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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ripzerai" data-source="post: 5625122" data-attributes="member: 38324">My problem with the idea of outer planes "bleeding" together is that it makes gate-towns less important. Why use the creative and complex portals found throughout the planes if you can cross planar boundaries through sheer force of will? You still might want to stop in the various planar trading towns to resupply and find rumors and hirelings, but bargaining with the Master Trader of Tradegate, getting lost in the forest outside of Sylvania, hunting for the ever-changing portal in Xaos, venturing through the dreaded Razorvine Gate in Curst, garnishing the appropriate palms with jink in order to win the requisite papers to get through Ribcage's gate, and so on is to me an important part of the flavor of the planes, and allowing characters to simply walk from one infinite plane of existence to another takes away from all that.So no, I think it's a bad idea. It also takes away from the idea that the portals are DM tools to help steer your PCs in the direction of the plot, if it's possible to planewalk with no portals at all (in the Inner Planes, you need an elemental guide or a plot-specific magical device to get around). Another problem I have with the idea is that if having a personal outlook different from the plane around you is enough for you to slowly find yourself on a neighboring plane, how would a good-aligned party manage to stay on the first layer of the Abyss (or wherever) without continuously falling off? Moving between layers on the same plane, on the other hand, is different. In 1st edition there were regions where the different layers of a plane overlapped, and these could be crossed through force of will. I'd rather it was tied to changes in philosophy, as a character becomes more attuned to one interpretation of chaotic good (for example) than another, moving between the liquid mindfulness of Ossa to the faded dreams of Pelion to the vibrant passions of Olympus depending on their mood. Though that sort of thing is hard to judge, and it's a lot simpler to just use portals, just using portals means there's no real difference between a plane and a layer. A layer is another aspect of the same universe - a plane is another universe altogether, and walking from one universe to another should be an intimidating prospect.Yes, there are areas of the Outlands that are more Limbo-like and areas of Baator that are more Gehenna-like, but at the point of greatest similarity with the neighboring plane you find... a portal, which you typically need a key to cross. And each plane is infinite (or, at least, limitless), so beyond that point of similarity there's still an unending number of other things to see without ever leaving the plane. The actual moment when a town is ripped free of one plane and crashes into another is abrupt, per canon. I actually think portals might be the unhealed wounds left behind by the fabric of existence being torn open by the philosophical imbalance. If the question is "If a town can cross the planes, why can't an individual?" I'd say the answer is that an individual doesn't have enough momentum to tear open reality with nothing more than their own mind, but the accumulated belief of hundreds of people are a much more potent force. A gate-town is, in a funny way, kind of a mini-outer plane in its own right, with its own distinct philosophy. If the town of Fortitude ascends into Arcadia, then the platonic idea of fortitude, however it manifests in the infinite minds of souls throughout the multiverse, makes a conceptual shift from a neutral notion to an orderly notion. That's belief-as-power.</blockquote>

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