Material Plane, but not the Prime

[Bullgrit]

Exactly when did the "Prime Material Plane" become "Material Plane"? When did the "Prime" part get officially dropped form the name?

Bullgrit

 

[Drkfathr1]

I believe in 3E, although its possible that the trend may have started in Planescape during the 2E years, but I'm pretty sure the complete dropping of "prime" was in third.

 

[Dragonbait]

I believe in 3E, although its possible that the trend may have started in Planescape during the 2E years, but I'm pretty sure the complete dropping of "prime" was in third.

It was referred to as the "Prime" in Planescape. It did not start there.

 

[diaglo]

total wild hairbrained guess:

when Hasbro bought D&D.
they didn't want to confuse Optimus and the other Primes with anything D&D.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Without the "Prime" then you cannot serve lesser cuts of material plane.

I would like to speak to the manager.

 

[Shemeska]

It was itself a 1e legacy term (or earlier), from when for instance the negative energy plane was originally the negative material plane, thus calling the normal material plane the Prime material plane. Planescape carried this into 2e, usually just calling it the Prime for short. 3e dropped the prime bit for reasons I don't particularly understand. I'm not even sure if 4e uses it the term at all, since I've seen it simply refer to it as "the world" (which I find bizarre since it would seem to imply one a single planet Prime, which is gimpy).

 

[SkidAce]

/off topic

Shemeska...I like yur new avatar...when did you change it?

 

[Shemeska]

/off topic

Shemeska...I like yur new avatar...when did you change it?

I had a halloween'ish styled avatar in October, then changed it to my board namesake holding a martini glass for much of November, and now with it getting cold I uploaded one of the character in a winter coat, with the razorvine crown swapped for one of Christmas'y holly. The original picture was actually an animated .gif with snowfall in the background.

I have a ton of different avatars by various artists I know.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

total wild hairbrained guess:

when Hasbro bought D&D.
they didn't want to confuse Optimus and the other Primes with anything D&D.

Oh! I thought when all the sub-primes went bust, there was no need to keep the "prime" designation. You know, recession and all that.

I mean who wants a "Sub-prime Material Plane"? Have you seen the rates on one of those?

 

[Shroomy]

I'm not even sure if 4e uses it the term at all, since I've seen it simply refer to it as "the world" (which I find bizarre since it would seem to imply one a single planet Prime, which is gimpy).

In 4e, what we would have referred to as the "Prime Material Plane" has been referred to as "the mortal world," "the natural world," or "the world." The World Axis Cosmology is silent on how the multiple worlds co-exist, but if you do travel far enough into the Astral Sea, you can reach the Astral Dominions of other worlds.