Do You Care About Cosmology?

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle

• Yesterday at 6:24 AM

• #1

So let’s say my game has a unique creation story that informs all of my world building, the nature of all beings, especially the adversarial beings that threaten everything, and underpins how magic works and what it even is in the world.

Do you want to know about it, as a player? Do you read all you can, or ignore it and only bother learning the “right now” stuff that directly affects your character?

Do you want cosmology to matter, with mechanical weight put behind it?

 

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S

Staffan

Legend

• Yesterday at 6:48 AM

• #2

I want to know the background lore and stuff, but I'm pretty sure I'm in a minority. But I think it's good to have it there, as a "base of the iceberg" kind of thing – it may be that only some bits actually matter in the campaign, but I think it makes for a better foundation if they have common roots.

 

R_J_K75

Legend

• Yesterday at 7:06 AM

• #3

Years ago, yeah, nowadays no. If I do something on another plane its one and done, doesn't need an entire explanation of the planes.

 

Voadam

Legend

• Yesterday at 7:10 AM

• #4

I really enjoy cosmology stuff and it can really engage me or turn me off depending on how it is handled.

As a player I am first focused on what we are immediately dealing with and have no problem with a lot being undefined. I really enjoyed the Hobbit without having read the Silmarillion.

Secondarily as a player I do often enjoy discovering and seeking out lore and connecting some stuff in game to bigger pictures and leveraging and interacting with aspects of cosmology such as god details and how that impacts religious stuff I am interacting with like church organizations or deific agents or the gods themselves.

 

cbwjm

Legend

• Yesterday at 8:08 AM

• #5

I might enjoy reading it, but unless it really impacts the game it isn't something that I need to know. I've played plenty of games knowing very little about magic, the gods (I might learn the names of a couple to curse in game), or the planes and their inhabitants.

 

J

John Dallman

Hero

• Yesterday at 9:31 AM

• #6

It depends on how the cosmology is used.

Having it be important all the time, for every character, seems like concentrating too much on one aspect of a setting. Having it be a background thing that shapes aspects of the world is good, it makes the setting distinctive as opposed to generic.

I've been playing a campaign for the last six years where the origin and deep history of the world are mysterious. They have become something the characters are investigating, in between other tasks, although figuring them out is not simple.

 

Lanefan

Victoria Rules

• Yesterday at 9:50 AM

• #7

doctorbadwolf said:

So let’s say my game has a unique creation story that informs all of my world building, the nature of all beings, especially the adversarial beings that threaten everything, and underpins how magic works and what it even is in the world.

Do you want to know about it, as a player? Do you read all you can, or ignore it and only bother learning the “right now” stuff that directly affects your character?

Click to expand...

Whether or not I-as-player ever read any of it, I still want it to be there as a foundation that makes the setting tick and that informs the GM when designing the rest of the setting.

It might also even have rules-system implications; either by narrowing the choices of which system to use or forcing more-or-less major tweaks to the system in order to make the rules and setting agree.

 

C

Corinnguard

Hero

• Yesterday at 9:56 AM

• #8

Learning the cosmology for a given setting is an interesting thing to read about. My favorite D&D cosmology would have to be Eberron's because of the way those planes affect Eberron whenever they wax or wane and when they create manifestation zones on its' surface.

 

Aldarc

Legend

• Yesterday at 10:14 AM

• #9

I think that my primary interest in cosmology tends to be a little more anthropological. I am curious to see how it shapes and informs the worldview of the various cultures, religions, and peoples of the setting.

Since Corringuard mentioned Eberron, I think that it is a good example. Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead, exists. The departed souls go there. The souls eventually fade into nothingness. This harsh reality shapes a number of religions in Eberron, particularly the elven religions and the Blood of Vol. However, followers of the Sovereign Host believe that Dolurrh is not the end of the journey for a soul. This is cosmology shaping the worldview of cultures and their religions.

 

Edgar Ironpelt

Adventurer

• Yesterday at 11:24 AM

• #10

I do homebrew settings, and creating cosmologies is an essential part of that. Not so much for my players (or my readers, in the case of settings for my read-only fiction) but for my own use. So I voted "Yes, but more as something to dive into as secondary media/pleasure reading."