|
For the longest time I have always used the FR background as written without any major changes lately I find myself altering parts of the background. So list what you have changed.
This thread is not about how much better FR was under either edition or your dislike for what Wotc did to FR under 4E only what you as a DM have changed.
Myself I am starting slowly.
Unther is gone. Without any God king left to portect them and a sizeable chunck of the population hating the old regime under the god king they were absorbed by Mulhorand empire. It was a slow process but they no longer exist. While you have small insurections nothing that will do much if anything in the long run. never l;iked the whole Thayan Red Wizards keeping the rebellion going on angle. They maybe powerful arms dealers yet even they have limits.
Tllverton is no longer just an empty space filled with shadows and deeper darkness. I'm planning to add the city from the Shackled City campign module. Not sure how much of an area I will need on the map.
Killing off or retiring some of the gods. too mny god imo with too may similar portfolios.
That's it for now. May change more innthe future.
|
Start with 2E Realms as a baseline, adding what elements of 3E Realms I liked.
Cosmology is switched around to fit back into the Planescape macroverse.
Typical racial alignments reduced in presence to Eberron levels.
No Wall of the Faithless.
Eilistraee is being groomed to take over as the primary deity of elvenkind.
Or at least, it starts as written. Many characters over the years have had an effect...
+1
Also switched the cosmology back to Planescape...or really never actualy changed it.
Leira is not dead....saved Mystra from Cyric...Cyric is now just a demigod of madness...
No Shadow weave...at all.
City of Shade showed up....alot of people attacked to gain the ancient secrets in their...City of Shade destroyed...the armies involved have a uneasy truce as they loot the wreckage and fight off some of the renament of shades. Great place for adventurers.
Got rid of the whole patron deity concept.
Ignore the progenitors races(surha...etc...)
Deveopled Sembia alot...
and lastly...Books are not cannon...books are the exagrated stories people tell on to what happened...which might get basicaly what happened...but not how it happened right.
Oh...killed off Drizzt in front of a group...they cheered.
I'm gradually introducing the Pathfinder rules to all my campaigns.
+1 on keeping the Planescape/2e cosmology.
Spelljammer is also still part of the setting, although unlikely to have any impact on the PCs. (Nor are they likely to learn of it anytime soon.)
Some slight changes to some of the pantheons, and a lot to the elven pantheon (using some 1e/2e material/Dragon articles).
Some changes to parts of elven history/origins (connected in part to the pantheon changes mentioned above). Although again the PCs will probably never learn the details!
Sembia got the Italian Renaissance city-state treatment, and I "Italianised" most of the names.
Renamed Aglarond (now Alarond) and Velprintalar (now Vetalar).
The Yuirwood's "secret demi-plane" is different from the one described in the official sourcebooks. Different origin, different inhabitants.
Changed the names of the Mulhorandi pantheon to ones closer to the original ancient Egyptian (and not using the Greek filter names by which we know them). e.g., Sutekh (not Set), Tehuti (not Thoth), Eset (not Isis).
Tilverton never got bombed out of existence. But there's a BIG hole nearby ... (In part, this was because I never bothered to read all the novels.)
I stress the importance of learning various languages, and make spells like Comprehend Languages and Tongues available to far fewer classes. (Mainly Bards, and as domain spells and other specialised/fixed spell lists.)
Baba Yaga and her daughters will likely have some connection with Rashmen ...
I'm also running an intermittant "Dark Faerûn" game which focusses on Lovecraftian horrors. But that might just be an alternate universe version of my "regular" Faerûn.
Iyachtu Xvim might survive Bane's return. (The jury's still out on that still.)
... There's most likely more stuff that's been changed, but I'm away from my notes at the moment.
I used the 3.5 FR as my main setting for GM'ing campaigns for about four years, until 4E hit and thoroughly destroyed my fun of working with the setting. :( I've been running CotCT in Golarion since then and will be starting up two Kingmaker campaigns in the near future, while already playing in a Second Darkness campaign.
