D&D: ‘Doomed Forgotten Realms’ Shows What Happens After the Bad Ending in WotC’s Adventures
Have you ever wondered what would happen if the bad guys won in WotC’s various adventures? Doomed Forgotten Realms will show you.
The darkest timeline isn’t just for real life anymore. A new campaign setting book, Doomed Forgotten Realms: Sword Coast Gazetteer, takes you inside a Sword Coast gone to pieces. In Doomed Forgotten Realms, Vecna, Tiamat, and all the other villainous forces in WotC’s adventures won.
The party got the bad ending, and what’s left is a Faerun turned upside down. And in this 72 page gazetteer you’ll get to find out exactly what’s happened. But it’s not just “the bad guys win, end of story.” Writer Matthey Whitby has put together a more nuanced look at how different powers and factions would shift in a world overrun by Vecna.
Doomed Forgotten Realms – Overview
The Doomed Sword Coast Gazetteer is a world of disaster and destruction. It’s a world more in need of heroes than the Forgotten Realms ever was. It also helps highlight the strength of the DM’s Guild. Doomed Sword Coast is all about the fallout from WotC’s main tentpole adventures.
You’ll find a timeline of when each adventure might have happened, starting from Out of the Abyss and running through to “present day” just past Descent into Avernus. Along the way you’ll learn how the demon lords have conquered the Underdark, how Tiamat has broken free from Avernus, and the Soulmonger out of Tomb of Annihilation has paved the way for Vecna.
BoLS spoke with Robert Reeve, editor of the project, about what makes this book tick:
“This book is cool because if you have played any of the 5E adventure books, you already have a baseline for understanding the world. If you’re looking for a sequel campaign, or maybe had a total party kill on one of those adventures, you can use those books [WotC’s adventures] as a hook for this campaign.
And reading through just how the Sword Coast fell is pretty satisfying. Doomed Sword Coast paints a picture of bleakness, and yet the book never manages to feel oppressive. Perhaps because, as Reeve put it:
“At the core, the book is still D&D. It’s still about heroes. It’s about the dire straits and the sort of heavy metal vibes of it all.”
What’s in the Book
Inside the Doomed Sword Coast Gazetteer you’ll find everything you need to run a fallen Faerun. You’ll get a look at how it all went wrong, sure. But you’ll also get to meet the various villainous factions of the game. There’s Jarlaxle Baenre’s Bregan D’aerthe, the Cults of the Dragon and Elder Elemental Eye, as well as Zariel’s Legion, the Zhentarim, and Vecna’s Alliance.
Each of these villainous organization wields their own terrible power, but is mired in conflict with the others.
You’ll also get a look at just what’s gone wrong in the world. Everywhere from Baldur’s Gate (now Helldoor’s Gate) through to Icewind Dale gets wrecked in some way. But you’ll have guidance on how to fix that in Chapter 4, which is all about running adventures in this darker setting.
Finally, for players, there are five new subclasses:
- Bard – College of the Elements
- Druid – Circle of the Nine
- Fighter – Zhentilar’s Finest
- Rogue – Spell Slayer
- Wizard – School of Secrets
And scattered throughout the book you’ll find tons of amazing little nuggets of lore. Reeve told us that we would be surprised to find that the Cult of the Elder Elemental Eye has created a sort of utopia out there. As long as you’re willing to walk towards Omelas, so to speak.
You’ll also find Tome, a Kenku Lich who serves as Keeper to Vecna’s secrets, now housed at Candlekeep. As well as a brace of new NPCs, adventure hooks and more. And you can snag it all right now at the DM’s Guild.
Doomed Forgotten Realms: Sword Coast Gazetteer – $8.99
Has your group ever lost a Dungeons & Dragons adventure like Storm King’s Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, or Descent Into Avernus?
What would the world look like if you lost all of them?
Doomed Forgotten Realms: Sword Coast Gazetteer reimagines the Forgotten Realms as a world where every worst-case scenario became reality. The demons claimed the Underdark, Baldur’s Gate was dragged into the Nine Hells, Auril froze all of Icewind Dale, and dragon cults summoned Tiamat to rain down terror.
In this post-apocalyptic vision of the Forgotten Realms, all the adventuring heroes failed and were slain—or they never even answered the call to adventure. But even in this darkest timeline, a faint glimmer of hope remains that good might emerge victorious.
Happy Adventuring
