Kamikaze Midget said:
The fact that WotC wants to over-define and over-specify this doesn't bode well for the MM, IMO.
Well, first off we have no idea what they're going to do. "Multiverse" could simply be a way to talk about the worlds of D&D, not necessarily imply a common connected cosmology in game (e.g. the term "multiverse" might never see in-character use in many D&D games). The Great Wheel will be a default cosmology (according to James Wyatt in the January 2014 article). That doesn't mean that default will be used for Eberron. Or that Sigil will be stripped of its glorious Planescape-ishness.
Savage Wombat said:
There is a difference between "keeping Planescape it's own thing" and "cutting out everything that might remind some people of Planescape".
Nicely put.
Here's what I'd like to see...
Great Wheel is the default cosmology. It is used for Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and perhaps other settings.
Settings like Eberron have their own unique cosmologies.
The DMG provides guidelines for a DM to invent his or her own cosmology, and the DMG/MotP expands on variant cosmologies.
Sigil, the factions, the unique themes of Planescape, the really weird abstract planar stuff, and perhaps the Blood War are included in the MotP *only* if the unique Planescape flavor is preserved. Otherwise, if this is not possible, they instead appear in a Planescape product (whether an official WotC release, a licensed product, or an official fan site Planewlaker.com creation).
pemerton said:
But once you put in the cosmological machinery in which the lower planes are as real as the upper planes, their gods as real, their afterlives as real, etc, then it becomes much harder to write off evil priests as "invalid" or otherwise in error.
Ok, I see your perspective. I'd always DMed it that planars, more than primes, know just what the eternal rewards for compassion and avarice and hate are. In other words, knowing that for being tyrannical one in life is likely to end up in Baator in death (or traitorous and in Carceri, etc.) Thus, planars (not speaking about fiends here) are more likely to (a) tend toward Goodness or Neutrality, or (b) justify their Evil beliefs to themselves in a way that makes them appear not Evil in their own minds. After all, eternity as lemure or larvae (even with a slim chance of becoming a fiend) isn't attractive to most planars.
pemerton said:
A providential conception of morality leaves plenty of room for moral complexity. What it doesn't have room for is the objective cosmological truth of the parity of good and evil. Which is what you get in the Great Wheel and Planescape.
That's interesting. I've always had providential morality, moral complexity/ambiguity, and the Great Wheel side-by-side in my Planescape games. Maybe I'm misunderstanding providential morality, but basically "goodness is the better way & it's more satisfying to be a hero" was part of my Planescape group's style (with some gnarly moral dilemmas & lots of planewalking the Great Wheel).
Neon Chameleon said:
It's the symmetry of the setting which leads to "Football team morality". Evil is just as valid a part of the wheel as Good and you just happen to be on different sides.
That those people are the bad guys you kill because they support a set of Gods on a different place on the Wheel to yours. And the Gods of Evil are just doing their part in the universe, as are their supporters. Balance is king means (as the Great Wheel implies) means that you can't meaningfully change things in the long run.
I guess I tend to be influenced by Ed the pathologist's blog
Li Po's Guide to the Multiverse which has a Christian bent to it. To say that "all morality is relative" or "the Gods of Evil are just doing their part" or "my contribution is small and insignificant in the face of Chaos vs. Law and Good vs. Evil" misses the point.
When an angel and a devil share a drink at a tavern none of their cosmological opposition goes away. The devil is still evil to its core, seeking to corrupt, subvert, and dominate all that it touches. The angel is still good to its core, seeking to uplift, redeem, and purify all that it touches. They just learn to do this in a subtler way that outright violence when in Sigil. They're not opposed because of the geographic positioning of Mount Celestia and Baator; they're opposed because their ideals/beliefs are fundamentally opposed (and *then* everything else evolves out of that). The devil isn't some kind of anti-hero; it is evil incarnate. Yet it being evil incarnate doesn't mean that your PCs won't end up relying on that devil for information or help at some point.
Good is not depicted as a monolithic force in PS, and even within each plane there are conflicts among similarly aligned creatures. There were some good examples of that in the "Planes of..." boxed sets.
One of the conceits of PS was that things *do* change dramatically. Factions rise and fall, gods die, planes shift and lose realms to each other, the Lady of Pain didn't always have control over the Mazes, and the Blood War has nearly been won in the past. Maybe an adventurer's impact is small in the grand scheme of things at low- and mid-levels, but that doesn't mean it's not meaningful to the PC, the player, and the small part of the setting they do impact.