D&D General What would be a good published setting to use for a dead/dying world that has been taken over by Tharizdun?

dead said:

The idea is that Tharizdun is released from his prison and goes to war against all the gods. Eventually, with Good, Evil and Neutrality uniting against Tharizdun, the gods win but Oerth and Greyspace have to be sacrificed. Basically Greyspace is made Tharizdun’s new prison. But the gods no longer have access to the forsaken mortals of Oerth. The rest of the multiverse is saved, however, from the scourge of Tharizdun.

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Whatever the question is, the answer is always Greyhawk!

I kid. But, um, That whom we shall not name was trapped in GH (WG4). The forces have trapped him in Greyspace. The mortal of Oerth are forsaken...

Just use the Greyhawk setting and map, and dystopify it.

Add a few custom rules (gods have forsaken, so no cleric casting?) and you should be all set.

IMO.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I’ve been slowly going through them…

Darksun I did consider but I felt the burning desert wasteland and blistering sun didn’t feel like Tharizdun somehow.

Stryxhaven and Jakandor? At a glance I couldn’t see the connection. Will have to take a second look.

Lost Citadel? I liked the idea of a last bastion of defence. On Oerth, that would have to be the City of Greyhawk, of course! But I didn’t feel undead felt like Tharizdun’s thing, either. He is more madness and the unmaking of everything.

Steinhardt's Guide to Eldritch Hunt? I was trying to understand the lore of the world and what has actually happened but the kickstarter description didn't really explain. But it does seem to be going for that Van Helsing monster hunter vibe.

Carcosa? I remember when that first came out and the controversy. It is very much a sword & sorcery weird science old-school setting. I’m not sure that’s the vibe I’m after.

I'm looking for a dying world with magic, time and reality fractured. But at the same time, Tharizdun would still want to escape his prison - as his goal is the unmaking of the entire multiverse, not just Greyspace. So he is not actively trying to destroy the world and I think he would still have cultists. But his presence in Greyspace would cast a shadow over Oerth and "change" it for the worse - twisted creatures and blighted realms, warped magic and distortions of time and reality.

dead said:

Stryxhaven

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I intended it as a joke, as the setting is so bright and breezy.

dead said:

I’ve been looking for a good published setting to use for a dead/dying world taken over by Tharizdun.

Some settings I’ve come across in my search:

• Midnight (Fantasy Flight Games) --> probably not suitable; this is more of a ‘what if’ Sauron won rather than a dark destructive god.
• Broken Weave (Crucible 7 Games) --> Does anyone have it? Would it be a good fit?

Can anyone think of more?

The idea is that Tharizdun is released from his prison and goes to war against all the gods. Eventually, with Good, Evil and Neutrality uniting against Tharizdun, the gods win but Oerth and Greyspace have to be sacrificed. Basically Greyspace is made Tharizdun’s new prison. But the gods no longer have access to the forsaken mortals of Oerth. The rest of the multiverse is saved, however, from the scourge of Tharizdun.

I’ll be running D&D (either 3rd, 4th or 5th edition) but any RPG system setting would be considered to get ideas.

Thank you

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Midnight would have been my first suggestion. Otherwise, the "1,000 Years of Darkness" timeline from Legend of the Five Rings (best covered in the Imperial Histories sourcebook for 4th edition) is a good example of that kind of world.

dead said:

I’ve been looking for a good published setting to use for a dead/dying world taken over by Tharizdun.

Some settings I’ve come across in my search:

• Midnight (Fantasy Flight Games) --> probably not suitable; this is more of a ‘what if’ Sauron won rather than a dark destructive god.
• Broken Weave (Crucible 7 Games) --> Does anyone have it? Would it be a good fit?

Can anyone think of more?