I fear the way the FR were screwed over really did a number on my enthusiasm for the setting. It's not the same playing in an AU for me. I kinda miss the metaplot and the involved deities. And Elminster, the Seven Sisters, Alusair and the fascinating and involved villains. <sniff>
I didn't really change anything so much as moved the timeline way back to a more primative era.
My players may have the entire realms library memorised, well so do I, but it does them no good back to when The Nethril Empire had just fallen like maybe 5 yrs ago.
They are all in the new magedom of Halruua and are haveing to fend off the drow,the barbarian tribes from the north, the yuanti slavers and several other threats that could destroy this last bastione of humanity.
It's fun to bring in some long dead gods as evil cults like the cult of Krasus, Moander,Amunator and others each with their own agendas.
Once this campaign is over then I will run pretty much as written with the major exeptions that there is not nor was there ever a shadow weave, Leira was in hideing being protected by mystra and a massive spell by all the gods of magic created a demi-plain prison for cyric to inhabit, he doesn't realise that he's trapped so he isn't trying to escape. Also Mystra is back to being LN and concerns herself with magic not goodness or crap like that. Silly concepts of good vs evil are beneith the notice of a goddess of magic.
|
I rolled back to pre-Time of Troubles. Any god that died there, is alive still, any mortal that ascended, is an adventurer somewhere in the world. Adon, totally hosed in the ToT, instead runs his own temple and has done better for himself than his old adventuring buddies (two of which are still adventuring, and the third exploring his newfound addiction to alcohol-fueled violent blackouts).
Elminster exists, and is an 8th level Diviner with an incredible array of sage-like knowledge, thanks to books pillaged over many years from the fallen stores of knowledge in Myth Drannor (he hires adventurers from time to time to bring him more such tomes, or purchases those they find on their own initiative). His manservant Wong (or whatever) isn't the lost princess of Tyr-as-lee, but just a decent cook with the uncanny ability to find whatever the old coot has lost this time.
There are no Chosen, of anyone.
Ao, and the Tablets of Fate, don't exist. Gods avoid ganking each other over portfolios because it's actually kinda dangerous, and any god that takes those kind of risks doesn't live as long as the average human, which leads to serious (posthumous) mocking by the other gods, who fully intend to still be gods 10,000 years from now. Jergal (a prehuman diety that has outlived his original species of worshippers, along with Aerdrie Faenya, who predates the elves who currently worship her) has a list somewhere of dieties that thought they were exceptions to that rule, but most of the other gods can't be bothered to remember the names of these overconfident mayflies.
Mystra is the neutral goddess of all magic, including darker / morally dubious magics that Shar poached in some other continuity, like necromancy, illusion and enchantment. Therefore, there is no Shadow Weave. Azuth is the specific patron of wizards and sages and magical artifice. Savras is the patron of diviners, Lleira the patron of illusionists, and when Talos started grooming a demigod of evocation magic, Mystra said 'oh hell no' and promptly drafted five new demigods for the remaining five schools of magic, before any of the other dieties got any bright ideas about grooming their own pet god of magic. (Talos' recruit remains god of evocation, but he spends a fair amount of time treading very carefully, as he knows that no matter who got him the job, that Mystra is *really* his boss...)
Shar has something to do with that magic-hating sphere of annhilation that they worship in Luthcheq. That's gonna be a problem, at some point, if a party of appropriately-leveled adventurers ever ends up in that neck of the woods. Otherwise, it's on slow boil. :)
King Azoun lives, since there had to be one non-evil male ruler left alive on the planet. I know the cliche is that all nice kingdoms have to have hot scantily-clad single women rulers and all evil kingdoms have to have fugly dude rulers, but I'm not in love with that trope.
For no reason other than to amuse me, the Tabaxi of Chult are actually Tabaxi, the cat-people from the Fiend Folio. There are dark-skinned humans, as well, but they don't live in the jungles, but in the various kingdoms of Estagund, Var, Tharr, etc.
None of the novels are canon. No Ring of Winter, no Spellfire, no Moonblades (at least, not anything like in the books).
The Zhentarim pretty much run the Bloodstone Lands. They are not the losers from the novels who get razed, stomped by giants, stomped by gods, stomped by dragons, stomped by gods *again,* etc. in the novels. They have a success rate higher than that of Cobra, in other words.
