people freeing or restricting magic. The Shadovar are culturally conditioned to think they understand magic like nobody else, not even the High Elves. And their vaunted work exploring and reestablishing magical expertise just works to strengthen their hold on power like in the old days.
The Dark Moon Heresy is one of those things that makes so much sense I'm a little sorry it wasn't "true". Selune and Shar as being two faces of the same being is way better than the goddess of the Moon somehow being the nemesis of the all-consuming goddess of darkness with her own side-order magic infrastructure. The Moon motif goes without saying. |
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What's "Realmsian"?
