D&D Realities: a meta-cosmology to unite all editions

[Dungeonosophy]

Various rules systems have been used as lenses to view the D&D Worlds (the settings). These different rules systems (or "game universes") result in real differences in the same setting. For example, there were no more 1e-style Assassins or Barbarians after the Time of Troubles.



TSR and WotC has used in-story events to justify shifts from one rules system to another. Examples include:

• Time of Troubles (1e Abeir-Toril to 2e Abeir-Toril)
• Fate of Istus (1e Oerth to 2e Oerth)
• Wrath of the Immortals (BECMI Mystara to Rules Cyclopedia/WotI Mystara, with changed Immortals-level rules)
• Die, Vecna, Die! (2e Great Wheel Multiverse to world-specific 3e Cosmologies)
• The Apocalypse Stone (a setting-neutral adventure for transitioning from a 2e campaign to 3e)
• Chaos War (2e Krynn to SAGA Krynn)
• War of Souls (SAGA Krynn to 3e Krynn)
• Spellplague (3e Toril to 4e Toril and Abeir)
• Dragon #327 "Winning Races: Diaboli--Bringing Diaboli into 3.5E" (describes changes in the Far Realm and Plane of Dreams)

(If the readers know of any other in-story justifications for rules-changes, please post or contact me.)

An official in-game word for "rules system" or "game universe" is "Reality".
This is from the Dragon magazine article "Up, Away, and Beyond" by Bruce Heard, then D&D Brand Manager. This article describes how the Classic D&D/BECMI rules system is really a different Realilty from the AD&D rules system, but that CD&D Immortals can actually notice an in-story difference when they travel to the AD&D Reality and are translated into AD&D Deities...

"Where are the AD&D(R) game worlds?"

"Before tackling the connection with AD&D 2nd Edition game, it would be useful to clarify the existence of the D&D game world in relation to the AD&D game universe. The various AD&D game worlds occupy physical positions in space. These worlds can be reached by spelljammer ships. The D&D world and its universe /do not exist at all/ in the AD&D world, which explains why they were not mentioned in the SPELLJAMMER(TM) boxed set. The two universes cannot be connected by normal space navigation."

"To travel from one game universe to another, the characters must invoke a /reality shift/. This is different from opening a magical /gate/ or casting a /wish/. The /reality shift/ causes the character to travel not only across space and parallel dimensions, but also across the very fabric of reality, which causes the characters' transformation. The characters would not actually be aware of this alteration. Incompatible aspects of the character's cultural background, personal history, and memory are instantly and painlessly modified to fit the new world."

"Characters returning from a trip across a /reality shift/ would instantly revert to their former selves. No experience is lost in the process, since the party would be "persuaded" that all of their adventures took place in whatever world they occupy! They simply cannot suspect or even grasp the concept that there are effectively two or more different realities."
"For simplicity's sake, we'll establish that time flows in the same direction on both sides of the /reality shift/. A character spending 10 years in one reality before returning to his previous reality would reappear 10 years later and 10 years older as well."

"/Reality shifts/ may be effected only by greater gods in the AD&D game or the most powerful Immortals of the D&D game. These deities would first have to discover the another universe /that logically does not exist/--something difficult to achieve even for them. Some of those divine beings crossed over and were subjected to the unavoidable transformation. Although unaware of their personal metamorphosis, divine beings retain their memories about their previous worlds, unlike mortals."

"When a deity leaves for another reality, an alter ego of the deity is created. The alter ego is a metaphysical force whose usefulness lies in its ability to grant spells to worthy clerics in the deity's absence. When the deity returns, the alter ego dissipates (or reappears in the other reality, if the deity gained worshippers there)."

"Unless they are being worshiped in several realities, divine beings tend to remain in their home realities. They experience discomfort caused by the strange alteration of their senses when crossing realities, and they dislike the vague, unexplainable discrepancies between the two universes' realities. Even deities fear the unknown."





