| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Azar |
Posted - 21 Apr 2022 : 21:53:45
Hey there.
I'd like to hear about player and DM experiences in The Dalelands...any of the Dales. Unfortunately, this region is virtually unexplored in the Forgotten Realms CRPGs and there aren't a great many published tabletop adventures/modules focused on breathing life into it either; more often than not, it seems to be background for humble PCs (and a certain famed NPC, too) instead of the basis for reasonably intricate campaigns. |
| 7 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Kelcimer |
Posted - 04 May 2022 : 05:33:37
Hello Azar!
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
I'd like to hear about player and DM experiences in The Dalelands...any of the Dales.
I based my third campaign in Battledale. The players started out as hold hunters and the campaign grew from there. There was a war with Sembia in the background. There is no sound reason for Sembia to not have conquered Tasseldale and Feather Dale. There are no huge geographic obstacles and, given the population differences between the Dales and Sembia, Sembia should be able to field much larger armies. I had a druid NPC named Jaekn Woodlow work on a solution that used a magic node as the place for a ritual that combined things the players had traveled all over the world to gather to create a large magical effect that could cause the forest to grow over a good portion of Sembia. The druid's spirit wound up bound to this magical field and directed the growth of the forest, which occurred over 2-3 years and cover thousands of square miles of farmland with thick forest. This event is known as the March of Cormanthor. It also grew over the Zhent held lands to the North. As part of this magical umbrella, there was also an effect that caused drow to have to roll a save once a day or loose a point of Constitution. This shut down drow trying to do anything in Cormanthor.
At some point I think I am going to have that druid be a bad guy that needs defeating. At the time I ran that campaign (early 20's) I considered Jaken Woodlow to be operating on pure motives, but now I think that he was really an eco-terrorist who was savvy enough to use the larger war between Sembia and the Dales to persuade people not of his ideology to help him. He didn't lie to the party. The March of Cormanthor did end the war. Sembia has not crossed North of the River Arkhen since. I think with that first few years of growth, that Jaken expended the energy reserves of the magical field. Since then he has been idle, allowing his energies to recharge. When I have a player/character line up suitable to go against him is when he will have fully recharged, for the next bit of growth. Because really, no matter how big he grows the forest, there will always be other lands that need to be forested. He has no natural stopping point other than the resources he has at hand.
I don't think of the Dales as being a breadbasket for Faerun. There's too few people to do that.
I am currently running a game for a couple of teenagers that is based around Mistledale. I realized that I needed Sessrendale back and I invented Waderdale to be a dale located around the Pool of Yeven. Yeah, I know that the map has "Battledale" over that area, but the text says that the area is sparsely populated and fill with burnt out ruins of attempts to settle the area. Geographically, this makes no sense. Rivers are huge for transportation of goods, including grain and other food stuffs. The map itself shows the forest proper of Cormanthor is not thick around the Pool of Yeven, so it should have some established settlements around it. If there was a sizable population there, then it should naturally be more prosperous and populous then the lands north of the Yevenwood. I could not justify Essembra being located so far from the heart of the action, so I created Waderdale to fill the void. Fortunately, I had not yet run any games in those areas, so I did not have to worry about contradicting any continuity established in my game. |
| bloodtide_the_red |
Posted - 25 Apr 2022 : 04:47:17
The 2E Dalelands, much like the Cormyr book was just a quick rushed waste of paper to "get something FR" out. They mostly just cut and pasted from the campaign book and added things like "there are trees in the Dalelands".
Very little of the Dalelands has been developed in any detail....it's the forgotten "back yard" of the Realms.
Other then the Randal Morn adventures....you do have the 2E Shadowdale and Tantras Time of Troubles adventures that take place mostly in the Dalelands. As they are written by Ed Greenwood, they are full of lore.
3E had a Shadowdale adventure too. |
| Charles Phipps |
Posted - 22 Apr 2022 : 14:00:36
I admit, my conception of the Dalelands is mostly my interpretation of it but here's some things I've done with it:
* The Dalelands serve the role of being a mostly "free" land for the surrounding nations because none of the major powers like Cormyr, Sembia, Cormanthor, or Zhentil Keep can move into them without triggerring the reaction of the other states around it. These powers still compete with each other but have to do it with proxies amomg the various Dalelands cities.
* The politics of the Dalelands are thus incredibly complex for seemingly rural Hobbiton-style farmland with spies, saboteurs, assassins, and mercenary companies spread throughout the place doing their usual business. It's a place with lots of adventuring opportunities as well as surprising betrayals.
* As the breadbasket of Faerun, it is actually a bigger strategic resource than a lot of people would give it credit for as it exports massive amounts of food that reach as far as the Northern Sword Coast.
* The Zhents and others actually encourage Inter-Dale Wars to seize more power.
* The Dalelands do have a history of being sort of a "start up" location for mercenary bands that are constantly planning to invade Myth Drannor and try to loot the vast riches they think there. This is almost never what happens as either they get killed, get rescued by the Knights of Myth Drannor (who have a cottage industry of rescuing lost or fleeing "adventurers"), or end up mercs.
* So, yes, "adventurer tourism" is a thing that Shadowdale takes advantage of the way that people in Deadwood took advantage of gold prospectors for. You can buy any number of overpriced watered-down potions, low grade magical items, normal adventurer gear, and so on.
* Making Shadowdale "adventurer town" is kind of funny on my part but I had a lot of fun there. |
| questing gm |
Posted - 22 Apr 2022 : 12:29:24
There was also that one adventure set in Mistledale in Dungeon 87 and another Shadowdale adventure in the Avatar trilogy. |
| Azar |
Posted - 22 Apr 2022 : 07:28:17
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
You've got The Dalelands as a sourcebook, Volo's Guide to the Dalelands
Speaking of which...were the The Dalelands and Cormyr 64-page supplements meant to be appetizers before the Volo guides rolled along  ? That's what they come across as, anyway.
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
adventures like the Randal Morn ones... Sure, none of that's recent, but that's still a lot more coverage than most other places in the setting.
That's what I was getting at, really: full adventures and not tourist stuff. |
| Brimstone |
Posted - 21 Apr 2022 : 22:38:20
There was the Shadowdale Adventure at the end of 3e. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 21 Apr 2022 : 22:31:13
You've got The Dalelands as a sourcebook, Volo's Guide to the Dalelands, coverage in the first three campaign setting books/boxed sets, adventures like the Randal Morn ones... Sure, none of that's recent, but that's still a lot more coverage than most other places in the setting. |
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