4e D&D Cosmology

Okay, so yesterday evening they did post the promised Design and Development article on the 4e planar cosmology over at Wizards' D&D Insider website.

The article describes four planes that are going to be a part of the 4e cosmology:

• The Astral Sea - A vast plane containing the various planar domains of the gods


• The Elemental Chaos - A plane of vast elemental energy


• The Shadowfell - A dark reflection of the "natural world", tied to undead and shadows


• The Feywild - A wild reflection of the "natural world", tied to the fey

I hate to say it, but I'm a little bit underwhelmed.

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The ideas aren't bad in and of themselves, but they're - somewhat predictable. In fact, they feel an awful lot like the old World of Darkness cosmology - you have a Shadowlands, a "Near Umbra", and a "High Umbra" in the Shadowfell, the Feywild, and the Astral Sea respectively. Not that these breakdowns are unique to WoD either - it's basically an Underworld, a Spirit World, and a Heaven - a formulation that many us who have thrown a lot of different myths and pantheons into our games have probably come up with independently of any particular game design.

Now, generic isn't necessarily bad. In fact, a strong argument can be made that this actually sets up some iconic places for adventures to take place - moreso than some of the current locations in the D&D cosmology. The Shadowfell is probably going to be a more interesting adventure site than the Ethereal, the Plane of Shadow, or the Negative Material Plane - the three planes it looks to be replacing. The traditional D&D cosmology is certainly distinctive, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a natural place for setting adventures.

In fact, the one bit of this cosmology that has me kind of interested is the "Elemental Chaos". Even if I never use the rest of the cosmology - even if I never buy 4e - that little bit can already be considered stolen for my games. I've never really liked the pure elemental planes - they're an interesting metaphysical construct for explaining magic, but as adventure sites they're kind of tough to handle. This new suggestion - with all of the elements thrown together into one primordial tempest and powerful entities able to exert their will to carve out portions of the chaos to their own ends - that sounds really cool. It takes the current elemental plane breakdown and gives it a twist. I like that. And I really wish I had thought of it a decade ago - once you see it it's obvious but I never thought to do it myself. I also have to admit that I really, really like the idea of the Abyss being a scar in the Elemental Chaos and demons being corrupted elementals. That's not in this article but it was in the previous Design & Development article, and I think it's a cool idea.

So in the end I guess I'm in the "net positive" camp for these ideas - they don't seem like bad ideas. At worst, some of them are kind of unimaginative. At best, some of them are really quite good. Since I don't expect game designers to constantly bat a thousand, I think I can keep my wait and see attitude to what they're developing.