This is a draft. It may change as I find better ways to express something, or add/remove ideas.
This post is not a list of ways to fix little things in the campaign, to make it more playable. This post is not about modifying the Tyranny of Dragons to fit other settings. Those ideas are worthy of development, but I’m not addressing them here right now. This post is a much bigger statement about how the execution of the plot failed, and my suggested fixes actually demand rewriting the whole story.
I wrote this post back when Tyranny of Dragons was first announced, before the books came out. Now that the books are out and I’m reading through them, I’m working on expanding this post and making it more specific. I have not changed my mind. Reading Hoard of the Dragon Queen has only added to my conviction that serious brainfarts occurred during the construction of this campaign.
Why The Tyranny of Dragons is a Bad Story
Admittedly we haven’t really seen anything yet, but I’m concerned because so far this sounds like a colossal fail, stuffed with fail and served with a piping hot side of fail.
Okay, it’s not a terrible story. There are good parts. It’s just that the bad outweighs the good, and the good could be better. A lot better. Here are a few of my objections, and a few suggestions.
1. The Cult of the Dragon is the wrong antagonist.
For years, the evil Cult of the Dragon has devoted itself to creating undead dragons in a vain attempt to fulfill an ancient prophecy. However, the cultists were misguided. They misunderstood. But now, under new leadership, …
No. That’s not the Cult of the Dragon.
First, you’re changing the definition of the cult. One of my pressing questions for the designers of this plotline is why the Cult of the Dragon is being drafted for this cause when Tiamat already has a church. So I’ll ask that question. Why are you turning the Cult of the Dragon into another church of Tiamat? She already has a cult, dedicated solely to her, with no confusion regarding dracoliches, which has been serving her for thousands of years. Why would she care about, or trust, the Cult of the Dragon — an atheist political organization which has been butting heads with her church in Faerûn for at least the last century?
Second, it’s happening too quickly. Sammaster and his followers have been focused on creating dracoliches for almost 600 years. The lower levels of the cult worship them, and the management uses them to further their own interests. You want to waltz in and change all that? Nope, not happening. You’d be trussed up and fed to a dragon, or (if you had the wherewithal to ensure your own survival) the Cult would kick you out or leave the organization en masse. If you had any sense at all, you’d know at the outset what the outcome would be, and you wouldn’t try to shift the focus of the Cult in a short period of time. You’d solidify your control by killing off those at the top who didn’t see things your way. You would then separate the new recruits and start a shadow cult within the Cult… a sub-organization of easily dominated individuals under your control, pursuing the tasks you want them to pursue while keeping a low profile. You would build your subcult as the old guard dies off or loses interest. In 60 years or so you would have your Cult of the Chromatic Dragon. But that’s what it is… it’s a new cult… it’s not the old cult under new management. And you wouldn’t keep calling it the Cult of the Dragon, because that name is associated with dracoliches and therefore doesn’t properly glorify Tiamat. You’d either merge with the church of Tiamat, thus losing your individual identity, or you’d be a duplicate/alternate church of Tiamat and thus aggravate her lawful sensibilities and remain the target of her distrust.
In short, there’s no way for the Cult of the Dragon serving Tiamat to make much sense. What makes a lot of sense is putting the church of Tiamat in charge of the plot to bring Tiamat into Faerûn.
… the cult believes that the prophecy does not speak of undead dragons, but of a dragon empire that’s been extinct for 25,000 years.
Sammaster believes that “dead dragons” will rule the world, based on an alternative reading of the Chronicle of Years by Maglas. Elminster assures us that the text (from Cult of the Dragon, TSR 9547, page 5) reads as follows:
“And naught will be left save shattered thrones, with no rulers but the dead. Dragons shall rule the world entire…”
Sammaster read it differently, to say “But the dead dragons shall rule the world…” Since dead things clearly don’t rule anything, he figured the text must be referring to undead dragons. Thus his journey of madness, necromancy, and dracophilia commenced.
While it’s likely that the more level-headed leaders of the Cult of the Dragon might interpret the Chronicle as predicting a return to dominance by living dragons, and this might inspire a shift in the organization’s goals, nothing about Maglas’ prophecy (no matter which way you read it) suggests venerating Tiamat.
2. No churches are opposing it.
The cult has a new face and a new mission. It seeks to free Tiamat from the Nine Hells and bring her into the Forgotten Realms.
