| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ozreth |
Posted - 01 Jan 2026 : 14:49:50
I have begun a new FR campaign in the early 1370s using the 3e FRCS as the basis of the setting and referencing my 2e material as needed. Nothing new or exciting here.
However, for the first time I am looking to include Planescape and, perhaps, Spelljammer in my campaign as the PCs get up in levels.
I know very little about these settings, never having been interested in them when I was younger, but my tastes have changed and I am excited to dive into both.
This leaves me wondering, though, whether or not I would be better off sticking with the Great Wheel as it pertains to PS and SJ or whether I could use the 3e FR cosmology just as easily. I am looking for the path of least resistance that allows me to seamlessly use 2e PS and SJ material in this campaign.
I am thinking that sticking to the Great Wheel might be the easiest. It seems to me that the Great Wheel, especially post Planescape, assumes a campaign with Planar travel, the existence of Sigil, and the possibility of travel to other campaign worlds (Greyhawk etc), whereas the Tree assumes none of this will be standard in your campaign.
Or does the great tree make accommodations for getting to Sigil and other settings as well and I am just not reading it correctly?
I see that the Code of Conduct here has this to say at the end of the section regarding the 2e-3e changes:
Aside from all of this, is the case for Sigil, the City of Doors. In the 2e PLANESCAPE campaign setting, the City of Doors rested at the peak of the infinitely tall Spire centred in the Outlands (the basis of the Great Wheel cosmology). In 3e, Sigil does still exist as the City of Doors, but it now occupies a completely separate planar environment all its own inside the Great Wheel of the 3e D&D core cosmology. What is special about this individual plane inside the Great Wheel (and atop the Spire) is that the independent nature of the plane in which Sigil rests allows this Sigil to be the only Sigil in the entire multiverse -- thus, the Sigil of the Great Wheel is also the Sigil of the Great Tree for the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign setting.
And finally, the Ethereal and Astral Planes allow access to all the planes in the Great Tree -- as does the Shadow Plane (which is now a transitive plane and allows PCs to access alternate Prime Material Planes and their cosmologies). In addition, an expanse known as the Infinite Staircase can also act as a transitive "plane" of sorts that also allows access to other regions of the multiverse. Of special consideration at this point is the fact that a number of the planes of gods from the 2e Great Wheel cosmology have no basis or representation in the 3e Great Tree cosmology of the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign setting. Also, the original domains of the gods on the planes of the 2e Great Wheel are now recognised as full and proper planes in the 3e Great Tree -- complete and stable environments under the control of the deity that resides there. So basically, the Abyss - as it is conceptualised in the GREYHAWK campaign setting - is NOT the same as the Abyss as conceptualised in the FORGOTTEN REALMS campaign setting.
This is a little hard to follow, it seems to me to tbe saying that Toril is still connected to Sigil and the other settings in some way in 3e, but it is all very convoluted to me. I just don't have a well enough grasp on either cosmology or either of those settings (Planescape and Spelljammer) to know where best to start with this project, so any anecdotes or suggestions would be very helpful.
Thank you. |
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