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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8240513" data-attributes="member: 18">I like them conceptually, on a certain level, but they've already been done perfectly, y'know? If you want to read about para-elemental planes and stuff, previous editions have you covered. It wouldn't really benefit 5E to go into detail on rules for exploring them, because they'd both likely be fiddly, and not broadly applicable, and that's not a good combination. Nor would a lot of detail on that kind of thing get used. Plus, whilst they have a nostalgic charm, most planes as established by previous editions, (like, easily 80% I reckon) are basically not very exciting or game-able, despite efforts to try and make them so across various editions. You can say "let me explore  X", but is that something that's actually come up in a game? And was any material provided that made it interesting or did the DM have to work pretty hard? Because I'm guessing it was the latter. To make the elemental plane of vapour interesting, you have to work pretty hard beyond "STEAM MEPHITS!!!".Now you could perhaps, do a better job than previous editions, but it would require massively breaking with established lore and how planes work and so on, which would annoy the people who most want an MotP-type deal, which is the aging nostalgia crew. And how much better could you do? It's not like people didn't try - but the Great Wheel's very setup, including the elemental planes, doesn't lend itself to being particularly game-able or exciting, or even to "exploration", esp. as the planes are infinite. Tourism is more like what tends to happen, rather than exploration, and whilst that's fine, it's not hugely engaging, and it's not something that's sort of particularly repeatable.I've also seen a lot of adventures and material which claimed to make the planes interesting, and in my experience, a lot of it falls pretty flat. I mean, I'm sure it thrilled the grog who wrote it, but it often doesn't seem inherently exciting or engaging. Nothing pleases everyone, to be sure but at some point you're barely thrilling anyone.Whereas Planescape, but adding a lot of dimensions to the planes, I think had a much broader appeal. It always puts off the odd purist, but that can't be helped, and grogs/purists are a tiny fraction of the actual audience of an official WotC D&D book in 2021.</blockquote>

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