Variant Histories

[Morfedel]

I was looking over a product for 3rd edition D&D made by Fantasy Flight Games called Midnight.

It is a new setting published by FFG for D20, and its setting is basically as follows:

This dark god is cast from the heavens by his fellows, and falls to the earth. As he does so, however, he casts a great spell that severs the world from their gods.

Greatly weakened for a god, but still enormously powerful for a mortal, he begins raising armies to take the world.

In the first age, he loses to the elven witch queen something-or-rather.

In the second age, he is again defeated, by an alliance of elves, dwarves, and humans.

The third age...

the third age, he wins. He conquers the majority of the world, forcing Men to bend the knee and driving the elves and dwarves into their last bastions and fortresses, while his lieutenants, the Night Kings (of which there are 4, once Men that he corrupted to his service) seek to break what feeble resistance remains.

It goes on and on, but for the most part, the parallel between this world and LotR is very significant - 3 ages, single dark lord, dark lieutenants he corrupted from men, etc. Not terribly original.

But... the bad guy won. The world is not just at the precipice of darkness, but has fallen over, and the heroes must somehow try and reverse their descent and return the world from darkness into the light.

Great book in and of itself, but it got me thinking.

What would happen if, somehow, someway, the Ring got beyond Sauron's reach, but wasn't destroyed?

Say, Frodo took a boat into the seas and dropped it there where, for the next several hundred years, it would work its way with the fishes and try to get eaten over and over to make it to land (and imagine what would happen to a fish with the One Ring in its belly! Although being natural creatures, and not men who lean towards greed, perhaps they would not take notice of the ring, and barring dark denizens of the oceans, it would lie there , out of his reach, perhaps forever.

But anyway. So, somehow the ring gets beyond his grasp, but it is not destroyed.

What happens?

Perhaps he conquers the world, much as is set in the Midnight book. That would make for a very interesting, if dark, world to adventure in!

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Morfedel
What would happen if, somehow, someway, the Ring got beyond Sauron's reach, but wasn't destroyed?

I would think that Sauron's forces of evil would sweep westward, eventually destroying any resistance. Somehow, I can't see the Ring being out of his grasp forever if it wasn't destroyed. He'd find a way to get it eventually, esp. if he manages to crush all resistance.

Not a pleasant option. A very dark world to play in. I might try it once, but wouldn't want to do a long-term campaign in it.

[Jason Durall]

If I remember correctly, in one of Tolkien's writings, when he was explaining how LotR wasn't an allegory, he laid out a fairly interesting scenario for the forces of evil to have triumphed... which I remember thinking "That would be a cool setting for a RPG."

[Greg Davis]

Originally posted by Jason Durall
If I remember correctly, in one of Tolkien's writings, when he was explaining how LotR wasn't an allegory, he laid out a fairly interesting scenario for the forces of evil to have triumphed... which I remember thinking "That would be a cool setting for a RPG."

That sounds pretty interesting, though I don't recall reading anything like that (though, in truth, I haven't actually read all the suplemental Tolkien texts from cover to cover). I'll have to look through my books to see if I can find mention of that...



Greg

[Cdr Scot II]

IIRC I think Jason is referring to the Foreword to the revised edition of LOTR in which Tolkien wrote a rebuttal to critics who suggested that the story was an allegory for the Second World War. I don't have it in front of me, but it was something along the lines that if it were an allegory, the Free Peoples would have decided to use the Ring for themselves, and things would pretty much have gone to hell in a handbasket from there .

[Jason Durall]

Originally posted by Cdr Scot II
IIRC I think Jason is referring to the Foreword to the revised edition of LOTR in which Tolkien wrote a rebuttal to critics who suggested that the story was an allegory for the Second World War. I don't have it in front of me, but it was something along the lines that if it were an allegory, the Free Peoples would have decided to use the Ring for themselves, and things would pretty much have gone to hell in a handbasket from there .

That is it. Thanks!

[Grutos]

Excellent setting for a prolonged chaotically morbid campaign!! The possibilities of combat, spell casting, success, failure, and rerolling of characters would keep most of those I have gamed with over the past 12 years going for a while. Very dark - me likes, will have to look into it. Thanks for the heads-up.

Nothing quite like looking out your window in the morning to see a Pit Fiend who's fallen from grace and is about to take out his wrath upon your villa. "Ah - today is a good day to die!!"