Forgotten Realms Tips [4e]

[TroubleBrewing]

Over the course of my DMing career, I've run tons and tons of published modules for all kinds of games, but I rarely try my hand at writing my own campaigns, mostly because the published modules are pretty solid for most games I play.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be writing my own 4e campaign, and I've chosen to set it in the Forgotten Realms. The game has some really excellent flavor with regards to the various regions views on each other, the racial interactions, and obviously the Spellplauge.

I'm mainly looking for tips, themes, party goals, things to keep in mind, and adventure hooks that worked really well from DM's who have run successful games in the 4e Forgotten Realms setting. Anything I should avoid? Anything I should strive to include?

[mobdrazhar]

whis is all dependant on a couple if things... firstly what lvl are you running? secondly which part of the realms are you looking at setting it in? As each part of the realms has such a different culture and thus different lvls of play due to the sorts of dangers involved in it.

[TroubleBrewing]

I'm planning this as a 1-30 campaign. I've got a dedicated, consistent group of players, so I know I can get away with it.

As for where in FR I'm setting it, I'm kind of hoping to set it all over the places. Toril is such a cool setting, it would be a shame if they missed out on seeing as much of it as possible.

[mobdrazhar]

i would look at starting somewhere that there is a lot of humans due to the low lvl of some of the human mobs. (maybe the sword cost).

what are you looking at them accomplishing in the end? or are you looking at a sandbox campaign?

[Gamer Girl]

To have a 4E Realms game, you have to have everything have something to do with the Spellplague. Think of the Spellplauge as more the Plotplague. Everything in the Realms must revolve around it.

If you make a 'standard' adventure with just 'normal' D&D stuff....people won't feel like it's the 4E Realms unless you mention the Spellplauge every other second.

For example, at least half of the monsters and opponents should have spell scars, and automatically all the BBEGs.

And everyone should have bad histories from the Spellplague. "I one had a friends and a family but then the 'plague turned my whole city upside down and killed everyone.'' or ''I used to be a mage, but then one day my power was gone so now I polish shoes''.

And you want to play up the fact that if someone is from a popular place in the world, such as Waterdeep, that that place was amazing untouched by the Spellplague. So while whole countries blew up, people in Waterdeep just had to watch a single flower wilt from the effects of the Spellplague.

You also want to go for the 4E Realms feel...so be careful to have no powerful NPCs anywhere in the world. If there is a 3rd level bandit robbing folks, everyone is helpless(as they are 0 level) and must run crying to the player characters for help.

[mobdrazhar]

there would be SOME powerful NPC's but they would be hard for your PC's to come by... very rare

EDIT: oh and the gods of FR usually stick thier noses into most things, provided it's withing thier portfolio

[DeltaEmil]

Port Nyranzaru in Chult is a good place for starting heroic tier adventures set in the standard lost-world-with-dinosaurs-theme. After helping the city against infiltrations by stupid-looking deepspawns with their copy-minions and shapeshifting snake-men worshipping their conanesque-knock-off serpent deity, you could then lead your players to explore the dangerous chultan island.
It has flying jungle-lands, zombies, mines still full with precious minerals, dinosaurs, a few dragons, sunken cities, desperate jungle tribes fighting against goblins, ptera-men, yuan-ti-freaks and strange lovecraftian aberrations and eldritch abominations. Perhaps even one of those barae-losers sticking around and fighting a hopeless battle against the other barae-freak Nsi, who's cutting down the rainforest, taking slaves and exotic animals, and selling it for lots of money, and who wants to destroy Port Nyranzaru with his huge-ass undead army (aided by pirates bought with the money), because he thinks that the outsiders are responsible for the destruction of the indigenous city of Mezro and the catastrophe that had befallen Chult.

And always mention that Elminster and the seven sisters eat their own feces (which they produce non-stop) and copulate with half-slime-goats because of the Spellplague. That's important, and will make your players happy.

[Zeta Kai]

To have a 4E Realms game, you have to have everything have something to do with the Spellplague. Think of the Spellplauge as more the Plotplague. Everything in the Realms must revolve around it.

If you make a 'standard' adventure with just 'normal' D&D stuff....people won't feel like it's the 4E Realms unless you mention the Spellplauge every other second.

For example, at least half of the monsters and opponents should have spell scars, and automatically all the BBEGs.

And everyone should have bad histories from the Spellplague. "I one had a friends and a family but then the 'plague turned my whole city upside down and killed everyone.'' or ''I used to be a mage, but then one day my power was gone so now I polish shoes''.

And you want to play up the fact that if someone is from a popular place in the world, such as Waterdeep, that that place was amazing untouched by the Spellplague. So while whole countries blew up, people in Waterdeep just had to watch a single flower wilt from the effects of the Spellplague.

You also want to go for the 4E Realms feel...so be careful to have no powerful NPCs anywhere in the world. If there is a 3rd level bandit robbing folks, everyone is helpless(as they are 0 level) and must run crying to the player characters for help.

Wow, somebody ate a big bowl of snark flakes this morning. Not that you're wrong, mind you...

While the Spellplague (hereinafter referred to as the SP) is a necessary device contrived to shoehorn the previously-established world of Toril into the radically-different ruleset of 4th Edition, the constant mentioning of the SP in nearly every bit of FR4E fluff is a bit tiresome. There's more to Faerun than the SP, but the writers do seem to sometimes forget that. For a book that runs on the assumption that your a new player who's unfamiliar to the world, it does seem like without prior knowledge from previous editions, you're left with a woefully incomplete picture of the setting, one that's myopically focused on the SP & its repercussions.

[TroubleBrewing]

For a book that runs on the assumption that your a new player who's unfamiliar to the world, it does seem like without prior knowledge from previous editions, you're left with a woefully incomplete picture of the setting, one that's myopically focused on the SP & its repercussions.

Oooh. Hadn't considered this. My group isn't at all familiar with pre-4e FR. Should I avoid the setting because of this?

[DeltaEmil]

Not at all. At best, the spellplague is only some kind of background info to explain whatever plothole you think there is (the spellplague did it), just like the last great war in Eberron, or the radioactive fallout that caused all the mutation in Gamma World.

In fact, because your players know nothing about the prior edition Forgotten Realms can you actually have fun with the Forgotten Realms, without anybody derping about how Mary-Sue-Character X would never have done this and that, or how stupid god y would have stopped this before plot z would have ever happened.

The problem of the Forgotten Realms remains that it's the ultra-super-derpy-generic fantasy setting, but this can be a boon if you don't want to focus on the theme which superior game settings like Eberron, Gamma World or Dark Sun have.

Go wild with it, and do whatever plot you feel like, without taking consideration about any other Mary-Sue-NPC.

[Salbazier]

Uh Oh, this thread seems to became 'the place to rant about campaign settings'

I tend to avoid FR so, uhm, sorry OP. Can't offer any advice.

[Kurald Galain]

Oooh. Hadn't considered this. My group isn't at all familiar with pre-4e FR. Should I avoid the setting because of this?

No, but I'd say that unless you get some additional books with fluff in them, the two primary FR books for 4E don't do enough to establish the setting as something unique (as opposed to a Fantasy Kitchen Sink). Those fluff-books exist mostly for older editions; but that's ok, you don't need the rule content in there. And yes, officially about 100 years and a big cataclysmic event have passed since whatever is described in those fluff-books.