Integrating Planescape into 4E [Fan Fiction] - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Integrating Planescape into 4E [Fan Fiction]

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
sirot
Jan 19, 2008 15:46:17 Planescape is the poster boy for cleverness and originality in Dungeons and Dragons. A poster boy stuffed in a chest which was proceedingly wrapped in chains and thrown into deepest part of the ocean, but nevertheless a poster boy. What I am obviously getting is that Planescape never got so much love in the later editions. I am young player myself and my introduction to it was the amazing Planescape: Torment game.

I want it back in fourth edition. A sentiment shared by many players of the setting.

Wizards (of the Coast) has made a few changes to the default setting that made it odd to imagine the Planescape to be integrated into game as we originally knew it. However, I don’t think it will make for a worse Planescape setting. Instead it is an opportunity to make a better revision of it. The removal of obscure worlds and more importantly, a revision of the setting’s history so that the faction war never happened would do the setting a lot of good. Sigil (sans faction war) should be left as it always was, but what is happening around it should be changed. But a revision of the setting would also mean a slight revision of the default cosmology of fourth edition.

WARNING: FAN FICTION AHEAD

Currently the cosmology looks like this in fourth edition:
In the center of the cosmology is the World where all the mortal creatures dwell. Then there are two reflections of that world, the Feywild and the Shadowfell which act side by side to the world. Above that world we have the Astral Sea where all the gods dwell and below is the Elemental Chaos. Finally outside of all that, we have a Far Realm where insanity dwells and is the limit of comprehensible reality.

I offer a new comer to this cosmology, the Planar Summit. It is what exists at the end of the Far Realm and it is the boiling pot in which all worlds are created. This is where all worlds begin and what is there at their end. But more importantly, it is a sentient place. The Planar Summit holds an infinite amount of worlds within it, however it itself is not infinite. What it does is that it constantly grows worlds as new ideas enter it. A new traveler into this sacred realm will only find it as nothing but a vast and empty desert at first. But as time goes on and that person’s thoughts linger, they are absorbed by the Planar Summit to better define that engineered world. However, most of these worlds eventually crumble because only a handful of creatures* are capable of sustaining such a place with their thought alone without breaking down into insanity. When that does happen, the world collapses on itself as madness overtakes it and it joins the Far Realm that acts as the void between worlds in the Planar Summit. It is unknown how the worlds populated by billions have come to be but what is known is that anyone with that knowledge will have the power over all creation.

The Planar Summit does have a center however and it is Sigil. A city ruled by The Lady of Pain* and like the Summit, is influenced by philosophical thought. I am pretty sure that everyone who is reading this thread knows what Sigil is, so I will end there.

Fin.
#2
colour_deaf
Jan 24, 2008 11:31:30 Ok, I'm not hugely knowledgeable of Planescape, and I'm the first to admit it, but couldn't the base concept be emulted through, effectively, 'sailing the Astral Sea'. Since it's infinite size, there can be an infinite number of worlds within it, or am I missing the point?
#3
green_eyes
Jan 31, 2008 0:51:57 That would be Spelljammer ;) Another unloved poster boy.
#4
sigil_beguiler
Feb 01, 2008 0:00:13 Well... Their is going to be atleast a paragraph in the DMG about Sigil. So they could be bringing Planescape back, and we won't need to do our own conversions.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sirot Jan 19, 2008 15:46:17	Planescape is the poster boy for cleverness and originality in Dungeons and Dragons. A poster boy stuffed in a chest which was proceedingly wrapped in chains and thrown into deepest part of the ocean, but nevertheless a poster boy. What I am obviously getting is that Planescape never got so much love in the later editions. I am young player myself and my introduction to it was the amazing Planescape: Torment game. I want it back in fourth edition. A sentiment shared by many players of the setting. Wizards (of the Coast) has made a few changes to the default setting that made it odd to imagine the Planescape to be integrated into game as we originally knew it. However, I don’t think it will make for a worse Planescape setting. Instead it is an opportunity to make a better revision of it. The removal of obscure worlds and more importantly, a revision of the setting’s history so that the faction war never happened would do the setting a lot of good. Sigil (sans faction war) should be left as it always was, but what is happening around it should be changed. But a revision of the setting would also mean a slight revision of the default cosmology of fourth edition. WARNING: FAN FICTION AHEAD Currently the cosmology looks like this in fourth edition: In the center of the cosmology is the World where all the mortal creatures dwell. Then there are two reflections of that world, the Feywild and the Shadowfell which act side by side to the world. Above that world we have the Astral Sea where all the gods dwell and below is the Elemental Chaos. Finally outside of all that, we have a Far Realm where insanity dwells and is the limit of comprehensible reality. I offer a new comer to this cosmology, the Planar Summit. It is what exists at the end of the Far Realm and it is the boiling pot in which all worlds are created. This is where all worlds begin and what is there at their end. But more importantly, it is a sentient place. The Planar Summit holds an infinite amount of worlds within it, however it itself is not infinite. What it does is that it constantly grows worlds as new ideas enter it. A new traveler into this sacred realm will only find it as nothing but a vast and empty desert at first. But as time goes on and that person’s thoughts linger, they are absorbed by the Planar Summit to better define that engineered world. However, most of these worlds eventually crumble because only a handful of creatures* are capable of sustaining such a place with their thought alone without breaking down into insanity. When that does happen, the world collapses on itself as madness overtakes it and it joins the Far Realm that acts as the void between worlds in the Planar Summit. It is unknown how the worlds populated by billions have come to be but what is known is that anyone with that knowledge will have the power over all creation. The Planar Summit does have a center however and it is Sigil. A city ruled by The Lady of Pain* and like the Summit, is influenced by philosophical thought. I am pretty sure that everyone who is reading this thread knows what Sigil is, so I will end there. Fin.
#2 colour_deaf Jan 24, 2008 11:31:30	Ok, I'm not hugely knowledgeable of Planescape, and I'm the first to admit it, but couldn't the base concept be emulted through, effectively, 'sailing the Astral Sea'. Since it's infinite size, there can be an infinite number of worlds within it, or am I missing the point?
#3 green_eyes Jan 31, 2008 0:51:57	That would be Spelljammer ;) Another unloved poster boy.
#4 sigil_beguiler Feb 01, 2008 0:00:13	Well... Their is going to be atleast a paragraph in the DMG about Sigil. So they could be bringing Planescape back, and we won't need to do our own conversions.