Astroid hits Greyhawk - The aftermath

[grodog]

In terms of Greyhawk-specific effects, I think you can do all sorts of interesting things with the baseline of a post-asteroid-strike-nuclear-winter for the campaign:

- you could leverage the asteroid/comet strike as part of Paizo's "Age of Worms" campaign arc, either during or after the arc itself, or run the arc after the strike, too: tying the strike to the arc offers all sorts of possibilities, an in particular offers an interesting possible origin for the cult of Kyuss and the sons of Kyuss monsters
- perhaps the strike does trigger a traditional "nuclear winter" extinction level event, but in a magical setting the impact is far less traumatic in terms of the ability the various races/monsters/etc. to survive afterward; the winter could be magical in nature too---perhaps the Land of Black Ice rolls black glaciers southward in response to the strike, or it's all a plot by the gods of winter to turn Greyhawk into a Song-of-Ice-and-Fire-style eternal winter
- perhaps the strike is the cause of the creation of the Rift Canyon, and the RC is now a "brand new" feature in the geography, rife with all sorts of stuff that's never been seen before in Greyhawk
- you'll also want to consider the possibility of PCs getting to explore some famous NPC's sites, which are now of course ruined: for example, perhaps as part of some post-strike quest/adventure, the PCs need to recover an object from Tenser's Castle (detailed in the 1998 adventure _Return of the Eight_), or from Mordenkainen's Obsidian Citadel (not otherwise detailed much in canon)
- a strike like this could also have all sorts of interesting impacts on the metaphysical and planar landscapes of Greyhawk: do one or more gods try to stop the strike, and die in the process? does the strike's impact effect the planar geography, such that Greyhawk's prime plane starts to fragment or break up or does it perhaps bring an entirely new planar geography into the area that's carried along with the asteroid/comet (or perhaps the asteroid has a series of hidden demiplanes within it, etc.)
- the asteroid itself might strike and rebound, creating a new, third moon orbiting Oerth (perhaps like the Chaos moon from the Old World of Warhammer?)

The film "Deep Impact" offers some good inspiration for the possible effects of a near-miss strike: that is, you don't have a full-blown extinction-level event, but instead have a lot of short-term destruction that change a lot of the players but would still allow you to retain whatever aspects of the setting appeal most to you and your players.

 

[terrya]

Thanks for the great replys in here guys! allot of help! The one thing I was thinking of doing was limiting the gods that grant clerical powers. I have always been a strong believer that a god needs worshipers to remain imortal and to fuel their power. In this world with a large % of their followers dead I feel it would eliminate allot of the lesser gods! Any comments / ideas on this?

 

[grodog]

You could demote all of the gods one or two levels, which could be very interesting:

Down 1 level:

- Greater --> Lesser (presumably Cyndor as an "intermediate" god would be treated like either a Greater or Lesser, your call)
- Lesser --> Demi
- Demi/Hero/Saint --> Quasi
- Quasi = Quasi (they don't have worshippers yet, so they may suddenly be much more powerful relative to ages-old divine/infernal enemies, and move to take some of them out?)

Down 2 levels:

- Greater --> Demi (presumably Cyndor as an "intermediate" god would be treated like either a Greater or Lesser, your call)
- Lesser --> Hero/Quasi
- Demi/Hero/Saint --> mortal/dead
- Quasi = Quasi

That would make for some interesting fun, especially if not all of the gods get reduced in power (if, for example and riffing off of my earlier post, Kyuss is empowered by the strike, perhaps he rockets up to Lesser God level or somesuch).

A word of explanation: Greyhawk has two levels of divinity beyond the standard ones in the D&DG books. In order from greatest to least, they are:

- Greater God
- Intermediate God (there's only 1 god of this type in the official canon, so it's a bit of an anomaly)
- Lesser God
- Demigod
- Hero Deity (these are above the level of Quasi Deities and have worshippers, but are not yet demigods)
- Saint (essentially the same power level as a Quasi Deity, but with worshippers; usually grants spells via a patron/sponsor rather than through their own ability/powers)
- Quasi Deity

If you use the rules for the maximum level spells that can be grated by the level of deity (only greater gods can grant 7th level spells, demigods can only grant up to 5th level spells, etc.), that may drastically reduce the power of the clerical classes in general in the game, depending on what level you're planning to play at.

 

[terrya]

You could demote all of the gods one or two levels, which could be very interesting:

Down 1 level:

- Greater --> Lesser (presumably Cyndor as an "intermediate" god would be treated like either a Greater or Lesser, your call)
- Lesser --> Demi
- Demi/Hero/Saint --> Quasi
- Quasi = Quasi (they don't have worshippers yet, so they may suddenly be much more powerful relative to ages-old divine/infernal enemies, and move to take some of them out?)

Down 2 levels:

- Greater --> Demi (presumably Cyndor as an "intermediate" god would be treated like either a Greater or Lesser, your call)
- Lesser --> Hero/Quasi
- Demi/Hero/Saint --> mortal/dead
- Quasi = Quasi

That would make for some interesting fun, especially if not all of the gods get reduced in power (if, for example and riffing off of my earlier post, Kyuss is empowered by the strike, perhaps he rockets up to Lesser God level or somesuch).

A word of explanation: Greyhawk has two levels of divinity beyond the standard ones in the D&DG books. In order from greatest to least, they are:

- Greater God
- Intermediate God (there's only 1 god of this type in the official canon, so it's a bit of an anomaly)
- Lesser God
- Demigod
- Hero Deity (these are above the level of Quasi Deities and have worshippers, but are not yet demigods)
- Saint (essentially the same power level as a Quasi Deity, but with worshippers; usually grants spells via a patron/sponsor rather than through their own ability/powers)
- Quasi Deity

If you use the rules for the maximum level spells that can be grated by the level of deity (only greater gods can grant 7th level spells, demigods can only grant up to 5th level spells, etc.), that may drastically reduce the power of the clerical classes in general in the game, depending on what level you're planning to play at.

This reply was beyond useful and is exactly what i was thinking of doing. I felt in a world ruled by undead I had to try and tone down the cleric class and look to explain the lack of divine intervention. I will look to go with 2 levels down and will put this forward to my group!

 

[terrya]

I know its not a true Greyhawk God but due to its inclusion in the 3.5 players handbook allot of our newer players wish to worship Pelor. Would you feel in a world plauged by undead Pelor would grow in power due to an increase in worshipers?