Design and Development: Cosmology

[Aloïsius]

We also now know a lot more about Keep on the Shadowfell, just because we know what the Shadowfell is. A cleric of Orcus attempting to reopen a portal to the land of the dead is a suitably mythic introductory module, IMO.

Look the 4e MM cover : orcus and shadow.... I wonder if Orcus has not relocated himself in the shadowfell.

 

[Drammattex]

THE 4e COSMOLOGY KILLED MY HOMEBREW AND TOOK ITS STUFF!!!

(except for the Elemental Chaos; I don't have that) ;-)

 

[Wormwood]

Oh and please tell me this is the last we have to hear about the Positive and Negative Energy Planes.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You know, it occurs to me that Ghostwalk would work sensationally with this new set-up, with Manifest simply being a place where the real world and the Shadowfell overlap, and the dead can wander back into the world of the living.

Obviously the monsters, spells and PrCs would need to be converted -- who knows, maybe we'll see some of them show up in 4E anyway -- but this would be a heck of a fun setting to play in, I think.

 

[med stud]

Better yet...again from Exalted

Shadowfell=Shadowlands
Elemental Chaos=Wyld lands
FeyWild=Borders of Creation
Astral Sea=Yu-shan( actually this one is a stretch, but everything else is spot on)

This with the demon and devil tid bits has got me kinda dissapointed. I've played this game before.

Both of the White Wolf- games where predated by Kult that had Metropolis, Inferno and Gaea as overlays on our world. It's not a new or revolutionary idea to have planes like that but it's a good idea and I like it!

The Great Wheel was convoluted and it took time to learn and if you didn't like it, odds were you didn't bother to learn it. This cosmology is simple enough to learn quickly and the feywild and shadowfell seem to be useful in many kinds of adventures; for example, getting into a building by entering Feywild, move to where the building is in the prime material and then move back from Feywild.

 

[Markn]

Me likey. I think the Shadowfell, Feywild and Elemental Chaos are huge upgrades (design wise) from the current cosmology. The first two seem to be more focused and more tightly integrated into D&D than what previous realms of a similar nature were. The Elemental Chaos is heads and shoulders above the Elemental Planes from before. I have never used them before, mainly because - How could you? Now, however, the mixture of elemental traits makes much more sense and I can already think of 101 adventures on the plane.

I am very much looking forward to more of the cosmology!

Edit - Oh and I really, really hope that the Shadar-kai make it into the MM as they are so cool!

 

[Obergnom]

I love it! While I myself now the Great Wheel in and out, I never liked using it much, because I never had any players who really knew it.
This cosmology is much simpler, I think more players will know how it works (Or it would take me about 10min or one good handout to make them know it) while not leaving any planar adventure ideas of mine behind... actually, the parallel universes of fey/death are ideal for short planar trips...

 

[Sir Brennen]

Then we can both be right, the article and I; the elemental planes are the accretion disk, while the Abyss is the manifest will of entropy.

I bet this turns out to be dead-on.

Well, the origin of the Abyss already has a known legend, from the Demons and Devils article:

Legend says that the Chained God, Tharizdun, found a seed of evil in the young cosmos, and during the gods’ war with the primordials, he threw that seed into the Elemental Tempest. There, the evil seed despoiled all that came into contact with it (some say it tainted Tharizdun himself) and created the Abyss as it burned a hole in the very structure of the plane.

 

[Masquerade]

Yes!

I'm even more enthusiastic than I was after reading the recent demon/devil article. This new approach to the cosmology (note that the term "plane/planar" was only used once in the article--let's hope they keep that up!) is simpler and would seem to lend itself well to individual adventures, as opposed to the current planes, which work best when used in an explicitly planar campaign (IME). I like the idea that making the jump over to the feywild or shadowfell is something that humanoids of all levels might do from time to time.

I may actually use the assumed cosmology for once...

edit:

actually, the parallel universes of fey/death are ideal for short planar trips...

Quoted because it's what I was trying to say.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

With the Feywild being 'the closest of the outer planes,' I'm hoping we'll see more fey-oriented material, especially about the wild and dangerous fey rather than the shiny-happy-mischievous kind.

Overall, I like the changes, and am much more likely to use the new version than I was the great wheel. For one, the planes aren't divided up by alignment (ugh!); for another, we don't have the weird shoehorning of various celestial and infernal realms into a superficially unified cosmology.

I hope ethereal and incorporeal are folded into a single status, ideally one not tied to the planes at all. I've never thought of ghosts as being 'out of phase' except in D&D.

The only thing I don't much like is the Elemental Chaos supplanting the Elemental Planes, but it's purely due to fond memories of the latter, mostly from Might and Magic games.