Oerth/Toril/Krynn connectivity. Are they still linked in your campaign?
- Thread starter dead
- Start date
Yes, they are connected, I just played with the connections a little
For example, since the Realms in the dominate one, in addition to how Wizards of the Coast says that Greyhawk and the Realms are connected (via the Plane of Shadow), I also have them connected via 'common' planes between the comologies.
i.e The Nine Hells of the Realms = the Nine Hells of Greyhawk.
Arvandor in the Realms = part of whichever plane group it is in Greyhawk.
However, since my players don't go plane hopping it doesn't really matter at the moment.
I'm considering also making it turn out that the 'Tree shape' of the Realms astral plane is just the color pools near (planarly speaking) to Toril, and there are lots of others that are not known about
For example, since the Realms in the dominate one, in addition to how Wizards of the Coast says that Greyhawk and the Realms are connected (via the Plane of Shadow), I also have them connected via 'common' planes between the comologies.
i.e The Nine Hells of the Realms = the Nine Hells of Greyhawk.
Arvandor in the Realms = part of whichever plane group it is in Greyhawk.
However, since my players don't go plane hopping it doesn't really matter at the moment.
I'm considering also making it turn out that the 'Tree shape' of the Realms astral plane is just the color pools near (planarly speaking) to Toril, and there are lots of others that are not known about
Henry
Autoexreginated
When I play Forgotten Realms, I still link them through the plane of Shadow, simply for the "Wild and wahoo" aspect of it - not that any of my players would want to go to Krynn or Oerth, of course. 
But back when I was running my Homebrew campaign, I linked Oerth and Toril to the PC's world. In one adventure, they had to travel to Oerth to pick up clues on what had happened to a friendly archmage in their home world.
Furthermore, I had had inferences that various worthies from both planes had visited the home campaign - there were places like "Bruenor's Port" and "Tenser's Rift" that I never did explain...
But back when I was running my Homebrew campaign, I linked Oerth and Toril to the PC's world. In one adventure, they had to travel to Oerth to pick up clues on what had happened to a friendly archmage in their home world.Furthermore, I had had inferences that various worthies from both planes had visited the home campaign - there were places like "Bruenor's Port" and "Tenser's Rift" that I never did explain...
WayneLigon
Adventurer
The few times I've ever run one of the published settings, I always considered it seperate and apart. Never used the 'glue' campaign settings at all. I could accept them being 'out there' due to the infinite number of Prime Material Planes, but that pretty much precludes ever finding them.
The_Warlock
Explorer
In my campaign, yes, the worlds are connected by both the Planescape Great Wheel and Spelljammer cosmology. Most people on those worlds accept whatever cosmology their particular priests present to them as true, but in all cases it's a tweaked version to make belief and faith simple to understand and easy to explain. Adventurers who seek out the greater multiverse generally suffer from a rather rude shock when they arrive on the Great Wheel and find that its much more diverse and cultural spanning than their commonly advertised prime viewpoint. That said, regular planeswalkers and learned and magically powerful folk know good chunks of this information, but tend to keep a tight reign on it, since it grants them power and advantage.
The PCs in my primarily FR run have often been thrust into the planes to achieve this or that bit of prophecy and thus possess that expanded worldview, though they are always learning.
In the end, the connectedness is integral to my campaign plot - while various overgods (like Ao) can generally ban gods from access to their Crystal Sphere, my plot centers around a variation of Tharizdun, from Greyhawk - Tharizdun is trapped in eternal stasis, but he dreams - his godly dream however is not trapped and has taken on a vile life of its own, a corrupting shadow of Tharizdun. It has found that it can enter other primes through the realm of dreams without needing an overgod's permission - and once it has followers, seeks to corrupt and finally enter the world as a physical form to devour it. Tharizdun gains no benefit, but this new Dark God does this on its own for its own demented pleasure harkening back to the desires of the evil god's mind that accidentally spawned it. Eventually, the PCs will have to go to Greyhawk to unravel some of the mysteries of how the Dark God came to be and find items from followers of Tharizdun that they will be able to use to defeat the Dark god and prevent it from entering the Realms.
So, I kind of need them connected...
But that's my story and I'm sticking to it...
