D&D General Dying Toril

[LongTimeLurker]

So, I've ben reading some Jack Vance (the Dying Earth) and Clark Ashton Smith (mainly the Zothique cycle) lately and was toying with the idea of giving the Forgotten Realms the 'dying earth' treatment.

By this I mean advancing the timeline by, say, a billion years; the sun (does it have a particular name in Realmspace?) is a red giant, countless new stars have shown themselves (while others have disappeared), the continents have sunk and risen and rearranged themselves, perhaps multiple times (time to draw a completely new map!); it's a post-technological era that has 'regressed' back to the standard D&D tech level (maybe black powder guns?) from an earlier eon of super-technology (perhaps there are recoverable remnants here and there...).

The humans of 'Zothrun' (or maybe 'Faerique'?) know that the end is nigh, so it has made them selfish and decadent (who wants to toil in the fields when the sun could burn out tomorrow?); wizards (particularly necromancers), undead, cannibals, bizarre monsters and aliens plague the land. Humans are by far the most dominant sentient species; elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. have (mostly?) receded into legend.

Magic is more powerful (haven't decided how) but much arcane knowledge has been lost; there are but one hundred spells known to the ken of man in this age; mages of earlier eons had a thousand spells at their fingertips!

I don't suspect anyone has done this to the Realms but has anyone run a Dying Earth/Zothique style game with any D&D ruleset? How did it turn out? Was it worth all the time and effort?

 

[Alzrius]

By this I mean advancing the timeline by, say, a billion years; the sun (does it have a particular name in Realmspace?) is a red giant

According to SJR2 Realmspace (affiliate link), that particular sun doesn't have a name.

 

[cbwjm]

I haven't done anything like this, but I'd put a fantasy spin on it so that the reason the sun is dying is because the sun god (or maybe gods) have recently been killed and with their death the sun starts to burn out.

 

[Seramus]

Sounds really awesome! You could have an entire sea made of silt, let the cannibals be something like halflings, make arcane magic siphon life from the world, and let people use materials like bone to make armor and weapons.

 

[Hatmatter]

So, I've ben reading some Jack Vance (the Dying Earth) and Clark Ashton Smith (mainly the Zothique cycle) lately and was toying with the idea of giving the Forgotten Realms the 'dying earth' treatment.

By this I mean advancing the timeline by, say, a billion years; the sun (does it have a particular name in Realmspace?) is a red giant, countless new stars have shown themselves (while others have disappeared), the continents have sunk and risen and rearranged themselves, perhaps multiple times (time to draw a completely new map!); it's a post-technological era that has 'regressed' back to the standard D&D tech level (maybe black powder guns?) from an earlier eon of super-technology (perhaps there are recoverable remnants here and there...).

The humans of 'Zothrun' (or maybe 'Faerique'?) know that the end is nigh, so it has made them selfish and decadent (who wants to toil in the fields when the sun could burn out tomorrow?); wizards (particularly necromancers), undead, cannibals, bizarre monsters and aliens plague the land. Humans are by far the most dominant sentient species; elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. have (mostly?) receded into legend.

Magic is more powerful (haven't decided how) but much arcane knowledge has been lost; there are but one hundred spells known to the ken of man in this age; mages of earlier eons had a thousand spells at their fingertips!

I don't suspect anyone has done this to the Realms but has anyone run a Dying Earth/Zothique style game with any D&D ruleset? How did it turn out? Was it worth all the time and effort?

This sounds awesome Long Time!

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Sounds really awesome! You could have an entire sea made of silt, let the cannibals be something like halflings, make arcane magic siphon life from the world, and let people use materials like bone to make armor and weapons.

ugh, for whatever reason i've hated Dark Sun with the power of a thousand burning stars since i read the very first supplement. Spine shiver.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Humans are by far the most dominant sentient species; elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. have (mostly?) receded into legend.

I was on a Dying Earth kick a couple months back and one interesting aspect of it on the campaign setting front is that in Vance's work people are basically ignorant and ambivalent of what is going on beyond their immediate region (part of the decadent nihilism of a doomed planet). So you don't really need to have the whole world terribly planned out, as the places are all very disconnected. And just because those races are legendary in the area where your campaign takes place doesn't mean that they are not thriving better than humans elsewhere in the world and thinking humans are just creatures of legend. And the elsewhere might be right on the other side of the terrifying forest or mountain range that nobody dares ever cross.

 

[Dausuul]

It sounds like a great setting, but I'm curious why it matters that it's set in FR. I mean, you're getting rid of the NPCs, all records of history, and even the map... what's left to make it the Realms?

...Oh, wait, I forgot. Obliterating the entire setting is what makes it the Realms. Carry on.

 

[Mercurius]

I love Dying Earth settings, but I'm not sure what the point is making it the Realms. I mean, what connection would it have with the Realms as we know it? If its a billion years in the future, so many cycles of civilization would have come and gone, and the entire physical earth would be completely different.

It only makes it worth setting in the Realms if the PCs can discover pockets of the old Realms, or maybe there's "bleed through" between the two timelines, or make it post-apocalyptic and nearer in the future - say, a thousand years (going the Dark Sun route).

I mean, nothing wrong with the idea - it just seems to be Realms in name only. You could just as easily simply create a new setting.

EDIT: Oh, wait - pretty much what @Dausuul said.

 

[Dioltach]

Well, a billion years into the future Elminster will still be around to seduce goddesses and beautiful young women ...