Someone is trying to bring a god into Faerûn, and no churches have a problem with it? I call shenanigans… although in a few pages I will arrive at how this could be mostly true. Still, it’s jarring to see the plot being both furthered and opposed only by nonreligious groups.
3. The alliances are not consistent with what we know of the Realms.
On one side of the war, the evil Cult of the Dragon and the Red Wizards of Thay; on the other side, heroic groups including the Harpers, the Company of the Gauntlet, the Emerald Enclave, the Lords Alliance and the Zhentarim have set aside their differences to put an end to the tyranny.
Oddly, the Zhentarim —which has a history of alliances with evil intelligent monsters including dragons— is opposed to this plan, but the Red Wizards —who have never given a darn about dragons or gods— are cooperating with the Cult of the Dragon. That is freakin weird, and there’s no acknowledgement that something strange has happened to bring this about. It’s written as if this is an unfortunate but logical happenstance.
None of the organizations listed plays nice with others. The Cult of the Dragon and the Red Wizards, sittin in a tree, K–I–S–S–I–N–G? No. They both want to take over the world, and neither of them is willing to share power. The Company of the Gauntlet? You mean the adventurers who killed a dragon once, like 250 years ago? Are they undead now, or did Bahamut resurrect them and send them to fight in his place so that he could sip some sangria with Loviatar? Makes about as much sense as everyone singing Kumbaya with the Zhentarim.
4. Tiamat is not languishing.
Tiamat, the queen of evil dragons, has languished in the Nine Hells for millennia. The cult believes that the time of her return is at hand.
Tiamat’s story (from 1e until now) is vague and/or contradictory. “Languishing” is also vague, but it doesn’t sound like the right word for what she’s been doing. Normally I don’t go around nitpicking word choices, but it’s a 25-cent word and you used it so I’m thinking maybe you chose this word for a reason. Seems logical to me.
Merriam-Webster defines “languish” primarily as becoming feeble, enervated, or dispirited. Dictionary.com adds a few more ideas: droop, fade, loss of vigor or vitality, and my favorite: “to pine with desire or longing.” If Tiamat has been languishing for 25,000 years, she’s (a) not motivated enough to get this ball rolling and (b) not strong enough to capitalize on it once a group of mortals does the hard work for her. In case it isn’t obvious, neither of those options leads to a good story.
She’s had at least four avatars in Unther in the last couple thousand years. She’s a “core” deity, so she’s active on other game worlds as well. If she were stuck in a prison cell somewhere, like Waukeen in For Duty & Deity, we should have had a “Silence of Tiamat” event to support that. But we didn’t. Who has been holding her prisoner, since when, how has nobody known about it or gone looking for her, and why isn’t her confinement specified more explicitly in the summary of this Tyranny of Dragons plot? Crickets. So she’s not being restrained by anyone or anything, and she has been active on various campaign worlds all this time. I’m not seeing the languishing. She’s actually been pretty active in the Realms, and there’s every reason to believe that other worlds are suffering her presence as well.
Adventurers throughout the Realms must join forces to face Tiamat, …
If she were languishing (i.e., feeble, weak, depressed, etc) she would not be in any position to fight off the PCs and this conclusion would be exceedingly anticlimactic.
So I guess I’m nitpicking your word choice, because your storyline isn’t consistent with any usage of that word.
5. The plot devices are lame.
To accomplish its goal, the cult needs five ancient dragon masks …
Seriously? *Sigh* …Fine.
If there are relics somewhere in Faerûn which will enable Tiamat to manifest here (to a greater extent than she already does) it seems to me that her priests in Unther should have gone looking for them already. They’ve already had at least 180 years to find them; if they haven’t found them in all that time, what would enable the Cult of the Dragon to find them in a much shorter period of time? How would the Cult of the Dragon even find out about find out about these relics, if not by visions from Tiamat? And why would Tiamat favor the Cult of the Dragon over her own church?
Again, the Cult of the Dragon is a ridiculously inferior choice of vehicles for Tiamat’s return.
6. Is this, or is this not, an RSE? Sucks to be you, either way.
The cult leaders —each one a “dragon whisperer”— have reached out to the evil dragons of the Sword Coast …
Dragons attacking cities… really sounds like an RSE to me. Then you limit the activity to one small region of Faerûn. Color me confused.
The ToD story line will will unfold across the faee of Faerun, …
My guess is that your silly “dragon masks” are believed to all be concealed on the Sword Coast — confirming that Tiamat’s priests don’t have them. So the initial phase of the campaign centers there, but will later expand into all of Faerûn. Right? Because what would the justification be for Tiamat only being interested in dominating the Sword Coast?
