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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Urizen" data-source="post: 4436700" data-attributes="member: 11673">When I wrote the <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=25800&it=1&filters=0_0_10080" target="_blank"> Bloodthrone Campaign Setting </a>, the goal was to create a Post Apocalyptic fantasy world filled with all sorts of possibilities for adventure. But more than that, the setting needed to be designed to ensure that heroes mattered. More to the point: Heroes are necessary. The actions of PC’s can potentially have great effect on the larger world. Whether the focus is on epic scaled-wars designed to throw invading forces back from whence they came, or something as relatively (but no less important) minor as freeing slaves, or protecting a freehold, the end result needs to be the same: Heroes must have a sense of purpose, a feeling that the things they do matter. Otherwise, the Post Apocalyptic game becomes a selfish cycle of “kill, pillage and hoard…” And that gets boring really fast.Admittedly, I haven’t been following what is happening with the Realms, but I intend to check out the book, because I happen to like P.A settings. The problem with the destruction of the forgotten realms is that, to a certain point, the people who designed it made the assumption that everyone wants their game to be apocalyptic in nature. This just isn’t the case. Post Apocalyptic games are a niche. A well-loved niche – but a niche all the same.The average player/GM doesn’t want their world turned upside down. I won’t go so far as to say the developers are “shoving it down our throats;” we can always choose not to pick up the product and continue with the realms as we know and love them.If_I_were running a realms game, I’d design a campaign geared towards making the actions of the PC’s count, because that is the true beauty of an Apocalypse game. Your heroes can shine like beacons in darkness. In a High Fantasy game, heroes are a dime a dozen. They’re the usual suspects, fighting against various enemies we’ve seen over and over again. In a Post Apocalypse setting, heroes are paragons of the term. They rise above the huddled, ragged masses and fight to change the world for the better. They are the characters who are just as lost, just as afraid as anyone else, but they choose to try and change the world for the better. They go into the darkness which is all the more prevalent, all the more oppressive, and beat it back.It’s not pretty.It’s often thankless.But it matters.It’s true heroism.</blockquote>

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