I’ve recently finished a year-long campaign which was set in the Forgotten Realms but featured a plot inspired by Star Wars. More specifically, by the death star. The characters were the first members of a fledgling resistance group which eventually took on the overwhelmingly powerful Empire. Here’s what I learned from running the campaign, and how you can run one yourself.
The Empire
When we set this campaign in the Forgotten Realms, we have a few lore hooks which we can use as our Star Wars plot points.
What could be the Empire in this setting? I decided to use the Netherese Empire as the main antagonists. In the official lore, the Netherese Empire has fallen thousands of years ago. In my campaign, I decided that the Netherese had returned. After millennia in hiding, their flying fortresses now once more roam the skies.
The campaign begins ten years after the Return Wars – the battles that happened, when the nations and city-states of North tried to resist the returning empire. Eventually all the major cities, like Waterdeep, Neverwinter, and Baldur’s Gate bent the knee. And now, ten years later, the Netherese Empire is omnipresent. In the beginning, Netheril seems like an impossible opponent for the characters. But over the course of the campaign, they can build a proper Resistance – one which eventually takes on the “death star.”
The Death Star
The death star of this campaign is a secret weapon developed by the Netherese called Nightfall. It’s a flying fortress which channels arcane energy through massive crystals, shooting a beam of pure force onto the ground. The Netherese had been working on this weapon thousands of years ago, but this is the first time they succeeded in building it.
Nightfall uses mythallars – thirteen of them – to power the weapon. In my campaign, the mythallars are not inanimate objects, but a special breed of humanoids, created by the ancient Netherese. This introduces moral dilemmas for the characters when they are working towards destroying Nightfall: Do they accept the death of the mythallars as collateral damage or do they try to save them?
Moral Ambiguity
A campaign like this one, built around a desperate Resistance, thrives on moral ambiguity. Because the characters are so outmatched, they have to face impossible choices. Do they instigate riots in Daggerford, knowing that they will be put down brutally? Do they punish a Netherese guard who is working for the Empire just to feed his family? Do they blow up a Netherese church, knowing that it will kill dozens of innocents? These kinds of situations make the campaign feel gritty, and introduces some of the same ambiguity that surround the rebels in Star Wars.
Campaign Structure
On the level of individual sessions, this campaign is not much different from other D&D campaigns. The characters begin in Daggerford where they are going on local missions for a patron. In my case, they were working together with Lady Morwen Daggerford, the duchess of Daggerford, who outwardly supports the Netherese Empire but secretly funds the Resistance. The characters are sent on missions to sabotage the Empire, gather intelligence, and recruit allies.
During one of those missions, the characters first come across the aftermath of Nightfall’s devastating power. An independent village destroyed, a tribes’ holy site torn apart, or a rebellious farmstead wiped of the map. Whatever it is, the characters realize that a weapon this powerful would spell doom for any attempt at resistance. From this point forward, the campaign focuses on destroying Nightfall. The characters must find secrets of the construction of the weapon, gather allies, and eventually infiltrate Nightfall to destroy it.
In my campaign, the final confrontation with Nightfall took place when a spy within the growing Resistance told the Empire about the Resistance’s hideout. The Netherese sent Nightfall to destroy it, and the party conducted a desperate evacuation of their hideout. Then they gathered their allies, and confronted the Netherese army head on, drawing out Nightfall. In the final sessions, they infiltrated Nightfall itself, freeing some of the Mythallars, and crashing the fortress.
A Different Take on the Forgotten Realms
Before running this campaign, I thought I knew the Forgotten Realms quite well. I had run Storm King’s Thunder set in this world, and it felt familiar. But using a returned Netherese Empire as the hook for a Star-Wars-style campaign injected the entire setting with a unique, at times quite dark, tone. Don’t be afraid to switch up the lore of a setting to suit your campaign. If you have a strong vision for your campaign, even a well-known world like the Forgotten Realms can show you and your players unique, entirely new sides of itself.