WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Alzrius]

Generally I think most people would make accommodations for their group, particularly if they are friends.

I have a player who is arachnophobic to the point of reacting to hearing the word spider. Once I found that out I haven't since included spiders or spider monsters or spider gods directly in my games with him as a player, even though he was a player in my gothic horror campaign. None of us make Lolth worshippers or aranea or similar spider PC concepts in games he is in.

Which I imagine works just fine, without anyone wanting spiders and spider-themed monsters removed from the game altogether.

 

[Remathilis]

Which I imagine works just fine, without anyone wanting spiders and spider-themed monsters removed from the game altogether.

It's all fun and games until they open the PHB to page 277 and freak out.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And if someone wasn't?

Then I would ask the player on question to come up with another idea. This is pretty standard stuff.

 

[Azzy]

Not really, but I don't generally use SA in my games. I would be fine if someone wanted it as a background element for their PC, if the group is cool with it.

I don't know how "cool" it would be, but that's tangential to the topic that WotC shouldn't include SA material in their products.

 

[Faolyn]

Which I imagine works just fine, without anyone wanting spiders and spider-themed monsters removed from the game altogether.

Wee bit of a difference between spiders and sexual assault.

 

[cbwjm]

And that's a problem, the way I see it.

The main advantage of the World Axis is that it's an open cosmology. There's no end to the number of astral dominions there may be out there. They are probably not infinite in number, but there are definitely more than the Great Wheel's 17 outer planes – and there are many of the Great Wheel's planes that don't belong in the World Axis. The dominions need not have anything to do with alignment, but can either embody other concepts or just be plain weird. You need a world without shrimp? There's probably one out there.

The Great Wheel, on the other hand, is a closed cosmology. It doesn't allow for any outer planes other than the 17. Sure, you can have a demiplane in the Ethereal, or an alternate Prime, but not a fully-fledged plane. The Great Wheel is the result of box-checking, and when there are no more boxes to check there's no more room for expansion.

I dunno, just add another layer to a plane.

 

[cbwjm]

No, I don't want the book to back up an opinion. I want the book to provide me more than one option for the cosmology of DnD. And no, lip service like "but there are other models" without actually providing those other models as fully realized versions of the cosmology are not giving different options. It would be like saying you have three different meat options, a hamburger, a hamburger in a tortilla shell, or a hamburger on toast. Those are all the same option for meat.

Nah, for the purposes of planescape they should pick lane and then do the lip service thing for the "other cosmologies". They're making a setting, it's better to have some sort of consistency rather than wasting page space on "well that was one cosmology, here's another, we're also going to devote a bunch more page space to a 3rd option..."

People can still make their own cosmologies and tie in planescape, but the actual setting books should have some sort of consistency.

 

[Lanefan]

I try to educate and provide context while I DM all the time. I feel that's one of the DM's many hats.

Any useful education my game ever provides is by sheer accident; and that's somewhat intentional. Take ancient religions, for example. I'm not out to teach the players anything about how those religions really worked. The pop-culture version is fine with me, and usually much more fun and entertaining.

I've been in games where the DM (and-or some players) wanted to use the game as a means of education. I wasn't impressed, as that's not what I'm there for.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. This isn't about the flippin' imagery. No wonder you think that section of text stating the Great Wheel might not literally be a wheel matters. You are literally saying the quiet part out loud here Max. All of 5e uses the Great Wheel planes. If you want to make them look different, or give them different names, you can, but you can't use a different cosmology, because the Great Wheel is the truth.

So the Great Wheel is the official cosmology for 5e.

So what?

And if I change it, the DMG will magically alter to offer other cosmologies?

Of course not. They've made the decision as to what the official cosmology is. Anything else is unofficial, even if it was at one time official in a different edition.

Oh, wait, no. It won't. The Great Wheel will still be the Cosmology of DnD, and I'll have just done the work to create something else. Such equality of ideas.

Between forty-ish and fifteen-ish years ago I did the work to create my own cosmology for my various campaigns, loosely based on but not the same as the Great Wheel. It's just a homebrew, and I've no reason whatsoever to expect WotC to adopt it into the official game nor do I have sound footing to complain about inequality of ideas.

That's the same boat you're in now. The World Axis, though called out here and there in 5e as an alternate example of a cosmology, now carries just as much official weight as my homebrew.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Generally I think most people would make accommodations for their group, particularly if they are friends.

I have a player who is arachnophobic to the point of reacting to hearing the word spider. Once I found that out I haven't since included spiders or spider monsters or spider gods directly in my games with him as a player, even though he was a player in my gothic horror campaign where I was trying to evoke some creepiness and dread among the players. None of us make Lolth worshippers or aranea or similar spider PC concepts in games he is in.

Right, but we can acknowledge that sexual assault or sadistic torture are on a different level than "I have one player who has an extreme phobia" right? Like, I'm certainly willing to make accommodation for people if they are uncomfortable, I'd also be questioning the need for DnD to include medieval torture devices in the PHB common equipment list. These things are not 1 to 1.

Which I imagine works just fine, without anyone wanting spiders and spider-themed monsters removed from the game altogether.

And yet, people seem to want to make them 1 to 1 comparisons.... sigh.