4e Cosmology Changes

[Belorin]

Here's how it works out;
1) The World=Prime Material
2) The Feywild=Ethereal + Faerie + Positive Energy
3) The Shadowfell=Ethereal + Shadow + Negative Energy
4) The Elemental Chaos=The Elemental Planes of Air, Earth, Fire & Water + the Para-Elemental Planes
a) The Abyss
5) The Astral Sea=The Astral Plane
a) The Nine Hells
b) Arvandor
c) Bright City of Hestavar
d) Tytherion
e) Iron Fortress of Chernoggar
f) Celestia
g) Various Other Unnamed Godly Domains
6) Demi-Planes
a) To Be Determined
It is a much simpler concept, it gets rid of the myriad inner planes and replaces it with an ever changing plane with all the adventure and none of the boring. If you miss the great wheel, you can plop the whole thing in the astral sea as is.
It takes two unplayable planes, the positive and negative planes and combines them with faerie and shadow respectively to create echoes of the real world and then combines them with the ethereal to make them more accessible and player friendly.
I like it alot, the minute I read about it, ideas started forming for adventure hooks. The old cosmology never really did that.

Bel

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I agree and if you really like the Great Wheel (which I never did) it's easy enough to stick it in the Astral Sea.

I was thinking that the adventurers who travel the Astral Sea might have a map called "The Great Wheel". I'm thinking of it as kind of like the map in Time Bandits -- it doesn't actually represent the places you're going in a 2-d space, it's more conceptual, and so it's not straightforward to use it to navigate.

For me the Great Wheel just told me what stuff was "next" to each other, and while I found those mixed areas interesting I didn't see why you couldn't have something like that between *every* area, since it's not like you necessarily do just 3-D navigation.

 

[Scribble]

JSo what do you think? Does it seem tidier? More internally consistent? More of the same?

I think it's interesting... I like it personally, and I can see how it will be good for the game in the future. Adding new planes into the mix will be much easier as they now all float in the astral, as opposed to being a tight wheel. The astral could house infinite planes.

I also find it interesting that it kind of calls to mind a few real world ideas.

Tell me I'll be able to use the 4e cosmology straight out of the tin.

Depends on what you're looking for really... I never used the great wheel really , except when I was playing Planescape.

The new cosmology is playable right out of the box to me... But it fits better with my own cosmologies I've used in the past. (They tend to mirror real world stuff a bit more.)

What would make something playable right out of the box for you?

 

[korjik]

Since I wouldnt be using it anyway, the actual cosmology would not be a problem, except for the fact that the races and classes are a little too typed to the cosmology.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I like what I've seen of it so far. Very flexible.

 

[malraux]

It isn't a problem really. An infinite plane can easily have _some_ boundaries as long as it's not in every direction.

An infinite plane can have boundaries in every direction; the Poincare disk being the exemplar and a rather decent description of the Outlands.

 

[Mercule]

You did a bit more than that by saying the new cosmology is "Absolute crap."

In fairness, I said the old cosmology is "crap", too. I'm willing to give a bye if he is.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

In fairness, I said the old cosmology is "crap", too. I'm willing to give a bye if he is.

Hey, people can see whatever they want as crap. That's what internet forums are all about, after all

 

[thundershot]

Totally off-topic:

thundershot, your grammar animation sig..... doesn't don't have an apostrophe?

You know what's funny? I took it from someone else, and fixed it, but forgot to upload the fixed version of it. Should work now.



Chris

 

[hong]

No, the fault lies with the lame set up. A "plane" of air? Come on.

But as one statistician to another, a plane of polyhedral dice is clearly the best thing since sliced bread.