First off PLEASE I welcome any suggestions anyone could add to this idea.
I have been on the other forum discussing what world to return to .... myself and my group are finally returning back to D&D (1st edition and 1.5 Unearthed Arcana) after a 7 year vacation. We were torn between Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance on which campaign setting to return to. We have finally decided to come back home to Greyhawk.
I want to do something different though. I want to shake things up a bit and run a (shortly after) Post Greyhawk Wars timeline for our campaign setting. I want to make the world dark, gloomy, hopeless to the point where most of the world has been overrun, defeated and destroyed by evil armies and nations. I want it to be so bleak that a group of heroes can step out of the shadows and make a difference.
My ideas ..........
- Furyondy and Nyrond are the two primary powers of good left in the world. Both nations are battered and beaten down and barely holding there respected nations together with Furyondy being constantly pressed by Iuz and Nyrond being at odds with a still in power Great Kingdom.
- Most of the West has been overran by hordes of evil humanoids manipulated by the Drow Elves.
- Iuz controls most of the Northern lands.
- The Free City of Greyhawk no longer is an independent City. Refugees from all over have migrated to this area for protection and with the huge influx of people that have fled to here the City of Greyhawk has had to transform itself into a small city state, expanding its holdings to accommodate the massive amounts of fleeing people. It would not be a huge area they control but enough for everyone to live I suppose. I had also thought of them forming a type of military "The Knights of Greyhawk" only as protection for there lands and people.
- The Barbarians to the North. I am not sure if I should leave them along or unite them ... maybe I can get suggestions on this.
- Elves and Dwarves close there borders or something similar to that.
- I am not sure if I let the Circle of Eight betrayal play out or change it up. I hate losing those Wizards that died since they are the very foundation of what outsiders to this campaign settings know. Thoughts?
Basically turn Greyhawk into a war torn world, battered by evil on all sides. The last bastions of good doing all they can do to remain intact. This style world could really allow heroes to step up and make huge differences.
Basically turn Greyhawk into a war torn world, battered by evil on all sides. The last bastions of good doing all they can do to remain intact. This style world could really allow heroes to step up and make huge differences.
Yes it could and I think that is a great idea for a campgian.
Perhaps the Barbarians think they have thrown off Iuz's yoke and have chosen for themselves to isolate their lands from the rest of the Flanaess (going a-viking, though is still a valid past time). What's true, however, is that their leaders are now puppets of Iuz. Whether they are charmed minions, possessed by demons, or glamoured imposters is up to you, the DM, and may be any combination of these.
There were a couple of modules released - Five Shall Be One and Howl From the North - where Iuz was using the Barbarians as Puppets. I could incorporate that into this timeline, maybe Iuz succeeded and the barbarians swarmed down from the North.
To make your task easier, and possibly more effective, I would focus your campaign setting, eschewing the temptation to develop broadly what happened to the Flanaess and instead developing a relatively small part of the world.
I once animated almost a year of gameplay in one hex of the Darlene map and didn't think much of it until one day a player exclaimed at the fact, saying something like, "You put all of that into one little hex?!"
For an end of times, desperately dark GH campaign, I might start the PCs as level 1 characters in the middle of Bone March and make it extraordinarily difficult for them to travel; instead their adventures would consist of survival, desperate flight, being turned back, trying to break free, etc.
And once they reached a supposed haven, bringing along friends, etc., the hordes would catch up to them yet again, dogging their every steps. E.g., they survive the fall of Spinecastle but retreat southwest. Eventually they reach Knurl, but after a brief respite, it to falls. Lost in the Adri, they are still bedeviled. From other refugees, they hear that all the lands of Aerdy have fallen to the humanoids. Etc.
Staying small, choosing a particular place, developing its darkness thickly and making it very difficult to escape might be just the thing without having to worry about the entire Flanaess ...
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