Their ravenous hunt for treasure throws the Sword Coast into upheaval. Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate — no city is safe from their depredations.
Neverwinter, Waterdeep, and Baldur’s Gate. That pretty much covers the cities of the Sword Coast. All… three of them. Wait. Luskan? And what’s that other city the Sea of Swords… Athkatla? Pft, who cares about Luskan; I wouldn’t want to live there if I were a dragon.
Anyway… is this an RSE, or not?
If it is —meaning the Cult and Tiamat rape, pillage, and burn the Sword Coast and then move out into the rest of the world— then you piss off everyone who’s under the laughable impression that you’ve promised a cessation of RSEs.
There’s no arguing with those who deplore your love for big dramatic events. You’ve been escalating a mad proliferation of catastrophes ever since the Time of Troubles. And now that you’ve killed off a bunch of gods, twice, destroyed vast swaths of Faerûn, twice, and perhaps partially unmade those overwhelmingly stupid mistakes with yet another huge event, you’re taking aim (again) at the civilians of Faerûn. I can’t fathom how you expect anyone who’s played in the Realms before 2008 to be excited about this plan.
If it’s not an RSE, then you aren’t doing justice to the story. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Déjà vu, yes?
The only way to avoid the moniker of “zomgwtfRSE” is to write the story in such a way that the PCs will win. Because if they don’t win, then Tiamat pwns the world, right? So they have to win. Over the course of a single campaign, the PCs will see the Cult of the Dragon rise to power, and then they’ll bring the Cult down in a mind-boggling series of successful attacks. So that you can say “look, it’s not an RSE, because we didn’t destroy anything!” This restraint would be admirable, but in this case it would unfortunately weaken all of your antagonists… and ultimately every individual DM and player, as well.
- Tiamat: She’s a power. If thwarting her is made trivial, so is defeating Bane or Lathander. From another angle… you made Cyric undefeatable. (You effing bastards.) It follows that Tiamat must be undefeatable.
- The church of Tiamat: you’ve negated them in your storyline anyway, but they should be written as no less of a threat than the church of Bane.
- The Cult of the Dragon: You’ve made the Cult immensely powerful in this storyline. They contact and unify a large number of dragons, successfully assault several large and magically-able cities, and initiate bringing the essence of a god into the Realms. Stupendously powerful. In order to “win” the PCs will need to defeat the Cult, to an extent which suggests that there will not be a Cult of the Dragon in Faerûn after this campaign. Destruction is a pretty serious reduction in power.
- DM: The power to customize things to provide the desired challenge for players should remain with the DM. It shouldn’t be difficult to see that writing this campaign so that the PCs can easily win takes a lot of DMing out of the hands of the DM.
- Player: In spite of toppling and extinguishing the most powerful evil organization in Faerûn during this campaign, a player achieves nothing in the personal development arena by playing in a campaign which is rigged to favor him. There is no growth in a foregone conclusion of resounding success.
Tyranny of Dragons pits players against throngs of dragons, led by their five headed queen Tiamat, who has appeared in D&D lore as a key villain since the mid ’70s.
Throngs of dragons? Nevermind; you’ve irretrievably cheapened everyone already. Let me get my 30th-level fighter/29th-level magic user/27th-level cleric from 1st edition. He slew Ma Yuan and took that necklace that can turn into any weapon in existence. He then killed Thor in a bar fight and shacked up with Freya. Bring on the pansy dragons!
7. This is your idea of a (not really) birthday party.
“The Tyranny of Dragons story is the first story to launch with the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. We though it should be tied to one of the most iconic villains and some of the most iconic monsters that the game has ever had.”
If this were a 40th anniversary event, I could get behind it, although I would still be making the other complaints here. It’s not. This is about the 5th edition of the Forgotten Realms setting. If it were about the anniversary, it would be happening in other worlds. Is Tiamat stomping around in Eberron? No? Then it’s a Realms event, not a D&D event.
My point here is that every time there’s a new edition of the ruleset, you feel compelled to make big sweeping changes in the Realms. These changes are stupid to begin with, because they’re unnecessary and because you never bother with foreshadowing. They become even more stupid when you drop the ball. The events are either flash-in-the-pan (the chaos associated with the Time of Troubles) or become permanent fixtures of the setting which never benefit from any positive development (the return of Shade). Sometimes they start out being permanent changes but then you change your minds and it turns into something ridiculous (the death of Bane and the removal of assassins). Generally we want them to be flashes in the pan… little firecracker bangs that we can quickly ignore.
