The Far Realm Then and Now

One of my favorite adventures is Gates of the Firestorm Peak, the second edition module that introduced the Far Realm. Yet, if you ask me if I like the Far Realm, I would say no. I don’t like anything about it since its first appearance and here is why.

The Far Realm of today is much like the film Even Horizon- an place of evil that has a desire of its own to invade and consume the material plane and the other planes within the standard multiverse. Anyone or thing in contact with it is twisted into an evil monster. Very Lovecraftian and not to my tastes at all. The monsters are destructive because of their evil, unnatural existence and some (esp those in a Dragon article) seem well adapted to preying on material plane creatures.

The Far Realm in Gates is a place where reality is simply different from that of the material plane. Go to Limbo and most things there are recognizable. Math makes sense in the roiling waves of chaos. 1 is 1 and 1 plus 2 is 3 in Limbo. 1 is not 1 in the Far Realm. Take a step there and move between no distance and an almost infinite distance. Try to step back and most likely you would end up somewhere other than where you began. Those who are touched by it are twisted and may gain useful mutations (more likely something lethal or destructive, but there is still that possibility of beneficial mutation). The majority of creatures are destructive because of their unreal, alien nature. There are some that are evil, some that are neutral and there is the possibility of good monsters as well. They would be the creatures that try to limit their effects on the local people and landscape.

And I think there is more potential for designing a scenario or campaign around a visit from the early form of the Far Realm, one where the PCs have no idea if they are face to face with something that wants to eat them, ignore them or befriend them. Being friends with a alien horror that causes waterfalls and rain to go up can be quite the experience.