Post Apocalyptic Fantasy

[Bugbear]

I've re-playing the Fallout games, and I had an idea for a campaign set in a fantasy world, several hundred years after the Arcane eqivilant of a nucelar war. Kind of "Conan the Barbarian" meats the "Road Warrior".

Any Ideas to help spark my creative juices. Can this even work?

~Bugbear~

 

[Crothian]

Easily done. THink Greek mytyhology and set it right after ZZues frees his sibling by defeating athe Titans.

Or, a Prime Material world was overrun with the Blood War and only recently, the Devils and Demons have left to fight elsewhere. The people are just trying to recover.

Any of a number of natural disasters that could be just local to global. Earthquakes, floods, Valcanoes, Droughts, Ice Age, Plague, meteor strike.....

Tinker gnome finds 2 small pieces of Uranium, and BOMB!!!

 

[William Ronald]

I would also say that Stephen King's the Stand might provide some inspiration. Picture an empire that fell into ruins.

Bits and pieces have power, but there is widespread chaos. This is an age where heroes are needed.

 

[Death_Jester]

How about this Magic Versus Psionics.

In the past two very powerful factions came to resent the others power, as powerful factions are want to do. Eventually politics broke down and war started. The mages came up with better and more powerful weapons and creatures to fight the Psionic users and the Psions developed better and better means of dispatching the creatures.
Think a super state where magic and psionics make a ultra modern utopia kind of setting. The people lived in luxery and had magical highways and the like. Both magic and psionics had made a paridice on earth with war a thing of the past and the average person was well taken care of.

Then the war came and the devistation was so intense because so many hadn't expected it. You could even run it in the early part of the first age of Robert Jordan's wheel of time series come to think of it.

Lots of hidden dangers and lost artifacts that no one seems to remember what they do anymore. It sounds like fun sorry I wont get to play in it.

 

[Bugbear]

Well, here are some of the notes I have so far. Most of this was written before I posted this thread.

Generations ago the land was ruled by five great nations. These nations were divided by Ideology and hated one another. Even though the Five nations would have liked nothing better than to distroy each other, the world knew peace and prosperity. They knew that if one of them moved to strike against one of the others, that they themselves would be distroyed.
---
Noone knows who gave the order, who it was that struck the first blow. It doesn't matter. Once the Great War began nothing could stop it. Millions died in the first few hours. Entire cities were reduced to steaming slag by powerful magics. Feilds and forest were burned and spoiled. Vast armies marched, slaughtering all they encountered. The carnage of the Great War was unliek anything any could imagine.
---
Within a week the the war ground to a halt. Billions were dead and the Goverments of the Five Nations collapsed. Famine and Pestilence stalked the land. Winter came six months early, and lasted for almost a year. The once proud and enlightened Civilizations of the Five Nations were reduced to Savage Barbarism.
---
Two Hundred Years Later...
The peoples of Cairnheim slowly rebuild, pulling back from the brink of extinction. The people huddle together in shanty-towns and ruined cities. Food and Clean water are scarce. Raiders prey on any who are to weak to defend themselves. Horrors born from the Great war sprowl the wastes and shattered cities. The Gods, for the most part have abandoned the world, and those which remain are crewl and Capricious.
Cairnheim is a land of little hope, where death could come at any momment, be it from a sword, from starvation, or the invisible taint which poisions the wastes.

 

[Bugbear]

More Notes on Cairnheim

Religion: After the Great War, Most of the Gods Abbandioned the world. Some remained however, and their followings grew stong in the watelands.

Among the major Deities of Cairnheim are The Laughing One, Goddess of Suffering; The Warlord, God of Tyrany and War; The Pale Rider, God of Death; He who walks in shadows, God of Murder; and The Boneless one, Goddess of sickness and famine.

To most Cairnheimians, the Gods are not worshiped, but appeased. A farmer, for example, will give a sacrifice to the Boneless one, in hopes that she will turn her eye elsewhere. There are some however who do embrace the dark power offered by the Old Ones.

There are some Good god also, Such as the defender of the weak, but sadly, their cults are small in comparison to those of the Old Ones.

The People:
Townies are typicaly farmers, Miners, or Bramin Ranchers. They try to live as best they can and in the old ways. Primitive tribes are found on the outskirts of "civilized lands". they vary greatly from tribe to tribe. Some tribes are more civilized and enlightened than the townies. Others are Canibals. Raiders
prey on the weak, demanding tribute and promising annilation if they are not obeyed. Wanderers travel the wastes, often trading goods between the towns and villages.

Humans: Humans make up the bulk of the population in Cairnheim. As a rule they are cautious of strangers.

Orcs: Found throughout the wastes, and often working with the Raiders, the orcs are powerfull and violent. The largest Orc clans can be found in the southern Waste.

