What If: The Time of Troubles Never Happened?

[TarionzCousin]

Did the Time of Troubles lead to Khelben Blackstaff severing ties with the Harpers and starting his own supergroup? I vaguely remember this, but don't recall the details.

The Time of Troubles modules that railroaded PC's into following the storyline of the novels were utterly craptastic. I think they turned a bucketload of people away from the Realms.

 

[Knightfall]

I have it on good authority that the Time of Troubles was the result of invading Skrulls.

Heh. That immediately made me think of my Realmsian Dragonstar story hour.

 

[El Mahdi]

Did the Time of Troubles lead to Khelben Blackstaff severing ties with the Harpers and starting his own supergroup? I vaguely remember this, but don't recall the details...

That happened a little later.

Time of Troubles was in 1358 DR.

Formation of the Moonstars was in 1370 DR.


The idea had actually been brewing in Khelben's mind for a couple of centuries before he made the split from the Harpers.


(Sources: Grand History of the Realms and the Forgotten Realms Wiki)

 

[Lancelot]

The Gods of Death would still be around, Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul. This is a mixed blessing. Those three gods are awesome, and Cyric is a chump...

The truth, it is quoted.

The most irritating thing about the ToT for me was the elevation of those three Mary Sues to godhood. The best thing about the 4e redesign was Mystra getting whacked. It's just a shame that Cyric didn't go down as well, because he's even more annoying.

At least Bane is back in a big way, but I'd love to see some more Bhaal as well. Maybe in Baldur's Gate III...

 

[the Jester]

The Time of Troubles modules that railroaded PC's into following the storyline of the novels were utterly craptastic. I think they turned a bucketload of people away from the Realms.

Damn, I forgot how awful those were.

In fact, I'd forgotten all about them...

I dmed a very few FR games, and a couple of 'em were after the ToT stuff came out. We played one session in one of the modules and just kinda gave up. Later we played some more FR games- I dunno, maybe two or three?- that pretty much used the original box only.

But my love of homebrewing shot that campaign in the leg and left it to die. I guess the module kind of gave it a sucker punch first.

 

[the Jester]

I loved the three death gods concept, too.

I may even swipe it for my current campaign... we haven't detailed much of the religion yet.... hmmmm...

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Damn, I forgot how awful those were.

In fact, I'd forgotten all about them...

I dmed a very few FR games, and a couple of 'em were after the ToT stuff came out. We played one session in one of the modules and just kinda gave up. Later we played some more FR games- I dunno, maybe two or three?- that pretty much used the original box only.

But my love of homebrewing shot that campaign in the leg and left it to die. I guess the module kind of gave it a sucker punch first.

It's funny; I just read through the first one of those, and good gravy was it terrible.

I found that if I stuck strictly with the boxed set, there was plenty of room for customizing and a bit of homebrewing. When I didn't want to make a setting from whole cloth, I felt the FR original boxed set gave me a good amount of wiggle room with lots of pretty maps.

 

[Knightfall]

I loved the three death gods concept, too.

I may even swipe it for my current campaign... we haven't detailed much of the religion yet.... hmmmm...

I assume you mean your "The Fall of Civilization" campaign, right?

 

[Knightfall]

The Time of Troubles modules that railroaded PC's into following the storyline of the novels were utterly craptastic. I think they turned a bucketload of people away from the Realms.

I never had those modules. And it sounds like I don't want them. I read the novels, however, and I liked them.

But you have to remember that the ToT was where I began with the Realms. It was the book trilogy that got me interested in the Forgotten Realms in the first place.

I only learned more about the 1e version after the fact. I initially thought Cyric was a bad-ass, but he's become such a little whiner. Bane is way cooler/scarier.

 

[Roadkill101]

Time of Troubles? What's that?

I ran my campaign as if ToT never happened. With the exception of adding in a few deities as they appeared in the the 2nd edition books and supplements (though my campaigns never focused too much on Realms Religeon, except maybe for recording a pc clerics patron deity).

About the only Realms material I collected were the Campaign Guides and regional supplement guides. So modules weren't a factor, except for re-purposing the Undermountain maps.

I read a lot of the early Realms novels when they were fairly freshh from the press. I never let any of them influence the events in my campaigns. And I never liked the way the events from the novels were incorporated into the official setting in later Realms products.

I've never thought about how the Official timeline would have turned out by omitting Tot.