Design and Development: Cosmology

[Kid Charlemagne]

I don't like those names. Shadowfell? Feywild? Blegh.

I agree on the names. There seems to be a weird naming convention that WoTC is enforcing.

However, the basic concept of the Shadowfell and Feywild are practically the exact way that I run things in my campaign world. I use Faerie and Shadow as the planar names, but otherwise, its near exact. And I like the Astral and Elemental changes.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I really like it.

Interested to see the following:

The Shadowfell is the land of the dead, where the spirits of the deceased linger for a time in a dark reflection of their previous lives before silently fading beyond all ken.

It sounds like Dolurrh in the Eberron setting - all dead people go there for a while, and eventually fade to 'who knows where', putting an innate limit on how far back you can resurrect people (but allowing for traditional journeys to the plane of the dead to physically rescue people).

I wonder if they are going to put something like that into the core?

Cheers

 

[Sammael]

I have no problem with the names, as long as this is what mortal scholars and adventurers call 'em, not what the natives call 'em.

I think the names are horribly hokey, particularly the Shadowfell and Feywild.

 

[Mouseferatu]

It sounds like Dolurrh in the Eberron setting - all dead people go there for a while, and eventually fade to 'who knows where', putting an innate limit on how far back you can resurrect people (but allowing for traditional journeys to the plane of the dead to physically rescue people).

I was thinking the same thing. I'd love to see those concepts--both a time limit on resurrection and physical adventures to bring back the dead--explored further.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I think the names are horribly hokey, particularly the Shadowfell and Feywild.

Are they really any hokier than "The Happy Hunting Grounds" or "The Paraelemental Plane of Ooze"?

 

[Plane Sailing]

The lack of ethereal makes me wonder whether they might bite the bullet and merge ethereal and incorporeal together - the subtle differences are often confusing to people and I don't know how much we would lose if they became one.

 

[Perun]

I have no idea why those who hated the Great Wheel would enjoy this cosmology, since what is being presented here is very nearly identical to the Great Wheel - minus the wheel-like structure.

Exactly! That's why I like it

In one of the PS products, it was said that the Outer Planes weren't really neatly arranged in the shape of the Ring. It was just the most common representation of the planar arrangement.

Now, in my campaigns I can have various factions argue over which is the true way the planes are arranged

Incidentally, it seems the terms Outer and Inner planes are going the way of the dodo.

 

[vagabundo]

I like this a lot. I haven't used the planes with my group at all. They just werent interested. But I'm sure I could get them into the feywild or shadowfell. Cool names too.

I also seems quiet loose, so it would be easy to customise to your own campaigns.

Another +1 to 4e...

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I like the new cosmology. I never liked the great wheel, from 1st edition on. It always seems the planes wanted to overshadow the PC’s world which I didn’t like.

Whenever I looked at the planes I always wondered, why is there not only a Nine Hells and an Abyss but also a Gehenna and a Pandamonium? Why is everything so spread out? And why are the Nine Hells and the Abyss in many ways the same (freaky evil outsiders trying to kill mortals)?

Just as I believe the NPCs shouldn’t overshadow the PCs (so I not a big FR DM) I also don’t want the planes to seem bigger and better than any world I create. If I have to actually study a whole book to figure out where slaads come from or what plane Pelor lives on, then that is just too much info I don’t need in my home campaign.

 

[DaveMage]

*shakes head at the changes*

Whatever.....