Planescape Planescape IS D&D Says Jeremy Crawford

Planescape is Jeremy Crawford's favourite D&D setting. "It is D&D", he says, as he talks about how in the 2024 core rulebook updates Planescape will be more up front and center as "the setting of settings".

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[pemerton]

Tough! It's D&D canon, so if my players decide they want to visit/invade/lick your game world, they can. Mwuahaha!

Knock yourselves out!

I just don't think that I'm doing something wrong in my play of D&D if I don't imagine my world as cosmologically connected to all these other worlds.

 

[dave2008]

But now, If I would go planescaping and go to ebberon or exandria, suddenly I also have another feywild, another ravenloft another shadowfell, other gods that all have no relations to my stuff in the forgotten realms.

Not necessarily. It is up to you. You can treat them all as being connected or not. The world of D&D can all be in the same Prime or Alternate Primes or not exist at all. Planescape and Spelljammer are available for those who want to use them. They have no impact on those who do not.

Prior to 5e I had no interest in Spelljammer (hated the idea of crystal spheres) or Planescape (lots of issues). That has had not impact on our campaigns for the last 30+ years. I am still not completely sold on Spelljammer, but I am starting to think about adding some Planescape ideas to my setting.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I can see how some people love planescape. It is certainly different and fills a role in the D&D cosmology. But it is so niche, I can't say I think the sentiment "plancescape is D&D" makes a whole lot of sense. I mean I love Ravenloft, and I could probably come up with a similar set of points about why it somehow epitomizes D&D, but it is a niche setting. Don't really play FR, but if someone said Forgotten Realms is D&D, I would totally understand what they mean.

 

[Imaro]

But Ravenloft is more like the feywild or the Shadowfell (or part of the Shadowfell, depending the Lore) and not like another Forgotten Realms, Ebberon, Greyhawk ...

Like, I would use ravenloft like the feywild in relation to the material.plane my adventure takes place in, let's say the forgotten Realms.
But now, If I would go planescaping and go to ebberon or exandria, suddenly I also have another feywild, another ravenloft another shadowfell, other gods that all have no relations to my stuff in the forgotten realms.

Disagree... The different D&D worlds have always been treated as being connected and able to be traversed. Wasn't there a series of Dragon articles where Mordenkainen (Greyhawk), Elminster (Forgotten Realms) and Raistlin (Dragonlance) would meet up on our earth and have a sit down where they talked and traded items? I've never read the actual articles but I've seen discussions of them.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Classic Traveller (1977) posts an interstellar navy and scout service, and also nobles who travel between worlds in their interstellar yachts. It also has rules for world generation, including populations and forms of government, which permit a fairly wide variation but also imply a certain sort of interstellar society in which the navy and scouts and nobles do their things. Both fan publications (eg in early White Dwarf) and subsequent "official" publications suggested various setting possibilities that built on these foundations.

I would say the main quirk of Traveller is the inclusion of Social Status as an ability score, implying a stratified society (in space, everyone is British?). Then you have all FTL travel taking exactly 1 week, irrespective of distance (up to 6 parsecs), with no communication faster than that. Which had a significant effect of the governance of the Imperium.

But yes, there where adventures like the one in White Dwarf, where chlorophyll addicted aliens bump into the Heroes of Telemark, with no connection to the standard Traveller setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Disagree... The different D&D worlds have always been treated as being connected and able to be traversed. Wasn't there a series of Dragon articles where Mordenkainen (Greyhawk), Elminster (Forgotten Realms) and Raistlin (Dragonlance) would meet up on our earth and have a sit down where they talked and traded items? I've never read the actual articles but I've seen discussions of them.

Yup, in Ed Greenwood's kitchen.

I wonder if the problem is that D&D went through a period in the 90s when far too few hippies where playing?

 

[Maxperson]

Sigil is also know as "The Cage" because it is so difficult to leave, even for a high level wizard with a belt full of tuning forks. Again, you can see this by looking at the CRPG version of Planescape, which rarely leaves Sigil.

They say that, but it wasn't at all true. The 2e Planescape boxed setting included the 2nd level wizard spell Warp Sense which not only found portals for you(and there are thousands in Sigil), but also allowed you to figure out where the portal goes and what the key is to make the portal function.

Then there are all the known permanent portals about the city.

It's super easy to get out of if you have a wizard or talk to the right folks.

 

[Imaro]

I just don't think that I'm doing something wrong in my play of D&D if I don't imagine my world as cosmologically connected to all these other worlds.

I don't think anyone has asserted this? All I've seen is pretty much unanimous agreement that anyone can do what they want with their particular homebrew...

 

[Imaro]

Yup, in Ed Greenwood's kitchen.

I wonder if the problem is that D&D went through a period in the 90s when far too few hippies where playing?

Now I really want to read these.

 

[teitan]

Whatever... My friends and I will continue to use FR.

In an "everything goes" multiverse, nothing has to be consistent, make sense, or tie into anything else.

It's clearly a business decision made to give the content creators as much flexibility as possible.

I’m sure FR will continue to get support. It’s a cash cow.