Falling Icicle
Adventurer
Why does there even need to be a default cosmology? Can't it just be left up to individual settings?
Why does there even need to be a default cosmology? Can't it just be left up to individual settings?
So in other words, generic planar adventures should avoid any references to the planes they take place on? That seems like it'd be somewhat onerous, as it wouldn't allow any description of anything beyond the local area - one could say that it wouldn't need any such detail, but it'd be awkward for things like random encounter tables for a general area.
There'd also be issues of specific planar effects, the most common being the way magic is altered by various planes. While it'd be easy to manually add modifiers like penalties and bonuses, it's more difficult when you're adding something like a blanket ban on X type of magic that's a large component of the adventure (e.g. a central tactic of one of the major villains).
I wonder if their hand is sort of forced, in that regard, though.
D&D has, in every edition, had some sort of basic default cosmology. It had to, because when writing planar adventures (and there were always some), they needed some sort of basic assumptions on which to hinge the background and plot exposition. From being given a mission from the Seven Heavens to go to the Abyss and kill Orcus (and then make sure he's even more dead by going to the Nine Hells and slaying Tiamat), to Demogorgon in the Abyss wanting to break into the Bastion of Unborn Souls on the Positive Energy Plane, planar adventures need a framework to be hung on.
What's potentially harmful is the idea that actually, no, there's only one place that Orcus's lair can be and it's the Abyss and now if you use this adventure, you have to use this entire cosmology, too. Hope Xibalba didn't add much to your game, because you're not supposed to use it with this adventure designed with the One True Way to do the planes.
And thus you make the fiction within the module match your planar cosmology for the world.
Which is EXACTLY the same as you would have had to do if Orcus' lair wasn't assigned anywhere. The module would describe Orcus' lair on its own, and you'd have to then add in all the stuff about your own cosmology to the adventure.
So you're doing the same work. You're layering your own cosmological fluff onto the adventure regardless. The only difference is that for all the players who don't have a cosmology set up... they have one given to them to use. Which is the entire point. And if that means some players have to take the extra fifteen minutes to cross out the word 'Abyss' each time it appears in the module... that's a small price to pay for giving the other 75% of players some easy-to-use default cosmology that they otherwise wouldn't have had.
And thus you make the fiction within the module match your planar cosmology for the world.
Which is EXACTLY the same as you would have had to do if Orcus' lair wasn't assigned anywhere. The module would describe Orcus' lair on its own, and you'd have to then add in all the stuff about your own cosmology to the adventure.
So you're doing the same work. You're layering your own cosmological fluff onto the adventure regardless. The only difference is that for all the players who don't have a cosmology set up... they have one given to them to use. Which is the entire point. And if that means some players have to take the extra fifteen minutes to cross out the word 'Abyss' each time it appears in the module... that's a small price to pay for giving the other 75% of players some easy-to-use default cosmology that they otherwise wouldn't have had.
This is precisely the point I was trying to make. A planar adventure with no particular setting requires everyone to do some work adapting it to their particular campaign, whereas one with a default setting only requires some people to adapt it to their non-default campaign.
<snip>
Now, you (and many others) say "for all the players who don't have a cosmology set up... they have one given to them to use." I gotta ask: Why?!? Honestly, what purpose does it serve? The only time you (as the DM) need defined cosmology is if you plan to run an adventure or story that has it as a focal point. In which case, even the newbie DM has in mind how/what he wants to have in that campaign, because he's thinking about it already. If not, he's probably been attracted by the Planescape boxed set (or adventure path or whatever). And that's fine too. So long as that stuff stays there. If there is some kind of in-game crisis that one can organically stumble upon that relies on players knowing the relationships between Bytopia and the Elemental Chaos, I can't think of it. (Crises of that type which have been effectively written into the game by using a default cosmology don't count.) I, and presumably many other DMs, started running the game with little to no thought of cosmologies. I only tacked a very sketchy cosmology into my first world after the characters reached 8th or 9th level.
Basically, I just can't see any benefit to having a default cosmology permeate the rules. There are only problems that it can generate (even if small or peripheral problems). So why bother?
Nope.
When there is a default cosmology, players come expecting that. So its not just a matter of my re-writing a few bits. Its players who expected something else. So, if I want a custom cosmology or universe that eschews the default, I effectively have to produce a mini-setting book for the experienced players detailing the differences.