The One Warlock
The PCs in my primarily FR run have often been thrust into the planes to achieve this or that bit of prophecy and thus possess that expanded worldview, though they are always learning.
In the end, the connectedness is integral to my campaign plot - while various overgods (like Ao) can generally ban gods from access to their Crystal Sphere, my plot centers around a variation of Tharizdun, from Greyhawk - Tharizdun is trapped in eternal stasis, but he dreams - his godly dream however is not trapped and has taken on a vile life of its own, a corrupting shadow of Tharizdun. It has found that it can enter other primes through the realm of dreams without needing an overgod's permission - and once it has followers, seeks to corrupt and finally enter the world as a physical form to devour it. Tharizdun gains no benefit, but this new Dark God does this on its own for its own demented pleasure harkening back to the desires of the evil god's mind that accidentally spawned it. Eventually, the PCs will have to go to Greyhawk to unravel some of the mysteries of how the Dark God came to be and find items from followers of Tharizdun that they will be able to use to defeat the Dark god and prevent it from entering the Realms.
So, I kind of need them connected...
But that's my story and I'm sticking to it...
The One Warlock
The_Warlock
Explorer
Oh, and common is more dialect-like across those worlds, and several others, but not all. With the concept from several old sources of a great multi-prime spanning illithid empire in the far distant past, certain primes have similar language bases which have slowly diverged over the years. But I generally require travelers from those 3 worlds to get about 50% of the common they speak - and they can get the simple gist without skill points if they spend a few months there, or can spend the points and learn it as a clear language.
But the overarching planar great wheel cosmology has had a stabilizing effect on many of those languages simply because travelers, even if they haven't said they are from other worlds, have been crossing those spaces for milennia and since most are powerful, magnetic individuals, they have left rather indelible marks on cultures and linguistics.
The One Warlock
But the overarching planar great wheel cosmology has had a stabilizing effect on many of those languages simply because travelers, even if they haven't said they are from other worlds, have been crossing those spaces for milennia and since most are powerful, magnetic individuals, they have left rather indelible marks on cultures and linguistics.
The One Warlock
Let's see. Way back when during 1E and 2E, I never really linked Krynn to other worlds, nor did we allow much in the way of plane-hopping in our DragonLance games - just didn't fit the feel. The exception is when we very first started the DL modules, we played our own characters rather than the pregenned group, and they came from Greyhawk on a one-way trip.
Travel between FR and Greyhawk was possible, but not well defined, it basically happened on DM whim. For the most part, we found there was enough stuff within those settings that we didn't have to mix them, and most of the time when a DM (mostly me) wanted an alternate world, he wanted something farther afield then just the other standard D&D setting.
Similarly, when we played Spelljammer, we concentrated on the spacegoing stuff and more or less ignored any of the established worlds. We never had a rule that they weren't connected, but that connection never played any kind of role that I can remember. Ditto Planescape, though I didn't play that as much - the action was on the outer planes, we didn't specify or care exactly which primes were connected.
Nowadays, my campaigns are almost always homebrews. I steal whatever parts of Greyhawk, FR, or anything else appeal to me, but I don't specifically place them anywhere in my cosmology. Just like the old days, if I need an alternate world, I figure I should use something REALLY different, and the relatively standard worlds don't cut it.
Travel between FR and Greyhawk was possible, but not well defined, it basically happened on DM whim. For the most part, we found there was enough stuff within those settings that we didn't have to mix them, and most of the time when a DM (mostly me) wanted an alternate world, he wanted something farther afield then just the other standard D&D setting.
Similarly, when we played Spelljammer, we concentrated on the spacegoing stuff and more or less ignored any of the established worlds. We never had a rule that they weren't connected, but that connection never played any kind of role that I can remember. Ditto Planescape, though I didn't play that as much - the action was on the outer planes, we didn't specify or care exactly which primes were connected.
Nowadays, my campaigns are almost always homebrews. I steal whatever parts of Greyhawk, FR, or anything else appeal to me, but I don't specifically place them anywhere in my cosmology. Just like the old days, if I need an alternate world, I figure I should use something REALLY different, and the relatively standard worlds don't cut it.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