I offer further elaborations based on Heard's article:

• Each D&D rules iteration is a different Reality.
• Each D&D World (setting) has been viewed in various Realities (rules iterations) in various official TSR/WotC publications.
• There are real in-story differences between different Realities of the same World. For example, in the CD&D Reality, Mystara exists in the Gold Box/WotI cosmology, but in the AD&D2e Reality, Mystara is another Prime plane within the Great Wheel.
• The various combinations of Worlds and Realities continue to exist "off screen" even when TSR/WotC ceased publishing that combination. For example, even though CD&D Mystara was no longer published after 2e Mystara came out, CD&D Mystara continues to exist. Despite TSR's policy of "later trumps earlier", the vast library of CD&D Mystara books weren't just "disappeared" by the few 2e Mystara products that came out before the world was cancelled. CD&D Mystara just went "off screen" and the 2e Reality of Mystara (which had existed from the beginning of time in the Great Wheel) walked "on screen" in official publications.
• All Realities extend forever into the past and future of each World. For example, the Second Edition Reality of Toril extends throughout its past and future, even though, from an OOG perspective, the Time of Troubles was designed to begin that Reality. This is evident by the fact that the Arcane Age products use the 2e rules, even though they happened before the ToT. Likewise, after the SAGA System ceased production, the Dragonlance Chronicles-era and Fifth Age-era appeared in 2e and 3e rules, even though they "should" have used the 1e and SAGA rules.
• However, those worlds such as Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk, which have received in-story support for rules-shifts, also exist as "Transitive Realities", wherein the "expected" rules systems are used in the order they were orginally planned. For example, in the Transitive Reality of Forgotten Realms, the Arcane Age is played only with 1e rules. In the Transitive Reality of Krynn, the Fifth Age is only played with SAGA System, not with the later 3e versions of Fifth Age spellcasting classes. These "Transitive Realities" exist parallel to the pure "First Edition Reality", "Second Edition Reality", etc.
• Rules updates within a single iteration, such as 3.0e to 3.5e, could be called a "Reality Shimmer". It's not a different Reality, but a rules update shimmers throughout the setting, subtly changing certain in-story effects.
• Each Reality keeps the essential in-story features of other Realities of the same World while respecting and sifting out the inherent differences in cosmology, classes, and so forth. For example, the in-story tidbits about Bargle that were included in the 4e web enhancement (which is a glimpse into the 4e Reality of Mystara) would be relevant to CD&D Mystara. Also, in the First Edition Reality of Forgotten Realms, the Time of Troubles and Spellplague still happened, but the in-story effects are interpreted in a way that keeps the 1e rules system.
• All the D&D Worlds exist "off stage" in all the rules Realities. For example, there are BECMI versions of Toril, Krynn, Oerth existing in the Classic Reality which is usually associated with Mystara.
• The various other TSR/WotC rpgs are each a separate Reality. The concept is applied also to different non-rpg media through which the worlds are depicted, such as boardgame rules, Endless Quest gamebook rules, etc.
• Extending this beyond official TSR/WotC publications: each DM's set of houserules is a Reality Shimmer, or even a different Reality altogether if the houserules are different from all iterations of D&D.

The main Realities of the D&D Worlds:





The Original D&D Reality

• Chainmail miniatures reality shimmer

The Classic D&D Reality

• B/X reality shimmer
• BECMI reality shimmer
• War Machine reality shimmer (a temporary shimmer, when the game-play shifts to mass combat rules)
• Rules Cyclopedia/Wrath of the Immortals reality shimmer (with entirely different Immortals-level rules)

The AD&D First Edition Reality

• 1.5e reality shimmer (Unearthed Arcana class re-arrangement, Comeliness stat, non-weapon proficiencies, etc.)
• Battlesystem reality shimmer (a temporary shimmer, when the game-play shifts to mass combat rules)

The AD&D Second Edition Reality

• 2.5e reality shimmer (Skills & Powers)
• 2e Battlesystem reality shimmer (a temporary shimmer, when the game-play shifts to mass combat rules)

The SAGA System Reality





The D&D Third Edition Reality

• 3.5e reality shimmer
• Chainmail d20 reality shimmer (features the 3e logo, but is a different game)

The D&D Fourth Edition Reality
The Transitive Reality (described above)
The D&D Next Reality. All the rpg Intellectual Properties which are fully owned by WotC ought to become D&D Next settings.

For the rest of this article, please see:

https://sites.google.com/site/dndphilmont/d-d-realities

 

[Lwaxy]

I considered those "realities" lame all the time, and part of a reason not to switch to a new set up. There is only one FR for me and only one Greyhawk.

