Li Shenron
Legend
Having been thinking for a long time about how I would like my own cosmology to be, I think it's time to write something down about it. If I manage to start a new campaign as a DM, I would like it to be long and entertaining, and basing it on planar adventures from the start could be the best way for me. But I want to know from others what you would like to see, as a player, in your game, or what your DMs have done in the past that really rocked.
The place to start is obviously MotP, which is awesome in every aspect, but doesn't satisfy me 100%, and of course everyone just HAS to make the cosmology his own somehow. So a few comments to start:
1. I want a single cosmology, the Great Wheel is already "great" and really I am not willing to change much. But maybe it is just too big, especially in the number of Outer Planes, which are cool but definitely too many for my taste.
2. The most different thing between types of planes should be life: in Material planes natives are born and die, after death their souls depart for an outer plane to become petitioners (forever or until the end of time is left open for religion); in Inner Planes natives form from the element and later dissipate and merge with the plane again, they have no soul and are mere temporary sentient extensions of the plane itself; in Outer Planes, besides petitioners, natives are created by deities, or occasionally rise spontaneously, are immortal unless destroyed, in which case they are forever (unless deities act); Transitive Planes work like Inner Planes or otherwise have no natives, or if they do they are the most mysterious beings in the cosmos.
3. All the material in MotP is worth using, as well as most of the Outsiders in MM and other books. I want to miss a little, but I may change what doesn't fit or overlaps.
4. MotP suggests great ideas about making planar travel really interesting: gravity, time, magic, elemental and alignment traits work for it, but at the end they are used too little and just "scattered" about many planes. I want the PCs to feel a new plane DIFFERENT and UNIQUE, but Arcadia, Bytopia, Beastland, Arborea just taste the same.
5. MotP also have many neat planar connection types, but then uses them carelessly. Planes are divided into layers that you can travel between exactly like they were different planes. Why not making them really different planes then? I want layers to feel the same plane; they may stay, but moving through them should be far easier than exiting the plane.
Now I'll drop here my first ideas to address the points above...
For 1. and 3. I thought I'd like to take the "weak" Outer Planes and turn them into alternate Material Planes (Arcadia, Bytopia, Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Carceri, Gehenna, Acheron). After all, they unusefully complicate the subject "where do you go when you die?" and there is no Outsider who is distinctively native of any of them, even Yugoloths are said to be not natives to Gehenna even if they live there. Cool monsters like Rakshasas could find a place in one of them, instead of having to share Hell with Devils.
I may leave every other plane untouched, and toy with these ones to give them each a single distinctive feature, using point 4.
For example (I spare you the details):
- Arcadia could be the only plane with Enhanced Magic trait
- Bytopia could be the only material plane with alignment trait (Good one side, Evil the other)
- Beastland could be inhabited only by Animals and Beasts, but with quasi-human intelligence
- Ysgard already has a Minor Positive trait that makes it fairly unique
- Pandemonium is by far unique enough
- Acheron could be a dead world, destroyed eons ago by powerful wars
To strengthen point 2., I may carefully change some creature's type to/from Outsider or Elemental if I choose to make it native to a changed plane.
And finally for point 5. it could be easy to fix general campaign rules for connection types, such as (example only):
- Continuity between layers of the same plane*
- Natural Borders only between adjacent Outer Planes, except Outlands
- Portal Towns only between Outlands and other Outer Planes
- Portals (crafted only) possibly between any plane
- Spells possibly anywhere except restricted areas
*non-Euclidian geometry or alternative physics should be common outside the Prime, and travelling between layers could be uneasy but possible, or easy but thrilling
Please let me know your suggestions, wishes or ideas, to hear anything you would like to see in YOUR games could become a useful help for me. As you see, it's not much I really want to change from the Great Wheel, but rather I will to put some order in it. I'd like to know if you think those are interesting or boring choices, or if you see bad consequences coming.
I may share a lot more specific ideas I have in mind for the changed planes, but I am afraid it could become a boring thread.
Thanks.
The place to start is obviously MotP, which is awesome in every aspect, but doesn't satisfy me 100%, and of course everyone just HAS to make the cosmology his own somehow. So a few comments to start:
1. I want a single cosmology, the Great Wheel is already "great" and really I am not willing to change much. But maybe it is just too big, especially in the number of Outer Planes, which are cool but definitely too many for my taste.
2. The most different thing between types of planes should be life: in Material planes natives are born and die, after death their souls depart for an outer plane to become petitioners (forever or until the end of time is left open for religion); in Inner Planes natives form from the element and later dissipate and merge with the plane again, they have no soul and are mere temporary sentient extensions of the plane itself; in Outer Planes, besides petitioners, natives are created by deities, or occasionally rise spontaneously, are immortal unless destroyed, in which case they are forever (unless deities act); Transitive Planes work like Inner Planes or otherwise have no natives, or if they do they are the most mysterious beings in the cosmos.
3. All the material in MotP is worth using, as well as most of the Outsiders in MM and other books. I want to miss a little, but I may change what doesn't fit or overlaps.
4. MotP suggests great ideas about making planar travel really interesting: gravity, time, magic, elemental and alignment traits work for it, but at the end they are used too little and just "scattered" about many planes. I want the PCs to feel a new plane DIFFERENT and UNIQUE, but Arcadia, Bytopia, Beastland, Arborea just taste the same.
5. MotP also have many neat planar connection types, but then uses them carelessly. Planes are divided into layers that you can travel between exactly like they were different planes. Why not making them really different planes then? I want layers to feel the same plane; they may stay, but moving through them should be far easier than exiting the plane.
Now I'll drop here my first ideas to address the points above...
For 1. and 3. I thought I'd like to take the "weak" Outer Planes and turn them into alternate Material Planes (Arcadia, Bytopia, Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Carceri, Gehenna, Acheron). After all, they unusefully complicate the subject "where do you go when you die?" and there is no Outsider who is distinctively native of any of them, even Yugoloths are said to be not natives to Gehenna even if they live there. Cool monsters like Rakshasas could find a place in one of them, instead of having to share Hell with Devils.
I may leave every other plane untouched, and toy with these ones to give them each a single distinctive feature, using point 4.
For example (I spare you the details):
- Arcadia could be the only plane with Enhanced Magic trait
- Bytopia could be the only material plane with alignment trait (Good one side, Evil the other)
- Beastland could be inhabited only by Animals and Beasts, but with quasi-human intelligence
- Ysgard already has a Minor Positive trait that makes it fairly unique
- Pandemonium is by far unique enough
- Acheron could be a dead world, destroyed eons ago by powerful wars
To strengthen point 2., I may carefully change some creature's type to/from Outsider or Elemental if I choose to make it native to a changed plane.
And finally for point 5. it could be easy to fix general campaign rules for connection types, such as (example only):
- Continuity between layers of the same plane*
- Natural Borders only between adjacent Outer Planes, except Outlands
- Portal Towns only between Outlands and other Outer Planes
- Portals (crafted only) possibly between any plane
- Spells possibly anywhere except restricted areas
*non-Euclidian geometry or alternative physics should be common outside the Prime, and travelling between layers could be uneasy but possible, or easy but thrilling
Please let me know your suggestions, wishes or ideas, to hear anything you would like to see in YOUR games could become a useful help for me. As you see, it's not much I really want to change from the Great Wheel, but rather I will to put some order in it. I'd like to know if you think those are interesting or boring choices, or if you see bad consequences coming.
I may share a lot more specific ideas I have in mind for the changed planes, but I am afraid it could become a boring thread.
Thanks.
