D&D 5E The D&D Multiverse How it Was and How They Might Be Screwing it Up.

[Zardnaar]

Now there have been multiple threads about Ravnica and how things in the D&D multiverse works and there has been a few wrong assumptions made by multiple sides. I have actually played things like Spelljammer, Darksun, PLanescape and Eberron + a few other as back in the 90's our group had most of the boxed sets but we focused on different setting. ABC had Darksun, XYZ had Ravenloft, EFG had Birthright etc.

Put simply overall the D&D settings have always been connected to some extent going back to the 80's when they 1st started explicitly linking them up.
However this does not mean they are all part of the same multiverse and by that I mean they have a different planatr system than the Great Wheel or the system 4E used.

The guts of the D&D cosmology was Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Krynn. They were explicitly linked up in 1989's Spelljammer set and feature in that setting. The other meta setting was Planescape. While Planescape has its fans one thing that annopyed fans of other settings was PLanescape did nto exactly follow established lore and had a tendency to over right the fluff from other settings. Note that at the time in TSR there was no over all products or project leader or quality control. A lot of the work was done by freelancers who could not be consistent within the settings let alone between them. For example in the original Darksun material the world is cut off and only 1 being has managed to cross the barrier between the worlds in the last 1000-2000 years. The original Darksun material also included planar cosmology that is not great wheel but you see reference to Athas turning up in Planescape products. As originally written the following worlds had their own cosmology.

Darksun
Mystara
Eberron
Nerath

The following settings were explicitly part of the D&D Great Wheel multiverse

Greyhawk
Dragonlance
Forgotten Realms
Spelljammer

Ravenloft was a demiplane in a way like Sigil, any setting was kind of connected there. Not sure about Birthright from memory it was part of the Great Wheel, Al Qadim and Karatur are part of Toril so they are as well.

So the D&D settings have been somewhat interconnected for a long time, some more than others for example you could not Spelljam to Athas by the lore (my group did we did not know any better it ended badly when The Dragon seized their metal shipment good for Ur Draxa). But to get from one setting to another you had to use Planescape, Spelljammer or something else if you were on Athas or one of the other worlds. Either way there was not a massive amount of travel between the worlds with the Spelljammer one being an exception perhaps as you might run trade ships between FR, DL and GH for example to a much greater extent than Planescape.

Now this changed with 3E as FR got its own cosmology that lasted all of one edition and 5E is now FRs 4th cosmology change (Great wheel to Great Tree to 4E version and back to a changed great wheel). This is a prime reason why I wish they would just pick something and stay with it. The great wheel might not be perfect but if you want to change it just make a campaign setting that doesn't use it rather than wreck what is already there. If you liked Nerath/4E system and don't like the idea of it being shoehorned into the Great Wheel (or the equivalent) its basically the same reason why people did not like 4E wrecking the preexisting fluff.

To me diversity means different not homogenisation. I liked Ravnica in MtG and I liked Eberron as well but now we have a cosmopolitan setting where anything goes and another cosmopolitan setting where anything goes and FR which is also a setting where everything goes. I hope they don't do this with Darksun as apart from changing the environment it would be more of the same. Ravnica and Eberron also both have magitech elements (Izzet and Simic guild in Ravnica).

Even back in the 2E days the settings were really very different. Ravenloft is that gothic vibe, Darksun was fairly unique, Spelljammer was fairly gonzo. Why buy 3 kitchen sink settings is I feel now although Ravnica might potentially be the most interesting one. I'm not a massive fan of Ravenloft or Dragonlance for example but I would rather have them do their own unique thing than dumb it down and let its fans enjoy it than change it so it fits in to my tastes.

I hope they don't connect Ravnica to the D&D universe, they probably will though. I don't think we need another cosmopolitan planar city in the same universe as Sigil and I am not even a massive fan of Planescape. Ravnica as a setting sure why not but I would prefr it set apart form the D&D multiverse (along with Darsun, Nerath, Eberron, Mystara etc).