The Time of Troubles and the Spellplague were unnecessary and ill-advised, and never should have happened in the first place. The least you can do is let us move on quickly and have no lingering effects from it. But that wouldn’t make sense on a story level, which might be why you don’t let us ignore these mistakes. You left Leira, Myrkul, and Bhaal dead through all of 2e, 3e, and 4e. Leira was particularly mystifying — even though Cyric’s story depended heavily on getting Leira’s portfolio, she never appeared in the story and was retroactively declared to have been killed by Cyric even though it couldn’t have happened. You’ve also expressed unwillingness to pretend the Spellplague never happened.
I’m not encouraging retcons, per se, but I will say a retcon which does good for the setting is better than failing to fix something which is bad. It’s way past time to stop stirring up the Realms every time you play with the rules. It’s not good for players, and it’s not even smart from a business standpoint. We can only hope that you realized that you erred with the Time of Troubles, erred even more egregiously with the Spellplague, and that the next backlash will probably be even worse. Stop screwing up your lore-rich setting just for the sake of screwing it up. Other settings may thrive that, but this one will not.
Tyranny of Dragons is not a lore-driven plotline, supported by past events and designed to develop the setting in a positive way… it’s merely the next RSE du jour, mandated by your misguided standards. Perhaps that explains why it seems you didn’t put excessive thought into the story part of it. It wasn’t conceived to be a story, after all… it’s just a marketing thing. Just another screw-up with no purpose other than to screw things up.
This approach is a massive fail in the Realms.
8. This Multi-Platform Thing
Tyranny of Dragons “will be a transmedia experience.” We’ll see parts of the story not only in the tabletop RPG, but in the organized play program, in the Neverwinter MMO, and in other outlets Perkins can’t talk about yet.
This is a terribad idea for the Realms. It might be fine in a freshly-created world — which I’ve said before is what you should have done with 4e, and now I’ll revise my own opinion: you should make a new world for each edition of the rules. If that sounds like a lot of work, then (a) stop being melodramatic and (b) stop thinking that changes in the rules necessitate changes in the settings. They never have, and they never will, unless you’re doing something wrong.
In the meantime, get all the destructiveness —and all of these wonky presentation ideas— out of your system in a sandbox setting. Cool off and then come back to the Realms when the new rules are smoothed out and working at peak efficiency, and continue expanding the lore here.
The next chapter for Dungeons & Dragons will spread across multiple modern platforms, including a new tabletop adventure, and similar experiences for console video game systems and mobile devices.
Okay, so WHY is the multi-platform idea in the top-ten list of your worst ideas ever? Because you’re doing it wrong. Realms fans are lore hogs. We like to know everything about our setting. Everything. We want ALL the information and ALL the adventures. You’re potentially picking a different medium for each bit of lore. Part of it is a book, part of it is in the MMO, part of it is an Encounters season, part of it is in console games, and part of it is going to be some kind of smartphone game/app. And who knows, there might be other parts.
“We’re thinking of Dungeons & Dragons as an entertainment experience across multiple platforms” that will move from story to story fluidly… so a plotline might start in the organized play games and finish in a published module.
You’re not telling the whole story in each medium, and that demands that we participate everywhere, and buy not just a lot of books but a lot of different things. If we don’t then we’re missing something, and if we only buy books we’re going to be missing most of the story. Objectively speaking, there’s nothing really wrong with missing something, but it bugs us… more than it bugs players of other settings, because the Realms has more lore than other settings and Realms fans are those who gravitate to this setting because of the lore. We want all of it, and by splitting the lore into multiple mediums without producing all of it in each of those mediums you’re essentially withholding parts of the setting from those of us who don’t have the desire or means to invest in additional electronic devices or games or whatever else. This is as frustrating as requiring a subscription to DDI, only worse because there are more figurative doors and a significant percentage of the lore will be locked away, accessible only to those who have purchased a smorgasbord of technology.
Like I said… in a setting with less lore, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal because the players wouldn’t care as much about the lore. In the Realms, it’s a big negative… and I suspect you know that and in fact that’s why you’re doing it this way, but if I go there then I’ll be calling you nasty names again before the end of this sentence.
