Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Question: Reshaping the Continent

Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:13 pm Question: Reshaping the Continent

I want to do a Greyhawk world but change things up a bit nut I need some suggestions on how to proceed with it. I want to reshape the lands .... due to some horrific catastrophe or maybe a Dragonlance type of cataclysm that takes place in Greyhawk. What this "Horrific Catastrophe/cataclysm" actually is ... I have no clue, hence why I came here looking for ideas.

Basically what I want to do is something like the World of Krynn but NOT, I want to alter than landscape a little. Anyone have suggestions on how to flip things around to change the landscape up a little and still keep it Grehawk'ish?

Sun Oct 17, 2010 5:58 pm

Many moons ago, one of my first posts to Greytalk was about the cataclysms of Greyhawk :D

The GH landsacpe has been reshaped at least a few times in the past, according to canon:

- the Twin Cataclysms destroyed the Suel Imperium and toasted much of the Bakluni empire too
- the Rift Canyon was created by a cataclysm of some sort, perhaps associated with the Battle of Pesh? (although I don't recall now where the Rift Canyon being created by some giant destruction was confirmed, off-hand; Rip or someone else? :D )

I'm sure there are several more that I'm forgetting, but I'm tired, so hopefully someone else will chime in as well---and, ah, if only Morgan's old archive was available... <cough> Gary <cough> ;) ....
_________________
Allan Grohe<br />https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html<br />https://grodog.blogspot.com/

Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:18 am

Yes, there have been several catastrophes in the past. If you want to make a new one, I'm betting your smart enough to come up with something usable.

In the past when I've done similar things, I started with deciding what kind of event caused the damage, then researched similar events and extrapolated the results from there. For example, if a meteor were to strike the Oerth I'd figure out where it impacted and research what happens during meteor strikes. Then I'd take a look at the map and try to figure out how things might be changed.

If you're having difficulties with the process, there are several products out there (most of them out of print, so you'll have to search ebay, etc.) designed to help you.

Mon Oct 18, 2010 2:05 pm Tharizdun

If Tharizdun and the Lord of Entropy did come to Oerth's prime material plane per the Gord story, then after Tharizdun was successful in killing off everything, would the Lord of Entropy and Tharizdun fight to the death? If the Lord of Entropy lost, then he would go back to his home plane and Tharizdun would kill himself? Or would Tharizdun wait until he could leave the prime plane so he could continue killing on other planes?

See, if he kills himself after everyone and everything is dead, then characters from other planes could re-populate Oerth.

If the nature of Tharizdun's killing is by some sort of death cloud, then there'd be a lot of dead stuff left over for the pickings...in the debris.

If Tharizdun can't be killed and waits, then you'd have to make up some reason for him leaving...or leave it a mystery until you think of one later.

Mon Oct 18, 2010 3:03 pm

Well, if everything happened according to the Gord novels then Tharizdun would slowly succumb to Entropy, in effect becoming "nothing." Anything that lasted long enough to see his end would then be consumed as well, leaving that isolated part of the multiverse containing Oerth an empty void where nothing exists except Lord Entropy himself - and one could argue that even he would eventually cease to exist.

This, of course, would be an excellent time to run your players through the infamous "Nogard" adventure...

Mon Dec 20, 2010 11:50 pm

Hey Damaja

I did something very similar with my own campaign several years ago. My campaign is actually set about 1500 years in the future of Greyhawk's typical 'canon'. It isn't all techy or anything - its just that I have been running the same continuous campaign since the '80s. For some reason we have always just picked up chronologically in new campaigns where the last campaign left off. As such, by the time the From the Ashes boxed set came out - it was already the early 7th century CY in our home game. Anyway...

One of the things that eventually occurred in my game was the rise of a class of super casters from an off-map empire called Pretannia (roughly where the Zindus Valley area is). The Pretannian Wizard Kings conquered much of the known Flanaess between 750 and 767 CY. In 767 CY the decisive battle in their conquest was staged and Greyhawk City fell to the invaders. The Pretannian Empire lasted during two Dynasties (Pretanis I through Pretanis V; followed by the Kinvid I thru Kinvid VI).

Early in the reign of Kinvid VII (around 1100 CY) the Wizard Kings rebelled en masse. Kinvid VII was slain and the remaining Wizard Kings fought a global civil war lasting a little over a century. Each of these guys was epic in scope. The end result was that the entire map was reshaped. What I did was - using Greyhawk City as an anchor - rotated the planet on its axis so that Dyvers shifted to a point due North West of GH City instead of west. Much of the eastern half of the Flanaess disappeared beneath the waves, and I moved mountain ranges around, et al. The map is now completely unrecognizable.

I do, however, keep a DM's map that shows me old locations on the new map - it has proven to be an invaluable source of ruin-based adventures and whatnot.

Following the War of the Wizard Kings the world basically plunged into a magic fearing dark ages that lasted close roughly 300 years or so. They are just emerging from the that dark ages and many remnants of the old ways are being refound and remembered.

If you are ever interested, let me know and I will gladly share more.

Sat Jun 02, 2012 2:48 pm

Sounds very interesting actually. What I plan to do is do a black and white copy of the Greyhawk map so I can use 40 gallons of white out hehe to change the world like I want it. Once I get it done, I plan to add land masses outside the core Greyhawk realm so I can add non Greyhawk stuff to my campaign to give it more flavor.

I am sure you will hear from me in the near future when I get my maps squared away. I plan to do basically what i did with the following map, from back when I wanted to do a homegrown world. I may even use some or all of this map "with some more altering" to add onto my campaign world with Greyhawk.

http://www.damaja.org/DnD/Map.JPG

The map is still unfinished.

Sat Jun 02, 2012 6:28 pm

That's a nice looking map, Damaja. Reminds me of WaterWorld just a little. Smile

SirXaris

Sat Jun 02, 2012 6:32 pm

thanks much :) took so so long to get that much done, it is actually more updated than this currently. I have added tons of independent cities, towns and a few kingdoms. One day I'll finish it and host it up for viewing.

Sat Jul 14, 2012 1:20 pm

Damaja,

Perhaps the lost city of Veralos is found by a conclave of Iuz cultists. The cities guardians decide to destroy veralos in hopes of keeping its secret from the boneheart and Iuz himself. The implosion of old mythical energies causes the Rift to split separating much of the eastern flanaess from its current continent effectively creating a west central and eastern continent.

The water ways separating the central continent from the eastern one create some new species on the islands drifting in its masses as well as the water surrounding them.

Perhaps psychic impressions or gates and doors into other planes. I would suggest wild and dead magic zones even though it has been done in FR many of us fans know that Boccob's influence is waning in regards to magic in GH. It is meant to dwindle away perhaps this expands the Pale's version of Pholtus in the east making the other gods of GH something of false idols in the east.

I hope this helps!

Later

Argon

Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:08 pm

Damaja this map looks wonderful! My only gripe is Ull getting flooded! Why not an island or two off that coast? :P