Feywild, Shadowfell, and Usage

[JackSmithIV]

Hey there!

Alright, I'm new to this, so I'll ask your forgiveness for my ignorance on this matter...


One of the things I noticed about the SRD is that it doesn't have many of the fluff-terms listed, for example the planes. I don't see the Astral Sea, Elemental Chaos, Feywild, or Shadowfell. You see them in other items, such as "Shadowfell Gloves" or "feywild resistance", but I assumed you can only use those as defined as part of that perticular term's usage. I understand that the names of the planes for example, are WotC IP's, but this is pretty limiting, no?

For example, say I wanted to write an adventure where the player's travel to an Eladrin city in the Feywild. It seems that since these aren't listed in the SRD, I can't really say that the Eladrin city is in the Feywild, because I'm not given usage of the Feywild by the SRD. In addition, I can't really give my Eladrin NPC's any feywild-oriented backstory.

Or can I?

Can I use the planes and other IPs as part of a published adventure module? And in what capacity? As said in the DMG, the feywild has access points from the world that can shift in and out of percievable existance. Can I use that as part of my published module, or would that be violation of the IP?

Thanks for the help, and for reviewing my question!

-IV

[Morrus]

The GSL and SRD are being revised, so it's probably worth waiting a few weeks - any answers you get now may not be valid in a couple of weeks' time!

[frankthedm]

Shadowfell = Underworld, Feywild = Land of the fair folk. Replace the terms later before publishing if that is an option.

Don't ever use the 'proper name' as a placeholder. Too easy to miss one in editing.

[EP]

This has come up a couple of times before and that's the consensus on the matter: use your own terms for the planes. If anything, it would be nice for planar terms for 3pp, but the odds of that happening are slim to none.

One thing I would suggest is to avoid using your planar term in any text descriptions. Anyone running an official game and sidequesting with your adventure doesn't want to accidentally use different terms for the same place. Our group learned that the hard way a couple of times.