D&D 5E The Plane of Fire and the City of Brass - how have you handled them?

[Kid Charlemagne]

The next big arc of my campaign (5E, players are 6th level) is likely to involve the Plane of Fire and the City of Brass, and I'm curious what other people have done with those.

My plan is to make the Plane of Fire a vast desert wasteland with Egyptian motifs; sometimes places swallowed up by the desert end up transported to here. The City of Brass itself I'm kind of wishy-washy on; past D&D editions have made it a very populous place, but I'm thinking of making it largely unpopulated, with certain sections cordoned off - possibly certain Efreeti Lords have had their sections of the city walled up so that they effectively turn into large dungeons, with their lords probably trapped in bottles somewhere The populated parts would have the usual: Efreeti, Salamanders, Azer, etc.

What interesting twists have you used for these locations?

 

[Beleriphon]

I'm fond of the Plane of Fire being more or less instantly fatal to anything not immune to fire damage.

As for the City of Brass, I like the idea of styling like an Ottoman bazaar, somewhere between Istanbul and Cairo in terms of architecture. Heavy on what would otherwise be Islamic styles buildings and gardens. Definitely busy, full of creatures from the Plane of Fire and beyond coming to trade. It is a planar metropolis and the largest and busiest city of the inner planes.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I don't want the Plane of Fire to be quite that deadly; portions may be, but overall I want it to be difficult and challenging but survivable for mid-level PC's.

I've also got a variant Planar set up going: The elemental planes are located inside the (otherwise) hollow Earth. The inside of the mantle (facing in towards the center of the globe) is where the Planes of Earth and Water are - divided roughly half and half. The air above them is the Plane of Air, and the Core of the planet is the Plane of Earth. Thus it is possible to travel physically between the planes, and have border areas between them. Each Plane has elements and pieces of each of the other Planes in various spots (floating islands in the Plane of Air; Oasis in the Plane of Fire, etc). One can travel from the Material Plane (do they even call it that any more?) to the Plane of Fire via active volcanos, or to the Plane of Water via massive whirlpools.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

We have a map of the Elemental Planes from the DMG.



It only gets to the pure element part when you go beyond the borders of this map.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

For the City of Brass, I draw upon the markets of Deva in Robert Asprin's Myth books (which I highly recommend): basically the city is one giant marketplace. I add in some Las Vegas spectacle with a dollop of LA/Nashville's "that guy over there might be a big star" (or Genie Noble).

I remember when 5e was being playtested one of the devs talked about the elemental planes being broken up into three parts: a borderland with the material plane where you could survive (probably not comfortably), the traditional elemental plane (where you can get incinerated just by showing up), and an elemental chaos (from 4e) where the planes mashed together (as opposed to having 107 demiplanes). I don't recall if that made the DMG, but I adopted it. Certainly no problems with the City of Brass being in the borderland (at least part of the time, adds a little countdown if the PC's know the City will move to a less hospital part of the Plane of Fire tomorrow).

 

[Notsofunnyguy]

With oven mitts.

 

[jasper]

I hate the instant death plane too. Plane of Fire would be similar to the prime but with lots fire reskin of monsters. Think of Disneyland with a fire theme in some planes. And other a nice hotel for the travelers which is safe from the fire critters.

 

[Draegn]

A place entirely of reflective brass, where everyone over time developed a marmalade complexion. Scents of tea tree and sweet orange oils waft through the streets under a tangerine sky with cinnamon clouds.

 

[digitalelf]

In the past, I've used the City of Brass as it appeared in The Al-Qadim supplement "ALQ4: Secrets of the Lamp". It has an awesome full size poster map.

I've run a couple of adventures in the city using this product. But nothing recently however.

I have thought about taking the best elements (IMO of course) from all of the various City of Brass products (e.g. from Necromancer Games and Hackmaster). But I haven't done so thus far.

 

[jgsugden]

This qustion is one of the reasons why I collapsed the Elemental Planes (and Paraelemental Planes) into one plane. There are huge pockets of Earth, Fire, Water, Air, etc... and paraelemental pockets at the junctures.

The City of Brass is one of the three major trade cities in the planes. The City of Iron (in Dis), the City of Brass and the City of Gold (in a Heavenly place that is controlled by Deities inspired by Aztec Gods) are the places where you go to buy special things. Dis is known for buysing a selling dark things, The CIty of Gold is a place where rre and powerful Goodly items are exchanged, and the City of Brass is where you go to buy ... anything.

It exists on a spur of Elemental Earth that extends into a pocket of fire with minimal magma pools. The temperature ranges from a chilly 100 degrees to a balmy 150 degrees (too hot for folks without resistance to fire to survive for long). Humanoids that live there without resistance are forced to stay inside their protected environments most of the time. 95% of the 'residents' are slaves. If they're valued slaves, they're protected from the heat. If not, they're replaced. Efreet raiding parties often kidnap large numbers of people from the primate material plane to replenish their slaves. They favor tieflings and fire genasi for their 'durability'.

The City itself is paved with shale, obsidian and clay. The buildings are clay and brass, resembling different styles of mediterranean architecture in different zones. There is a firm 'no violence' rule in the streets of the city, and there is a death penalty for tresspassing as well. A Pit Fiend and a Solar that cross path in the street will do nothing more than stare at each other as they pass. There are rivers of magma, geysers of flame, and no water sources anywhere. Water is in very short supply - costing 10 gold a gallon. The Pashas that run the city enforce rules that have not changed in millenia and are shocked when someone is foolish enough to violate their rules - as there are very few and they are very broad. The Enforcers in the city are numerous and often go a century without any real chance to prove their worth. As such, a minor rule violation will often see an overwhelming response.

There are several insanely powerful beings that reside in the City of Brass, including Gods and Patrons. They tend to own a neghborhood and do not allow anyone not fully dedicated to enter their territory.