Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
What do you think of the 4E background to demons & devils?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="mhacdebhandia" data-source="post: 3795621" data-attributes="member: 18832"><p>Here's a tension which I think that Wizards of the Coast will have to do some hard thinking to resolve when and if they want to publish material about the Great Wheel again:</p><p></p><p>The "Demonomicon" articles were written by James Jacobs. James and Erik Mona and others in the "Paizo crew" are big fans of <strong>Greyhawk</strong>, and that's the major reason why they are motivated to write such excellent things about the Great Wheel cosmology: because it's the Greyhawk cosmology and, to them, the <em>D&D</em> cosmology.</p><p></p><p><strong>Planescape</strong>, on the other hand, for all that it used and expanded the Great Wheel, was also pretty much a revolutionary overhaul of the Great Wheel. I don't think I'm making too great a leap of logic to say that James, Erik, and co. don't particularly care for Planescape, its approach to the planes, or the changes it forced upon them - despite the good work they did in reconciling the Planescape/Second Edition and Greyhawk/First Edition "visions" of the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, I clearly recall Erik's expressing relief that he wasn't tasked with doing the same for the Nine Hells of Baator.</p><p></p><p>(It seems obvious, to me anyway, that the "Paizo crew" mostly care about Planescape's contribution from the point of view of maintaining continuity across editions.)</p><p></p><p>So here's the thing:</p><p></p><p>I don't think the idea of a <em>Greyhawk Campaign Setting</em> sourcebook which revives the Great Wheel cosmology will be all that compatible with the hopes and expectations of Planescape fans, or vice-versa.</p><p></p><p>If nothing else, a setting which views the Great Wheel as a backdrop for the world of Oerth is very different from one which views Oerth as something of a crossroads/battleground/pawn of the planes.</p><p></p><p>One solution which I could see as working would be to harmonise the two: position Oerth as the "home base" for a campaign setting which incorporates both "planetary" and "planar" adventures, including "alternate worlds" (best as Alternate Material Planes to Oerth's Prime Material Plane, rather than, say, the Spelljammer crystal spheres-on-one-Material Plane model) as well as planar locations suitable for adventuring across the range of levels. </p><p></p><p>If it were explicit that alternate worlds have traffic with Oerth as well as with the planes, you might be able to forge a compromise between the needs of an "Oerthly" setting favoured by Greyhawk fans and a planar setting favoured by Planescape fans.</p><p></p><p>It would mean "delocalising" Greyhawk to some extent, as well as partially diluting the "crossroads of worlds" aspect of Sigil and other planar locations, but I can't think of a better way to satisfy both camps attached to the Great Wheel . . . can you?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mhacdebhandia, post: 3795621, member: 18832"] Here's a tension which I think that Wizards of the Coast will have to do some hard thinking to resolve when and if they want to publish material about the Great Wheel again: The "Demonomicon" articles were written by James Jacobs. James and Erik Mona and others in the "Paizo crew" are big fans of [b]Greyhawk[/b], and that's the major reason why they are motivated to write such excellent things about the Great Wheel cosmology: because it's the Greyhawk cosmology and, to them, the [i]D&D[/i] cosmology. [b]Planescape[/b], on the other hand, for all that it used and expanded the Great Wheel, was also pretty much a revolutionary overhaul of the Great Wheel. I don't think I'm making too great a leap of logic to say that James, Erik, and co. don't particularly care for Planescape, its approach to the planes, or the changes it forced upon them - despite the good work they did in reconciling the Planescape/Second Edition and Greyhawk/First Edition "visions" of the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, I clearly recall Erik's expressing relief that he wasn't tasked with doing the same for the Nine Hells of Baator. (It seems obvious, to me anyway, that the "Paizo crew" mostly care about Planescape's contribution from the point of view of maintaining continuity across editions.) So here's the thing: I don't think the idea of a [i]Greyhawk Campaign Setting[/i] sourcebook which revives the Great Wheel cosmology will be all that compatible with the hopes and expectations of Planescape fans, or vice-versa. If nothing else, a setting which views the Great Wheel as a backdrop for the world of Oerth is very different from one which views Oerth as something of a crossroads/battleground/pawn of the planes. One solution which I could see as working would be to harmonise the two: position Oerth as the "home base" for a campaign setting which incorporates both "planetary" and "planar" adventures, including "alternate worlds" (best as Alternate Material Planes to Oerth's Prime Material Plane, rather than, say, the Spelljammer crystal spheres-on-one-Material Plane model) as well as planar locations suitable for adventuring across the range of levels. If it were explicit that alternate worlds have traffic with Oerth as well as with the planes, you might be able to forge a compromise between the needs of an "Oerthly" setting favoured by Greyhawk fans and a planar setting favoured by Planescape fans. It would mean "delocalising" Greyhawk to some extent, as well as partially diluting the "crossroads of worlds" aspect of Sigil and other planar locations, but I can't think of a better way to satisfy both camps attached to the Great Wheel . . . can you? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
What do you think of the 4E background to demons & devils?
Top