9. The Flagship Setting
“The Forgotten Realms is our flagship setting for the new edition…”
The idea that you’re making the Realms the “flagship” setting again pisses me off, because it means you’re going to blow up MY house, again, and then stand back and dust yourself off and rail against the universe because we DMs and players didn’t understand your vision. Again.
We are not the problem here. Your vision is the problem here.
A Positive Note
“… however we are supporting, or will support, all of our key settings in the future.” That includes Ebberon, says Perkins, and “you are going to see more Ravenloft stuff very soon.”
I want to end this section with a couple of positives, because positives are nice and it provides some modicum of segue into my next section. I don’t care much for/about Eberron, but I admit that I’ve historically been primarily a one-setting guy.
I’m annoyed by the use of the word “key” here, because it means you’re definitely not talking about Maztica or Al-Qadim, and you’re probably not talking about Spelljammer or Planescape either. All of those deserve a comeback.
I’d be willing to write them, and I’m not in it for the money. But I suspect that you’re “not interested at this time” and that kinda makes your whole statement worthless. What you mean by “all of our key settings” is probably “Eberron, plus Ravenloft so that we could say ‘all of our key settings’ instead of ‘and our other key setting.’ It sounds better, ya know?”
Modrons will return in the upcoming fifth edition rules!
Whoa. Okay, maybe I was too hasty. But it’s really weird to just say modrons are coming back if you’re revamping the Planescape setting. So this leaves me thinking Planescape is still defunct (as far as you’re concerned anyway) but you’re going to update modrons as a core monster. Prove me wrong; make my day.
The new rules and new adventures play with the idea of in-game factions: Characters can align with certain local groups, receive awards from them, and increase in rank.
This is transparently adapted from World of Warcraft and probably other MMOs, but I don’t mind in this case because it’s a good thing and it should be adapted. There’s a lot of potential for awesome here, and I’m looking forward to seeing the designers’ ideas.
I will take this opportunity to point out that what you need, a million times harder than you needed feedback on the Next ruleset, is a public playtest of the changes you plan to make in the Realms. The lack of a Forgotten Realms playtest tells us that you don’t give a rat’s arse about our opinions of your direction for the Realms. Regardless of the truth, it’s not a good message to send.
Factions are one example of an idea which could be served by giving players a chance to see it in an alpha/beta setting, and give you our input, before everything is printed and canonized.
Anyway… enough of that happy-shiny positive crap, right? Back to the Tyranny of Dragons!
How It Could Work
Now, the constructive part of the criticism.
The “this god is imprisoned, and you have to go rescue her” thing was already done in For Duty & Deity, and probably elsewhere. So Tiamat is not a prisoner of anyone/anything. The goal of this plotline is just to bring her physically into the Realms.
She is a core deity, rather than a Realms deity, so we’re probably actually talking about getting a permanent avatar of Tiamat somewhere in Faerûn… because what would happen to her presence in other worlds if she moved wholly into the Realms? To say nothing of the fact that every other deity active in the Realms would oppose it and Ao likely wouldn’t allow it anyway.
Tiamat has had avatars in Unther before, but they were low powered and unknown to most of the Realms. This time, the whole Realms is going to know about it. They’re planning to return Toril to the days of the dragon empires, when all races served the dragons.
So, who are “they” and just how worried should we be about them? Well, the Cult of the Dragon doesn’t work. The Cult wants to control the world using dracoliches. They don’t support Tiamat, because Tiamat would take too much control of the hierarchy and activities of the Cult, and the cult leaders want that authority for themselves.
Tiamat has her own cult/church, however. She has a relatively low-powered cult in Unther, but the advantage of being a core deity is that she has servants in other worlds/planes. Abishai and other devils, plus human/demihuman/humanoid clerics and fighters.
Tiamat’s Lackeys
So here’s one possible vehicle for getting this off the ground. A few dozen devils, a few hundred mid level clerics, and a few thousand fighters have been culled from her churches across the Prime and in other planes, and brought into the Realms via portals. Each of the clerics sets up a “cell” of Tiamat’s church and gains local support through charms, favors, and when necessary blackmail. They can also requisition resources from their home worlds through those portals.
