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SW 4th Era: Establishing a Time Jump

While it’s easy to think of a new era of history (real or fantasy) as a distinct and specific time or year, it’s usually in hindsight that we view the end of one epoch and the start of another as a demising event. In reality, such times are more muddled and gray, with the facts of history written by the victor.

It’s that confusion that drives me to start the 4th Era after a plausible lapse of time; I’m just not sure what that time span should be! From a human perspective, a decade or so could suffice, but Shadow World deals with longer time periods and often measures history in centuries or millennia; a understandable framing in a world of immortal Elves and beings.

I’ve broken down my time-lapse options into 3 basic frames: immediate, short-term or medium-term. I’ve eliminated a longer term option out of pragmatism; I don’t have the time or patience to build another expansive timeline!

Immediate: Under this scenario, the 4th Era begins right after the “final battle”. There are some in game benefits to this option as the flux of events would create a number of adventure opportunities. However, I feel like it wouldn’t create enough of a space to truly reset the setting and make the 4th Era distinct from previous material.

Short-term. 5 years. I’m leaning towards this option as it gives enough time for things to settle down, but not too much. There will still be parties vying for party, locations to explore and loot and enough flux to make Shadow World new, even to experienced players.

Medium-term. 20 years. I like this option for establishing a new setting baseline. Realms and leadership have been sorted, things are settled down into a “new normal” with some rebuilding already accomplished and there is a through line for establishing the new professions that RMU introduced. There are a new slate of big baddies to challenge the players but still enough conflict to drive adventure plotlines.

Per my previous post, I may end up pivoting on this once I have the 3rd Era ending locked in and some of these choices are more determinative. How much time do you think is needed to establish a new era of Shadow World?

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SW 4th Era: Road Map for History

How do you know where you are if you don’t where you’ve been?

For the last 20 years I’ve found my campaign hovering around the last few decades of the 3rd Era. The great story arcs are still in progress and the conflicts arising from those story lines are intersected by the PC’s again and again without them being the main characters. Strangely, I’ve never run a group completely through one of Terry’s campaigns.

Shadow World now feels like a game of the greatest hits, or similar to Star Wars RPG where the players run their adventures during the lead up to the original trilogy. Great moments, world shattering events and completions of story arcs are there but not for the party to enjoy directly. I’ve talked with quite a few Shadow World GM’s over the years and most run games with characters between 1st and 10th lvl and then reset. Some of Terry’s storylines are going to need very high level characters and based on feedback from my “Legends of Shadow World” their also seems to be little appetite for high level adventures as well. Not everyone can be a lowly Hobbit and save the world!

So, to circle around, before I can build the 4th Era I need to finish the last few pages and chapter of the 3rd Era. Each of Terry’s new books slightly advanced the timeline, but I think it was his fiction, “Loremaster Legacy” where he hoped to finish his opus rather than through incremental SW supplements. While there are many story arcs in Shadow World, the higher level narratives need to be resolved to determine and inform what happens next. For all my ideas about the 4th Era, any changes need to have a logical justification and not just the simple hand-waves that annoy me!

So what are these large story arcs?

  1. The Northern Eye. The loss of the Northern Eye plunged the hemisphere into erratic Essaence activity and Terry hinted at more several issues. Clearly, the return and placement of the Eye is a key event in the 3rd Era.
  2. The Shadowstone Chronicles encompasses the “World Crisis” story arc that has driven the setting from it’s earliest form. Several items play here: the Shadowstone, the Soulsword, the Ark of Worlds and the Heart of Agoth are key elements. There is a lot of Middle Earth DNA here and some elements of the Court of Ardor that is leading to a grand confrontation between the good guys and the bad guy(s).
  3. The Nameless One. Something is happening here. A mysterious figure that shows up before a major disaster needs a conclusion.
  4. The Gods. Since the Wars of Dominion, the friction between the Orhan and Charon pantheons has reached a boiling point.
  5. Lorgalis. For many settings, Lorgalis alone might be the main antagonist. While not world spanning, his influence and plans regarding Jaiman are significant.
  6. The Gold Dragon. He hasn’t played much of a role in the 3rd Era, but setting him up for the 4th seems appropriate.
  7. Andraax. Should the story of Andraax be put to rest, finally? Perhaps a deep sleep for now?
  8. Legends of Shadow World. I consider this critical narrative and set’s the stage for several SW elements: the Lense of Strok, the rise of Andaras, the disposition of Nynaku and the Demons of the Pale.

I’m not sure any definitive ending to these stories will satisfy everyone; but these stories need an end. My goal is to write the ending first and then see where it leads us, rather than write the ending that meets my needs and plans for the 4th Era. That’s going to be difficult since I’m not sure what’s working subconsciously in my creative process!

I’m curious if anyone has run to the end, have any ideas on an ending, or feel like there are other major plot points that I didn’t discuss that need commenting!

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SW 4th Era: Catastrophism

As much as I’d like to dramatically some elements of Shadow World, I need to keep in mind any commercial interest in this endeavor. That being the need to utilize this project as a support system for RMU. Shadow World needs to support the mechanics of RMU: Professions, Magic Realms, casting etc. so any changes that occur in the 4th Era have to at least support RMU or not conflict with the new ruleset.

But the concept of catastrophism is in the forefront of my mind: both physical and metaphysical ones. I may blog further about physical disasters that may befall Kulthea, but I wanted to put some thoughts together about the metaphysical side.

In my most recent post, I suggested a change to the “Essaence ionosphere”: a change in the level of Essaence that could impact spellcasting mechanics and power point regen. Keeping the RMU factor in mind, that doesn’t seem like a smart design decision. However, I’m still strongly believe that a SW reset requires some tough love and I’m drafting out and idea I’m calling the Snap. (maybe “surge”)

I’m not sure what to call it, but basically it’s a surge of raw power that was created when the Northern Eye was put back into place, the Lords of Orhan withdrew their support of the Essaence flows, and the energy pulse created by the “final battle”. Imagine a power surge that blows your speakers, or trips a circuit breaker. In this case that speaker or circuit is spell casters. Magic users that were actively recharging their PPs probably took the hardest hit, but all Essaence users were impacted. Those using multipliers even worse! This resulted in a spell failure roll (modified) with a likelihood of burnout, loss of PPs (temporary or permanent condition), stat loss, mental damage.

This is important to reset the narrative. Whether I start the 4th Era 5 years, 10 years or even 100 years after the final events of the 3rd Era, there needs to be a profound impact on SW culture, power & politics. Some of the symptoms of the Snap:

  1. Affected casters are hiding their loss or reduction of Essaence powers. Perhaps they are relying on magic items to replace their lost abilities.
  2. Some of the most powerful casters were killed or rendered useless, changing the balance of power in some societies.
  3. The deaths of powerful casters creates a gap in knowledge, and some spell lists become lost or difficult to learn.
  4. There is a increase in the use and reliance of technology to replace spell use.
  5. Magic and perhaps magic items are more rare.
  6. Dabblers, or professions that use both tech and magic become more common.
  7. Crude gunpowder weapons proliferate and the volatile nature of chemistry seems more muted.

As in my previous post, the goal here is to make Shadow World new again for long time players, align it with the RMU ruleset and create a framework for third party content.