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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deadguy" data-source="post: 1188830" data-attributes="member: 2480">I think I will chime in to point to the other side of the argument: why I don't like Planar Adventures. It's not that I haven't done them, in the past, but now I've created my own cosmology just so as I could avoid them. There are several things which combine for me to make Planar adventures a good deal duller than 'Material Plane' adventures:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If today's Thursday, then this must be Limbo: several people have talked about the sense of wonder that the Planes evoke. But my experience has been that by the time you've dealt with the fifth whacky plane the DM has come up with, the names are blurring, the details muddying, and all the lustre has rubbed off! Planes can be too much a crutch for DMs who want to set aside consequences and mess about with some dumb idea they pillaged from TV, film or book! It's really hard to hold a sense of wonder when you know that by next session the DM's bored with this plane, and has had ideas for an even cooler plane!  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Small Fish in Infinite Ponds: as a PC it gets frustrating when you finally develop some power, only to have ti all natched away from you again by a DM who goes 'but in the Abyss you're nothing!' No matter what you seem to do you are but a mere pawn in the schemes of immortal powers that outmatch by by many many degrees of potency, so there's no use in arguing with them!  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Cogs in the Great Machine: there's something about D&D planar adventures that brings out the worst in DMs. Perhaps it's the fact that the PCs are travelling to the very Heavens and Hells themselves, but before you know it there's bound to be a God somewhere that has a mission for you, and a destiny you cannot escape. I know that this happens in smaller scale campaigns too, but the urge to be 'God' seems to grow exponentially in planar settings!  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Everything Matters... So Nothing Does: tying in with the remarks about 'absolutes' and eternal factions, planar adventures seem to generally involve really bad things happeneing to the Multiverse unless the PCs intervene. No longer is an Orc invasion of Galapadyi. Instead we have Planar invasions where whole worlds are enslaved, or planets devoured by mad ancient beings awoken from their slumbers, or the fabric of magic unravelling because the Gods sort of forgot to stop the mad demon-prince's son from cutting down the Orchard of Infinite Power. I know some get excited at these tales, but instead to me it feels like 'ho hum! better fix it so we can have another disaster next week'.</li> </ol>I regard it as one of D&D's weaknesses that it's predicated on planar advenacement as PCs advance, since it's harder to build a single world that can hold high-level PC interest. But not impossible, I hope.  And to those of you who are enjoying their Planar Sojourns: good luck to ya! You're gonna need it! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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