Each of these groups makes overtures to nearby chromatic dragons. Their spiel is that Tiamat is coming… to stay. Each dragon has a simple choice: hail her and be rewarded with a fiefdom when she arrives, or spurn her and die in her jaws. Since Tiamat is active in the Realms, she can provide omens and signs to doubtful dragons, to confirm that this is not a drill. Regardless of each dragon’s history with Tiamat’s church and the Cult of the Dragon, regardless of their resistance to being ruled over, the overwhelming majority of free willed dragons will choose a life of nominal servitude and a fiefdom (with the tributes and servants that promises) over a painful and humiliating death.
Another prong of Tiamat’s assault will be propaganda. It’s been successful in Unther, and while she recognizes that her popularity there was due chiefly to the widespread dissatisfaction with Gilgeam she will quickly adapt. Everyone has enemies that they hate/fear, and that means everyone has a reason to welcome the followers of Tiamat… operating under a different name, naturally.
An Example
Here’s an example of how it might work in the Dales.
First, a cleric passes through, and creates a short-term portal in the Thunder Peaks between the Northride and the Moonsea Ride. It’s relatively remote, in hostile terrain, and offers both privacy and access to humanoid slaves and informants.
A vanguard of two clerics and twenty fighters comes through from another Prime world, carrying some key supplies; they summon a couple of earth elementals to build a proper fortress. The original priest leaves them with a map of the area and moves on to set up the next portal. When finished, the fortress features permanent two way portals to their home world and a larger base in a more controlled part of Toril, through which they can receive orders and get rid of seized magic and prisoners.
The fighters begin exploring the region and reporting back to the clerics. The clerics make notes on the map left for them. Additional forces arrive from the newcomers’ homeworld, and within a couple of weeks they start ingratiating themselves on the Dalesfolk.
They take a number of guises, including adventurers, merchants, and monks of Helm. They show up at the edge of a small village with (in a hinterland area) the corpse of a dangerous monster or (in a struggling farming village) several freshly slain game animals. When brigands attack a caravan, the “monks of Helm” often bring the stolen goods back to the deprived merchant (if he survives) and ask nothing in return. Of course the brigands might have been hired by the clerics to rob the merchant, but the Dalesfolk would never find that out… dead bandits tell no tales.
Tiamat’s eyes and ears listen to the tavern talk, particularly to bits about dragons of course, and freely share relevant tales of the road which other followers of Tiamat have heard in nearby regions. They also report everything they hear to their superiors in the larger base, and in return they receive information from their neighboring bases which might be relevant to securing the loyalty of the Dalesfolk.
The Opposition
Tiamat’s followers aren’t going to do anything to draw hostile attention to themselves, but they aren’t going to go unnoticed. The agents of various good aligned, freedom loving, and anti dragon organizations are going to realize that something is up.
First, every dragon of aggressive attitude is watched by someone, and some of those watchers communicate with each other. The Cult of the Dragon (the real Cult; they’re not in cahoots with Tiamat in this version) spends a lot of time and resources pursuing chromatic dragons. The Harpers keep tabs on the Cult of the Dragon, and they’re going to investigate whenever someone marches back out of a dragon’s lair alive and smiling.
The success of Tiamat’s church depends only on keeping the extent of its activities secret. In other words, don’t leave any witnesses, but there’s no need to stress if someone escapes as long as nobody realizes that the cult spans all of Faerûn.
Obviously Tiamat’s agenda is hostile to the Realms. Living evil dragons ruling everyone, controlled by a dragon goddess, is no more acceptable than dracoliches and their handlers ruling everyone. So the Harpers are anti-Tiamat.
The Lords’ Alliance and the Merchants’ League, and other less-famous like-minded groups all over Faerûn, exist to promote trade and the safety of cities and merchants. Obviously, they’re against being ruled by dragons… or anything else that eats people.
Pretty much all adventuring bands are going to oppose the rise of dragon overlords. And really, all intelligent races —including the chromatic dragons— dislike the idea of being ruled by Tiamat.
So in the “Against Tiamat” column, we have… everyone.
The Pro-Tiamat Movement
If everyone is against her, who can be for her? The easy answer is individuals. Sammaster is no great fan of Tiamat, but his “vision” provides an example of how one person can arrive at a viewpoint which is not representative of his race. This explains the fact that Tiamat, in spite of having an agenda which is inherently destructive to all non-dragons, has (potentially) priests of every known race.
The more complicated answer is everyone who hates someone who hates her. Her church is strong in Unther because she opposes Gilgeam, who is —by virtue of his political power and propensity for ripping people limb from limb— widely seen as the worst thing to ever happen to Unther. Up until the point where Tiamat eats a crowd of people in front of the palace, she’ll be seen as a great improvement over the psychotic God King.