Without Shandril and her Spellfire, the Cult of the Dragon doesn't lose an average of two dracoliches a day, and is a fairly powerful secret organization, that almost nobody actually knows about. Apparently, they aren't just a secret organization, but actually pretty serious about staying secret.
There's something scary going on in Anauroch, but it has nothing to do with flying colons with 30+ levels of wizard.
Despite the lack of a Time of Troubles, a confrontation between an aspect of Bane and Torm did occur when the Zhent's attempted to take Raven's Bluff with the help of the manifestation of their god. It was kind of embarassing that they didn't succeed, and Bane isn't answering any more calls to come down and help the Zhents conquer cities, because he's kind of smarting about that. Torm, not taken too terribly seriously previously, has gained some serious street cred (most strongly in Raven's Bluff, obviously), particularly since he brought his A game, and, if he had lost, would have died, forever, while Bane was only at the risk of losing a replaceable avatar (and, much more importantly, in Bane's eyes, a lot of face...).
Thay does indeed set the prices for magic item manufacture and distribution. Despite *countless* attempts to 'prove' that they are flooding the market with tainted items that turn the users evil or subject them to Thayvian influence or make them easier to spy upon, there's never been a shred of evidence that they are up to anything other than making a butt-load of money. No doubt they are up to much, much badness, but in this particular venue, their evil plan seems to be 'become the Wal-Mart of magic items' and 'roll around in bathtubs filled with gold pieces.'
Set: whenever I do start another FR campaign, I think that I'll steal some of your ideas. :)
You've put you finger on a number of points which have bothered me a bit. I've never taken the time to do an in-dept analysis of why and then take the appropriate steps, but your list will most likely inspire some changes in a future campaign. So thank you!
Start with 2E Realms as a baseline, adding what elements of 3E Realms I liked.
Cosmology is switched around to fit back into the Planescape macroverse.
These two things, absolutely.
Also:
I've added very little from 3e - no Shade nonsense, no drow in the Dales, etc. I did keep Shar and the shadow weave, though...
King Azoun is alive and well. Cormyr is a lot like Camelot.
Gilgeam is alive and rules Unther with an iron fist, his templars spreading fear in his realms (a bit like the sorcerer-kings from Dark Sun).
Themed a few regions a little more strongly (e.g. Damara is the gothic realm of horror).
Leira is still 'alive'/a goddess. Bane has returned, but Iyachtu Xvim is still around. Worshipers of Myrkul and Bhaal are still active and still receive spells.
Only a few novels are considered to have taken place. Certainly nothing published after 1999.
There are only Chosen of Mystra, no other faiths (the others didn't make sense anyways).
|
|
Gilgeam is alive and rules Unther with an iron fist, his templars spreading fear in his realms (a bit like the sorcerer-kings from Dark Sun).
I never liked Gilgeam or Unther much, but you've managed to make to a thousand times more interesting to me with that one comparison.
Thanks!
Set: whenever I do start another FR campaign, I think that I'll steal some of your ideas. :)
Feel free!
I loved the setting, and managed to wean an entire Greyhawk group away from it for years, until the Time of Troubles kind of kicked my campaign in the butt and I got counter-converted back to Greyhawk by my friends. :)
(And even in that setting, we totally ignore anything canonical that involves Vecna. He's just a long-dead lich with some artifacts named after him, no more relevant (or a god) than Arnd or Dahlver-Nar or Lum the Mad or 'the Dwarvish Lords.')
All of my FR campaigns since the late 80's have been in the North - none have been farther south than Baldur's Gate nor farther east that the Anauroch (sp?). I just prefer the Sword Coast, Savage Frontier region. To that extent, the "big" names from Ed Greenwood were rarely used at all. Alustriel of Silverymoon and Khelbun Blackstaff were the two whose names came up every now and then, but mostly behind the scenes.
We stayed with 2E for ages, creating our own campaigns, and my players pushed me into 3E and we had some great fun with that.
The gods of the North play an important part in the lives of the people and their avatars and maybe even the gods themselves have been known to make appearances. My players love it and it's great fun for me as a DM to give them a brush with the divine.
