Isolation of the Dark Sun multiverse

[Shemeska]

Of course, now that each setting has its own cosmology separate from the Great Wheel, the spelljamming notions collapse too, or at least probably have to be modified so that phlogiston is another transitive plane connecting the various Prime Material Planes together.

I really should point out that this isn't true. 3e didn't seperate all campaign settings into their own cosmologies seperate from the Great Wheel, retroactively or otherwise. The only thing 3e did was to make it a design point that all campaign settings would not automatically be placed within the Great Wheel cosmology by default.

This opened things up for Eberron to be placed within a unique cosmology, but 3e FR and its cosmological awkwardness is something else entirely. 3e Dragonlance is probably just as much an issue of licensing as it is the unhappiness of the world's creators with how those work for hire contracts impacted their creation. There was never a 'all worlds have seperate cosmologies now by default' proclamation.

The Great Wheel isn't just Greyhawk, it's also every other innumerable world drifting in the prime material. Early 3e material was under creative restrictions that prevented overt references to such other worlds, really anything not in the core three books, but as those restrictions have fallen away, we're seeing those references again. FC:I and II are packed with such references to the point where it's impossible to cling to the idea of the Great Wheel not including multiple worlds beyond Greyhawk on the prime material.

And spelljamming has been referenced a number of times in 3e, it just hasn't been played up. Likewise the idea of other planets and solar systems in the prime material has been referenced, making it clear that other worlds aren't entirely seperate "prime material planes" or whatnot.

 

[D.Shaffer]

One poster over at the WotC boards has been using the system to model lifeshaping. I don't know how it works in play, but I do recall it being mentioned in that context.

Thinking about it, Necrocarnum (Incarnum magic powered by sucking up the life energy of those you kill) would seem like a natural fit for magic in DS

What happens to the souls of the dead in DS? Is that one of the 'unknowns'?

 

[Mark Hope]

What happens to the souls of the dead in DS? Is that one of the 'unknowns'?

Souls of the dead go to the Grey. Stronger souls can linger (and some even gain power and become pretty hefty undead). Some become weaker and wind up as little more than shades. Many (if not most) simply fade away into nothingness.

 

[Roman]

And in the Grey itself - the Souls linger forever or do they also dissipate or perhaps do they reincarnate?

 

[Mark Hope]

And in the Grey itself - the Souls linger forever or do they also dissipate or perhaps do they reincarnate?

I'd say that ultimately all souls in the Grey dissipate. Those that have the power to stave off their dissolution certainly do so, hence the voracious nature of Athasian undead.

 

[D.Shaffer]

I'd say that ultimately all souls in the Grey dissipate. Those that have the power to stave off their dissolution certainly do so, hence the voracious nature of Athasian undead.

...Wow. DS is a downer even in the afterlife. Sucks to be them.

 

[Tarek]

Yes indeed.

There's an argument to be made that, without the possibility either of heaven or of reincarnation, the idea of becoming undead is a rational one.

 

[Mark Hope]

Indeed truly awful place to live, and even worse when you die. Becoming a Thing That Should Not Be isn't really all that bad, given the alternatives. Little wonder that there are so many different types of undead running about the place.

 

[Roman]

One poster over at the WotC boards has been using the system to model lifeshaping. I don't know how it works in play, but I do recall it being mentioned in that context. And Shadow Magic from the ToM is an obvious fit for magic from the Black - I plan to try that out when my next set of DS games get going.

Are you by any chance planning to get any of them going on the net?

 

[Mark Hope]

Are you by any chance planning to get any of them going on the net?

No, I am strictly a pen & paper gamer . I'm also on a brief hiatus at the moment, following the birth of our third child, and haven't had the time for any gaming at all since about October (apart from one game over Xmas). When I do get the time again, I'll be hooking up with my regular group. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but little kiddies are a law unto themselves...