Mapping Infinity

[The 1 and the Prime]

You've hit the nail on the head. This is the reason people accuse Planescape of not making the planes interesting enough. No matter how much detail you create for an infinite plane, you've only described an infintesimal amount of the plane; if you were to look a random part of the plane you would almost surely see just plain plane without any noteworthy features.

There are two solutions I would propose. The first is to simply say "planes aren't infinite". This is the solution I prefer as it matches the actual case for all practical intents*. Currently there are approximately 10 dead people for every living human on this planet, so that should give you a sense of scale relative to population density assumptions.

The second potential solution is to make a "center" of the plane, i.e. the place where most of the interesting stuff happens, and then gets increasingly generic as you radiate outwards. You could use this approach and detail areas as the PCs move, keeping them at the center of the "spot light". This approach would also allow interesting "stacking"; you can think of the "center" of the planes as being the skewer they all rest on, and different planes have similar stuff in the same "place" relative to the center, but with a twist that flavors them to the local plane (for example, the realm of Pelor in Celestia sits almost directly on top of the realm of Nerull in Tartarus).

*Keep in mind, even at teleportation speed there has not been enough time since the creation of the Multiverse to go literally an infinite distance away.

 

[maddman75]

Which plane?

Bear with me on this. I'm using third and prior edition lore.


The astral plane is a plane of the mind. "Distance" from one place to another is based on intelligence and wisdom checks. How soon you get there is how powerfully you can visualize it.

The abyss has an infinite number of layers, but they don't all connect. For the abyss, I'd get a general idea of a certain number of layers and their types and roll randomly to see where portals between layers take ya. (50% chance that the same portal used before goes to the same place).

etc.



My advice is to make each plane different. Focus on the purpose and nature of the plane and then develop HOW that specific plane is infinite. In the end, all the planes are certain "thematic ideals"...it is the ideals that are infinite, moreso than the space.

In fact, I'd imagine that only the prime material plane really works the way people normally think of direction. Even Mechanus, I suspect, isn't so much gears that can be measured as mathematical measurements given real form.



So, rather than maps, come up with a theme, deterimine how it works, and you'll know what players will meet on their journeys, even if you don't know where they are in relation to other "spaces".

I like it. If you use my method, you could do this not just by changing what you see, but what kind of skills you use to get around. Maybe in the Astral plane you need Arcana checks as the main roll, to follow the flow and eddies of the stream. In a Valhalla type setting, maybe you need to fight your way everywhere, and while its all minions, you roll a basic attack as part of a skill challenge to represent hacking your way through the honored dead.

 

[Lord Zack]

There are some specific planes my PCs are likely to travel to. They are very likely to travel to the Abyssal layer of Shedaklah as Zuggtmoy is, mistress of the upper areas of that layer, is a major antagonist in the campaign. They may also travel to the Demonweb of Lolth to entreat her for aid against her ancient foe. They may travel through the Plain of a Thousand Portals to get to those two planes, though perhaps not (I'm using the GDQ series, so there is a portal to the Demonweb they could use). For the Demonweb I've already got two sources, the Queen of the Demonweb Pits and the Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. I'm envisioning the Demonweb as more of a wilderness environment then a dungeon one, so my Demonweb will probably be closer to Expedition's.

 

[Huw]

Non-Euclidean geometries are perfectly describable and mappable. We live on one for example. Just realise that a flat world map can only approximate a globe but is still good enough, and you can map an infinite world with a few approximations.

IMC I have a spirit world. It has a finite circumference, but an infinite area. It actually gets bigger the closer you get to the centre, which is infinitely far away. You can map this by just drawing a circle. You might have a hut on the outside taking up the same area on the map as a city a bit further in.

(Yes, I've grossly distorted the behaviour of spacetime around a black hole for campaign purposes. It works!)

For added fun, you could make it a fractal. Inside this world there can be other zones of finite circumference but also showing infinite internal area. You could fit an entire city inside a tower. First floor is as big as it looks on the outside, but go up a level and it's four times the area (while still looking normal from the outside).

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

In my experience, mapping infinity requires a really big sheet of paper.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

If you don't have a really big sheet of paper, I'd tend to go with the "thematic" approach mentioned above. Don't worry about where a given locale is relative to the rest of the locales on that plane, and relative to other planes until there's need to define it.

In the case of random teleport errors, crash-landings, and the like and the like, you could just use the planar theme to randomly generate the local conditions, possibly going so far as to randomly determine that locale's location.

As long as there's a consistent way to generate directions & spatial relationships (either on the fly, or during world design) in a consistent way, you don't need to map everything out. Reduce the "map" or each plane to an "algorithm" or set of rules, and then keep notes in the form of a nodemap, a formal map, outline, or whatever works.

Honestly, imhoHeck, the coolest thing about extraplanar realities is that they are by and large UnUnderstandable, almost by definition.

 

[Southern Oracle]

...the Abyssal layer of Shedaklah...

There is a map of Shedaklah on page 144 of the 3.5E book Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss.

...Demonweb of Lolth...

Besides the two sources you mentioned, there are also maps of the Demonweb in Dungeon #84 for the adventure "The Harrowing." You can still buy it in pdf format here. (And incidentally, "The Harrowing" deals with Lolth's daughter, so you might want to work that adventure into your campaign.)

...Plain of a Thousand Portals...

The Plain of a Thousand Portals is also called Pazunia. There's a map of it on page 115 of the Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, as well as the 2E Planescape adventure In the Abyss.

 

[Lord Zack]

Certainly I'll use those maps as a starting point. They're not as useful for actual play, though.

 

[Lord Zack]

I should specify, I mean the maps in Fiendish Codex. The ones in the modules are, of course designed specifically for actual play.

 

[Thanael]

Incidently there's an old Planescape website on the Mimir called :Mapping the Infinite. It has different takes on maps of the multiverse, though not of the individual planes.