Oerth/Toril/Krynn connectivity. Are they still linked in your campaign?

[Dehmner the Scarred]

what's oerth?

well, i've been playing DnD since 1979 and have played in all of the aformentioned worlds. conversely, my players began playing DnD about one year before 3rd edition, so they have no idea (and probably don't care)about past editions or other "worlds". but in the big picture, it don't matter at all cuz they spend most of their time flitting from one plane to another.

 

[Pants]

Well....
I've never really played in a game where it came up, nor have I DMed a game where it came up, but if I were to do that, I'd say 'No.'
It was a stupid idea then and it's a stupid idea now. If someone REALLY, REALLY wanted to travel to one of those Primes, they'd have to venture deep into the Plane of Shadow.

 

[Shemeska]

Yes, I happily have the various primes connected in a common multiverse, and it's a joy to have that connectivity. Despite being new to DnD in 3e I prefer that common 2e multiverse to the 3e vogue of 'every prime is seperate regardless of all the sudden continuity issues'. The old way was much more elegant.

 

[Zappo]

Technically yes; I run a Planescape campaign and those worlds and more are some of the various primes. However, I don't play up this connectivity. First of all, there are huge differences in style between them and Planescape, and giving any sort of focus to a detailed Prime would probably spoil the mood. I've made a crossover Planescape/Dragonlance campaign and it was a mess; from a style point of view, I was forced to choose between butchering Dragonlance or butchering Planescape. One smouldering Krynn later, we started a pure Planescape campaign and a pure Dragonlance campaign. I think this is one of the reasons for which many 2E players hated Planescape.

Besides, unlike our favorite arcanaloth , I frankly hate the idea of Planescape being a "glue" setting. IMO, it gives people the idea that its purpose is to connect the other settings, make crossovers, or give prime adventurers some planar stuff to do. Not only this is false, but the setting is extremely ill-suited to do this sort of things. People get this idea, then try to implement it, fail horribly and then decide that they dislike Planescape, without realizing that they have never actually played it.

 

[glass]

I voted other:

I am leaning towards the idea of using Beyond Countless Doorways for the cosmology of my homebrew, once I have found the cash to pick it up . So Oerth, Toril of Krynn (or Sigil or Barovia) could easily be behind one of those doorways. On the other hand, they may not be. It all depends on whether I come up with a cool idea for a crossover.


glass.

 

[glass]

EDIT: ooh, my first double post. I feel like I belong now.

 

[MetalBard]

Posted in the wrong place yesterday, but it's here now

I see the "new" FR cosmology as a "best guess" by sages as to how all the planes are connected. Essentially basing it off of alternative planar pathways from the main Planescape ones. That way all my 2nd Realms/Planescape campaigns work with the 3rd edition ones I'm doing now. That covers how Oerth and Toril are connected. With all the Dragonlance stuff going on now (what with Takhisis dead and Paladine mortal) I see Krynn being connected to Oerth and Toril only through the Shadow Plane. Those Ansalonians are just more clueless than your average berk...

Oh yeah, final little jab... I liked Soth WAYYY better in Ravenloft than in Dragonlance. James Lowder just treated him right. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Psion]

Krynn was always ignored by me.

FR/Toril was sort of hard to ignore since they had so much source material.

Oerth was pretty much always there, especially since some PS things (e.g., dead gods) referred directly to it.

Really, I made my own campaign world my primary "prime" world of reference and would continue to do so. If some FR fan wanted to use some FR material, I wouldn't have a problem with it (albeit that in 3e, Toril's cosmology was different, which I always found a somewhat inexplicable and gratuitous change). Krynn would still be right out.

 

[Pants]

Besides, unlike our favorite arcanaloth , I frankly hate the idea of Planescape being a "glue" setting. IMO, it gives people the idea that its purpose is to connect the other settings, make crossovers, or give prime adventurers some planar stuff to do. Not only this is false, but the setting is extremely ill-suited to do this sort of things. People get this idea, then try to implement it, fail horribly and then decide that they dislike Planescape, without realizing that they have never actually played it.

Yeah, it works much better as its own setting, especially since the various Primes DO NOT mesh well together. Personally, I think PS stands better on its own, when you do your best to ignore the Prime (s).

 

[wingsandsword]

Heck yes!

I was always a big fan of the "One Big Multiverse" concept, it seemed to make the whole thing more "real" and fleshed out than a series of disconnected separate worlds. I like the idea that all the common campaign worlds are off in their own crystal spheres, connected by spelljamming and planewalking (and Ravenloft is a demiplane, so that counts as planewalking). The 3e planar cosmology is simply clueless berk nonsense IMHO, the sort of thing they laugh at in Sigil. In my FR game, Oerth and Krynn (and Aebrynis if I really feel like digging up the books) are all out there, and can be reached by astral or ethereal planes (or a proper Plane Shift fork, portal, or other means).

As for languages, I run "common" as being common to a region or continent. FR is my preferred setting, and "Common" is the trade language of the surface of Faerun. There is also Undercommon as a trade language, and every region has it's actual local language (Alzhedho, Chondathan ect.). Elsewhere on the world on other continents, other languages are the common tongue, like Shou or Midani. Planar Common in my game is a pigdin of the elemental and outsider languages (Ignan, Aquan, Terran, Auran, Celestial, Infernal and Demonic), and it's spoken throughout the planes as a trade/common language, and it's also the default language of other intersphere travellers like spelljammers. If someone from Faerun ends up on Ansalon, they'll find their "common" is nonsense, but if they happen to know Draconic, or one of those elemental/planar languages, they're constants.

This "off in it's own cosmology, not tied in any way" bit is one of the things that really turns me away from Eberron, if it has to be shoehorned so much to fit into the normal D&D view of the planes that it isn't the same setting, I really don't feel like devoting time/effort/money to it.

I'd like to tie in Mystara too, but it's cosmology is as wacky and unconnected to the wheel as Eberron, but I'd really like to find a way to shoehorn in Immortals as low-ranked deities and it's cosmology as mostly a network of demiplanes, but that's really stretching things.