D&D General What role do the planes play in your games?

[Tonguez]

I did literally air strike my players in a d20 Modern game.

And in a high-level ZEITGEIST adventure someone has invented biplanes that require magical levitationals to stay aloft. No bombs, but they did have heavy repeating rifles.

I dont use the planes much at all, except for maybe the Fey Realms.

One setting I’ve used was inspired by the Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin and included zeppelin-like airships, an ornithopter and biplanes. The PCs got a Airship and at one point a glider, but it soon crashed and they didnt get around to repairing it.

I’ve had a character who had a magic Kite which was big enough to lift him and act as a glider.

 

[Asisreo]

Planes are essential in my campaigns because they are usually where the real threats reside. Its also where the cooler monsters are.

I usually have several known portals to a different plane in certain areas like in magical forests to the Feywilds or supernaturally hot volcanoes to the Fire Plane.

In certain high-magic areas, I'll also have a different plane portal as random encounters.

I limit easy travel to the inner planes while the outer planes require much more difficult and dangerous journeys.

Yes, I take the majority of things in the DMG seriously while also adding my own spins to them because the planes are always interesting, at least in my opinion.

 

[ccs]

Well, to steal a line from the MCU, "It's all connected".

And the connective tissue for anything not set on the same world? Is the planes.
They provide the back & forth as well as the forward & backwards.

At the most basic "the planes" are where the gods (often) reside, the afterlife is located, and you summon elementals from. Oh and where a few spells & items lead to.
This is where most concern about the planes can stop in my games.

Right now though the players are involved in a version of the combined Ravenloft/Ravenloft II: Hose on Gryphon Hill adventures. Mordentshire, the town where the Gryphon Hill house is located is on my worlds map. Barovia, a nightmarish pocket dimension, is linked to this area. The PCs? Have discovered that under certain conditions they can cross back & forth. As can the villains. They've also learned that the East & West ends of the Barovian vally apparently lead to different worlds(?). The East end leads to a world where elves still commonly exist (2 of the current PCs come from there). The West end leads to my world - where elves have grown incredibly rare (at least in the areas I'm running adventures in). The players have also realized that time does not pass at the same rate in the world vs in Barovia.