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

[Jupp]

We have them all linked in some way except Ravenloft which is a bit special.

Krynn, Oerth and Toril are all connected through Spelljammer, the Infinite Staircase and Planescape portals, Ravenloft is only accessibly through the mist.

Which means that I dont use 3/3.5e cosmology but the ways of 1e/2e because IMO it makes for far nicer storylines if you include such things as Spelljammer or the Infinite Staircase. And who would miss such a cool setting as Planescape, the 2e version naturally

For the sake of simplicity I use "common" as a universal language that is spoken throughout the multiverse. I mean, there are better ways to complicate the life of your players than having them to constantly read the planar version of a DuPont dictionary.

Should I ever consider to take a look at Eberron I will probably dismiss the fact that it is somehow not connected to anything and just put it into the whole connection scheme described above.

 

[Pants]

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'm surprised that you like Krynn then...

 

[wingsandsword]

I'm surprised that you like Krynn then...

Krynn isn't my favorite world, but I've never seen any problem with it and the Great Wheel. Admittedly, all my roleplaying with that setting has either been in the old DL modules, with no real planar aspect, or as part of a Planescape game where that setting was already fitted in and elements of Krynn showed up (like misinformed planar travellers who thought that all the outer planes were the Abyss).

The old 2e AD&D multiverse presumed Krynn was part of the same cosmology, they just didn't interact with other planes that much, and they were less informed about the structure of the planes than most prime worlds (and didn't care much about most planar destinations). Within the books of a setting, they can say one thing, but in the "crossover" settings like Planescape and Spelljammer they say something else, but the two can be fitted together if you presume that the first setting didn't fully understand cosmology. Removing that built-in intercompatibility with Eberron is one thing that just sours me (although those ideas put forth in another thread on how to retcon them together sound intriquing), planewalking is as fundamental to my personal concept of D&D as dungeon crawls and blasting orcs with Fireballs.

 

[Trickstergod]

I like my campaign settings to be the center of their respective settings. Sort of.

If I'm running a Dragonlance game, for example, chances are the planes aren't going to be dealt with at all. A Forgotten Realms or other such game also likely won't deal too much with the planes. They probably won't be completely absent, but the way I'll run the planes will definitely make it seem like the campaign setting is the center of the planes respective universe. There's a reason the prime material plane is called the prime material plane, after all, and the other are inner or outer respective to it. As such, while planar travel might occur in, say, a Forgotten Realms game, other campaign settings probably won't feature into it. Well, excluding Planescape; but it'll be run in such a way that it all centers around, essentially, the prime material plane. Even the gods and the like that crop up likely won't be ones foreign to the setting. If they do, chances are they will be with a deity that very strongly parallels one already present in the setting - say, something like introducing Krynn's Paladine in a setting that makes use of Bahamut, or the like.

As for a Planescape game itself...I wouldn't deal with the prime material plane very much at all. I'd allow a character concept from probably just about anywhere and might make use of a number of NPC's who come from multiple settings, but the prime material plane itself would be lacking beyond that. If I'm playing Planescape, I'm playing Planescape, which means Sigil, the various gate towns, the planes themselves, factions and the like. Not Toril or Oerth or the like.

Although with that said, I do make it a point of letting my players know that your average planar resident is just as clueless about the planes, excluding the one lived in (and that goes for natives of Sigil, too), as any prime. I use the analogy of Sigil to New York; both are highly cosmopolitan in their make up, but that doesn't mean the natives of either are particularly savvy to the world - or planes - about them. So that mutual ignorance helps to get around some of the interconnectivity problems as well as avoiding dealing with the prime overly much for a Planescape game.

Not to mention that, in light of the plethora of language differences, anyone who calls a Krynn native a git for calling Baator the Abyss or what not, is a right ignorant fool...

Anyway, starting to ramble.

So, yeah, there's some interconnectivity. But not to the point that it matters. If I'm running Eberron, I'm running Eberron, not Planescape or Greyhawk or what not. It's planar set up is all that matters. If I'm running Planescape, well, the planar set up of other campaign settings doesn't matter, anyway, as the characters almost assuredly won't be traveling to the prime material plane and there's both a mutual ignorance on planar and prime natives not to mention the planes are, well, infinite anyway, so inconsistencies don't matter and might provide some interesting discussions between PC's and NPC's.

And as an aside, I view Planescape through a Sandman/Neil Gaiman lens, anyway. If that means anything to anyone.

Oh and as a parting note: I don't use Spelljammer at all. I hate it with a passion. The heavens tend to be rather literally that for my games - the planes beyond.

Now off with me.

 

[Voadam]

My current pnp pc started out in 2e in a homebrew setting, found spelljamming, went to the Rock of Bral, then Krynn, then Toril, then joined another campaign where he entered through a moorcockian dream plane portal, then back to this campaign where the other one was literally just a dream, went to Ravenloft and then got pulled into a 3e post apocalyptic Grayhawk/Ptolus world where he is now. I'm also DMing in that world now while the primary DM takes a break.

As a DM I ran Grayhawk with a planar travel to a Celtic world, then pulled into Ravenloft, with some PCs coming from Toril and Dark Sun then a temporary escape to Taladas on Krynn.

So yes, I have them and others linked in my games.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Other: They could be reached through the Deep Shadow, through Gates in Sigil or through Wildspace. But I haven't had a plane-hopping campaign so far, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Arnwyn]

Do the worlds of Oerth, Toril, and Krynn still share the Great Wheel cosmology (and/or the Phlogiston) in your campaign? (Did you ever connect them in the first place?)

Yes, they still are (well, kinda). I've always enjoyed Ed Greenwood's "Wizards Three" articles in Dragon magazine (even though he botched Dalamar), and I use Planescape and Spelljammer, so I've stuck with it.

With that said, I'm not having my FR PCs able to go to GH or DL, and I'm probably not too interested in having the PCs meet anyone from those places, either.

So, really, it's all theoretical.

Also, how do you explain how a traveller from Oerth can go to Toril or Krynn and be able to speak/understand the Common language of the natives without any problem? Is the Common-tongue multiversal?

IMC, I've ruled that the Common tongue is indeed multiversal, but with accents, which I denote for each language: Common (Faerunian) [actually, a bit more complicated IMC], Common (Planar), Common (Oerthian), Common (Krynnish), etc.

But, again, it's all academic IMC.