Well, the idea of having alternate Earths is an interesting one.
Perhaps linking the worlds of The Midlands in, as some of the alternate Primes, if the author gives permission.
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
What do you think about having the real world as a primeworld in an urban Planescape game?
My personal ideas about it is while we natrually use the real world as our inspiration for Planescape games I don't like directly incorperating an "Earth" prime, or at least a single Earth. If a prime is called Earth it might be one of many different primes called that. After all with infinite planes out there it is likely that some will share the same name, esp considering most primes will call their home world something that translates into dirt or home ect.
- 415 reads
Wed, 2005-08-03 00:38
#3
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
Wed, 2005-08-03 08:42
#4
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
Hmm.. My concept of Urban Planescape isn't introducing Earth to the Planescape cosmology but introducing Modern setting elements to the planescape cosmology.
Basically making Planescape into an Urban Fantasy setting.
Wed, 2005-08-03 12:07
#5
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
An idea that pops immediately to mind is the planes acting as "alternate earths" in the cosmology, that is, ascribing planar attributes to real world locations, depending on which 'plane' the traveler is on.
There's a series running in Heavy Metal called "Resurrection" which illustrates this idea better than I can....I think of the world of Resurrection as being a single realm in Urban Planescape - really an alternate earth with hellish overtones.
Anybody else familiar with the Resurrection series I speak of? There are quite a few details that would be interesting to use in an Urban Planescape campaign.
Wed, 2005-08-03 12:31
#6
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
Hmm.. My concept of Urban Planescape isn't introducing Earth to the Planescape cosmology but introducing Modern setting elements to the planescape cosmology.
Basically making Planescape into an Urban Fantasy setting.
That's generally how I view it. Now, I like the Astral War storyline. I think that's neat. But I don't see that as being the only way to do it.
Sat, 2005-08-06 10:28
#7
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
well if you want to keep the astral war AND have multiple primes, then consider this:
One prime earth got through and encountered the Gith, and when they nuked the lich queen, the hundereds of other urban primes in the crystal barriers were suddenly released. The dead Gods upon which "earth" has made their interplanar base is really where all the urban primes have made a lose alliance to figure out WTF is going on and survive in this magical world. Of course this base is now a very weak and shaky alliance.
Tue, 2005-08-30 11:32
#8
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
The cosmology I devised for my game makes the plane of shadow a physical and metaphysical place that overlaps with the phlogistan in some places, which means that it is accessable not only via spells like shadow-walk, but also can be seen from certian parts of the phlogistan. No SJ captain would intentionally sail into the shadow; it's theorized that there are no flows to sail on and anyone who's ever tried it has never returned. Enough reason for any captain to stay away.
There are, however, crystal spheres that can be seen floating through the shadow, some near, some far, and sometimes they half-emerge into the phlogistan. I've put Earth in one of these crystal spheres, accounting for its isolation from the rest of the multiverse for the majority of its history, and alluding to the fact that Earth would not be the only Shadow Prime out there...it just had the (dis)advantage of being one of the ones that wanders along the terminator between Shadow and Phlogistan.
Comments?
Sun, 2005-11-27 16:36
#9
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
Hmm.. My concept of Urban Planescape isn't introducing Earth to the Planescape cosmology but introducing Modern setting elements to the planescape cosmology.
Basically making Planescape into an Urban Fantasy setting.
That's generally how I view it. Now, I like the Astral War storyline. I think that's neat. But I don't see that as being the only way to do it.
Actually, that's very much seconded. Or both at once.
I'm not any kind of fond of the Astral War plot, but it was here before I was and its inventors seem to like it.
Wed, 2006-01-11 23:26
#10
Cosmological Question
Firstly I rather like the Astral War storyline, but I also believe that it should be developed so that the War can be used or not. (In fact I seem to remember that was the idea in the original forums when this was coming together)
Now as to Earth and it's relation to the Phlogiston:
I really like the Shadow/Phlogiston border idea but it directly contradicts one of the solid precepts of Spelljammer, namely the cosmology. There is NO access to any plane other than the Crystal Spheres while in the Flow.
There are stories of places where the Phlogiston gets thin and almost traansparent. Places far, far away that would require lifetimes to reach via spelljammer. I would postulate that the Earth and its neighboring stars, galaxies, etc might exist beyond this area. I would further say that the innately magical nature of the Phlogiston makes it invisible to the residents of this area of space. If it could be seen it would possibly shroud itself as a distant nebula or some other astronmical body we THINK we have quantified.
Thats just off the top of my head, let me think a while on the subject.
Fri, 2006-02-17 08:06
#11
Earth and other Primes in Urban Planescape
I'd prefer multiple universes rather then multiple earths. Somehow, I don't see spelljamming as appropriate for modern era.
I'm thinking, with the presence of the Elemental Plane of Earth, and the presence of other humans who didn't hail from our planet (as opposed to starfaring humans), we would eventually have to find a different way of identifying our world.
Hell, most of the alternates we have for "Earth" are just words for "earth" in other languages-- like "Terra".
It's a little Norse-centric, but what about "Midgard"? Or does the Asgardian pantheon use the term "Midgard" to refer to other prime worlds?
We often use "Sol" to identify our star and the planets that revolve around it, and we could identify Earth as "Sol III'... but "Sol" is just an ancient word for "star", too.
I've always understood Urban Planescape to be based around the introduction (or reintroduction) of Earth to the Planescape cosmology-- so it would require the use of Earth as a Prime world. (I don't know how other people feel about the "traditional" Prime worlds in Urban Planescape.)
It's an issue I'm wrestling with in Galactic Planescape-- where do the "normal" Prime worlds fit in? It's more of an issue in Galactic Planescape than Urban Planescape, because Urban Planescape can simply seal Earth into a Crystal Sphere and say our astronomers were wrong all along-- and in Galactic Planescape, there are two different, physcially and cosmologically incompatible means of space travel.
Of course, I could simply remove all Spelljammer references from Planescape for Galactic Planescape-- and leave the planes the only way for Primes to travel between Toril, Krynn, and Oerth-- but that feels kinda like cheating.
edit: Though, something to consider would be the intersection of Tangents (an Alternity sourcebook) and the Planes-- especially considering duplicates. Does each Tangent have its own planar cosmology, or do all Tangents share the same Outer Planes? If the latter... wouldn't there be a lot of identical planewalkers, since analogs from nearby tangents tend to be remarkably similar?
How would that interact with petitioners? Would there be vast, sweeping fields of all of the Lawful Good iterations of Johnny Paladin, working side-by-side in harmony? Would Carceri resound with the tales of scheming exiles assassinating... themselves?
Or, if every tangent has a whole seperate contingent of planes, is that an explanation for the number of inconsistencies between editions, the whole-cloth invention (or omission) of entire planes, or the differences in reality in each individual DM's campaign? Since Tangents includes means for travelling from tangent to tangent, could you use dimensional travel in conjunction with planewalking?
Of course, the enormousness of an infinite numer of tangents, each including its own cosmology, an infinite number of spheres, and the infinite Planes themselves would certainly impress on someone just how vast the setting is-- and one thing Urban Planescape needs to be is bigger than standard Planescape.