Epic Forgotten Realms

[ashockney]

What are some ideas that you've used, or that you would recommend, for an epic campaign (20th - 40th+) set in the Forgotten Realms?

How many 20th level characters do you think there should be in the forgotten realms? According to the FRCS, in the 20 "regions" of the realms there are 65,000,000 known population. What do you think the % of the population should be "epic"?

 

[Faraer]

Ed Greenwood:

I envisioned a multiverse of many, many parallel worlds (alternate, side-by-side Prime Material Planes, if you prefer), with Middle-Earth, Narnia, and many other favorite fantasy settings among them, all linked together with gates. There was once much travel between them (hence our own world's legends of dragons, etc., from before the links to other places became 'forgotten'), including huge migrations...until, inevitably, power groups of sinister and formidable beings fought to control access to/use of the gates. High-level campaign play in the 'original' Realms centered on PCs (unwittingly, at first) running afoul of some of these power groups, getting caught in the ongoing wars between them, and ending up as one such power group themselves.

 

[ashockney]

Ed Greenwood:

Interesting thought. Portal wars!

I'd definitely like to tie that into a long term campaign idea. What specifically about the portals, or who fights for control of these portals, specifically, do you think would be interesting from a campaign perspective?

What would happen if the "good guys" win this war? What would be the potential outcome on the world.

One cool component, is that there is a campaign-theme related item that deals specifically with a member of the city of Shade acquiring an item that allows them to use any portal (overcome passwords, etc.) through a successful use magic device check.

 

[mikebr99]

What are some ideas that you've used, or that you would recommend, for an epic campaign (20th - 40th+) set in the Forgotten Realms?

How many 20th level characters do you think there should be in the forgotten realms? According to the FRCS, in the 20 "regions" of the realms there are 65,000,000 known population. What do you think the % of the population should be "epic"?

I wouldn't think there'd be any more EPIC characters who spend most of their time in FR, then are specifically stat'd out in the FRCS.

typ community generation:
DMG P.138 - max 20th in any community.

Mike

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Buy the Nobilis RPG. Make Toril just one of the worlds targeted by the Excrucians in their battle to destroy all of reality.

That way, your PCs will still have work even if they ascend to Godhood...

 

[silentspace]

I wouldn't think there'd be any more EPIC characters who spend most of their time in FR, then are specifically stat'd out in the FRCS.

typ community generation:
DMG P.138 - max 20th in any community.

Mike

Funny thing about the DMG tables is that there are an awful lot of high-level commoners running around...

Anyway I think the concept behind the DMG is that 20th level is the highest you're able to go. They suggest somewhere that to go higher than 20th you need some sort of special thing happening, like a quest given by a deity or something. Does FR have something like this? How did Elminster become epic? Did he just level up?

 

[ashockney]

Buy the Nobilis RPG. Make Toril just one of the worlds targeted by the Excrucians in their battle to destroy all of reality.

That way, your PCs will still have work even if they ascend to Godhood...

Very interesting stuff. I've been noodling around the possibility that the "epic campaign" may evolve into something near "ascenion" to an "immortal" campaign. Where would I get something like Nobilis?

I definitely agree there would need to be some "world altering" events/organizations. Any thoughts?

 

[greymarch]

I have been playing in an Epic FR campaign for several years. Here are some campaign ideas...

1. In the Throne of Bloostone modules, the heroes whack Orcus, and destroy his precious Wand. Orcus is back in 3rd edition D&D (and 3.5), so have Orcus either try for revenge, or try to take over the Forgotten Realms.

2. The Shades are an extremely powerful organization that recently returned to the Realms. Several of their leaders are 30+ levels.

3. The absolute deepest levels of Undermountain can provide a challenge for Epic level players.

4. Avatars, avatars, avatars! 3rd edition FR provided us with detailed statistics for many of the gods, and their avatars. The typical FR avatar can provide more than a challenge for a group of Epic characters. There are several FR gods that cannot be beaten by PCs. Supreme initiative is the best ability in D&D!

 

[Red Viper]

Nobilis RPG

What is all in this book? Who publishes it?

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Very interesting stuff. I've been noodling around the possibility that the "epic campaign" may evolve into something near "ascenion" to an "immortal" campaign. Where would I get something like Nobilis?

I belive it is currently produced by Guardians of Order, but if your local game store doesn't have it or doesn't want to get it, you can get it via Amazon.

What is all in this book?

Well, Nobilis is a diceless RPG (and a very, very beautiful one), though adapting the concepts to D&D shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The Backstory: There are very, very powerful entities called "Imperators" (probably similar in power to the Forgotten Realms' Lord Ao) that live across the multiverse and that fight other, equally poweful entities called "Excrucians" that come from outside the multiverse and want to destroy it. Most of the battle takes place in some "metaphorical space" unfathomable to humans.

However, these Imperators also have certain "bodies" to take care of (as opposed to their minds, which are off to battle). These "bodies" are created by sweeping up a small (or not so small) part of reality and investing it with their essense - essentially creating a new plane. They also create caretakers to look after this body while they are away. You see, each Imperator has several aspects of reality that are a part of him - such as Love, Shadow, and Innocence. So the Imperator takes three humans (or other entities), and makes them into the Nobilis (or Sovereign Powers... though in D&D parlance, it is more appropriate to call them Gods) of, respectively, Love, Shadow, and Innocence. These folks are then charged with (a) defending their Imperator's body (and a wise Imperator makes sure that his plane has some sort of internatl problems that make sure his Nobilis keep some attention to it instead of wandering off...), (b) defending the aspect of reality that they now embody - for if they are killed in the right way, the very idea of Love, Shadow, or Innocence might vanish from the multiverse - and (c) make ware against the agents of the Excrucians.

The rest of the time, the Nobilis spend scheming and backstabbing the others of their kind...

Needless to say, this setup is fairly easy to use with D&D - the PCs can learn eventually that even the gods have superiors and have a lot of work to do even if they join their ranks. There is a lot more stuff in this book, and most of it is very inspirational for epic level D&D.