How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

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Tequila Sunrise's picture
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How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Your PS campaigns probably don't involve much travel to published Prime worlds, but I'm guessing you have opinions on the subject. What I'm asking is how many of the TSR/WotC published settings actually work within traditional PS cosmology?

Eberron certainly doesn't, and I believe FR has a couple significant differences. Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Ravenloft fit perfectly, but I'm not a setting aficionado so I don't know about the others. (Birthright, Dark Sun, Al Quidam, I'm sure there are more.)

Also, what do you do with the ones that don't fit? Ignore them, change them, or just keep squinting until the details don't matter?

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Since the topic is prime worlds, would it be fair to call it the Planescape/Spelljammer cosmology? Those two systems explicitly link Oerth (Greyhawk), Krynn (Dragonlance), and Toril (Forgotten Realms). Al-Qadim exists on Toril and it seems safe to say that Athas (Dark Sun) is out there but simply cut off from everything else.

Search these forums for Eberron and you'll find quite a bit of impassioned discussion on both sides of the matter.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and Forgotten Realms/Maztica/Kara-Tur/Al-Qadim. Inner Circle's Violet Dawn setting easily fits as well.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Canonically, I'm pretty sure all the 1e and 2e settings exist in Planescape; I'm not sure about the ostensible Council of Wyrms setting, but I'm fairly certain on the rest.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Dark Sun doesn't really fit with Planescape and the main canon, though. The history of the races is quite different, and their version of the Elemental Planes doesn't fit with the main canon, considering that most of them are dying.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

The same's true about Dragonlance though, its conception of the planes (looking just at Dragonlance material without any of the Planescape stuff that includes Dragonlance) is completely different from Planescape. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the OP meant?

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Yeah, but it's kind of an in-joke amongst the planar community that people from Krynn are even more Clueless than the average prime. It was noted in one of the PS sourcebooks that the Dragonlance setting is a part of the big picture, it's just that the residents are kinda backwater types that think the Gray Waste of Hades is the Abyss and so on. It's not their fault, they're just a bit confused. This probably goes all the way back to the whole Weis/Hickman feud with TSR about using their baby within the greater scope of the D&D multiverse, something they seem vehemently against.

As far as the Forgotten Realms change that appears to break it away from the PS wheel - I simply ignore it. It adds nothing to the setting, other than to make things needlessly complicated and incompatible.

My players were never very knowledgable or enamored with the Planescape setting, but they're all well versed in and love several of the more traditional, terrestrial settings. So my campaign used PS stuff, but more as a backdrop to tie it all together and allow travel between the worlds. For the record I've used it to connect what I consider "The Big Five", or most iconic and important TSR/WoTC settings that really "make" D&D for me - Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Darksun.

I never learned enough about Eberron to try to fit it in with the others. If it insists on having a totally different cosmology that is so integral to the setting that it can't be compatible with the ones I mentioned above, than I'm happy to ignore it. If the cosmology is not that important to the feel and vibe of Eberron, than just use the Great Wheel and throw it on in there with the rest. See that's the beauty of an infinite prime material plane - you can put whatever you want in there, and if you're not happy with what you see, you can build your own planet from the ground up.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Yes, I was thinking of mentioning that. Mystara is another example.

So, settings that fit:
Forgotten Realms/Al-Qadim/Kara-Tur/Mystara/Anchorome
Greyhawk
Ptolus (3rd party)
Ravenloft
Violet Dawn (3rd party)

Violet Dawn is woefully incomplete because Jeff Visgatis got busy with family and completing art school, but what's there is very good and of Forgotten-Realms caliber. There is some minor contradictory fluff, but it's quite easy to ignore and modify, and I made a topic awhile back on how to integrate the setting into Planescape and mainstream D&D, with some expansions on the Violet Dawn canon (such as the Crystalle-worshipping Sulwynaari colony on Mineral)
/forum/encorporating-inner-circles-violet-dawn...

Settings that don't fit:
Dark Sun
Dragonlance
Eberron
Mystara/Hollow Earth/Savage Coast
Scarred Lands (3rd party)

I can't remember if Kalamar and Hawkmoon fit, or not. I remember that some of the races on Kalamar are slightly different than those in the main canon *mainly the Hobgoblins*.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Many of the planes in Eberron can correspond to roughly to planes in the Great Wheel and beyond. Except for Xoriat which is the Far Realm and Dal Quor which is the Plane of Dreams, planes that aren't officially part of the Great Wheel cosmology.

It's cosmology is different because it's the Planar Orrery cosmology that was in the back of the 3e Manual of the Planes. But that can be worked into the Great Wheel as a simple waxing and waning of the connections of other planes with Eberron.

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Just the Great Wheel alone wouldn't really be enough, though; I don't think Eberron fits into the Prime Material side of the cosmology either. Crystal spheres and all that.

(Granted it'd be easy to make it fit, but talking just about canon)

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Re: How Many Published Settings Fit in Planescape?

Birthright fits just fine, I think. On Hallowed Ground lists some of the local gods and their realms within the Great Wheel. I'm not quite sure how the Shadowrealm, that borders the Birthright setting, would be treated from a Planescape point of view.

Ravenloft technically fits into the cosmology, and there are some beings from the planes trapped in the Mists.

Dragonlance can fit in, Viking Legion already explained. Canon or not - well, I guess that depents whether you read Planescape or Dragonlance supplements.

Spelljammer and Planescape work together just fine (ignoring minor differences like the origin of the Illithids).

Mystara might look as "not fitting", because of the gods being replaced by "Immortals" in this setting. But you can simply add an Overdeity, that prevents other gods from meddling with this crystal sphere and Mystara should be ready for inclusion into Planescape.
And that's not even far from canon. Having an overdeity no one knows about is not that rare throughout the Prime, Krynn and Toril had those as well. The "hidden overpower" story will help you to include every Campaign World without gods into Planescape.

The Dark Sun-Setting ist cut off from spelljamming, because the Crystal Sphere is sealed. Unless you manage to find a copy of "Proctiv's Breach Cystal Sphere" (from the Forgotten Realms-boxed set "Netheril") and someone able to cast level 10 spells, this is not likely to change.
But Athas is not closed to planar travel. Part of the Dark Sun adventure "Black Spine" takes place in the Astral, letting the party face off against some Githyanki. (You'll hardly notice playing in the Astral. During the adventure this part of the Astral has been sealed. Inside the conditions of Athas are magically mimiced to prepare an "Invasion Force".)

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