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D&D 5E L&L 1/7/2013 The Many Worlds of D&D

If I said what I think of this decision, I'd probably be banned from EN World. And possibly the Interwebs.
 

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First, welcome to EN World!

Thanks I've been here for some years but never bothered to do anything but lurk.

Second, I haven't seen the adventures, but the novels ended with Ao destroying the Tablets, not because they were fraudulent, but because they outlined each god's position and duties - with Bane and Myrkul stealing the Tablets, it was the last straw in the gods shirking their responsibilities in favor of self-aggrandizement. Hence, Ao destroyed the Tablets largely in disgust for how the gods had been acting.

Given that, he's now recreating them to lay down the law for how things will be from now on.

It's funny that but nowhere in either the novels or the RPG do we discover what is actually written on the tablets. Now it may be me mis-remembering but I could've sworn there was something along the lines of Ao saying the tablets were B.S anyway. It's funny that not only after destroying these tablets (I guess metaphors for AD&D 1st ed PHB and DMG?) he then goes on to make up some new rules to do with some little heeded nonsense about the gods being now more dependent on their followers for survival, he also is responsible for the creation of a new god (cyric) that does more damage to the pantheonic state of affairs than bane, bhaal and myrkul combined! With sole consequence of these actions a la 4th edition cyric being put in the naughty corner for 1000 years. It's all very odd if you ask me.


I won't even get into the various small instances of Dark Sun material that was to be found in the products for other campaign settings (e.g. an Athasian life-shaped artifact in Tcian Sumere - the fortress of Tenebrous (that is, Orcus) on the Negative Energy Plane in Dead Gods).

In support of this I also wanted to mention Dark Sun being far from immune to planar interference in the form of the mists of Ravenloft snatching up a portion of it and creating a domain in one of the 2nd edition books.

Btw, is there any other way to do multi quote? I've just been using meta tags.
 

It makes me wonder if the designers for d&d next have actually read the source material they're basing from.
Given that the changes to FR this time were conceived, planned and largely driven by R. A. Salvatore and Ed Greenwood, I'm guessing they have a passing familiarity with it.
 

What I've been using for some years...

New Planar Layout Slide 3.png
 

Yeah...seeing as Greenwood wrote the modules for AD&D (Salvatore's awareness, well the jury is still out), was intended as a flippant comment to illustrate the fact the tablets were meaningless as demonstrated by Ao's casual destruction of them and decree gods would from now be dependent on their followers which was then simply ignored in proceeding narratives. Therefore it follows recreating them would be equally meaningless, no? Ah but do I spot an incongruity in all of this? I think I do: Moander.
 
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Heck, Ravenloft doesn't even have to be a plane. Just make it a collection of horror themed places, like Transylvania is depicted in Stoker. I'm not sure the whole mists thing really adds to it for me.

I really have no knowledge about the history of development of the Ravenloft setting, but I used to think that they made it into a plane in order to explain the "you cannot escape" feature.

Of course it doesn't have to be... but just like the planar concept is ONE way to explain the feature of Ethereal creatures like ghosts (why do they pass through walls? because where they really are standing, there is no walls), it is also ONE way to explain why walking away never really gets you out of Ravenloft.
 


Into the Woods

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