• The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!

D&D 5E Wandering Monsters: Worlds of D&D

Hussar

Legend
If I was king of the world this is what I would do. Each setting would have a distinct cosmology. After all, if I'm playing Greyhawk or FR or whatever, then presumably I like that setting.

So why should I give up that setting as soon as I go planar? FR has a boat load of active gods. Does it really need Orcus, say, and how does Orcus fit? So maybe FR abyss doesn't have Orcus. Otoh, Greyhawk certainly does need Orcus.

But the Abyss of FR and the Abyss of Greyhawk don't need to share anything.

I'd then have a Planescape line that is additive. If you go from Prime X to
Planescape, this is how you do it.

To me, that's the best of both worlds.
 

log in or register to remove this ad


DMZ2112

Chaotic Looseleaf
If I was king of the world this is what I would do. Each setting would have a distinct cosmology. After all, if I'm playing Greyhawk or FR or whatever, then presumably I like that setting.

So why should I give up that setting as soon as I go planar? FR has a boat load of active gods. Does it really need Orcus, say, and how does Orcus fit? So maybe FR abyss doesn't have Orcus. Otoh, Greyhawk certainly does need Orcus.

But the Abyss of FR and the Abyss of Greyhawk don't need to share anything.

I'd then have a Planescape line that is additive. If you go from Prime X to
Planescape, this is how you do it.

To me, that's the best of both worlds.

Your logic is sound, but I can't shake the feeling that if separate cosmologies have place names in common, those place names should refer to the same place, just for the sake of clarity. There's no /need/ for separate Torilian and Oeridian Abysses.

The realms of St. Cuthbert and Torm both exist in the Seven Heavens*, but they are unrelated and have little to no interaction, because why would they? Torm has no followers on Oerth and St. Cuthbert has no followers on Toril**. But if PCs want to make the trek across the snow-capped peaks of the soul, you can get there from here. It's just a tough climb.

When you visit the Seven Heavens from Oerth, you are visiting the realms of St. Cuthbert and the other LG gods of Oerth. They are interesting and new in their own right, while still being familiar, and provide additional adventuring options for Greyhawk PCs without the involvement of irrelevant material. Likewise for Toril and Torm's realm.

Then, Planescape's patented brand of weird is what fills the gaps. With no regular connection to any prime material world, the interstitial spaces of the planes have gone native, and that's what makes inter-prime travel fascinating. The lands you have to pass through are unlike anything you've seen.

Unique planes can still be unique. Khyber, Cynosure, and the Grey have no Oeridian equivalents. They can only be reached from Eberron, Toril, and Athas, respectively, and that's fine. There's no need to shoehorn them into similar places from another cosmology. They have different names; they're different places.

...So, in short, I agree completely except for where I totally disagree with you. It just seems to me that if there's an Abyss in D&D it ought to always be the same Abyss. The Krynnish Abyss might be an exception to this rule, or maybe it's not. Maybe there's a good story reason why Tiamat spends time in the Abyss calling herself Takhisis.

*I forgot Mount Celestia was a Planescape thing!

**There must be some rule about evangelizing on other gods' turf. And it must be a complex rule, because it doesn't stop FR from having a dozen or so Terran gods.
 

I'm A Banana

Potassium-Rich
If I was king of the world this is what I would do. Each setting would have a distinct cosmology. After all, if I'm playing Greyhawk or FR or whatever, then presumably I like that setting.

So why should I give up that setting as soon as I go planar? FR has a boat load of active gods. Does it really need Orcus, say, and how does Orcus fit? So maybe FR abyss doesn't have Orcus. Otoh, Greyhawk certainly does need Orcus.

But the Abyss of FR and the Abyss of Greyhawk don't need to share anything.

I'd then have a Planescape line that is additive. If you go from Prime X to
Planescape, this is how you do it.

To me, that's the best of both worlds.

I've got no reason not to love this idea. :)

I just wish that the 5e people could see it!
 


pemerton

Legend
The reason why I have a soft spot for the World Axis is because it tries to be a part of D&D. It acknowledges the fact that a D&D world's cosmology would impact the D&D world, and it is designed accordingly. The Wind Dukes of Aaqa are in there, as is Tharizdun, the Elder Elemental Eye, the Abyss, Mount Celestia, and a host of other classic D&D cosmological ideas, and they are presented in a way that is relevant to playing D&D in the Nentir Vale.

<snip>

Planescape is magnificent, but it just isn't relevant to playing D&D in the worlds it is supposed to support. In fact, one of the core conceits of the setting is the ignorance of "Primes" to the way things operate on the planes.

But how can the factions be /so important/ on the planes but have virtually no impact on Toril or Oerth, whose inhabitants supposedly 'believed' the outer planes into existence in the first place? Why is the Prime Material completely unaffected by the inconceivably vast conflict of the Blood War? Why are the realms of the gods /footnotes/ in Planescape, when they are the most important aspect of the planes to any prime material setting?

TL;DR:

Any "core cosmology" in D&D5 has to logically support the worlds it contains, and the fact is that Planescape just wasn't written that way.
I personally don't find Planescape magnificent, but otherwise very much agree with this - the cosmology should be part of ordinary play, not an alternative to it. 4e delivered on that.
 

Remove ads

Top