Apocalyptic Realm

[zoobob9]

I'm thinking of making a realm. I don't DM much, but if I do I'm preparing one beforehand, and if I never do its just for fun.

The main theme is the world is in great turmoil, and there is very little structure in most continents. The main authority are gangs, there are bounty hunters and thieves, etc. etc., normal post apocalypse stuff.

Why is it destroyed? I was thinking a great war. All races would have been participating, and the orcs would have won. The idea of an artifact being used isn't high on my list of things to add in, but other ideas like a meteor or dragons getting angry would fine by me. BUT one idea that I would like to keep is that all elves and drow were completely killed off by the orcs, and their cities were all destroyed.

Also I was thinking normal monsters like beholders and mind flayers would be omitted, leaving natural things like bears, lions, stuff like that. Things like dragons or other iconic and necessary things would be kept in though.

Classes would be different too. Paladins would be off limits because of the lack of religious structure, and Monks would be without monasteries. Wizards would have no access to study to gain knowledge (unless they multiclass after finding some great stash of books) and Bards wouldn't be a practical choice in the society (Songs wouldn't help you stay alive, brawn and thievery would.)

I'll be working on this for quite some time, and these are by no means set in stone (except the apocalypse part). If you were making a realm like this, which things would you add or omit, and how would you make it personalized?

[Seth62]

are there any other planes? There are societies there, unless there at war/ apocalized as well.

[Bob the DM]

For a first time DM making their own world, I would advise making it a recent (250-500 years ago) localized appocalypse. This way you can avoid many of the pitfalls of worldbuilding and see how it plays out. That way, if you get tired of having this appocalyptic landscape in your game, you can have your players leave the area by simply crossing some natural boundries like mountains/swaps/deserts and entering areas ruled by other more powerful societies. Plus if it's more recent then not only do you not have to explain why no one has filled the void, but you can even introduce other creatures expanding into the area with their own frontier settlements.

A great excercise in crafting solid backstory for the world is to actually develope it as it was before the appocalyptic event and then play out in your head and on paper how the world ended.

Also if it's localized to just where the "standard" races lived then you down't even need to worry about most monsters and if you want to continue the game, simply add in new regions as needed.

Not to disagree with you, but bards would be very important in a world like that, being basically the sole surviving source of lore. Plus as perpetual travellers they'll the best plot devices.

You can also have certain selects areas that "survived" like a small cloister of magicians who are now rebuilding the local area as their own to add some stark contrasts.

After building many worlds for various campaigns, I did my latest world like this so now as the game progresses and I can see what I'm missing or what could be cool I'm just going to add it in as I move the pc's to different area's.

I had a similar "world ending" theme where 200-300ish years ago the combined goblinoids (hobgoblins, bugbears and goblins), fought and beat the all the major humans/halfings/elves/dwaves/gnomes and took dominance in the area where the pc's start. The pc's have found small towns scattered around, most destoryed by undead forces (as the pc's are only in one smallish area, I don't need to even know what I feel like having in other parts of the former human lands), and the pc's have encountered goblin tribes and have visited one of the 4 Hobgoblin city states. Since I kept my initial story small and focused the pc's in an even smaller area, as the game develops I'm able to write history and the world just one or two steps ahead of the pc's so as they interact with more npc's the world gradualy takes shape instead of bombarding the players with tons of info about places they'll never go, or at least not go to soon. It keeps everything more focused and let's me add new plot that I would have written out as a possibility if I tried to explain/develope it right off the bat. This way it seems normal that the pc's hadn't heard of the feudal human settlements under their hobgoblin rulers around the city states in the north, as they haven't been there yet; but it fits into the overall theme I'd been relaying so when they do go there I can easily contrast the maintly lawful and developed hobgoblin North with the lawless and chaotic tribal region of the more goblin controlled south.

Good luck, solid worldbuilding is fun but making it work as a "real" world can be tough.