Leave our game worlds alone, we can advance stories ourselves, thank you. It would be quite a deal breaker for me if they went and messed it up all again.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Paging Shemeshka the Marauder to the thread...

 

[Shemeska]

Paging Shemeshka the Marauder to the thread...

I'll reply more at some point, but very often attempting to use a major in-game event to explain and justify completely arbitrary rules changes between editions has ended up being somewhere between clunky and hamfisted, and it usually ticks off the fans of various settings when it sacrifices continuity for core rules mechanics.

But I'm working on a project today, and I'd rather not think about the Spellplague.

But generally speaking, I think it's a terrible decision to sacrifice in-game setting material and continuity because the core game outside of that setting changes rules framework. The rules should support the setting/story and rarely or never the other way around, but that's just my design ideal.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I think they should just handwave, and retcon changes to the game that's happened because of rule changes. Stuff like "Dwarves always could become wizards, they just don't normally do as, Dwarven society is mistrusting of their trade" instead of "the influx of cataclysmic spell energy that ravage the world enabled Dwarves to be wizards".

 

[TwinBahamut]

The idea of a unified cosmology for all D&D settings is a mistake.

The idea of giant world-changing events to justify edition changes in settings is a mistake.

The idea of some canonical "D&D continuity" for either the brand or any given setting is a mistake.

The truth of the game is that the game world is created by the DM when the campaign begins. Any continuity between what occurs in a campaign and any material outside of the game is a fleeting illusion created by the DM processing and filtering that information into the game. After all, the DM could just decide to say "nah, let's do things my way", and no one outside of that gaming circle can do a thing about it.

Trying to create an idea of a shared D&D universe would only be wasting effort to no real result. What's more, trying to inflict that kind of logic on published settings and rulebooks tends to create flavor that irritates fans. Not really worth doing, if you ask me.

 

[Kynn]

Get ready for the red skies and walls of anti-matter!

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Please understand that my original post is mostly research as to what has actually happened in TSR/WotC's treatment of the D&D worlds and their interface with the rules iterations.

The post doesn't say much about what D&D Next ought to be like, except that:

1) I'd like the 5e design team to recognize the concept of Realities as the in-game word for "rules systems". This word would only be known by the Gods, and perhaps high-level mortals. This concept wasn't invented by me, but was taken straight from a Dragon magazine article written by a TSR employee. The article and concept is long forgotten, so I wish to bring it to light again.

I recognize that my OP makes for dense reading, but awareness of the distinction between Reality (rules system) and World (setting) will free the designers from the need to make such drastic in-story changes to justify rules changes. A new rules iteration simply means that another Reality of the same World comes into view, and the other Reality moves off stage, but still exists.

2) I also state that I'd like all rpg games and settings that are fully owned by WotC to return for D&D Next.

 

[Lwaxy]

Why would one reality need to be exchanged with the other? It is just a rule change for the players, doesn't have to mean anything for the PCs and their world. Never did for us.

 

[TwinBahamut]

1) I'd like the 5e design team to recognize the concept of Realities as the in-game word for "rules systems". This word would only be known by the Gods, and perhaps high-level mortals. This concept wasn't invented by me, but was taken straight from a Dragon magazine article written by a TSR employee. The article and concept is long forgotten, so I wish to bring it to light again.

I recognize that my OP makes for dense reading, but awareness of the distinction between Reality (rules system) and World (setting) will free the designers from the need to make such drastic in-story changes to justify rules changes. A new rules iteration simply means that another Reality of the same World comes into view, and the other Reality moves off stage, but still exists.

That's the thing though... Rules don't exist within the game world. Rules are not the "physics" of the game world. For a great many people, myself included, the idea of any entity within the game world knowing about the rules of the game, no matter how powerful or divine, is an alien concept.

The designers don't need any justification to make rule changes that don't impact the game. In fact, I'd say that rule changes not impacting the game setting is the natural default. The idea that you need incidents like the Time of Troubles or the Spellplague to justify rule changes is, in fact, the aberration that requires awkward logic and justification. Those things were not necessary evils, they were controversial marketing gimmicks. The designers don't need to be freed from creating those events, they simply need to stop creating them.