This opens the door for a variety of organizations on Faerûn supporting Tiamat, due to the fact that the Harpers oppose her. Their support is weak, however, and centers on killing Harpers.
The Cult of the Dragon doesn’t want Tiamat in the Realms. They will, however, ally with her church in order to further their own agenda which includes destroying their mutual enemies. Likewise the Red Wizards and the Zhentarim. Likewise the Eldreth Veluuthra and the Twisted Rune. All of these organizations crave power, and therefore oppose the authority of Tiamat. They’re all intelligent enough to keep their real motivations quiet, though, in a show of support for anyone who wants to kill Harpers.
Also offering superficial support to Tiamat’s priests are elements of the churches of Auril, Bane, Beshaba, Cyric, Kossuth, Loviatar, Malar, Mask, Shar, Talona, Talos, Umberlee, and Velsharoon. Not because they want Tiamat in the Realms —none of them do— but because since Tiamat opposes everything other than herself, all of these churches have enemies in common with her. Tempus lives for battle, and there’s going to be plenty of that. Gargauth’s portfolio includes betrayal, cruelty, corruption, and powerbrokers… his church is ally to everyone who has any ambition. Same with Garagos and his portfolio of war, destruction, and plunder.
Of course, many of these churches oppose each other, so each seeks a very vague alliance which will enable them to kill anyone they dislike without reprisals from the church of Tiamat. And since Tiamat’s vision of the Faerunian pantheon consists solely of her, she sees this as a great orgy of mutual destruction among her enemies, and amiably grants those alliances on the condition that each church actually step up their activities against their enemies.
To entice other groups to make similar deals, and thus weaken themselves as well as their enemies, the church of Tiamat offers a seemingly bottomless store of armor, weapons, and money for hiring local mercenaries and specialists. (Remember they have supply lines coming from dozens of other worlds.) A finite but still large number of Tiamat’s spawn is also available, for both defensive and offensive operations.
Tiamat’s priests proceed with their plans, aided by the campaign of terrorism and distraction waged by all the evil churches of the Realms. Good and neutral deities will be unable to mount a meaningful offense, as the low-key opposition of evil churches escalates into a multi-front war.
Alliances
This is a huge free-for-all. Who really stands where?
The Harpers, the Lords’ Alliance and other defensive political organizations, the Merchants’ League and other defensive mercantile organizations, and basically all right-thinkers oppose Tiamat. However, they’re kept from making a meaningful stand by an endless string of small attacks from all the organizations which oppose them.
These evil organizations simultaneously (and often unwittingly) cripple themselves in the process. While the church of Tiamat will supply them with armor, weapons, minions, and money, there is one vital resource which is irreplaceable… talent. As grudge turns to vendetta, and skirmishes become wars, lieutenants and then leaders are slain in battle and assassinated by ambitious subordinates. Promotions ensure that the organizations survive… but experience and wisdom is inevitably reduced over time. As a result, the new leaders are less able to anticipate their own demise, less able to resist the honeyed words of Tiamat’s fiendish negotiators, and the process of assimilating and eliminating the resistance accelerates.
All churches oppose Tiamat, but none can do so effectively. Evil churches are busy attacking the enemies of Tiamat, partly because of their shared antipathy but also to protect their own interests by feigning alliance with Tiamat’s cause. As long as the church of Bane maintains pressure on the church of Chauntea, for instance, Banites need not fear attacks from the followers of Tiamat; falter, and they become fair game. All churches are consequently weakened by fending off incessant small scale attacks from other churches.
Of course if all the deceit were removed, everyone would oppose Tiamat. No alliances would be made with her church — as stated in the awesome old movie War Games, the only winning move is not to play. Each church would independently slay Tiamat’s followers where they’re found and commit the remainder of their resources to protecting themselves and counteracting Tiamat’s propaganda. But the deceit is inherent to the plot. No evil church realizes (or believes, if told) that they’re not the only ones who made a deal with the Devil.
Notes
First of all, this is an RSE. If you’re planning to let the PCs pwn Tiamat and the Cult of the Dragon in a single lifetime, then my version is a bigger RSE than yours — I’m going to mess up the Realms for several human generations. I’ll own up to that, and you should too. Some people will be upset about it, but (a) you should never have suggested that you were going to back off on RSEs; you know you won’t, and (b) I offer you the means to utterly escape their wrath in the Key Points section below.
