The Planes

[DreamChaser]

Eberron will likely keep its own cosmology as well.

It would be hard to imagine Eberron, in the course of two years, suddenly losing 13 orbiting planes and plopping down into the middle of a great wheel. LOL

I think it is safe to say that no cosmology is going to become core...rather the elements of the cosmology (ethereal, astral, inner, outer) will be presented, perhaps, as others have postulated, with the Great Wheel presented as an example.

The planes of Eberron are on of my favorite parts of the worlds. Very original feeling.

DC

 

[Horacio]

I've always been a Planescape fan, and I would love to see the Grat Wheel as default cosmology. But I have a feeling that it won't be, I think that core books won't have a defined "default cosmology", and that every setting will have their own one (like the new FR's cosmology, or Eberron's one).

Lucky for me, I've my Planescape books and Planewalker.com

 

[Li Shenron]

I love planes, but I think it would be enough if the core would simply define the different TYPES of planes but not the actual ones, and not the general layout of the multiverse. Astral, Ethereal, and Shadow plane are usually needed for lots of spells to exist (or work the way they do), plus at least one outer plane.

 

[DaveMage]

Planes have been removed in 4e since they're just too darn big....

 

[Aloïsius]

Planes have been removed in 4e since they're just too darn big....

Maybe. The DMG will have only 228 pages IIRC. That's nearly 100 less than the 3.5 DMG. And remember, there was nothing about planes in the 3.0 DMG.

 

[Shemeska]

Ideally, we'd have the Great Wheel presented as a world branching meta-setting, linking whatever worlds are out there, including such 3e "special needs children" FR and DL. I don't see it happening unless it's presented in a quasi-seperate Planescape re-release.

With FR being released as the first setting, I'm hoping we might see an epiphany of "yeah, it was a bad idea, but we want to make amends" regarding the 3e FR cosmology. Again I doubt it will happen, but with WotC having reclaimed all of the 2e settings from 3rd parties, and the increasing reference of non-"core" pantheons and settings in such books as FC:I and FC:II, and in Dragon/Dungeon, we might see a return to a true setting-spanning multiverse in 4e. Be still my beating heart.

We'll see.

 

[Shade]

Ideally, we'd have the Great Wheel presented as a world branching meta-setting, linking whatever worlds are out there, including such 3e "special needs children" FR and DL. I don't see it happening unless it's presented in a quasi-seperate Planescape re-release.

With FR being released as the first setting, I'm hoping we might see an epiphany of "yeah, it was a bad idea, but we want to make amends" regarding the 3e FR cosmology. Again I doubt it will happen, but with WotC having reclaimed all of the 2e settings from 3rd parties, and the increasing reference of non-"core" pantheons and settings in such books as FC:I and FC:II, and in Dragon/Dungeon, we might see a return to a true setting-spanning multiverse in 4e. Be still my beating heart.

We'll see.

Indeed. And since they've apparently ditched the 3e philosophy of limiting the number of campaign settings, this might once again be feasible.

My fingers are firmly crossed.