The idea is that Tharizdun is released from his prison and goes to war against all the gods. Eventually, with Good, Evil and Neutrality uniting against Tharizdun, the gods win but Oerth and Greyspace have to be sacrificed. Basically Greyspace is made Tharizdun’s new prison. But the gods no longer have access to the forsaken mortals of Oerth. The rest of the multiverse is saved, however, from the scourge of Tharizdun.

I’ll be running D&D (either 3rd, 4th or 5th edition) but any RPG system setting would be considered to get ideas.

Thank you

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I have Broken Weave, but haven't really had time to carefully read it. At first a glance it meets lot of what you are looking for, but it is more of a 5e-system RPG rather than a D&D 5e setting, e.g. there are only 5 races/lineages: Dwarf, Elf, Halflings, Humans and the Forgotten (a catch all category for the descendants of all pre-breaking lineages) and the base classes are replaced by 6 new ones.

Traditional spells are not available, and magic in general has been replaced by Decay. All characters (Survivors in the game parlance) have some level of Decay. Interacting with arcane artifacts, several locations and monsters can increase Decay, giving characters access to more abilities, but at the cost of losing humanity. If Decay becomes too high, the Survivors become monsters under the DM's control.

There is also a strong settlement management component. The basic assumption is that characters come from a relatively safe and stable area of the world, called Haven, and they venture in the outside world to try to save their Haven from being consumed by Decay. The emphasis is more on Haven survival, while individual PCs are seen as sort of disposable. You can clearly play Broken Weave as a traditional D&D campaign, following a more or less fixed group of Survivors taking on different challenges, but the underlying assumption is one of high Survivors attrition rate.

Overall, my first impression is that BW themes and mood fit what you are looking for, but the bleak tone and the significant changes to several D&D default assumptions might not be for everyone.

Snarf Zagyg said:

Whatever the question is, the answer is always Greyhawk!

I kid. But, um, Tharizdun was trapped in GH (WG4). The forces have trapped him in Greyspace. The mortal of Oerth are forsaken...

Just use the Greyhawk setting and map, and dystopify it.

Add a few custom rules (gods have forsaken, so no cleric casting?) and you should be all set.

IMO.

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Agreed. And wasn't a conceit of the WoG boxed set that of a narrator (Pluffet Smedger) from the future of the setting whence magic was waning?

Tharizdun was trapped in an extra-dimensional prison until he is released by the assembled Theorparts in the Gord the Rogue series. I can't quite remember what happens to him at the end of the series - ie. is he imprisoned again, is he destroyed, etc? All I can remember is Oerth bites the dust and Gord manages to go on to live on Yarth.

Nevertheless, in my proposed game, the forces of Good, Evil and Neutrality eventually triumph over Tharizdun by imprisoning him in Greyspace. This is at great cost, however, as the crystal sphere must be completely sealed off and its mortals forsaken in order to save the rest of the multiverse.

P.S. WG4 is just a temple that allows communication with Tharizdun. He wasn't imprisoned there.

dead said:

Tharizdun was trapped in an extra-dimensional prison until he is released by the assembled Theorparts in the Gord the Rogue series. I can't quite remember what happens to him at the end of the series - ie. is he imprisoned again, is he destroyed, etc? All I can remember is Oerth bites the dust and Gord manages to go on to live on Yarth.

Nevertheless, in my proposed game, the forces of Good, Evil and Neutrality eventually triumph over Tharizdun by imprisoning him in Greyspace. This is at great cost, however, as the crystal sphere must be completely sealed off and its mortals forsaken in order to save the rest of the multiverse.

P.S. WG4 is just a temple that allows communication with Tharizdun. He wasn't imprisoned there.

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He was imprisoned with Entropy in the dying universe while everyone escaped to the new universe.

Not a Decepticon said:

Steinhardt's Guide to Eldritch Hunt

Mists of Akuma - as far as people in the setting know, rest of the world has been destroyed and consumed by mists.

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A major part of the world design for Mists of Akuma was for it to easily be placed into existing worlds. ♥

Broken Weave would be perfect, I reckon.