WotC WotC needs an Elon Musk

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

WotC apparently already used their "Wand of Simplification" on the cosmology, and I believe the game is the lesser for it.

You like the game less. That doesn't mean that the game is worse. I'm pretty sure that the majority of players do not care an itch about a whole plane of salt being removed.

 

[Nikosandros]

You like the game less. That doesn't mean that the game is worse. I'm pretty sure that the majority of players do not care an itch about a whole plane of salt being removed.

You are just pouring salt on the wounds...

 

[Mecheon]

WotC apparently already used their "Wand of Simplification" on the cosmology, and I believe the game is the lesser for it.

While I am a noted person who loves his elementals, let's not even pretend the various elemental planes were interesting. I think the most milleage was that one time that person in Dragon magazine took over Greyhawk and used its gods to mine the Plane of Salt to sell elsewhere, and I say this as probably like the one person in the world who remembers or likes the Facets (The salt-creatures who can combine together). They're not 'complex', they're square filling, and sometimes dumb square filling (I still have a bone to pick with the Plane of Steam and the multiple bits and bobs where the book goes 'oh no, its not actually the Plane of Steam despite the name, but someone wrote it in a book years ago so despite Plane of Mist being the more appropriate name we're not changing it). The Elemental Planes in general aren't places you really want to visit, but moreso some variety of hostile landscape that blocks you from getting to your particular destination, and, well, an infinite expanse of Progress Blockers isn't all that interesting

Elemental Chaos gives some interesting stuff as by mushing it all together into one, you've got choice. Sure you can cross the Water to try and get to the Tower of Salt, but given that's going to be a constant war and have no subtlty to the approach, can always take advantage of the fact salt is a mineral and find your way in through an alternate path, perhaps a long abandoned tunnel linking to more earth related sides of things

(Also like, let's also just be honest, there's an easy in-canon explanation: In some random Planescape creature book there were these worms one of the Guilds released in the elemental to bind the elemental planes together. Worms won. There's your explanation)

 

[Micah Sweet]

While I am a noted person who loves his elementals, let's not even pretend the various elemental planes were interesting. I think the most milleage was that one time that person in Dragon magazine took over Greyhawk and used its gods to mine the Plane of Salt to sell elsewhere, and I say this as probably like the one person in the world who remembers or likes the Facets (The salt-creatures who can combine together). They're not 'complex', they're square filling, and sometimes dumb square filling (I still have a bone to pick with the Plane of Steam and the multiple bits and bobs where the book goes 'oh no, its not actually the Plane of Steam despite the name, but someone wrote it in a book years ago so despite Plane of Mist being the more appropriate name we're not changing it). The Elemental Planes in general aren't places you really want to visit, but moreso some variety of hostile landscape that blocks you from getting to your particular destination, and, well, an infinite expanse of Progress Blockers isn't all that interesting

Elemental Chaos gives some interesting stuff as by mushing it all together into one, you've got choice. Sure you can cross the Water to try and get to the Tower of Salt, but given that's going to be a constant war and have no subtlty to the approach, can always take advantage of the fact salt is a mineral and find your way in through an alternate path, perhaps a long abandoned tunnel linking to more earth related sides of things

(Also like, let's also just be honest, there's an easy in-canon explanation: In some random Planescape creature book there were these worms one of the Guilds released in the elemental to bind the elemental planes together. Worms won. There's your explanation)

So you didn't like them. That's fine. Doesn't mean the old way was dumb, just that you didn't like it and prefer the new way. Why can't people just like what they like? With the notable personal weakness of 5e Ravenloft, I'm not going around talking about how the way new products are created is dumb.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Again YOU conserve your story, not WotC.

But WoTC is the one telling the story. They have to be the one to enact the changes or use the pieces.

Honestly, did ANYTHING ever happen with the Stinging Storm? Did you even know it existed? Does anything live there? Is there any point in going there? You can only publish a finite amount of things, so focusing your attention becomes necessary for the good of the stuff.

Out of all the elemental planes, do you know what gets used? The City of Brass. Because that's pretty much the only part of all these planes that has anything meaningful written about it. Everything else is just a featureless expanse, which means it is really hard to use for anything without making up your own things to put in it.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The feywild is interesting, but isn't even close to being what the positive plane is and the plane of Shadow(shadowfell) isn't even close to what the negative plane is. The positive and negative planes serve a function, even if no one ever goes there.

And like an appendix, they aren't really that necessary.

Sure, the positive plane is where all positive energy comes from.... why do I need a plane for that? Fire doesn't all come from the plane of fire, I can generate it by smashing flint and steel. Positive energy is the energy of life... why not just say that life generates positive energy. Done. No plane needed.

What is negative energy? Just like cold is an noticeable absence of kinetic energy at a molecular level, negative energy is just a reduction in positive energy. It doesn't need to be created, it is just energy flow. Done. No plane needed.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This is a restriction you place on yourself that has no particular merit outside of your own preferences for scale and which can be extrapolated to any setting location. Your whole campaign can fit inside a single dungeon if you want.

So, you don't think that having so many planes that many of them are just names without any description or depth isn't a problem?

These planes have existed for decades. How much has officially been published detailing the Great Conflagration? Enough to warrant reprinting it?

 

[Incenjucar]

WotC doesn't need to outline every possible location in every possible plane or else discard it. If you don't have an idea for using something, you don't have to use it. Even if they put fifty locations in the negative plane, you might not use a single one of them.

--

Edit: Look at my avatar and guess if I have a hard time using the elemental planes.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But WoTC is the one telling the story. They have to be the one to enact the changes or use the pieces.

Honestly, did ANYTHING ever happen with the Stinging Storm? Did you even know it existed? Does anything live there? Is there any point in going there? You can only publish a finite amount of things, so focusing your attention becomes necessary for the good of the stuff.

Out of all the elemental planes, do you know what gets used? The City of Brass. Because that's pretty much the only part of all these planes that has anything meaningful written about it. Everything else is just a featureless expanse, which means it is really hard to use for anything without making up your own things to put in it.

Have you read any of the Planescape setting? Lots of WotC IP right there for them to add into the current edition.

 

[Lanefan]

So, you don't think that having so many planes that many of them are just names without any description or depth isn't a problem?

Not at all.

It's the same principle as leaving blank areas on a setting map - they're there to be filled in later as, when, and if needed.