Other Worlds/Planes BUT DIFFERENTLY!

[Roman]

In standard D&D cosmology and most other cosmologies created for D&D and d20 (in fact, all that I know about, but than again - my breath of knowledge on this topic is not particularly great) other worlds or other planes are basically material planes based on common physical concepts (there is still the concept of matter, there is the concept of space, characters and creatures there still have bodies, etc.), but with a theme attached to each of the worlds.

Has anobody tried something different - where in another world/plane of existence you do not have a body and things are just far more different than in the more 'standard' cosmologies? I would like to do something along these lines but am at the moment unsure where to start.

 

[DragonSword]

I've only ever run one campaign involving planes, I tend to stay clear of them. Although, I might be tempted to run one again, it was quite fun...

 

[S'mon]

I have a Spirit World that can only be entered by the spirit of the traveller, through a meditative ritual, not physically. In this world people's 'true' nature can be seen, usually as animal spirits, and the spirit-traveller can talk to them via their dreams.

 

[Funeris]

I would suggest you take a look at WizarDru's SH. At least the last few posts. His PCs travelled to the 'Far Realms' I believe where thought could change 'reality'. It was a good few posts. Maybe you can start there.

The cosmology in my homebrew is different from standard DnD cosmology...but it sounds like you're not looking for what I've done. Be prepared to spend MUCH very MUCH time if you are going to change it. Cuz...one or two minor tweaks in reality...and *poof* you're running a completely different game.

 

[Gez]

Has anobody tried something different - where in another world/plane of existence you do not have a body and things are just far more different than in the more 'standard' cosmologies? I would like to do something along these lines but am at the moment unsure where to start.

Somewhat, but not entirely.

Erdelane's cosmology is both simple and complicated, as every cosmology should be.

You have a number of planets. Each planets has an impressive number of ethereal layer, the lowest ethereal layer being our three spatial dimensions -- i.e., the material world.
The layers of higher order have different spacial dimensions, and are thus non-euclidian, and infinite-sized. But they still share most particularities with the planet's material plane.

To travel from one layer to another, you can do the accidental way (finding someplace where the dimensions are torn and folded, letting you exchange one or more of your own spacial perceptions to that of that other layer), or through magic (forcefully swapping your dimensions around).

Where it gets interesting is that, if you go the magic route, you can try anything to replace your perceptions of spacial dimensions. If you decide to replace height, width, and depth by heat, light, and flame, then you arrive in what some would call the Elemental Plane of Fire.

The fun thing is, you aren't in another plane. You are still where you where before. But the only material with which you can interact is fire. The only thing that exists for you is fire.

And all that fire isn't even laid in a fashion that makes sense for you, since instead of being located geographically, with a big flame where your chimney is and nothing around, fires are located according to the dimensions you chose -- embers and cinders are sorted through esoteric patterns of heat, light, and flame.

You can choose colors or emotions as dimensions. It can be really weird exploring the "Elemental Plane of the Color Yellow", but you'll be able to grab gold coins and topaz gems, as well as apples and honey.

Avoid exploring the Elemental Plane of Grief, though, it's a depressing place.


Finally, there's the highest ethereal layer of every planet, and of the Empty Sky itself, the Ethereal Void. If you played Ultima Underworld 2, you can have an idea. It's weird, and you explore it more mentally than physically. It's a place of puzzles, enigmas, and raw creation potential.

 

[DonAdam]

Not having space is getting really weird.

I'm wondering if you could do something like have something analogous to space be based on ordinal rather than real numbers.

Of course, Immanuel Kant would say that you would still experience the world spatially. But as he didn't play D&D, we can only half-trust any opinion he has.

If you want something a bit more towards the surreal, though it generally isn't as radical as what you're suggesting, I'll pimp one for a friend...

Joe Miller's Dreamscapes (on rpgnow) gives all kinds of mechanics for dream worlds, but it really can work with all kinds of different planes.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I kind of like the multiverse setup I have for my Kalamar game. It's homebrew - officially Kalamar uses the same setup as the rest of the D&D universe.

Kind of a long read, but this is the basic setup I explained to my players:

Those of you who are pretty familiar with D&D will recognize the concept of the D&D Multiverse. This is a model explaining the different "Planes of Existence" that typically exist in a D&D game. With the appropraite magics, you can travel to different universes, visit the Elemental Plane of Fire, or travel to the 347th layer of the Abyss.

This traditional Multiverse does not exist in the world of the Kingdoms of Kalamar. At least, not in my version of it. The standard D&D planes of existence in no way correlate to the mythos of Kalamar, so I developed a system that does.

In a way, if you have no idea what I've been talking about for the last two paragraphs, you might be at an advantage over the people who do. You are approaching this without prior prejudices.


This is my first major Homebrew rule for this campaign.

There are two primary worlds:

"Tellene," the Real World of everyday existance, and
"Otherworld," the world of spirits and elementals.

Otherworld is a parallel existence that occupies the same space as the real world and parallels it in many ways. The general lay of the land is the same, for instance. In fact, people who have traveled to Otherworld can still see the real world - though the people and things of realty seem ghostlike, hazy, and insubstantial. There are things that exist only in otherworld. This is where the primary elemental forces of nature are spawned. Where you might find a volcano in the real world you might find a city full of Fire Elementals in Otherworld. Things in Otherworld cannot affect the real world, but can affect each other normally. When you enter Otherworld you vanish from the Real World.

It is rumored that Otherworld is a transitional state between the Real World and the Realms of the Gods, and that a diligent enough seeker can find clues to the entrance to their diety's realm by searching for clues in Otherworld. The god's realms are where their worshippers go when they die, and portray what for that religion would be an idyllic world. This, however, is the stuff of legands, and there are no confirmed reports of anybody returning from such a quest.

