Planescape now that other settings have their own cosmology

[Cam Banks]

Yeah, I'll have to read my copy of DL Adventures again but I've heard from some that this book marked the first reference to the Dome of Creation cosmology.

DLA came out in October 1987, Manual of the Planes was July of that year. Prior to this there was no real effort made to incorporate Dragonlance into any single multiverse cosmology; when asked, Tracy Hickman stated that he'd always seen things as being cast in the Dome of Creation/Hidden Vale/Abyss model. That's why we went with that for 3rd edition.

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting came out in between the two, in August. I really don't think much was made back in 1987 of all worlds being connected via the planes or not, at least not in the same way that was done in 2nd edition. The evidence, such as it is, supports multiple points of view, which is why we Krynn-centric designer people go with our self-contained universe and folks who prefer to link them all together with the Great Wheel don't.

Truth is, it's either maintain that Krynn exists in its own cosmology or put up with Planescapers calling Krynnish folk "backwater retards."

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Henry]

Here's a curious question: What do all you Planescape DMs do with Eberron? If you were to travel from Eberron to Irian or Mabar, or Fernia, where would you actually be going?

 

[Desdichado]

I never liked the idea of Planescape being the uniter behind all the campaign settings. Planescape worked best as a setting unto itself, IMO.

So this latest change by WotC formalizes what I pretty much had already been doing when I utilized any Planescape at all.

 

[Trickstergod]

Truth is, it's either maintain that Krynn exists in its own cosmology or put up with Planescapers calling Krynnish folk "backwater retards."

Of course, that's always been one of my beefs with Planescape - the fact that the vast majority of planars are going to be nitwits as well.

I've always used New York City as an analogy to Sigil. New York is one of the more cosmopolitan meeting points for much of the world. It has the UN, a sizable amount of different cultures, draws in quite the number of tourists I'd imagine and all around serves as a decent enough Sigil analogy in my opinion.

And just how worldly and well-educated does anyone think the average New Yorker is in comparison to someone from any other city or town? Or, for that matter, anyone traveling into the city itself from another part of the world?

There was that brief nod to planar's occasionally being dumb with the "Who's Elminster?" comment but, otherwise, it was a bit lacking.

I figure the average citizen of Sigil is about as well-traveled and well-educated as the average New Yorker is. Which is to say that they likely know a good deal about their own city but that the average Sigil citizen is about as knowledgeable about the Elemental Plane of Fire in comparison to a prime as the average New Yorker is knowledgeable about Brazil in comparison to someone from Punxsutawney.

Now, depending on how common one wants to make portals that randomly deposit primes to Sigil, the knowledge of the average prime there will vary. But I generally figure that just randomly stumbling upon a portal to the planes is rare, so most primes in Sigil are semi-educated about the planes because they went there deliberately. And so,on average, make the typical citizen of Sigil look clueless.

Anyway. Just a bit of a gripe.

When I run Planescape, I tend to be all-inclusive with settings (albeit with that caveat in mind).

When I run other settings, I may or may not include Sigil. If I do, the Planescape setting definitely takes a backseat to the main setting - it has to mold itself to the setting I'm using.

 

[Jer]

Here's a curious question: What do all you Planescape DMs do with Eberron? If you were to travel from Eberron to Irian or Mabar, or Fernia, where would you actually be going?

Since I like both Eberron and Planescape, I'd keep them separate - like I did with the Dark Sun material. Eberron has a really unique cosmology where the gods do not physically interact with the world at all. My Planescape games always involved PCs in the mechanations of the Gods and Demons. This is probably because my version of Planescape was played with the Rules Compendium D&D rules and I used the Immortals rules/ideas from the RC D&D book to fill out what went on out on the Outer Planes (modified to fit into the Planescape framework, of course).

Now, I'd allow warforged, shifters, artificers, changelings and other "Eberron" races/classes into my Planescape game if I felt that it was something that would be fun and useful, but I probably wouldn't feel the need to actually make them from Eberron, I'd just add them as races/classes from another plane or Prime world.

 

[Arnwyn]

In answering the poll: No, the WotC settings (and others, IMC) are still tied to my Planescape.

That's theoretical - we use FR, AQ, and KT heavily, but mostly ignore Greyhawk and Krynn other than a few 'easter eggs'... and Eberron doesn't exist at all.

And our Spelljammer does the same.

 

[NiTessine]

I run Planescape with all the worlds on the Prime safely nestled within their own crystal spheres. In practice, this means that there are a lot of PCs and NPCs from Toril and Oerth. Krynn is difficult to access and they don't seem to be too savvy on planar matters. Athas is even harder to get to, and Cerilia has its own problems.

I haven't yet done anything definitive with Eberron, though I suppose it'd fit pretty well into the order of things, and the high-magic nature of the world makes both spelljamming and extensive planar travel possible.

 

[Seeker95]

I picked Other. I don't run Planescape.

 

[Voadam]

Its wierd that Krynn is considered a backwater of planar ignorance. They were all over spelljammer with gnomish contraption ships everywhere.

 

[Henry]

Part of that "Clueless Krynn" business also came from a TSR novel some years back, involving a Krynn farmer who accidentally got mixed up in a crashed spelljamming ship -- was it called "Spelljammer" or something? It involved a Gith, and I think the legendary Spelljammer's Helm.

EDIT: Beyond the Moons! That was it! A snippet from Amazon.com's reviews:

Specifically the book sheds light on Teldin, a simple farmer and war veteran, though a non-combatant (he was a mule skinner), as he makes the leap from "groundling" to spacefarer. By his side, is Gomja, a giff warrior that finds himself stranded on Krynn as a result of his ship's crash landing.