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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Geoffrey" data-source="post: 3746068" data-attributes="member: 764">It is a historical fact that the Great Wheel cosmology is NOT essential to D&D. The Great Wheel cosmology was first published in The Dragon #8 in July 1977. In other words, D&D had already been published for THREE AND A HALF YEARS before Gary Gygax's Great Wheel article was published. Further, in the last sentences of said article Gary wrote: "I think it best to do nothing more than offer the idea for your careful consideration and thorough experimentation. This writer has used only parts of the system in a limited fashion. It should be tried and tested before adoption."A year later in 1978 the Great Wheel cosmology showed up in the AD&D Players Handbook. It had a mere two pages as the fourth appendix out of five, alongside other clearly optional AD&D concepts such as psionics and bards.In short, neither in original D&D nor in 1st edition AD&D was the Great Wheel cosmology an essential of D&D. It was merely an option. I am unfamiliar with 2nd edition AD&D, so I can't speak to what was done there with the Great Wheel.As an illustration, one of THE quintessential D&D campaign worlds is Judges Guild's Wilderlands. Here is a quote from pp. 92-93 of Necromancer's Player's Guide to the Wilderlands: "[T]he Wilderlands was created before the  First Edition Player's Handbook and thus was not designed with that particular cosmology. Instead, unlike the planes of other official fantasy settings, which seem so well-traveled, the planes in the Wilderlands should be mysterious and new. They should defy a firm categorization, since they are fluid and undefined and each overlaps the other to a great degree. The early fantasy works of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock definitely influenced the cosmology of the Wilderlands, and the planes reflect it."What in the Great Wheel cosmology are 17 outer planes are in the Wilderlands' cosmology a mere three: the Netherworld (realm of evil), the Celestial Realm (realm of good), and Arborea (realm of neutrality). Are the Wilderlands missing an essential element of D&D? Obviously not.In closing, if anyone likes the Great Wheel, fine. But don't make the mistake of asserting that it is essential to D&D.</blockquote>

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