Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwinBahamut" data-source="post: 4633610" data-attributes="member: 32536">This is a fair point, but you also have to keep something in mind: I never have seen a proper Planescape book in my life. You can criticize me for judging the setting so harshly without ever seeing an actual setting book for it, but I can counter that by asking you how I could possibly get a good feel for the setting in the first place. I started playing D&D at the same time 3E was launched, and by that time the actual Planescape setting was already an old, probably out-of-print product.Instead, I got treated to the 3E Manual of the Planes, which carried over all of the traditional concepts of Planescape, without whatever details you think redeems the setting/cosmology. After all, they didn't just reprint all of the old stuff and convert it. They held to the ideas of Planescape, like you are asking them to do again, but that is not the same thing as keeping Planescape alive. Ultimately, the only parts of Planescape that continue to persist past the 2E era are those "contrived one-line descriptors".I guess, the question is: "Why hold to tradition and keep propagating the ideas of Planescape's Great Wheel, if the actual details that made the setting good are not being continued as well?" At this point, trying to limit 4E cosmology to Planescape merely locks new players into playing a cosmology that is only really fun and useable for the people who have been playing since the 1E or 2E days.On a totally different note, I will claim that, even at the "one-line descriptor" level, the 4E cosmology is better than the Great Wheel cosmology. The four main planes of the new cosmology have very strong mythological resonance and numerous other advantages. On the other hand, the core assumptions and nature of the Great Wheel often weakens and distorts the ability of the players and DM to understand the game world using their own experiences and preconceptions, since it is so unusual, abstract, and overly symmetrical. For example, the Blood War is inherently a bad idea for a core setting assumption because the idea of an absolute separation between "demons" and "devils" is very weird to someone unfamiliar with D&D, let alone the idea that this difference is somehow more important to the demons and devils than the battle between good and evil. On the other hand, the idea of a "world of the dead" like the Shadowfell is seen everywhere in myth and fantasy, so it is easily comprehensible and thus more easily adaptable and usable.</blockquote>

Verification