Homebrew help: a new plane

[Sigma]

Eh... the astral just doesn't do much for me. My cosmology will probably look something more like this:

It's funny you should say that. The shadow plane doesn't do anything for me and I've eliminated it from my game altogether. Everything that refers to the shadow plane refers to the ethereal instead. To each their own.

 

[Desdichado]

I really like, if nothing else, the imagery of the shadow plane.

 

[Buttercup]

I'm not sure about the rainbow idea.... I have images of cuddly little Care Bears bouncing around on cotton candy clouds.

Ok then, how about pearly blue-white bands of light for streets. Clean looking and heavenly, sort of.

 

[Telgian]

A couple thoughts:

Perhaps think in terms of Dusk/Dawn.
This would provide a transition between darkness and light (ie. Darkness, Dusk, normal (PMP?), Dawn, Light)

The plane of shadows has some component of light, and the opposite plane that you seek to develope should, in order to maintain balance, contain some component of darkness.

Perhaps think of the plane of shadows as being 4/5 darkness, while the opposite plane is only 1/5 darkness.

As for mechanics -- the advice offered by the other posters in this thread should help you, I don't own the MotP and therefore cannot offer anything intelligent in this regard.

Good luck!
Telgian.

 

[bwgwl]

here's another idea to throw into the pot:

to oppose the Shadow Plane, you want something brightly lit, full of color, and Good-aligned.

how about the Plane of Faerie?

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) The distinction between demons, devils and other infernals will be more blurred; based instead on ancestry and allegiance to a "lord" rather than strict alignment. (snip)

One thing I would have liked to seen addressed in the 3E MM would have been a "better" treatment of the fiends, if not a wholesale revision. For example, the ice fiend, or cornugon, is immune to fire but only has cold resistance... and yet has a numbing attack? The balor is wreathed in flames and yet only has fire resistance but is immune to lightning?

OK, those examples are "crunchy bits", if you like, but they really need a bit more flavour and fluff, with matching crunchy bits, to bring them to life.

Cheers
NPP

 

[Desdichado]

One thing I would have liked to seen addressed in the 3E MM would have been a "better" treatment of the fiends, if not a wholesale revision. For example, the ice fiend, or cornugon, is immune to fire but only has cold resistance... and yet has a numbing attack? The balor is wreathed in flames and yet only has fire resistance but is immune to lightning?
OK, those examples are "crunchy bits", if you like, but they really need a bit more flavour and fluff, with matching crunchy bits, to bring them to life.

Resurrecting an oldie but goodie (at least I liked it) -- I think you're right. Now we have yugoloths and oni who have the same wierdness.

To tell you the truth, I'll probably do this as d20 lower magic, not D&D per se, so I can make my fiends have whatever features I want them to and not even try to fit them into the existing classifications. My various posts on low magic/gritty etc. threads are these ideas percolating into a complete setting, complete with custom classes, magic system, etc. and more.

 

[barsoomcore]

My cosmology...

Because, hey, how often do you get to talk about this stuff?

Well, not very, for me.

So I've got a Prime Material Plane, yeah, called "The Living World". The usual hoo-hah.

Then I've got two parallel planes: The Realm of Shadow and The Dream Worlds. Shadow is the source of arcane magic (which works in my campaign sorta like it did in Dark Sun -- sucks the life out of everything around it). If you have the right sorcerous ability you can travel through it (there's no teleport in my game but Shadow Walk is greatly beefed up). Shadow is also what powers the undead and is where the soul goes upon death -- actually the soul crosses Shadow to reside in Omean, the Buried Sea. But that's not important right now.

The Dream Worlds are the usual shifty, wobbly place -- home to the fey, the djinn, demons, all the wacky creatures that aren't clearly Shadow-based. The Dream Worlds are the source of psionic power and so psions have a certain affinity with these sorts of creatures. There's also a character class based on being able to negotiate with and control these creatures. The idea is that Dream World denizens can only enter the Living World through a process of binding -- they must be bound in some fashion before they can take a material form. And of course they're always trying to find ways to escape those bonds and keep their form...

And that's it, actually. I don't have any Outer Planes, no Astral or Ethereal Planes. The gods (such as they are) are mostly mortals who have acquired so much power they're no longer really human beings anymore. They make their homes mostly in the Living World, though some manage to create demi-planes of their own within the Dream Worlds.

Hey, I got to talk about it! Lucky me.

So if you like those ideas, JD, help yourself. Sounds like you're working with a more traditional layout, though.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Re: My cosmology...

Because, hey, how often do you get to talk about this stuff?

Well, not very, for me.

So I've got a Prime Material Plane, yeah, called "The Living World". The usual hoo-hah.

Then I've got two parallel planes: The Realm of Shadow and The Dream Worlds. Shadow is the source of arcane magic (which works in my campaign sorta like it did in Dark Sun -- sucks the life out of everything around it). If you have the right sorcerous ability you can travel through it (there's no teleport in my game but Shadow Walk is greatly beefed up). Shadow is also what powers the undead and is where the soul goes upon death -- actually the soul crosses Shadow to reside in Omean, the Buried Sea. But that's not important right now.

The Dream Worlds are the usual shifty, wobbly place -- home to the fey, the djinn, demons, all the wacky creatures that aren't clearly Shadow-based. The Dream Worlds are the source of psionic power and so psions have a certain affinity with these sorts of creatures. There's also a character class based on being able to negotiate with and control these creatures. The idea is that Dream World denizens can only enter the Living World through a process of binding -- they must be bound in some fashion before they can take a material form. And of course they're always trying to find ways to escape those bonds and keep their form...

And that's it, actually. I don't have any Outer Planes, no Astral or Ethereal Planes. The gods (such as they are) are mostly mortals who have acquired so much power they're no longer really human beings anymore. They make their homes mostly in the Living World, though some manage to create demi-planes of their own within the Dream Worlds.

Hey, I got to talk about it! Lucky me.

So if you like those ideas, JD, help yourself. Sounds like you're working with a more traditional layout, though.

I like it. I was also thinking about the relationship between "Plane of Shadow" and "Plane of Dream" especially in reference to illusionists; I hadn't considered Psions.

 

[barsoomcore]

Yeah, it works for me but my campaign's whole magic system is pretty wacky. No divine spells, no sorcerers, no wizards -- arcane magic is completely skill-based, there's another type based on summouning and then there's psionics.

No fireballs, no magic missile, no summoun monster... it's not much like yer average D&D. Some players haven't liked it and have moved on, but those who like it, like it a lot.