Essentially, though it hasn’t happened yet, my players are about to have a massive plot twist. I’m in a middle eastern style dnd campaign, where it’s primarily desert. In the lore of the world, 3 gods founded the great sandstorm, which surrounds the region, and tears apart anyone who tries to leave.
The party throughout the campaign has figured out that the gods aren’t as powerful as they seem, and are actually genies worshipped as gods for a long time, having gained power from people worshipping them. The party is ready to face the genies, and a side affect of winning is the great sandstorm dropped, revealing it’s a part of a massive continent home to all my campaigns.
That was a really long intro to say, with the sandstorm surrounding the desert disappearing , there’s a lot of interested factions, people, and governments on, and a lot of contact between organizations and this desert that’s hasn’t seen the outside world in hundreds of years.
Do you have any ideas on how different factions would approach this “new land”? How would people react to new merchant guilds coming in, governments signing treaties, or what would these organizations do?
This might be one of the biggest “setting changes” I’ve had in my games and I want it to be interesting for my friends, offering new enemies, allies, and other figures of interest
Any suggestions, ideas for organizations, or input on what you would add, would be awesome.
Thanks for reading all the way through, I’m horrible about writing long posts
Commerce - Merchants on both sides will want to find profit in new relationships.
Governance - Those who rule will want to protect their domain, profit, and (possibly) expand.
Religion—The external world probably had its own deities, right? Well, bringing 'god' to the 'savages' could absolutely play a role.
Magic—If there are 'authorities' who control what/how magic is used, they'll want it to spread.
I can see great opportunities to run a campaign in which the characters are faced with external powers trying to "colonize" them. Trade, Diplomacy, War, Religion—all could be arcs.
It can all be backdrop and story to adventure - or, if you are up for it, you can go next level with the 2e Birthright campaign setting rules for "domain level play" and have the party play at that high level with mechanics, etc. that translate well.
What are the technology/magic levels in the areas, relative to each other? That will go a long way toward explaining attitudes. If its lopsided one way or another, there could easily be wars of conquest. But if there's relative parity, that can set up for other things like border tension or even making friends with the neighbors.
I could easily see some factions being isolationist, and huge amounts of suspicion between people inside the desert and outside. Others might welcome the new opportunities. Lots of merchants might welcome the chances for trade, but not be as excited about the competition. I could see some projectionist measures -- like if they make silk in the desert, not allowing outside silk in to save the local silk artisans and merchants, but if they don't make silk, there would be a huge market for this new luxury item. For practical purposes, I'd only pick 2 or 3 commodities to do this with, because you don't want to run an economics simulator. But a couple can give you some good background conflict, like a silk smuggling ring, for example.
The geography will play a huge role. Is this desert off to the side along the edge of a continent somewhere? It could be months or years before people from the outside even notice the wall of sand is gone, since they've written the place off for generations and probably give it a wide berth. But if its more central, between other populated places, then there would definitely be major efforts to set up trade routes and colonization, as AgileDM says.
How long has this sandstorm been going? Keep in mind the life spans of different D&D species. If it's been 400 years, for example, that's dozens of human generations, but there's going to be elves alive who remember what it was like before. Even at 1,000 years, elves may have heard stories from their parents about what it was like before. You could have elf families who were split by the sand wall re-united with long lost parents/siblings/cousins. And if those families are in positions of power, that will impact the way their nations and organizations deal with the new situation.
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Essentially, though it hasn’t happened yet, my players are about to have a massive plot twist. I’m in a middle eastern style dnd campaign, where it’s primarily desert. In the lore of the world, 3 gods founded the great sandstorm, which surrounds the region, and tears apart anyone who tries to leave.
The party throughout the campaign has figured out that the gods aren’t as powerful as they seem, and are actually genies worshipped as gods for a long time, having gained power from people worshipping them. The party is ready to face the genies, and a side affect of winning is the great sandstorm dropped, revealing it’s a part of a massive continent home to all my campaigns.
That was a really long intro to say, with the sandstorm surrounding the desert disappearing , there’s a lot of interested factions, people, and governments on, and a lot of contact between organizations and this desert that’s hasn’t seen the outside world in hundreds of years.
Do you have any ideas on how different factions would approach this “new land”? How would people react to new merchant guilds coming in, governments signing treaties, or what would these organizations do?
This might be one of the biggest “setting changes” I’ve had in my games and I want it to be interesting for my friends, offering new enemies, allies, and other figures of interest
Any suggestions, ideas for organizations, or input on what you would add, would be awesome.
Thanks for reading all the way through, I’m horrible about writing long posts
I think you nailed it at the highest level.
I can see great opportunities to run a campaign in which the characters are faced with external powers trying to "colonize" them. Trade, Diplomacy, War, Religion—all could be arcs.
It can all be backdrop and story to adventure - or, if you are up for it, you can go next level with the 2e Birthright campaign setting rules for "domain level play" and have the party play at that high level with mechanics, etc. that translate well.
What are the technology/magic levels in the areas, relative to each other? That will go a long way toward explaining attitudes. If its lopsided one way or another, there could easily be wars of conquest. But if there's relative parity, that can set up for other things like border tension or even making friends with the neighbors.
I could easily see some factions being isolationist, and huge amounts of suspicion between people inside the desert and outside. Others might welcome the new opportunities. Lots of merchants might welcome the chances for trade, but not be as excited about the competition. I could see some projectionist measures -- like if they make silk in the desert, not allowing outside silk in to save the local silk artisans and merchants, but if they don't make silk, there would be a huge market for this new luxury item. For practical purposes, I'd only pick 2 or 3 commodities to do this with, because you don't want to run an economics simulator. But a couple can give you some good background conflict, like a silk smuggling ring, for example.
The geography will play a huge role. Is this desert off to the side along the edge of a continent somewhere? It could be months or years before people from the outside even notice the wall of sand is gone, since they've written the place off for generations and probably give it a wide berth. But if its more central, between other populated places, then there would definitely be major efforts to set up trade routes and colonization, as AgileDM says.
How long has this sandstorm been going? Keep in mind the life spans of different D&D species. If it's been 400 years, for example, that's dozens of human generations, but there's going to be elves alive who remember what it was like before. Even at 1,000 years, elves may have heard stories from their parents about what it was like before. You could have elf families who were split by the sand wall re-united with long lost parents/siblings/cousins. And if those families are in positions of power, that will impact the way their nations and organizations deal with the new situation.