D&D Cosmology: the old and the new. Where do you stand?

[airwalkrr]

I'm surprised so few people use the Great Wheel.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Ive used it, but tend to use the Great Tree cosmology of Faerun. I personally think it should be whatever that world uses. If D&D 4e uses a new core then fine, a new way to look at the planes, but dont make a whole new one to fit into already existing games. Thats what I resent.
Again if there is a story reason to the planal upheaval im more than willing to give it a try, I am, however, not willing to go for change for changes sake.

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

Ive used it, but tend to use the Great Tree cosmology of Faerun. I personally think it should be whatever that world uses. If D&D 4e uses a new core then fine, a new way to look at the planes, but dont make a whole new one to fit into already existing games. Thats what I resent.
Again if there is a story reason to the planal upheaval im more than willing to give it a try, I am, however, not willing to go for change for changes sake.

By this, do you mean you don't have a problem with the default D&D cosmos being changed, but that change should NOT extend to Greyhawk/Planescape, Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, etc?

If so, on that I can definitely agree. I don't use any of those settings, but for those people that've spent mucho dinero collecting and countless time developing those campaigns only to have them ripped asunder to form-fit the new ideology... seems quite... harsh.

That said, I'm afraid Forgotten Realms may have already succumbed to this revisionism... again.

 

[Zurai]

By this, do you mean you don't have a problem with the default D&D cosmos being changed, but that change should NOT extend to Greyhawk/Planescape, Eberron, the Forgotten Realms, etc?

If so, on that I can definitely agree.

.....

That said, I'm afraid Forgotten Realms may have already succumbed to this revisionism... again.

Agreed, on both counts.

I don't mind new settings having new cosmology. As a matter of fact, more cosmologies means more ideas to plunder for my own campaign settings, so I wholeheartedly approve!

But existing cosmologies in existing campaign settings SHOULD NOT CHANGE. Such a major event can basically invalidate years and years and years of campaigns by players.

 

[resistor]

The results of the poll seems clear : the great wheel is not in the "core" of d&d, because most people never used it or don't use it anymore. If we do the same poll about classes, levels, or even "elf" or "dwarf", we won't have the same results.

I think you might be overstating that a bit. According to the poll, 27% of the responders are currently using the Great Wheel. That puts them slightly behind those who have used it before but aren't now, and those who have never used it.

Additionally, as seen from some of the comments, there's a decent set of people who use the Great Wheel in some settings and other cosmologies in others. I know that's the case for me: I consider the Great Wheel to be core, but I used the Eberron cosmology when I was running a game in it. Given that, there's likely some crossover in "people who consider the GW core but currently aren't using it" and "people who don't consider it core, but are currently using it" because of the setting they're currently using.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I have used the Great Wheel in the past, don't usually incorporate it into my homebrew settings now, and I'm warm towards the new cosmology.

 

[Baby Samurai]

While I'm a huge Great Wheel/Planescape fan, I do sometimes feel it can be a bit contrived, what with every alignment neatly having their own champion (LG = archons, CE = demons, N = rilmani, CN = slaadi, LN = modrons/formians, NE = yugoloth etc).

As for the new cosmology and Sigil - Sigil is simply a dominion in the Astral sea, and as always, has portals leading to everywhere in the cosmology/multiverse etc.

Actually, ironically, Sigil might be better suited to the new cosmological design than the good old Great Wheel (which I will always love).

 

[delericho]

I prefer the old cosmology to the new, although there are some nice elements in the new stuff. However, it's not a huge issue for me, either way, especially when compared with some of the other changes that are coming.

 

[D.Shaffer]

As a DM...where's my 'I use which ever cosmology fits the campaign' option? I chose the one that seemed closest but..eh. I wasnt a big fan of the Great Wheel and unless it's a published campaign, I dont use it.

 

[Desdichado]

However, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, the Shadowfell and the ghastly named Feywild just haven't grabbed me yet. And it's odd too because I have something very similar (a slightly off-kilter alternate plane) in my own homebrew. I think I would have preferred that these two planes are natively formless, and it takes certain powerful magics to create specific and contained mirror-regions in either plane... Something about there being 3 whole mirror worlds to our own feels like it takes something away from the unique and whole nature of the prime world (if that babbling makes any sense...).

Yeah, in my campaign, they aren't "mirror worlds"; they're simply other worlds with their own geography that bears no resemblance to the regular world's.