D&D 5E (2024) Check Out The New Map Of D&D's Planes!

Snapped from the Barbarian video.

 

[Minigiant]

My point is that the Great Wheel cosmology is bad, because it was created out of a desire to make planes based on alignments, and then trying to fill them in without adequate inspiration (which is why so many of the planes are similar). There are many better ways of making a cosmology, such as the 4e World Axis or the Eberron orrery.

That's because the Great Wheel was never really supposed to inspire or be traveled to.

They were just excuses for where the gods for the 1001 churches lived and where endless bands of magic enemies can flow from without having economic or ecological impact on the Material Plane.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

For me, this will always be the perfect representation for DnD ecology and mythos:

 

[Epic Meepo]

If the current image looks like a modern PowerPoint slide, this image gives me shivers, bringing back memories of dry '80s high-school textbooks.

I always preferred the great wheel depicted in a style reminiscent to a medieval alchemical chart. Use symbols to represent. I still prefer the 2014 5e presentation.

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I'll second that. To me, the map in the alchemical chart style nailed what I want out of the Great Wheel cosmology: a reality that evokes the occult phrase, "As above, so below."

I don't want the Great Wheel to feel like a bunch of spaces on a game board or island resorts the PCs can add to their travel itinerary. I want it to feel like a gallery of cosmic mirrors reflecting various truths about reality, each mirror slightly warped to show a different perspective.

 

[Nikosandros]

The Great Wheel is wondrously, Byzantinely absurd...which is why it is perfect for D&D.

I love it and you can have my Quasi-Plane of Ash when you pry it from my cold dead hands!

 

[Kaiyanwang]

The 3e manual of the planes was a perfect representation to me because it felt like what Wizard or other student of the planes would draw on their tomes written as guides and archives about the planes.

Thinking that the lower planes are all the same is a grave mistake. I encourage to those who do to read more in depth the principles behind them. Also, from a mere exploration standpoint, the way the layers interact with each other leads to different approaches of travel through them.
In the same way, the different upper planes are dramatically different utopias with different ethos, and their layers can change dramatically. The picture in the OP fails to convey that.

I think to make planes truly feel special, one should look at older editions for "special effects". 3e was quite bland in this regard, I don't recall much more than charisma penalties, some impeded magic in the elemental planes, and the occasional entrapment for Hades and Elysium.
I recall instead in BECMI the Astral plane being uh.. perpendicular(?) to the material leading to some spell working in a radically different way because time and space were swapped or something. Like haste working like dimensional door and teleport like timestop. Unsure if is precisely so, but you can get what I mean here.

 

[Kaiyanwang]

For me, this will always be the perfect representation for DnD ecology and mythos:

What I like of that one is the "standardization" of the spirit world (meant as the Feywild) that was present in 3e in Oriental Adventures an also hinted/optional in the Manual of the Planes. To me, that should be an essential part of most cosmologies.
The rest... a lot of those choice created to me and other more problems than they solved.

 

[Orcusdorkus]

Was this made with Roblox Studio? Sanitized, bland, and uninspiring when compared to many of the other offerings, both official and fan based, such as this.

 

[Ghal Maraz]

That's one of the most boring, uninspired, cold maps I've ever seen in a RPG. Probably THE most.

 

[TheHand]

I’ve been running such a long Planescape campaign (predating 5e), that I’m too ingrained in the wheel cosmology,* even though it has a lot of gygaxism carry overs and odd choices.

This new map seems ‘adequate’ if not very inspired. I am a little baffled why they chose “Hades” over “Gray Waste” when it came to 5e cosmology, since they went with all the other 2e Planescape planar names.

* I liked the Shadowfell and Feywild when 4e added them so I included them into the Great Wheel, not too unlike how 5e eventually did

 

[Staffan]

The Great Wheel is wondrously, Byzantinely absurd...which is why it is perfect for D&D.

My issue with the not-so-Great Wheel is twofold. One is that it's based on alignment, and alignment is bad. The other is that it's too systematic. The structure was decided before the contents. Someone (Gygax) decided you needed one plane per alignment as well as intermediate planes where those met, as well as one plane per primary element plus an assortment of para- and quasi-elemental planes between those, and then that structure had to be filled in and someone had to figure out what the difference between Bytopia, Elysium, and the Beastlands are.

A better way to design a cosmology would be to come up with a set of themed planes and just have them be out there in the Astral somewhere, without necessarily having any structure to them. I mean, Acheron is kinda cool as the plane of Eternal War, but I don't see why it has to be Lawful and Neutral/Evil.