And strangely enough, different travelers to Otherworld have reported seeing very different things, even from the same starting point... (for more information, put skill points in Knowledge (the planes)).


There is another place, different from the Real World and Otherworld. This is the Realm of Dreams. When you enter the Realm of Dreams (generally through magic), your body stays in the Real World, motionless, alive, and vulnerable. Your consciousness departs, traveling on its own in what appears to be a gray, formless void. Twisted parodies of random objects and creatures appear and disappear randomly. Occasionally other travelers can be seen, or even interacted with.

If you die in the Realm of Dreams, you are transported instantly back to your body with no harm done. Most Wizards regard the Realm of Dreams to be little more than a curiosity, though their are rumors... (for more information, agian, put skill points in Knowledge (the planes)).

These altarations make some changes to the standard rules necessary:

All spells intended for Etherial travel instead transport the character to Otherworld. Unlike the standard notion of "etherialness," you cannot float around in Otherworld. Otherworld can contain creatures and things not in the real world - so travel to it at your own risk.

Spells intended for Astral travel instead transport the character's spirit or consciousness to the Realm of Dreams. There is no "silver cord" rule (so if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it).

The Gate spell will function quite differently, and I recommend you have ranks in Knowledge (the planes) if you want to mess with it.

edit: The notion that Otherworld is different for different people relates to their alignment. As you spend time in Otherworld, you shift towards its opposite extremes, either Good or Evil.

Evil Otherworld is inhabited by Fiends and undead, and the landscape looks blighted, blackened, and twisted. Negative energy pervades the air, and the sun is dark.

Good Otherworld is inhabited by Celestials and similar creatures, the lanscape is pristine and flawless. Positive energy pervades the air. There are no shadows, and objects seem to radiate their own light.

Neutral Otherworld, the one everybody sees initially when they enter the realm, is inhabited by elementals and Fey, and the landscape and natural laws seem similar to the real world.

 

[Funeris]

What you have for Kingdoms of Kalamar...is similar to my homebrew. Don't know if you've played any White Wolf games...but if you do or have...its similar to the Shadowlands from Wraith:The Oblivion.

 

[MerakSpielman]

What you have for Kingdoms of Kalamar...is similar to my homebrew. Don't know if you've played any White Wolf games...but if you do or have...its similar to the Shadowlands from Wraith:The Oblivion.

Haven't played games other than D&D. But it wouldn't surprise me if there's some influence from other games in there. I stole a lot of the ideas from somebody on the Kenzer boards, and modified them from there. Who knows what games they played, or where they stole the ideas from originally.

 

[Li Shenron]

In standard D&D cosmology and most other cosmologies created for D&D and d20 (in fact, all that I know about, but than again - my breath of knowledge on this topic is not particularly great) other worlds or other planes are basically material planes based on common physical concepts (there is still the concept of matter, there is the concept of space, characters and creatures there still have bodies, etc.), but with a theme attached to each of the worlds.

Has anobody tried something different - where in another world/plane of existence you do not have a body and things are just far more different than in the more 'standard' cosmologies? I would like to do something along these lines but am at the moment unsure where to start.

I think the key to success with planes is always to make them different but not too different Different enough that the gaming experience (moving around, interacting with local people, using magic, dying...) is memorable for the players, but not too different to become a burden to run obviously.

I like a lot Gez's and Merak's suggestions, they are very good examples.

In our advantures I like playing with space because that's pretty easy. Just along the lines of "non-euclidean geometries" (but nothing really difficult here), have weird things happen with distance and position on other planes, such as these examples:

Gehenna: the plane is made of 4 infinitely high volcanos; it doesn't matter on which one you're now, it's always in the middle of the other 3; despite the fact that the slope is not vertical, the distance between them is always the same; there is effectively no bottom below

Bytopia: the plane is made of 2 worlds facing each other; each world is a planet (walk enough and you'll be back here), but the distance between the 2 "floors" is about always the same, just like they were flat; there is day and night but no sun between the 2, just a radiance passing through the sky

Arborea: the world is made of infinitely-high trees and jungles, with no top or bottom, and cities are built where plants form a suitably flat area with leaves and canopy

Portal-towns: they exist in 2 planes at the same time, meaning that e.g. from plane 1 the city only has a South entrance, from plane 2 has only a North entrance, but from inside the town you see both exists (you exit on a different plane depending which one you choose); if you just "go around" the town, you're still on the same plane

For instance, IMC the Ethereal plane is always coexistant with the Material and has the same "space density", which means that (1) a point A in MP always correspond to a point A' in EP and (2) distance between two points AB in MP is always the same as distance between two equivalent A'B' in EP.
Otherwise, to make it different, the Plane of Shadows still has property (1), but not (2), and that explains why you can use the PoS to travel faster (or slower if you make a mistake). It also explains why a pebble in MP may corresponds to a mountain in PoS and viceversa.
Finally the Astral Plane doesn't even have property (1), at least not two ways: at every A in MP there's an A'' in AP, but AP has "lots of more points" not corresponding to any in the MP.

Then of course you can play with time, magic and life. Just be sure you don't make common mistakes which lots of authors do, such as first making a world different and them trying to put back the normality. That's what they do for example when they fill outer planes with mortals living among the dead, or when they pretend to place different planes at a fixed distance, which basically turns planes into simply different locations... but if you take away the "extra-spacial" nature of planes, they're not planes anymore!

I to have the feeling that this design mistakes often "trivialize" the planes, that's why I have a nice time overriding them quite freely