D&D General The dark lord is dead! What happens in his former lands?

[Ralif Redhammer]

Back in 2e, I started a campaign based on this when the Complete Book of Humanoids came out. The idea behind it was that the forces of good walled off the Dark Lord's former land, treating it like a fantasy superfund site. The campaign was a mixture of internal squabbling behind the walls and trying to sneak out to get resources from the unpolluted lands beyond the wall. Unfortunately, it fizzled out after a bit.

 

[Meech17]

Wasn't Mordor a crappy wasteland of poison nobody would want to live in? Even so, I could see several monster clans fighting over the nothing and scraps to see who leads over the rot.

Sounds like a pretty apt description of Florida, and that didn't stop Walt Disney from moving in and building his park. Even the crappiest of wastelands can be the foundation of greatness for the right entrepreneur.

 

[Simon Miles]

Yes. The end game for a BBEG from one campaign was the basis for the start of the setting for the new campaign - this is what we ran with in the Land of the Young, which is the start point for the Dunromin campaign setting. A major creature invaded the southwest quarter of the nation before being stopped, including a significant raid of Ghouls and Mind Flayers into the capital. Although these were all defeated the cost to the local population and infrastructure was significant.
The campaign features a number of areas still reeling from this "War of the Ring" (yeah, I know, I'm a fanboy like that); so the southwestern areas are over-run with the remains of the bad guy's horde and a number of ruined Baronies requiring help. The lands the invading forces past through are voids into which lots of new and mysterious foes are flooding from the Darkworld, and the entity's base, their Barad-Durl if you would, is a mess. Lots of opportunities and lots of unknowns.

 

[...m...]

I totally want this as a boardgame!

..it's not a boardgame, but that's pretty much the premise of troll lord's after winter dark campaign setting in aihrde: the thousand-year-reign of the horned god has finally fallen and scattered civilisation is left to pick up the pieces while the horrors-left-behind fester in aufstrag...

 

[David Howery]

seems like it would depend a lot on what kind of land it is. If it's land that could be settled and farmed, then the neighboring nations have a reason to go in and clear out all the bad things that live there. If it's like Mordor, then no one will want the place. Mordor, as written in LOTR, seems like it would be pretty easy to seal off, as there's only a couple of ways into it; a couple of forts could block access, and maybe fill up the entrance to Shelob's lair, and voila...

 

[Reynard]

seems like it would depend a lot on what kind of land it is. If it's land that could be settled and farmed, then the neighboring nations have a reason to go in and clear out all the bad things that live there. If it's like Mordor, then no one will want the place. Mordor, as written in LOTR, seems like it would be pretty easy to seal off, as there's only a couple of ways into it; a couple of forts could block access, and maybe fill up the entrance to Shelob's lair, and voila...

There's a cool campaign idea in what poor bastards end up having to man the fortress that guards not-Mordor after not-Sauron is defeated but his evil remains in the land itself.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This would be the basis of an in-store Shadowdark campaign, centered on the former dark lord's ruined keep (and the dungeons beneath) and the handful of folks still living in the village outside the keep (since the gameplay loop of leaving the dungeon and going to town to carouse is a major part of Shadowdark).

I have some general ideas of how it's going to play out, and I'm trying to get a feel for how things will look. This thread has been very helpful. Please, keep going!

For the record, the area is semi-Mordor-like, partially through the dark lord's efforts, but also because the forces of good largely denuded the nearby forest during the siege of the keep, so there are scarce resources and most everyone but loyalists (the folks who figure the dark lord will somehow return from death have left) and those who think that these adventurers might be the basis for a new economy have left.

So there's a largely abandoned village with a few adventurer-serving businesses (tavern, inn, blacksmith, etc.), some subsistence farmers and the dungeon.

 

[David Howery]

For the record, the area is semi-Mordor-like,

so, kinda like the badlands, but at least part of it can grow a forest? The former forest part would likely be overgrown pretty quick with grass, shrubs, and bushes, and eventually the trees themselves (over a lot of time). If the rest is scrub grass land, then about the only use they might get out of it is scattered grazing for livestock. All in all, not a place a lot of people will be eager to settle, but there will always be some. And of course, there's a dungeon....

 

[Reynard]

A fun side quest (if folks need a break from the dungeon) could be revenge by forest dwelling fae. Maybe a little circus troupe comes to town to entertain the adventurers but it turns out to be like a dryad, a spriggan and some angry gnomes or whatever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

so, kinda like the badlands, but at least part of it can grow a forest? The former forest part would likely be overgrown pretty quick with grass, shrubs, and bushes, and eventually the trees themselves (over a lot of time). If the rest is scrub grass land, then about the only use they might get out of it is scattered grazing for livestock. All in all, not a place a lot of people will be eager to settle, but there will always be some. And of course, there's a dungeon....

Yeah, my thought is that the locals who didn't leave (a handful compared to who was there before) are grazing sheep and goats and keeping pigs, but it's not exactly a garden spot until one of the dark lord's lieutenants rises to power (assuming the adventurers don't put a stop to that) or a cult of evil druids move in or something.