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July 11 Q&A: Cosmology, Monster Descriptions and Monster Variants
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6156382" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>I confess it's kind of one of those things that D&D hasn't really gotten spectacularly right. The closest they came was the 3e Manual of the Planes / Deities and Demigods, which actively promoted the idea of alternative cosmologies. But the former book was mostly taken up by the Great Wheel, and the later book was mostly taken up by (IMO) massively pointless god-stats. So the germ of a good idea got lost in the shuffle of what those books were mostly <em>actually</em> about. </p><p></p><p>But it should be one of those things that it's easy to get fairly straight. They don't need any universal basic assumptions. If your adventure requires you to go to some kind of Heaven and accomplish a mission, or to go to Orcus's lair in some sort of hellscape and kill him, that doesn't imply a whole <em>cosmology</em>. It just implies that, if you use the adventure, you need to use one kind of heaven or one kind of hellscape -- preferably one that suits the needs of your adventure first and foremost.</p><p></p><p>Maybe think of it this way: just because Greek myths speak of an underworld, and Norse myths speak of an underworld, and Mayan myths speak of an underworld, does not mean it has to be the same underworld. An adventure using Greek mythology might take you to a world ruled by Hades. An adventure using Mayan mythology is more like to take you to Xibalba. These are similar worlds, but they have key differences, and each one actually serves their home setting better than either one would if smashed together with the Norse underworld into one MEGA-UNDERWORLD. </p><p></p><p>D&D can be done the same way: Greyhawk has its own cosmology. Eberron has its own cosmology. Your game has its own cosmology. Maybe they all have a version of Orcus's lair -- maybe it's pretty much exactly the same. But in Greyhawk, it's in the Abyss and he's sitting in his demonic undead court. And in Eberron, it's Shavarath, and his undead court wages eternal war with the Demons against the other three factions there. And in my homebrew Norse setting, maybe it's in Hel and he is her consort. And by the way the adventure is written, the PC's just jump through a portal and wind up in Orcus's lair and now have to fight to survive -- that could take place on any of those planes.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6156382, member: 2067"] I confess it's kind of one of those things that D&D hasn't really gotten spectacularly right. The closest they came was the 3e Manual of the Planes / Deities and Demigods, which actively promoted the idea of alternative cosmologies. But the former book was mostly taken up by the Great Wheel, and the later book was mostly taken up by (IMO) massively pointless god-stats. So the germ of a good idea got lost in the shuffle of what those books were mostly [i]actually[/I] about. But it should be one of those things that it's easy to get fairly straight. They don't need any universal basic assumptions. If your adventure requires you to go to some kind of Heaven and accomplish a mission, or to go to Orcus's lair in some sort of hellscape and kill him, that doesn't imply a whole [I]cosmology[/I]. It just implies that, if you use the adventure, you need to use one kind of heaven or one kind of hellscape -- preferably one that suits the needs of your adventure first and foremost. Maybe think of it this way: just because Greek myths speak of an underworld, and Norse myths speak of an underworld, and Mayan myths speak of an underworld, does not mean it has to be the same underworld. An adventure using Greek mythology might take you to a world ruled by Hades. An adventure using Mayan mythology is more like to take you to Xibalba. These are similar worlds, but they have key differences, and each one actually serves their home setting better than either one would if smashed together with the Norse underworld into one MEGA-UNDERWORLD. D&D can be done the same way: Greyhawk has its own cosmology. Eberron has its own cosmology. Your game has its own cosmology. Maybe they all have a version of Orcus's lair -- maybe it's pretty much exactly the same. But in Greyhawk, it's in the Abyss and he's sitting in his demonic undead court. And in Eberron, it's Shavarath, and his undead court wages eternal war with the Demons against the other three factions there. And in my homebrew Norse setting, maybe it's in Hel and he is her consort. And by the way the adventure is written, the PC's just jump through a portal and wind up in Orcus's lair and now have to fight to survive -- that could take place on any of those planes. 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. [/QUOTE]
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July 11 Q&A: Cosmology, Monster Descriptions and Monster Variants
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