D&D General Dying Toril

[LongTimeLurker]

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.

You are correct and this is a question i have been tossing around in my mind. There is no reason to set it in the FR for the very reasons that you have given.

I think it is better to just forget The Realms.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

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.

You are correct. I will be inventing the whole thing anyway so it is just better to ignore the FR.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

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.

Hmmm, some food for thought. Thanks!

 

[el-remmen]

The reason you make it the Realms is so that your players can have this moment, except with some feature of Waterdeep or something.

 

[not-so-newguy]

I really like the idea of taking a setting that most folks would be familiar with and turning it on its head. Maybe just shorten the time and/or perhaps change the reason for its demise. No suggestions are coming to me at the moment. Maybe later.

 

[Sithlord]

Because of the name forgotten realms I always thought they should play up all the earlier worlds that used to travel there in ages past. And it should be kinda isolated and hard to get to these days. I really think they dropped the ball by not having netheral be a major planar traveling or at least spelljamming civilization

 

[Coroc]

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.

Yeah how do you justify that Drizzt and Elminster are still alive when you introduce them to save the day? Time travel?

 

[Coroc]

I really like the idea of taking a setting that most folks would be familiar with and turning it on its head. Maybe just shorten the time and/or perhaps change the reason for its demise. No suggestions are coming to me at the moment. Maybe later.

Thats easy done with some major apocalypse, some suggestions:

• Corona Smombie aehrg Zombie apocalypse
• metorites
• Open gate to the abyss / nine Hells / Limbo wait, now the last one is a great idea, everything gets chaotic neutral with froglike beings adding to the chaos if it ain't chaotic enough
• Major all out war between some nations for some reason politics/religion or the like
• Interdimensional rift dragging parts of the world away leaving a swiss cheese like structure
• Iceage
• Climate warming

 

[cbwjm]

You are correct. I will be inventing the whole thing anyway so it is just better to ignore the FR.

A point for using the FR is if your players are familiar with it, then they get to see how things have fallen apart. If you advance it only a few thousand years but have the sun dying then you can show "ancient ruins" of the modern day FR. It should be long enough as well for the current day major players to be gone. Then you have some recognisable areas, and recognisable gods trying to prevent the final fall of the world.

If your players aren't all that up on FR lore though, then yeah, you may as well homebrew it all.

 

[Stattick]

It's the aftermath of the Night War. Shar and Selune threw down hard enough to destroy each other, kill most of the other gods, and damn near destroy the world itself. But some say that they Shar and Selune aren't quite done yet. Some say that in the dark forgotten places the Shadows regathered, and are now sliding once more into the world of men, seducing the power hungry, while the last vestiges of Selune's forces have issued a command to burn every land that's ever been touched by the shadow. Wait, no, that's Babylon 5.