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Yako
Acolyte
Brazil
2 Posts |
 Posted - 04 May 2023 : 03:08:14
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hi, folks!
recently i got my copy of rime of the frostmaiden and, some issues aside, the campaign, for me, it's really cool. i loved the terror/survival mood and want to run it for one of my groups, who recently played call of cthulhu for the first time with me, i ran the cold harvest scenario (amazing, i highly recommend it).
but i got some (to keep this nice) problems with the current official timeline of faerūn and i completely ignore it on my games. with that in mind, i thought about running rotfm in a post-spellplague dark ages faerūn. low-magic chaotic world trying to understand and survive of what happened to mystra and the world, and, to the people of the north, survive auril and her desperate attempt of creating a safe place for her. it will make even more sense to me that, without the wave, she'll need all her strength to keep her stupid high powered epic spell.
with my ideia briefly explained, i come to you, wise sages, with two questions:
- this sound appealing to a group? if your dm come to you with this or other similar ideia, will you like it and want to play it? a long time friend and player from our teenage years group said it was great, but more insights will be appreciated.
- i could still use D&D 5e, but with some major modifications, or use a system focused on a dark ages/low fantasy setting, like shadows of esteren (witch is, by the way, fantastic). i'll have a lot of work either way (adapting 5e to my ideia against adapting rotfm to a new system), so witch one do you think is the best to do?
thanks!
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Edited by - Yako on 04 May 2023 04:24:39
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7969 Posts |
Posted - 04 May 2023 : 05:55:16
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Dark Sun is a post-apocalyptic D&D setting.
Where the apocalyptic events had real and lasting consequences. The world is a barren wasteland.
Not like the Realms. Where apocalptic events are really just temporary things. Mystra gets replaced. The magic storms die down after a while. Life goes on as it always did before. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4429 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jun 2023 : 14:25:41
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quote:
Originally posted by Yako
- this sound appealing to a group? if your dm come to you with this or other similar ideia, will you like it and want to play it? a long time friend and player from our teenage years group said it was great, but more insights will be appreciated.
I've always found the concept intriguing. I wanted to do an E6-style campaign (a modified 3.5 where you stop leveling at 6th level but gain feats thereafter) to facilitate the difficulties of a Spellplague ravaged world. Unfortunately none of my group liked the low-key aspect of E6 so I scrapped the idea. If I were to ever do a Realms E6 game, that would be the time frame to set it in though.
quote:
Originally posted by Yako
- i could still use D&D 5e, but with some major modifications, or use a system focused on a dark ages/low fantasy setting, like shadows of esteren (witch is, by the way, fantastic). i'll have a lot of work either way (adapting 5e to my ideia against adapting rotfm to a new system), so witch one do you think is the best to do?
Thing is, we don't have much info on the time frame and what effects there were with magic, not entirely. We know spellcasters went mad, spells didn't function correctly, and there were difficulties casting magic. I'm not sure you "need" a mechanical limitation for this, but it could be that most of the access to magic stuff (Scrolls, books, etc) is hard to come by.
Also, I really liked the aesthetic of Shadows of Esteren, very mystic and gothic feel. I have their core book (Prologue) though didn't delve much into the mechanics of the system. |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3737 Posts |
Posted - 13 Jun 2023 : 02:14:24
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| -What is your definition of "dark ages/low fantasy"? In my mind, that's very magic restrictive. I ran a game a while back in a homebrew world where magic is virtually unheard of. D&D, regardless of which edition, operates on the assumption that magic is fairly prevalent. We winged it and the players were gracious enough to not needle me and intentionally play magic-oriented players, but we were limited in terms of enemies, encounters, rewards, etc. If your version of "dark ages/low fantasy" is not a lot of magic, definitely would recommend another rule set designed with that in mind. |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)
Elves of Faerūn
Vol I- The Elves of Faerūn
Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium |
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DoveArrow
Seeker
97 Posts |
Posted - 24 Jul 2023 : 17:42:20
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quote:
Originally posted by Yako
i could still use D&D 5e, but with some major modifications, or use a system focused on a dark ages/low fantasy setting, like shadows of esteren (witch is, by the way, fantastic). i'll have a lot of work either way (adapting 5e to my ideia against adapting rotfm to a new system), so witch one do you think is the best to do?
I wouldn't think you would have to make too many 'major' changes. The books say that magic during that time either didn't function or was unreliable. I would say that sounds a lot like wild magic.
If it were me, I would simply have spellcasters make an Intelligence (Arcana) check for each spell they cast (say DC 10 + spell level) as part of casting the spell. If they succeed, the spell works normally. If they fail by 4 or less, they have to roll on the sorcerer wild magic table (ignoring any sorcerer specific results if they're not a sorcerer). If they fail by 5 or more, the spell has no effect at all. That would be a relatively straightforward way to adjudicate the situation. |
Edited by - DoveArrow on 25 Jul 2023 02:20:02 |
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DoveArrow
Seeker
97 Posts |
Posted - 25 Jul 2023 : 02:19:41
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Another thought that occurred to me is that there were rules in the 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting about wild magic zones, where the Weave was warped, damaged, or frayed. Characters had to make caster level checks (DC 15 + spell level) to cast a spell normally, which is similar to the Intelligence (Arcana) check I was mentioning earlier.
One of the things they suggested in that book about wild magic zones is that dispel magic could cause magic to function normally for 1d4 minutes. Greater dispel magic caused it to function properly for 1d4 x 10 minutes and a wish or miracle spell on an area would cause it to function normally permanently.
Perhaps you could use the 5e dispel magic in a similar way, where it allows magic in an area to function normally within a 150-foot radius for 1d4 minutes and an additional 1d4 minutes for each spell slot above 3rd. Meanwhile, wish could create a permanent normal magic area within the same radius. |
Edited by - DoveArrow on 25 Jul 2023 02:22:04 |
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Dark Ages Faerūn - Post-Spellplague Period
