Design and Development: Cosmology

[HeinorNY]

For the WOW players, the Feywild=Emerald Dream, don't you think?
I like it!
Fluff buying me even more than crunch so far!

 

[Anthraxus]

Nope, don't care for the new cosmology, or the new Demons/Devils.

I do like a lot of the rules changes I've seen, but little of the fluff changes. I guess we'll wait and see. :\

 

[RigaMortus2]

Not sure I like the new cosmology. Seems like they are making too many drastic changes to the D&D realm. At this point, what makes fourth edition "D&D" and not just an alternate system/setting such as Arcana Evolved? Just because they are keeping some of the names such as Mordenkainen (sp?) doesn't mean it's still D&D...

 

[Intrope]

Puts some interesting limitations on incorporeal creatures, too. They can walk through walls... if that wall has fallen into ruin in its reflection in Shadowfell. No more of this 'pop into and out of objects' whack-a-mole. Now when a spectre passes through something, it's because in their reality, that thing does not exist.

That is an incredibly cool idea! Likewise, since things in the Shadowfell are twisted as well, the ghosts won't necessarily align perfectly with the living world (going up a stair in Shadowfell may result in the ghost floating above the stairs in the living world, for instance).

And I'm liking this more and more. More planar visits for lower-level parties; more locations in the Elemental Realms that aren't mono-elemental blobs, potentially many more outer planes to visit (some of which can be hazardous without being ridiculously excessive), etc.

 

[WayneLigon]

Sounds very cool. I love the names and the little hints they drop, about 'briarwitches' and the Raven Queen, and such. And the Tower of Vecna.

 

[Nine Hands]

I'd say that "Ethereal Plane" + "Plane of Shadows" = Shadowfell.

I'd picture Shadowfell as the place that ghosts fade into and out of when they manifest and de-manifest. It also works okay for Blink and spells like that. What do you really need the Ethereal for if you have Shadowfell?

Puts some interesting limitations on incorporeal creatures, too. They can walk through walls... if that wall has fallen into ruin in its reflection in Shadowfell. No more of this 'pop into and out of objects' whack-a-mole. Now when a spectre passes through something, it's because in their reality, that thing does not exist.

<snip>

This last paragraph made me think of a ghost in the Shadowfell having to damage a wall to get through it in the "real" world

 

[Irda Ranger]

Plus it seems easier to drop a deity's domain into the vast Astral Sea than it was to shoehorn it into the fully codified and stagnant Great Wheel (which always read like a shopping mall's "You Are Here" map anyway).

Heh. That's a good way of putting it. I never liked the Great Wheel either. (and for both poetic and aesthetic game-design reasons, not because I'm bored, immature, impatient or some other pejorative).

Overall, good design diary, though I don't think I'll be limiting my Abyss to a few mere "thousands of miles" across ... I'm thinking Jupiter is a good size ...

But what are Githzerai doing in the Maelstrom? I know the Githyanki have that whole "Astral traveller" thing locked down, but why were the Githzerai removed from Pandemonium? Flavor seems wrong now ...

 

[delericho]

It's a workable cosmology. There's nothing really original there... but then, there doesn't really need to be.

The only things I'm not happy about are that the Nine Hells are said to be "as big as {a} world", and that the Abyss is said to be "thousands of miles across". In the latter case, in particular, given the newly-brutish Demons and a tightly capped, no-longer-infinite number of them, I fail to see just why the Abyss has been allowed to fester. Given the threat it poses to all of existence, surely an alliance of forces would have seen to cleaning it up by now?

 

[Beckett]

Plus it seems easier to drop a deity's domain into the vast Astral Sea than it was to shoehorn it into the fully codified and stagnant Great Wheel (which always read like a shopping mall's "You Are Here" map anyway).

No more "Wait...why does Sune live on Mount Olympus?"

Yes. The Great Wheel is gone, but there's room to fit just about any part of the old planes into this.

I'm digging it.

 

[Lackhand]

But what are Githzerai doing in the Maelstrom? I know the Githyanki have that whole "Astral traveller" thing locked down, but why were the Githzerai removed from Pandemonium? Flavor seems wrong now ...

Weren't they in Limbo, which is essentially what the Elemental Maelstrom is?