Almost all of my games are homebrewed or begin with a Dungeon adventure and go from there. I have fleshed out Port Llast, much of Neverwinter, Triboar, Helm's Hold, and a couple of other small towns and villages like Beliard and Olostin's Hold.
I care little for FR canon and all of the novel-driven events. I took the Realms and made them my own and I encourage everyone else to do likewise.
|
|
I ran a game in Chessenta for a bout 5 years. In it, the PCs discovered the tomb of the old Untheric God King Enlil, disturbed it, woke up its divine remnants, and then over the course of the campaign unwittingly (and then wittingly at the very end) restored it to divinity to save the life of their patron deity, Assuran. By the time that the campaign ended, they had raised a former god to his place of leadership in a restored Untheric pantheon. Gilgeam was still slain by Tiamat, and if the campaign hadn't ended prematurely, I think Iwould have played the heroes versus Tiamat to prevent her from trying to take over a significant part of Unther.
*Warning very slight thread jack ahead*
Just a quick question for those familiar with the setting.
Where would you place the city state of Free port with in the realms.
My first inclination would be the pirate island between Halruua and Dambrath in the shineing south because it has pirates,close to a jungle and the yuan-ti and lizard folk basically everything the setting is buit around already. Just wondering if any one has incorporated freeport into the realms before and where they put it?
*end threadjack*
*Warning very slight thread jack ahead*
Just a quick question for those familiar with the setting.
Where would you place the city state of Free port with in the realms.
My first inclination would be the pirate island between Halruua and Dambrath in the shineing south because it has pirates,close to a jungle and the yuan-ti and lizard folk basically everything the setting is buit around already. Just wondering if any one has incorporated freeport into the realms before and where they put it?
*end threadjack*
I have to have my characters go to Evermeet by water, so I was thinking of placing it out there somewheres.
|
|
Where would you place the city state of Free port with in the realms.
I like Tharsult, in the Shining Sea, for that purpose. It's tucked in near some mercantile nations (Calimshan, in particular), so it's got people to raid, but isn't near anyone with an infamous navy (IIRC, the sister of the ruler of Dambrai was on a ship, killing pirates for fun, last I remember, and that was suggested to be a fairly common activity for the noblewomen of that realm).
I ended up using Freeport in Greyhawk instead, but I totally get the desire to up and plant it in other settings. Freeport would make a cool Port Peril or Drenchport, in Golarion (although Ilzmagorti is even better suited for a pirate haven, IMO)...
Start with 2E Realms as a baseline, adding what elements of 3E Realms I liked.
Cosmology is switched around to fit back into the Planescape macroverse.
This, however, the cosmology as stated in the 3rd ed book is what is believed by most clueless, I mean FR prime inhabitants.
Turned the "magic dial" down to 6 or 7 with necessary adjustments and/or perception of those who rightfully remained 20+ spellcasters.
Most novel material (particularly post-Avatar crisis) is ignored.
Years of gaming has taken some tangents beyond the scope of "canon" material (there is a new elven kingdom in The North and the Elven race is living a new spring).
'findel
Just wondering if any one has incorporated freeport into the realms before and where they put it?
I placed it in the Whamite Isles, in the southern Sea of Fallen Stars. Geographically it was near bang-on (including the islands), and I just cooled the climate off a tad. Plus the Whamite Isles are relatively undetailed (the small note in the Sea of Fallen Stars accessory notwithstanding).
There's something scary going on in Anauroch, but it has nothing to do with flying colons with 30+ levels of wizard.
Excellent, in effect but also in description.
There's something scary going on in Anauroch, but it has nothing to do with flying colons with 30+ levels of wizard.
Excellent, in effect but also in description.
But I'm still curious as to the details! ;)
Moander stirs... I'm currently working on a campaign idea that has Moander returning to Godhood. Well, unless the PCs can put a stop to it.
Campaign will be in Tethyr instead of the Dales... There are still Mythals in the Wealdath and the Tree of Life as well. The Abomination would love to be brought back and let loose on that much power. He might become much more powerful than he was so many years ago.
Much work to be done yet... My first attempt at such an undertaking.
