D&D (2024) The Multiverse in the 2024 Players Handbook

[Micah Sweet]

Really? Few if any PHBs have given that information.

The last one for this edition did, at least the gods.

 

[Chaltab]

Fair enough. I don't really care about WotC's opinion.

To be fair I think its generally true beyond WOTC and its games. A shared world has value to players for establishing baseline expectations.

 

[Micah Sweet]

To be fair I think its generally true beyond WOTC and its games. A shared world has value to players for establishing baseline expectations.

Not if the company that owns that game keeps changing the baseline expectations to suit their own needs. That's why I no longer care about WotC's opinion on the matter.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Players who want to run clerics (or paladins) might disagree with this.

Why, what deities the world has is decided by the DM.

Like a player deciding that Lathander sounds like a good god for them, doesn't really work out if the DM's game is in a world that does not feature Lathander.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Not if the company that owns that game keeps changing the baseline expectations to suit their own needs. That's why I no longer care about WotC's opinion on the matter.

Out of curiosity here, what baselines have been changed that concern you so much.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Really? Few if any PHBs have given that information.

Looked through the stuff before and through AD&D, and yeah nothing. Didn't have a 3rd and 4th ed PHB to check, but 5th ed does. I could have sworn 3rd ed did. Perhaps someone with an available book can check. Of course, I thought 2E did but nope.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Out of curiosity here, what baselines have been changed that concern you so much.

My preferred lore is late 2e, for all setting that existed at the time (I don't have a real stake in settings that came later, like Eberron). I have made an exception for 4e's Feywild and Shadowfell (the latter being just a re-named Demiplane of Shadow as far as I'm concerned). 3e didn't change that status quo enough for me to care, and other than the aforementioned exception, I ignored 4e's lore or wrote it off as a different setting. PoLand actually works great for me if I think of it that way.

I was able to pretend things hadn't changed much for the early years of 5e as well (although I never liked most of their added lore). However, when I heard that they longer felt any narrative obligation to at least try to hold to canon, and followed that up with the IMO atrocious (from a lore perspective) VRGtR and the less so but still troubling Spelljammer and Dragonlance books, I decided I no longer had any desire to chase that comet. This luckily coincided with the development of Level Up, giving me an escape vector on which I could sell my players.

 

[Shardstone]

They are discussed (from Chapter 2 of the 2014 DMG):

Spoiler: Plane of Ash

Between the Sea of Fire (on the Plane of Fire) and the Sirocco Straits is a towering firestorm called the Great Conflagration, sometimes called the Plane of Ash. Howling winds from the Plane of Air mix with the cinder storms and lava of the Plane of Fire to create an endless storm front — a wall of flames, smoke, and ash. The thick ash obscures sight beyond a few dozen feet, and the battering winds make travel difficult. Here and there, ash clusters into floating realms where outlaws and fugitives take shelter.

Spoiler: Plane of Ooze

The border region between the planes of Water and Earth is a horrid swamp where twisted, gnarled trees and thick, stinging vines grow from the dense muck and slime. Here and there within the Swamp of Oblivion (also called the Plane of Ooze), stagnant lakes and pools play host to thickets of weeds and monstrous swarms of mosquitoes. The few settlements here consist of wooden structures suspended above the muck. Most are built on platforms between trees, but a few stand on stilts driven deep into the muck. No solid earth underlies the mud of the swamp, so houses built on poles eventually sink down into it.

Spoiler: Plane of Magma

A great range of volcanic mountains called the Fountains of Creation is home to azers. These rocky peaks curl from the edge of the Plane of Earth around the Cinder Wastes toward the fiery heart of the plane. At the edge of the plane, the mountains are also called the Plane of Magma. Fire giants and red dragons make their homes here, as well as creatures from the neighboring planes

Spoiler: Plane of Ice

The Frostfell, also called the Plane of Ice, forms the border between the planes of Air and Water and is a seemingly endless glacier swept by constant, raging blizzards. Frozen caverns twist through the Plane of Ice, home to yetis, remorhazes, white dragons, and other creatures of cold. The inhabitants of the plane engage in a never-ending battle to prove their strength and ensure their survival.

These sound sick, would have loved an adventure anthology about them.

 

[Parmandur]

These sound sick, would have loved an adventure anthology about them.

The Elemental planes as a distinct Setting would make a lot of sense, I've always thought.

 

[mamba]

That's DMG stuff.

so are the planes as far as I am concerned