This plot works for a couple of reasons. First, very little strain is placed on the resources available to Tiamat’s priests on Toril, or any other single world. Your version has the Cult of the Dragon doing all the legwork. In this one, each cell of the church is created by priests from another world and they each bring their own resources from home. Second, the enormity of the campaign is belied by the simplicity of each step, and the fact that only Tiamat knows all the steps so there is little for her individual priests to think about except their direct orders. That’s a recipe for success. Third, in spite of toppling thrones and killing off NPCs indiscriminately and creating a new Dark Age in the Realms… in spite of being the second-biggest RSE ever to hit the Realms… it still works if you abide by my demands in the Key Points section below. (Hint: because those who want to use it can use it whenever they want, and nobody who hates it is forced to deal with it.)
Tiamat is Lawful, and she’s an intelligent schemer. She’s not just some stupid beast, easily shmoozed by the Cult of the Dragon and easily defeated by the PCs. I say it’s [u]her[/u] plan, not the work of mortals, and that her plan is going to be well-reasoned, carefully researched, and precisely executed. She’s been working on this for a while, watching the rise and fall of Faerûn’s nations for perhaps a thousand years… or perhaps the tens of thousands since the fall of the dragon empires. (One drawback of having her watching Toril for all of that time is that she would have seen the making of the Dracorage Mythal, and if she cared about her dragons here she would have told them how to thwart it, or how to destroy it in the millennia since then.) There may be stumbling blocks and temporary setbacks, but nothing the occupants of Toril can do will knock her off her game. She knows exactly where to strike, and when, and who to frame for it, to maximize the results. Without fail, she will destroy the means of escape before she attacks.
She’s also a dragon. The attack, when it comes, will be carried out with overwhelming force. Overkill is not something that bothers her. Even in the event of unforeseen factors (like the PCs) the chance of failure is infinitesimal.
The roles of metallic and other dragons in this conflict still has to be explored. They won’t sit idly by, of course. Using Bahamut to oppose Tiamat is cliché and evokes Dragonlance, and thus probably should not be done. As Tiamat’s plan unfolds and approaches success, foes will come out of woodwork, so to speak, including Elminster, various liches and of course dracoliches (who fancy themselves godlings in their own right and will not bow to her), and others… but Tiamat will have anticipated them all and will know how to defeat or deflect them. Defending the Realms falls on the PCs’ shoulders because mortal adventurers are the one element she did not anticipate. (No dragon ever does.)
However, Tiamat herself is not a realistic foe. She shouldn’t be statted, but even her avatar should be a CR 40 or so in 3e terms. A direct assault should be the worst possible plan. The PCs should have to work their way through her hierarchy of agents, gradually eliminating her support in the Realms. Combat is imminent all day every day, but meaningful victories should be few and far between, punctuated by careful planning and securing reliable allies.
The main task of the campaign is to let the PCs gradually tumble to the realization of how utterly hosed they are, and then offer them mere pinpricks of hope which, when properly capitalized upon, seem to have almost no effect but over time create a small tear in Tiamat’s well-woven tapestry of doom. A tear which will not immediately bring victory —that would cheapen their foe— but can enable future generations of PCs to bring their own indomitable wills to bear on the task of freeing Faerûn from draconic rule.
Key Points
Finally, here’s a short list of vital facets which this campaign should feature in order to maximize playability and customer approval.
- Make it time-flexible. I should be able to place this campaign into MY Realms at any point after all of the named organizations exist, without even editing anything. If I’m willing to create some new organizations and substitute them in, I should gain even more flexibility.
- Make it optional. Assuming good writing, most of us will appreciate the campaign for its high quality. Hopefully many will find a place for it in their own campaigns. However, some will not be interested… that’s just a fact. You can easily avoid alienating this percentage of your customers by simply avoiding assumptions. Future products should acknowledge the possibility that this campaign has been played, but must not assume it. So is this canon? Only if your DM says it is.
That is how RSEs should be done. Big, theatrical, reverberating, a bit terrifying if possible… tons of room for PCs to soak up the limelight and earn their stripes… and utterly, invigoratingly, gloriously optional.
Sources
- Tyranny of Dragons is Coming! — Wizards of the Coast press release (?)
- Secrets from ‘The Tyranny of Dragons’ — Forbes.com article David M. Ewalt
- Details of next ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ revealed — USAToday story by Brett Molina
What does RSE stand for?
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