Tom Cashel
First Post
So I've been thinking about the next campaign, starting afresh with 3.5 and Unapproachable East. I was thinking low magic, and having all the PCs start out as slaves or employees of a Red Wizard, or monsters living near the enclave. But then I had a more ambitious idea.
The crux is this: magical apocalypse.
The Weave and the Shadow Weave cancel each other like matter and anti-matter. A bright flash, and the shockwaves roll through all the planes, slaying gods and Chosen alike.
On Toril, nations fall. The Empire of Shade tumbles into the sands of Anauroch. Most magic items cease functioning. Wizards become a dying breed--most lose their powers altogether, and many are hunted down and killed for "causing" the apocalypse. The sharn and the phaerimm withdraw into the shadows of the earth's deeps. Magical organizations are disbanded. Fey creatures (including elves) withdraw to other worlds. Magic becomes a precious commodity. CRs are downgraded. No wizard or sorceror PCs are allowed.
In Thay, the PCs will have to deal with sudden freedom from the reign of the Red Wizards. Rashemi flood over the border to conquer, while civil war sunders the remaining Red Wizards' holdings and cities. Regions become isolated; trade routes dwindle and vanish.
The PCs can do lots of things: establish a holding of their own, join with any of the new warlords of Thay, set out into the unknown, try to survive in a war-torn land.
So...has anyone else done anything so destructive to the FR? Or tried a similar campaign? I know this is the old "low magic" question, but alternatively (for all you FR fans), what are some other consequences of the shattering of magic in such a magical world?
Should the campaign start, say, twenty years after the Fall? Or would it be more compelling to just have it happen on Day 1 of the new campaign?
All right, let's brainstorm.
The crux is this: magical apocalypse.
The Weave and the Shadow Weave cancel each other like matter and anti-matter. A bright flash, and the shockwaves roll through all the planes, slaying gods and Chosen alike.
On Toril, nations fall. The Empire of Shade tumbles into the sands of Anauroch. Most magic items cease functioning. Wizards become a dying breed--most lose their powers altogether, and many are hunted down and killed for "causing" the apocalypse. The sharn and the phaerimm withdraw into the shadows of the earth's deeps. Magical organizations are disbanded. Fey creatures (including elves) withdraw to other worlds. Magic becomes a precious commodity. CRs are downgraded. No wizard or sorceror PCs are allowed.
In Thay, the PCs will have to deal with sudden freedom from the reign of the Red Wizards. Rashemi flood over the border to conquer, while civil war sunders the remaining Red Wizards' holdings and cities. Regions become isolated; trade routes dwindle and vanish.
The PCs can do lots of things: establish a holding of their own, join with any of the new warlords of Thay, set out into the unknown, try to survive in a war-torn land.
So...has anyone else done anything so destructive to the FR? Or tried a similar campaign? I know this is the old "low magic" question, but alternatively (for all you FR fans), what are some other consequences of the shattering of magic in such a magical world?
Should the campaign start, say, twenty years after the Fall? Or would it be more compelling to just have it happen on Day 1 of the new campaign?
All right, let's brainstorm.