It's the End of the World As We Know It: Apocalyptic Campaign Settings

[JamesLFlowers]

Mid-Apocalypse. Just finished a campaign in Peterson's Planet Apocalypse setting where the lost lower plane of Underhell has resurfaced and is invading the Material Plane. The players were able to defeat the ArchLord in charge of the invasion of Toril and shut the portals which stopped that invasion of their world. But the setting still exists and other invasions are likely still ongoing and there is nothing to stop another Archlord from trying to invade Toril again. Plus you have the Underhell's foothold area around the portals. Creates lots of room for further adventures.

 

[jmartkdr2]

When I run it's technically "no apocalypse" (I mean maybe there could be one in the setting but it's irrelevant to the game we're playing)

But all of the games I'm currently playing are post-apocalypse. Two of those are sequel campaigns to pre-apocalypse campaigns.

 

[Joerg Baumgartner]

Time?

I don't think humans have any fantasy setting-level cataclysms, and we're pretty well set for ancient ruins full of treasure.

Not quite. Just time will lead to these ancient ruins having been plundered thrice over before your adventurers ever set sight on them, if you are lucky with a few caches or disturbing some graves.

Pompeii and Herculaneum may not have harbored great monetary treasures like you find in burial or hoard or sacrificial caches, but their cataclysmic end both preserved the ruins and prevented plunderers from unearthing them for almost two millennia.

Mysterious disappearances of cities or even civilizations can generate a different kind of ruin than abandonment from packing up and leaving like the Maya pyramids or Angkor Vat, both abandoned for catastrophic drought but not quite cataclysm. Now think what kind of ruins would be left after a zombie outbreak or massive alien abduction of a populace.

 

[CleverNickName]

Pompeii and Herculaneum may not have harbored great monetary treasures like you find in burial or hoard or sacrificial caches, but their cataclysmic end both preserved the ruins and prevented plunderers from unearthing them for almost two millennia.

Well yeah, here in the real world. But in a fantasy world, the cataclysmic end could be very different.

Modeling real-world archaeology in D&D would essentially be a Downtime activity for most characters. I suppose you could have them make a lot of Investigation checks on a grid to find clues, which would lead them to other areas to dig in a grid...incorporate some spells and divination, and you could make it sort of like a puzzle to solve. I can see it being a fun distraction or side-quest.

But fantasy archaeology is different. It's finding a mythical arcane library that was buried by a devastating geological event. For millennia it lay entombed beneath hundreds of feet of rock, protected and preserved by its enchantments and wards, until a recent landslide exposed its entrance--and awakened its sleeping guardians.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Eh... yes? To all of them?

So the current campaign's stakes are apocalyptic - just a conquerer BBEG, no world destroying involved. (That's None.)

However, the setting has some similarities to the Well of the Worlds, and the characters are in the equivalent of a world hex. And the hex walls have dropped and gone back up multiple times (That's Post/Distant Past).

And the BBEG is the last loose end from a previous (unrelated) apocalypse (That's Mid).

Oh, and also those previous walls have left behind .. situations, that are starting to go horribly wrong that the characters are trying to fix/prevent (That's Pre).

But if I have to limit to just one, it's the first, as that's how the campaign feels.