D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

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dnd.wizards.com

Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Mind of tempest]

yeah, but a cicader is a tinny little bug, and it sounds awfull. Imagine that in a huge scale...

it mostly gets deeper so not really worse also it stops faster as it is in pain which subsides much faster than mating hormones to my knowlege.

 

[Bolares]

it mostly gets deeper so not really worse also it stops faster as it is in pain which subsides much faster than mating hormones to my knowlege.

Thank you, now I'm imagining Thri-kreen mating...

 

[Mind of tempest]

Thank you, now I'm imagining Thri-kreen mating...

I sadly can think of worse.

 

[TheSword]

Thri-kreen scream Spelljammer just as much as Dark Sun. They are just an integral part of one as the other.

Are they really though? They both came out at about the same time but it seems to me they are far more integral to darksun being referenced in almost all Dark Sun products, I can’t think of a Dark Sun release that doesn’t include them. I’m not sure that’s the same for the other. Maybe I’m just not as familiar with Spelljammer.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We should remember most of DM aren't going to buy Spelljammer to play the official setting but their homebred space fantasy universe, maybe mixing things from lots of different titles. Spelljammer is perfect for the freakest crossovers, for example Mystic Force Power Ranger vs Zoids, or MoonDreamers (Hasbro's maho-shojo for little girls) with Bucky O'Hare, or those (forgtten) franchises by Galoob.

I remember the old TV-show "Sea Quest". (Oh my god! It was one of the first action-live productions to use CGI and now they are retro or vintage!), where most of the action was within the own submarine.

 

[TheSword]

We should remember most of DM aren't going to buy Spelljammer to play the official setting but their homebred space fantasy universe, maybe mixing things from lots of different titles. Spelljammer is perfect for the freakest crossovers, for example Mystic Force Power Ranger vs Zoids, or MoonDreamers (Hasbro's maho-shojo for little girls) with Bucky O'Hare, or those (forgtten) franchises by Galoob.

I remember the old TV-show "Sea Quest". (Oh my god! It was one of the first action-live productions to use CGI and now they are retro or vintage!), where most of the action was within the own submarine.

If they aren’t going to play the campaign setting, why do they need a campaign setting released.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m all for Last Exile homebrew. Just hope it doesn’t take priority over other treasured editions.

I’m still not convinced Spelljammer hasn’t been rendered obsolete by the 1994 onwards concepts of the multiverse. In particular portals.

 

[jmartkdr2]

If they aren’t going to play the campaign setting, why do they need a campaign setting released.

Magical airships.

Giving them any sort of depth is a lot of work and more homebrew than many new players will be willing to do, and not giving them depth means they can't really mean much in the narrative except as a home base.

 

[Hatmatter]

If they aren’t going to play the campaign setting, why do they need a campaign setting released.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m all for Last Exile homebrew. Just hope it doesn’t take priority over other treasured editions.

I’m still not convinced Spelljammer hasn’t been rendered obsolete by the 1994 onwards concepts of the multiverse. In particular portals.

Hi TheSword.

I understand that you are not into Spelljammer and that's fine. What, however, makes you say that the multiverse and the notion of portals were introduced with Planescape? I was around at the Gen Con when it was announced that they were going to be releasing Planescape and TSR hosted a panel of the designers to describe it. I can assure you that we had playing in a multiplaner multiverse for many, many years before Planescape. Manual of the Planes was released a few years before 2nd edition even came out. And before Manual of the Planes was released, there was information on all of the planes in PHB and DMG and in Deities and Demigods. Manual of the Planes was exciting because it provided more detailed information on the planes, not because it dramatically altered anything (apart from all the new Elemental Para-planes and other details that are a natural result of the extra attention of an entire volume dedicated to traveling the planes, of course).

The idea of a city with many portals, Sigil, seemed a little underwhelming at the time. It hardly seemed innovative. It simply seemed like a convenient idea for a faction-based setting of plane-hopping. The idea of the Lady of Pain I did like and that did seem creative. I was down with Planescape, but as someone who lived through these changes, I would say that there is nothing from Planescape that rendered Spelljammer obsolete, which is why many of us have longed to see it return.

Cheers!

 

[TheSword]

Hi TheSword.

I understand that you are not into Spelljammer and that's fine. What, however, makes you say that the multiverse and the notion of portals were introduced with Planescape? I was around at the Gen Con when it was announced that they were going to be releasing Planescape and TSR hosted a panel of the designers to describe it. I can assure you that we had playing in a multiplaner multiverse for many, many years before Planescape. Manual of the Planes was released a few years before 2nd edition even came out. And before Manual of the Planes was released, there was information on all of the planes in PHB and DMG and in Deities and Demigods. Manual of the Planes was exciting because it provided more detailed information on the planes, not because it dramatically altered anything (apart from all the new Elemental Para-planes and other details that are a natural result of the extra attention of an entire volume dedicated to traveling the planes, of course).

The idea of a city with many portals, Sigil, seemed a little underwhelming at the time. It hardly seemed innovative. It simply seemed like a convenient idea for a faction-based setting of plane-hopping. The idea of the Lady of Pain I did like and that did seem creative. I was down with Planescape, but as someone who lived through these changes, I would say that there is nothing from Planescape that rendered Spelljammer obsolete, which is why many of us have longed to see it return.

Cheers!

That’s cool. I amend my sentiment to say… the setting is superfluous not obsolete then. If that was from the outset because planar travel and portals already existed then so be it.

Don’t get me wrong. Magic airships are cool. Magic airships should be a thing. I just don’t get how the setting is anything more than an interlude I’ve yet to see anything to change my mind on that.

 

[jmartkdr2]

That’s cool. I amend my sentiment to say… the setting is superfluous not obsolete then. If that was from the outset because planar travel and portals already existed then so be it.

Don’t get me wrong. Magic airships are cool. Magic airships should be a thing. I just don’t get how the setting is anything more than an interlude I’ve yet to see anything to change my mind on that.

A follow-up curiosity: are there official published settings that you really liked and regularly play in? Or do you play in homebrew settings? If you use official settings, what do you like about them?

I ask because it's entirely possible it's just that Planescape doesn't appeal to you for taste reasons.

Also because I know a lot of homebrew setting dm's who only look at published settings as things to steal ideas from, which is fine, but it affects how the judge their interest in a setting. Planescapes steal-ables are pretty narrow and won't work with a lot of other settings.