Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Neutrality in the Cosmos
In putting together a cosmological chart for my Anethemalon campaign, I found a couple of things looking like add ons in 3.5 D&D and 3.5 OGL cosmology.
The first thing that I took note of was the Concordant Opposition. This appears to be an outer plane to place the powers of neutrality or balance. My take here is that the balance is always shifting. It is not a thing of itself. It has its champions and they play out their cosmic shifting actions on the stage of the Prime Material Plane, the home of neutrality. This is the place between all of the outer alignment planes (or celestial/spiritual planes) that act against one another and where their shifting is felt. Here too the Positive and Negative Material planes mix along with the Elemental Planes to create reality. The mixing creates the uneven neutrality that is the Prime Material.
The other thing that really seemed unnecessary to me is the Shadow Plane. This is supposed to be some negative plane of the dead or something. With the ethereal plane being the home of ghosts and other disembodied creatures, how is the Shadow Plane required? In my thinking the ethereal plane is created from the interaction of the positive and negative material planes. Not all of the ethereal is of the disembodied undead, but the negative parts attract and trap them on their way to the spiritual planes. Also the ethereal is what prevents the inner planes (or as I call them the temporal planes) from collapsing. The ethereal creates enough resistance, due to the repulsion of the positive and negative material planes, to prevent the elemental planes from negating each other. Just enough of everything is allowed to seep in, mix and create the universe.
As noted above, the Prime Material is a mixture and as such is the only plane without an opposite, thus creating a stronger case for the redundancy of the Shadow Plane.
Neither Shadow or Concordant Opposition are in the AD&D Cosmos (Prior to Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes) It looks like Gygax actually thought about how this whole thing might work. I won't be including either.
The first thing that I took note of was the Concordant Opposition. This appears to be an outer plane to place the powers of neutrality or balance. My take here is that the balance is always shifting. It is not a thing of itself. It has its champions and they play out their cosmic shifting actions on the stage of the Prime Material Plane, the home of neutrality. This is the place between all of the outer alignment planes (or celestial/spiritual planes) that act against one another and where their shifting is felt. Here too the Positive and Negative Material planes mix along with the Elemental Planes to create reality. The mixing creates the uneven neutrality that is the Prime Material.
The other thing that really seemed unnecessary to me is the Shadow Plane. This is supposed to be some negative plane of the dead or something. With the ethereal plane being the home of ghosts and other disembodied creatures, how is the Shadow Plane required? In my thinking the ethereal plane is created from the interaction of the positive and negative material planes. Not all of the ethereal is of the disembodied undead, but the negative parts attract and trap them on their way to the spiritual planes. Also the ethereal is what prevents the inner planes (or as I call them the temporal planes) from collapsing. The ethereal creates enough resistance, due to the repulsion of the positive and negative material planes, to prevent the elemental planes from negating each other. Just enough of everything is allowed to seep in, mix and create the universe.
As noted above, the Prime Material is a mixture and as such is the only plane without an opposite, thus creating a stronger case for the redundancy of the Shadow Plane.
Neither Shadow or Concordant Opposition are in the AD&D Cosmos (Prior to Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes) It looks like Gygax actually thought about how this whole thing might work. I won't be including either.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Fantasy Economics
Earlier today I found this bit of writing on the Castles & Crusades Society fan site. Its available at the Tempest Damnosa blog.
It is a very interesting look at fantasy economics in a way that I think could provide greater depth of encounters between player characters and NPCs. There is a wealth of information here and I suggest that anyone interested in adding more importance to the exchange of wealth and its consequences in their games take a look.
Part 1: Agriculture and the Economy
Part 2: The Unguilded Townsmen
Part 3: Guildsmen of the Town
Part 4: The Nobility
Part 5: The Clergy
Part 6: Feudal Law
Part 7: The Royal Bureaucracy
It is a very interesting look at fantasy economics in a way that I think could provide greater depth of encounters between player characters and NPCs. There is a wealth of information here and I suggest that anyone interested in adding more importance to the exchange of wealth and its consequences in their games take a look.
Part 1: Agriculture and the Economy
Part 2: The Unguilded Townsmen
Part 3: Guildsmen of the Town
Part 4: The Nobility
Part 5: The Clergy
Part 6: Feudal Law
Part 7: The Royal Bureaucracy
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Finishing "Deities of Anethemalon"
Spending the day adding the last few details to my Deities of Anethemalon document.
So far this is just a list of nine deities corresponding to the nine alignments. It's a simple start based on the format in "Of Gods & Monsters".
Once I'm done with this first step I'll post it as a PDF.
I plan on at least doubling the list of deities based more on role rather than on alignment.
I plan on at least doubling the list of deities based more on role rather than on alignment.
At some later point, I want to create the list of gods for the age that precedes this one.
This setting is actually one where the gods have lost interest in the affairs of mortals and many have left the world. At the campaign start time, several of the deities on this list are new compared to others as they are the replacements to the gods that disappeared. This creates a push-pull between the gods as the new ones are more interested in gaining new ground and the older ones are reluctantly forced to act from the pressure being put on them. Let's just say the gods know something here that most mortals do not.
This setting is actually one where the gods have lost interest in the affairs of mortals and many have left the world. At the campaign start time, several of the deities on this list are new compared to others as they are the replacements to the gods that disappeared. This creates a push-pull between the gods as the new ones are more interested in gaining new ground and the older ones are reluctantly forced to act from the pressure being put on them. Let's just say the gods know something here that most mortals do not.
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