Dwarves: Dwarven Strongholds are to be found in the Mountains to the east. They are extremly Isolationist and many stongholds have been sealed from the outside world since before the Great War. Dwarves found Traveling the Wastes, are typicly Outcasts who have learned to survive.

Hinai (halflings): The Hinai are savage nomads. They travel the wastes hunting for food and stealing from towns and villages. Most Hinai have some Psionc Ability.

Minoi (Goblins): Like the Hinai, the Minoi are savage nomads. They are much more violent, and will swarm upon a farming town like locusts if their numbers are great enough.

Elves: Legends tell of this long lived race, but noone has ever seen one. It is beleved that they are extinct, if they ever existed at all...

Gnomes: Almost unknown in Cairnheim. The few who are found there , say that they are from the east, beyond the stormlands.

 

[Warchild]

In a setting like that, i think you would have to either ban the Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard classes, because at significant levels, that could begin changing the world pretty easily, which would mess up the setting. Or at least curtail the lists to avoid the more "powerful" of the spells. At least powerful in a setting such as this.

Clerics would be fine because they would probably be some mean Mo-fo's and their patrons won't be looking to fix things. Things are the way the remaining gods like'em!!
These guy's lists would probably be quite different too, as they don't serve gods i would consider benevolent!
In fact this setting would put quite the spin on the usual image of clerics!!

 

[Bugbear]

Warchild

Yes I know.

Limiting magic is a major consideration. There has been some discusion of this on the WOTC boards. Take a look at the Sister Thread

Wizards and/or Sorcerers are greatly distrusted and feared by most. Folklore tells of the mages part in the great war, and many hold them responsible for it. Mages guilds are usualy small, secretive, and limited in reasources. Also, no free spells when going up a level. The wizard must either reaserch the spell himself, or find someone who has it.

I would like to keep Druids as a counter-ballance to the largly Evil Clerics. I will have to go over the spell lists and do some pruning.Also, I'm thinking about requiing that the druidnegotiate with spirts to gain there powers. for example, to have access to the earthquake spell, the druid would need to find and appease a powerful Earth Spirt.once that is done, the Druid may call upon that spirt (Cast the Earthquake Spell).

What about the other classes? Rangers and BArds fit in well. Paladins and monks don't however. I can see a place for monks, but not as they are written. Should I disallow paladins entirely, make them a prestige class, or find something else to fill in the gap made by removing paladins?

 

[Warchild]

Well i don't really like the ranger as is written, but the Ranger idea definitely fits perfectly into this setting. Bards would fit nice, but i think their spell lists should be replaced with more bard-like abilities(such as their countering abilities, and fascination powers).
Druids definitely are cool and will definitely be VERY pissed off!!
Are you thinking of creating a mechanic for this nature-beseechment requirement. You have to make a Diplomacy check or something with a particular aspect of nature (earth, water, ice, etc.). Or maybe use their knowledge nature skill instead? With th DC equal to 15 + Spell Level. Also maybe a bonus if its essence is a dominent point of the area (ie a bonus to casting fire magics if near a volcano, that kinda thing)
Paladins don't really fit the setting, especially since they don't have a patron anymore. The revival of such a class might make for a cool PC quest, though!
I have the same problem with monks for my homebrew, i have an "Orient" type area in it, but the Monk class just doesn't seem to fit well. I can't even put my finger on why, though. Too mystical maybe.

I have a idea on how to allow elves in your campaign, but with some drawbacks. Say that the Magical Fallout sterilized the race, so any characters made would have to be at least Middle-aged(PHB page 93), complete with physical stat loss. Their physical traits would now read -1 Str, +1 Dex, -3 Con, and their Mental stats would be +1 each. Although you might want to give them a Knowledge, Craft, or Profession skill for free at several ranks, to acknowledge their longer life.

 

[Kesh]

I've had ideas for similar things, and now that I have DragonStar, I have even more. This book gives lots of possibilities:

During the Dragon Wars, the world was decimated by both sides because it was an important staging ground. When the war ended, the planet was no longer useful, and having been nearly destroyed, it was abandoned. Now, the native population has to try and recover.

A planet is invaded by (Drow/Illithid/whatever) and only through extreme magical rituals were they driven off. Now, the fallout of the war leaves the inhabitants struggling, while pirates and a few rogue (Drow/Illithid/whatever) warships try to take advantage of the defenseless planet.

Or, a planet currently under invasion by (Drow/Illithid/whatever). This plays as a guerilla campaign with natives & helpful outsiders trying to thwart the plans of the invaders. I've actually thought of doing a setting like this for near-future Earth under an Illithid invasion, using DS rules.