D&D General What is your favorite D&D cosmology?

[Vaalingrade]

I know I was mocking the Great Wheel from the moment I bought my first MotP in 2002 and all the interesting planes were just side notes. Also, the Far Realms description with its 'horse sized ticks' and such was particularly doofy.

~Celebrating 20 years of making fun of Alignment and all it Attendant Components~

 

[Micah Sweet]

I know I was mocking the Great Wheel from the moment I bought my first MotP in 2002 and all the interesting planes were just side notes. Also, the Far Realms description with its 'horse sized ticks' and such was particularly doofy.

~Celebrating 20 years of making fun of Alignment and all it Attendant Components~

Well, I respect your opinion none the less.

 

[cbwjm]

Back when this thread first started I selected "All or most of them are great in different ways" and that's still true. I don't just like reading about the different planar cosmologies in the DnD books but also the cosmologies of peoples homebrewed worlds, I find it all interesting and love seeing the creative twists people put on them.

I think the reason I thought the world axis was great was due less to the configuration and more to do with the mythology. The combat between the gods and primordials resonates with Norse and Greek mythology with the battles between the gods and the giants/titans. I would not be surprised if these real-world myths were the inspiration for the dawn war stories in 4e.

One thing I don't understand is that in editions before 4e, people couldn't adventure on the planes. You could be on the plane of fire at level 1 in any edition if that's where the adventure took you. At lower levels, the DM would likely provide some sort of item or other work around for your survival, which could just be that the Efreet provide protection for those entering their city (for a price). I also think that, even in 4e, some of the planes described probably wouldn't make interesting adventure locales, unless you're leading a demon army, most of the planes of the gods aren't going to make a great adventure site, but it's still cool to have information on them.

 

[Davinshe]

I know I was mocking the Great Wheel from the moment I bought my first MotP in 2002 and all the interesting planes were just side notes. Also, the Far Realms description with its 'horse sized ticks' and such was particularly doofy.

~Celebrating 20 years of making fun of Alignment and all it Attendant Components~

It's interesting you bring up the far realm, because I will say that is a good example of a plane that I consider to have good utility despite not being a plane you'd ever adventure in. It gives a place for aberrations to come from, and makes for good plots points when it influences the material realm. However, for me, quite a few of the planes in the old great wheel cosmology still don't pass muster -- Bytopia for me isn't even interesting as a gnomish afterlife and that function could easily be absorbed by some other more interesting plane once you remove the need to have a semi-lawful good plane.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It's interesting you bring up the far realm, because I will say that is a good example of a plane that I consider to have good utility despite not being a plane you'd ever adventure in. It gives a place for aberrations to come from, and makes for good plots points when it influences the material realm. However, for me, quite a few of the planes in the old great wheel cosmology still don't pass muster -- Bytopia for me isn't even interesting as a gnomish afterlife and that function could easily be absorbed by some other more interesting plane once you remove the need to have a semi-lawful good plane.

I honestly just don't like aberrations in general save a few.

By Bytopia implies dead gnomes... tell me more.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I know I was mocking the Great Wheel from the moment I bought my first MotP in 2002 and all the interesting planes were just side notes.

Ah, I see the problem. Yes, if you just go with what WotC has published, most settings are going to come up short because WotC is terrible at world building, at least on the D&D side (I don't play MtG, so I can't speak to that). The TSR box sets remain the best official source of information about Planescape. It's unrealistic to expect modern players to go sifting through 25+ year old publishings to get setting information, but that's where we are, at least for that setting (and Dark Sun, and Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk, and Spelljammer, and...)

Granted, if the alignment thing itself is the primary source of distaste for the great wheel, more information isn't going to change that. But lack of details isn't something Planescape suffers from if you're willing to go back far enough.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Ah, I see the problem. Yes, if you just go with what WotC has published, most settings are going to come up short because WotC is terrible at world building, at least on the D&D side (I don't play MtG, so I can't speak to that). The TSR box sets remain the best official source of information about Planescape. It's unrealistic to expect modern players to go sifting through 25+ year old publishings to get setting information, but that's where we are, at least for that setting (and Dark Sun, and Forgotten Realms, and Greyhawk, and Spelljammer, and...)

Granted, if the alignment thing itself is the primary source of distaste for the great wheel, more information isn't going to change that. But lack of details isn't something Planescape suffers from if you're willing to go back far enough.

I've a couple of Planescape books. There was like a fortress built into a worm that's constantly rolling around or something. Please don't make me go back.

 

[Argyle King]

Back when I was running 4E, I ran a combo of 3E and 4E cosmology.

4E's world-axis was at the middle, with parts of the Great Wheel* spinning around it.

A "World Axle" so to speak.

*I changed what a few of the planes were when I liked the 4E (or different) versions better. For example, I liked 4E's explanations for demons and devils better. Also, I didn't run the planes as being in a stagnant position; which planes were near/far from each other would change as the parts of the wheel moved around the the axle.

In game, that could be used to make plane-hopping easier/harder depending upon where you were and where you wanted to be.

 

[Rogerd1]

Darkplane is a pretty unique, and I quite like it as a result.
Kisarta is also a unique add on to any of the planes you currently use.

But then again, why not take a Moorcock type angle, they all exist as separate mini-multiverses, forming part of a combined whole.

 

[MNblockhead]

I am seriously thinking of copying and lightly editing text from these posts and having them on hand for NPCs should the party ever engage in discussion on the nature of reality, the planes, etc. Just have cleric A arguing with wizard B over great wheel, world tree, turtles all the way down--what have you.

So, please, keep it up y'all. Why are the cosmology preferences of other posters bad-wrong? What makes cosmologies you DON'T like so bad that only idiots would use them? Let's ramp up the negative discourse to ad absurdum levels and make this thread fun again.

Let's see, I like the Great Wheel, so let me poop on the World Tree...

Ebeneezer Hotwheel, the Conjurist: You must have eaten some of the druid's funny mushrooms and spent too much time contemplating an oak to come up with such a silly concept. Applying even a second of rational thought would lay bare as a tree at the end of fall the inanity of such a concept. It completely overlooks the cyclical nature of existence. Oh? You think I'm being too literal? Explain celestial treants blocking planar travel, you abstraction-challenged oaf! And if a spellplague is enough to invalidate your model, maybe it was a poor model to begin with!