Your Astral Sea: 3d or 2d?

[Siberys]

I always imagined it as 2d, but with plenty of flying ships for that 3d goodness.

Although 3d is neater, IMO. The Treasure Planet analogy is quite apt; I'll likely be using that as a guideline, myself.

 

[fireinthedust]

Treasure Planet: Yeah, that film was waaaaay under-rated. Considering the book was great, the film's idea of the sphere and a *planet* that... well, no spoilers from me. Suffice it to say that it would make a great adventure.
I think all-out 3D would work if the encounter was free-form. Combat starting would best work limited to 2D concepts, to keep track of things more easily.


I think, though, that the Astral Sea is supposed to be metaphysical rather than space and star wars/trek. I'm planning on trying to mix marvel's Thor (Asgard, the planes) with Spelljammer: you can go to a Domain and it's effectively its own world (trees, ground, etc.), but between them are all sorts of astral phenomena. I want some aspects to be weird, however, like Munchausen or Time Bandits, but I suppose that'll work itself out. Demiplanes and stray philosophies wandering about, and the color blue (*the* color Blue) strolling along trying not to get noticed (in Deva form, of course).

one more: Clash of the Titans. All outer planes should have a 3D laser light show.

 

[Nymrohd]

I see the astral sea as a 2D sea that ebbs and flows on a cosmic scale, with the living astral domains serving as fulcrum points while those of deities that have passed are at the mercy of the tides. So you can ride a wave in the astral sea for hours with your ship, it can have maelstroms leading to holes in reality (that can dump you in the Far Realm) and some domains can be surrounded by ferocious astral weather.

 

[avin]

3D, 2D is nonsense

 

[Nymrohd]

When it comes to actually running combat in it though, 3D is a lot of hassle with little gains.

 

[Estlor]

Wow... I've played too much BECMI. When I read the title I immediately assumed this was going to be a discussion about using the 4e Astral Sea like the BECMI Astral Plane. Which, if you're not familiar, suppressed one dimension of everyone that visited it. So you'd have paper-thin wizards casting buzz-saw like disc fireballs that you could avoid completely if you made the right sort of check.

So, um, when I say 2D, I literally mean 2D.

 

[malraux]

I'd envision it as a 2D brane stretched across many higher dimension branes. So in general, you travel on it in a 2D fashion, using 2D maps, but the actual structure can allow for all sorts of funny business. Catch the right current and sail to unknown worlds. Traders would have all sorts of short cuts that don't make sense but nonetheless cut days or weeks of travel, etc.

And I LOVE the idea of a sunken domain. I have no idea what would live there, but I really really want to find out.

 

[TarionzCousin]

In my current, epic-level plane-hopping campaign, the Astral Sea is three-dimensional. However, there is a constant field of not-mist (as in the MotP) that creates the appearance of a surface and horizon like the sea.

Creatures and vessels can travel anywhere in three dimensions, but movement on the surface of the not-mist gets an unnamed bonus. So it's faster to sail or swim on the "surface of the sea."

 

[Mercule]

I'd never have made the connection to Treasure Planet, but Moridin's description is otherwise spot-on to what I was going to say.

 

[chronoplasm]

2.5D, like oldschool Doom.

It's an environment that appears to be three-dimensional but is actually built up from 2-D projections.