 

[Valetudo]

Honestly, my only complaint about ravnica is that its alot like planescape, atleast on the surface. But Im willing to give it a look when it is released. Just remember, you dont have to use it the way they wrote it. Most of their settings are in need of personal touches.

 

[jgsugden]

They will connect Ravnica. See the end of the recent Sage Advice video.

There are infinite Crystal Spheres in the PMP. Per the books, every Homebrew campaign takes place in a different sphere. Even more, you can teleport from Sphere to Sphere, usually. They're all in the PMP, afterall.

It isn't a problem to have too many... you just don't choose to use the ones that do not appeal to you. It doesn't ruin my trip to Baskin Robbins because they have 32 flavors (count them). I pick the ones I like and everything is fine. I do not need to worry that there is a bubble gum kiwi flavor that doesn't appeal to me.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Honestly, my only complaint about ravnica is that its alot like planescape, atleast on the surface. But Im willing to give it a look when it is released. Just remember, you dont have to use it the way they wrote it. Most of their settings are in need of personal touches.

To be honest, Ravnica is only like Planescape if you think "Planescape = Sigil". That's the only thing it has in common with the Planescape setting. Now, if it were Dominaria, which has been canonically described as "The Nexus of the (MtG) Multiverse", then you might have a reason to feel that way.

Ravnica is more like Sharn or Waterdeep than anything. The only thing it has remotely in common with Sigil is that it doesn't adhere to Gygaxian humanocentrism, so it has a large, diverse array of races, ranging from giants, ogres, trolls and cyclopes, to ghosts, "angels" and "demons" (which are NOT like the outsiders of D&D), to gorgons, elephant-folk, lizardfolk, centaurs, minotaurs and other, weirder things.

 

[Zardnaar]

At least Ravnica is one of the better mtg worlds.

 

[Ancalagon]

Honestly, my only complaint about ravnica is that its alot like planescape, atleast on the surface. But Im willing to give it a look when it is released. Just remember, you dont have to use it the way they wrote it. Most of their settings are in need of personal touches.

I can't remember if I said this to you or someone else in another thread (if it was you I apologize) but they are similar ... in the same way pizza and apple pie are similar. They both are circular food that is baked, with a wheat based crust, sauce and toppings, and that is served in slices. I'm certainly no expert in either, but from what I do know, I think that saying that they are as similar as pie and pizza is a good assessment

I'm looking forward to it, although the odds of me actually *running* it is low.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Per Jeremy Crawford for 5E D&D: all the D&D worlds are on the same material plane and you only need a sufficiently powerful Teleport spell or Teleportation Circle to travel between them. The Planeshift spell will not take you from the Realms to any of the other settings, only to the higher and lower Planes. And that is the way I prefer it. I love the idea of a magical version of a Stargate connecting various fantasy worlds together.

 

[Zardnaar]

Per Jeremy Crawford for 5E D&D: all the D&D worlds are on the same material plane and you only need a sufficiently powerful Teleport spell or Teleportation Circle to travel between them. The Planeshift spell will not take you from the Realms to any of the other settings, only to the higher and lower Planes. And that is the way I prefer it. I love the idea of a magical version of a Stargate connecting various fantasy worlds together.

That's new. Never used to be able to teleport between worlds.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

That's new. Never used to be able to teleport between worlds.

He tweeted about it a couple of days ago:

https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1022240968647442432

Here is the text, for those not wanting to look at Twitter:

"The different worlds of the Material Plane are, indeed, on the same plane of existence. Teleportation is possible between the worlds, but the DM decides whether such travel is reliable/safe and whether sigil sequences are available for teleportation circles."

 

[The Big BZ]

I disagree completely! I love the vast connected but differentness and if they were’t Connected I would just connect them. Do I want to set my campaign in Ebberon? No. But do I want to go there for a couple of sessions? Sure. And my bet is that they will all be connected in an overarching cosmology because it makes narrative and business sense. “Yay! Everything is connected!” is so much easier to explain than “X, Y and Z are connected but not B or C”.