[FR] Do you use the Realms cosmology?

[kuje31]

Planescape for me all the way because I use ALL of the multiverse and if FR truely wants to be a backwater prime world and claim they have thier own cosmology, then they are truely clueless.

 

[Alzrius]

The Great Wheel is the Forgotten Realms cosmology, forget this nonsense retconning from the 3e FRCS. The Fugue Plane is part of Kelemvor's realm. Cynosure is a demiplane, shadow is a major demiplane that touches a large number of inner planes and prime worlds, but still technially a demiplane. Virtually all the "Realms" planes are existing Wheel planes renamed, or are just layers/realms within those planes.

Yes, it's also the Greyhawk cosmology too, because Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Birthright, Ravenloft, Planescape, Spelljammer and Dark Sun are all part of the same multiverse (with Ravenloft very hard to get out of, and Athas very hard to get into or out of). As much as WotC tries to forget that was ever the case, it is.

IMC, the "Great Tree" Realms cosmology map exists, as a bit of "clueless prime berk" nonsense plastered up in the libraries and labs of wizards who have probably never been planar, or certainly never travelled around too far if they have, kind of like the horribly inaccurate world maps from the middle ages that had Jerusalem as the center of the world and everything else distorted around it.

Testify!

 

[Nightfall]

But I'd kill of Elminster too, so take that for what it's worth.

Big deal. I killed Ao. But he just not staying dead!!!

 

[Ry]

Yeah, the fugue plane is awesome. I use the Countless Worlds cosmology (Beyond Countless Doorways), but the Fugue Plane=the Ethereal and is the only transitive plane (the astral and the Far Realm are the same also, but distinctly outside hte Ethereal/Fugue plane).

 

[Pants]

I fully embrace the new cosmology. Anything that helps shift the focus from the planes to the setting is a good thing.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Generally I'm happy with a middle-ground between the Great Wheel Cosmology and the World Tree (FRCS) cosmology, although perhaps with more emphasis put on the Great Wheel because of Planescape. I've been trying to find someway of holistically merging the two beyond simply links from the Shadow Plane. Some of the planes are easier enough (The 9 Hells/Baator, the Abyss). The World Tree of FR could easily be Yggdrasil (sp?), which connects many of the planes in the Great Wheel.

Generally I don't care for presenting one view of the multiverse as superior to the other.

 

[zeo_evil]

Actually I use both cosmologies and in fact the cosmology of the world my PCs are. As a FR player and DM we envision our shared game worlds as encompassing coterminous cosmologies with the Great Wheel as the central cosmology and all others branching off from there. For example Mystra maintains both a presence as a deity and a realm on the Great Wheel (Dweomorhart in Eronia) that is coterminous with her realm in the FR cosmology. She exists simultaneously in both places at once. In other cases like the Mulhorandi pantheon the deities are not coterminous and are in fact separate entities. I hope that made some sense.

It goes without saying this makes things hideously complex but it opens a myriad of possibilities for planar campaigns across the entire multiverse.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

I like a Poll with imaginative choices.

I picked the All planes from Great Wheel and Forgotten Realms cosmology because including lots of everything best fits my campaign.

In my game I've stuck to the Tree Structure, but hinted at realities beyond what's "known" in the game world about the Realms Cosmology Proper.

I’ve found it’s best to keep things mysterious and occasionally disabuse my players of their assumptions that the Realmsian Planes accord themselves to what’s in the Rulebooks.

To hold fast to such assumptions is ever a foolish act in my game, because the Planes are less likely than even the Gods to yield up their true natures and secrets so easily.

I’m glad Faerûn is finally unchained from the Great Wheel and the business strategy behind it. It’s way, way past time DM’s and game designers got the chance to properly portray the Realms Cosmology as something reflecting the Forgotten Realms, as opposed to being over diluted by common planes and the Primes that shared them.

J. Grenemyer

 

[wingsandsword]

I feel it relevant to point this out (http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=98409), I asked the same thing in a poll about a year ago, in case anybody wants to look at the last time this came up .

 

[Li Shenron]

I use what the character see and experience during their adventures, but I don't "freeze" the cosmology beforehand. Some planes are always there in every campaign, but the others may change, tho the great wheel is the most similar scheme overall.