The Day After.. D&D style

[Dagger75]

My players let the world they are currently stuck on almost be destroyed. They were busy making magic items when the sky fell, the oceans dried up and new mountians sprung forth from the ground.

What do you think a D&D world would be like after such a cataclysm? I am not talking centuries down the road, I am talking 24 hours, a week, a month after such an event.

Some things you should know
- Divine and Arcane magic work just fine

- The world was closed to planar travel except at a few points on the planet. This is no longer the case.

- Because of the circumstances of the destruction of the planet, a huge wave of undead will be flooding the planet.

- The land they were on used to be broken up into kingdoms, some liked each other, some didn't. The only thing keeping the peace was a strong centralized kingdom that could destroy any warring kingdom if it wanted to. That kingdom is now in ruins to.

- Every part of the world was effected. There are no cities left intact.

I have some ideas as to what will happen, but a few would never hurt.

And to be fair to my players, I wanted this to happen.

 

[arwink]

Inquisition time.

People around the world go crazy about magic users. If magic and gods tried to destroy the world, maybe its time the world got its own back. PC's get a chance to help with this - if their obviously magical powers do good in a local area, they have a chance to create a haven for magic users around the globe.

Realistically speaking, there's a lot of post-cataclysim worlds out there. Just reverse engineer the changes they suggest. In Krynn, FE, you have people not believing in the gods anymore, so roleplay out the struggle clerics have retaining followers and avoiding persecution...

 

[mmu1]

[BRealistically speaking, there's a lot of post-cataclysim worlds out there. Just reverse engineer the changes they suggest. In Krynn, FE, you have people not believing in the gods anymore, so roleplay out the struggle clerics have retaining followers and avoiding persecution... [/B]

Yeah, but that's because on Krynn clerical magic did stop working.

Given that in this world that's not the case, I think that anyone with the hunger for power and the ability to protect people from the cataclysm/control the undead would have a great time trying to build their own personal empire.

Think of a power-hungry, relatively high-level neutral or evil cleric, in this situation:

1. They can protect people from the wave of the undead.
2. They can create fresh food and water out of nothing, in a world damaged by cataclysm, which they'll hand out to their most loyal followers.

I think you've got the stage set for the world to fragment into hundreds of small (or not so small, depending on the power of the ruler) religious cults, with people desperately flocking to them for protection - in exchange for allowing them to indluge their power-hungry ambitions in any way they'd like.

You would, of course, have the isolated places where benevolent spellcasters or clerics would protect the masses, so it'd be up to the players to search these out among all the madness and evil, help them get united, build the last good city on earth besiedged on all sides by evil, etc.

 

[arwink]

Fair enough. Teach me to talk about game systems I know nothing about. Glad I didn't try and use a Dark Sun example.

My point still stands though. Reverse engineer the situation from other post-apacalyptic campaign settings. If you use one or two, you should get a fair range of ideas.

 

[herald]

What cause the destruction.

I have further questions, but I need this info before I go on.

 

[Brisk-sg]

So what exactly happened?

Did fire rain down from the heaven?
Did the ground rip itself apart?
Was there a great storm?
All of the above?

As to the effects... The 1st thing you have to address in the short term is shock. Most people on the planet will grieve. Those who are not grieving have likely been pushed to insanity. The grief will cause side effects. The ability of these individuals to work and begin to rebuild any semblance of normality will be greatly impaired by mental and physical pain.

With all centers of civilization destroyed, certain supplies will begin to run out. Supplies and workers for advanced crafts such as the crafting of steel will become increasingly rare. The lack of qualified individuals (the majority will be found in population centers instead of agricultural and rural areas) for these crafts will result in a long term dark age, as there will not be many individuals to teach a new generation their craft.

Dark races who do not rely on technology or centers of knowledge (unless somehow specially targeted by the cataclysm) will likely be at a great advantage in this new age, without large organized military units to challenge them.

Long term effects definitely depend on what happens next and could be greatly influenced by the heroes. If a strong leader rises up and gathers together a great deal of survivors then a relatively speedy recovery may be possible. If not, then a long term dark age is likely.

- Josh

 

[Brisk-sg]

1. They can protect people from the wave of the undead.
2. They can create fresh food and water out of nothing, in a world damaged by cataclysm, which they'll hand out to their most loyal followers.

In most worlds, clerics are centered in temples; the larger the temple the more clerics. Most large temples exist in large population centers.

This means it is likely (unless temples were protected by there gods) that the vast majority of clerics and priests were killed in the cataclysm. Magic wielding priests will likely be rare, and largely limited to wondering (adventuring) type.

This type tends to shy away from becoming an administrator or to settle down.

While a priest could hold a good deal of power, I would think their rarity would prevent a bunch of theocracies from popping up.

Power hungry wizards might be in the best position to grab power, as many isolate themselves in the wilderness areas to study. If wizards in your campaign tend toward isolation instead of schools or organizations of wizardry, then it is likely that the proportion of high level wizards and common folk would change drastically as most of the high level wizards would still be around (depending on the cataclysm).

-Josh

 

[mmu1]

In most worlds, clerics are centered in temples; the larger the temple the more clerics. Most large temples exist in large population centers.

This means it is likely (unless temples were protected by there gods) that the vast majority of clerics and priests were killed in the cataclysm. Magic wielding priests will likely be rare, and largely limited to wondering (adventuring) type.

This type tends to shy away from becoming an administrator or to settle down.

While a priest could hold a good deal of power, I would think their rarity would prevent a bunch of theocracies from popping up.

Unless you assume clerics were targeted more directly than others, there's no reason at all to assume the guys with a d8 hit die specializing in healing and protection magic would die first, and if the destruction was widespread enough, there's nothing to stop a mid-level wizard from dying of thirst or hunger...

Regardless, even if the most of the good and neutral types (since in most worlds, evil temples in major cities seem to ba rather rare) died off, the still leaves, in most game worlds, thousands of evil types sitting around in dungeons and the wilderness... Not to mention countless clerics from tribes of evil humanoids.

Wizards would probably do ok, but, in general, their spells aren't nearly as well suited to ensuring survival as clerical ones.

 

[Flying Monkey Style]

Given the huge amount of undead, i guess it's reasonable to assume that the PCs might come across several undead that they knew in life. It's also a good setup for Resident Evil style zombie-squishing horror. In your descreption you made it sound as if this tragedy ocurred directly because of your players. If so, play it up! Scare the hell out of 'em and make them regret it. Remember, before they see undead, they'll smell them. For miles. Giving an uneasy feeling in the pit of their stomachs...

You didn't tell your players about the undead did you? It would be much more effective to spring the reprocutions of the horrible thing they did on them.

 

[Kyramus]

First off...
Clerical or arcne spells that can divine the reason behind the cataclysm.

What would they find out about it?

If it was god sanctioned or was it from some experiment of wizard/cleric that did this.


god sanction: would cause a mass fear and hatred, and very possible persecution of the church of said god/s.
among the masses, a healthy dose of distrust against any priest.

Experiment cleric: see above.
experiment wizard: sorcerers and wizards are subject to a witch hunt. and distrust.

Natural Cataclysm:
1) determine how much of the land is still fertile for crops. determine how much livestock survives the cataclysm. how badly the ecology is messed up and if magic can help the ecology.
2) walls of stone are permanent, is there any use for it on a mass scale, ie flooded areas dammed.
3) releases of mass undead, has any sentient undead risen from the ranks to take control, are there any Animus type undead which have class levels and just undead running around? a new kingdom of undead could be born, one that can work 24 hours to make weapons and such to prepare for war while the rest of the cities are still trying to get order and a plan of action.