Moander stirs... I'm currently working on a campaign idea that has Moander returning to Godhood. Well, unless the PCs can put a stop to it.
Campaign will be in Tethyr instead of the Dales... There are still Mythals in the Wealdath and the Tree of Life as well. The Abomination would love to be brought back and let loose on that much power. He might become much more powerful than he was so many years ago.
Much work to be done yet... My first attempt at such an undertaking.
Sounds like a fun idea, One would think that Finder Wyvenspur would also be very helpful to the PC's considering his and moanders past.
Sounds like a fun idea, One would think that Finder Wyvenspur would also be very helpful to the PC's considering his and moanders past.Moander stirs... I'm currently working on a campaign idea that has Moander returning to Godhood. Well, unless the PCs can put a stop to it.
Campaign will be in Tethyr instead of the Dales... There are still Mythals in the Wealdath and the Tree of Life as well. The Abomination would love to be brought back and let loose on that much power. He might become much more powerful than he was so many years ago.
Much work to be done yet... My first attempt at such an undertaking.
Grrr... That darned Finder! Yeah, I think it'd be interesting if one of the PCs worships Finder. The way I've got it in my head for Moander to actually come back requires an aspect to be present at the pile of offal his cultists build in their rituals...
I had thought to use an aspect of Lolth or Finder somehow... Either would be sweet.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
|
Hmm... Been a while since I dusted off my FR stuff.
(Spell plauge tainted the realms. Kind of like an ex-wife. You can't look at the fun past w/o the present tainting it)
*Fey'ri are more scattered and active, no BBEG leading them.
The Realms are still 'Forgotten' meaning there are portals linking to 'our world'.
Deepingdale is more important than Shadowdale as my bard lives/retired there.
Only Mystra has Chosen and they're all 'differently sane'
Elistrae and Vhelurm (sp) are, reluctantly, working together.
Halurran skyships are spelljammers for simplicity's sake.
Thanks to Lisa Smedman's presentation in War of the Spider Queen, Elistraee's followers are good. slaughtering drow deities was a bad and hackneyed dream.
Myth Drannor's still uncontrolled ruins/adventurers graveyard.
There is a drow 'town' being formed deep in the elven woods.
(IF I ever run FR again, I'm stealing Golarion's alternate drow creation method.)
If
Oh...killed off Drizzt in front of a group...they cheered.
HA! You're my new hero. +1
Hmm... Been a while since I dusted off my FR stuff.
(Spell plauge tainted the realms. Kind of like an ex-wife. You can't look at the fun past w/o the present tainting it)
*Fey'ri are more scattered and active, no BBEG leading them.
Elistrae and Vhelurm (sp) are, reluctantly, working together.
Halurran skyships are spelljammers for simplicity's sake.
Myth Drannor's still uncontrolled ruins/adventurers graveyard.
There is a drow 'town' being formed deep in the elven woods.
All these are the same to me, particularly the Myth Drannor and Fey'ri stuff. Myth Drannor made too good of an adventuring site and the Fey'ri too good potential villains to have them both knocked out in one series.
The elven Crusade is still trying to retake Cormanthor, and has a foothold in the woods with some allied dales, but between the Sembian interests, the individualists dales, the drow, and the monsters and demons of Myth Drannor they have a long, long way to go to reclaim it. I think a multi-sided struggle for the area is much more interesting than one that is over.
To go along with that, none of the drow deities died. Ghaunadaur did leave the drow pantheon after Lloth attempted to absorb his power to give her the strength to overcome both of her children, failing when realizing just how ancient and powerful he is. Lloth hasn't the power to face her two reluctantly allied children on her own, so is biding her time until they inevitably slip up, or until her interest shifts somewhere else.
None of that drow redeeming happened, drow from any heritage have free will and that determines whether they decide to seek redemption or not, not some accident of birth.
Other than that I've made up plots, organizations, NPCs, and all that kind of minor stuff that's too numerous to list, and anything I liked from returned Abeir(which hasn't returned in my game because Abeir and Toril aren't separate worlds) is part of the unknown continents of the world and are there if I ever want them to be included.