The other dimension or planes in the D&D Universe is something that every character seems to have a fond memory of. For most the other planes are the legendary places of the afterlife where gods, demons and devils dwell. For wizards and adventurers they are places where one can readily explore, as they are just adjacent dimension on which our reality is built upon. As 5E is attempting to raise D&D from unlife, a new article "The Many Worlds of D&D" attempts to preview what may happen.
When D&D was first created, the idea of these realms where rather simple. Plane of Energy, Plane of Entropy, Plane of Matter, Plane of Time, and Plane of Thought. These various planes contained other areas in which certain gods or worlds existed. In addition it explained our universe as we know it, a large place full of possibilities.
As AD&D came into being, the 5 Modular explanation of the planes was redefined into what we call "The Great Wheel". It said there were three major areas: Inner Planes, Prime Material Plane, and the Outer Planes. As a buffer around the Prime Material Plane, there are the ethereal and Astral Planes, which allowed the prime not to be heavily influenced by primal elemental energies or divine forces. The concept of the great wheel was carried over from 1st Edition to 2nd Edition with minor changes, mostly going into detail upon the planes themselves. This culminated when an entire campaign setting was developed known as Planescape, which set the benchmark for the planes.
When the Golden Age of 3rd Edition and the d20 Universe came along, the "Great Wheel" model was still uphold. However, due to the fact that the d20 system was inclusive to other genres and world, it did allow some measure of reinterpretation. New areas were discussed like the Far Realm and the First World of the faerie, even the new campaign setting Eberron bought hints of new mechanics involving the planes. The "Great Wheel" is consider a balanced approach, while other interpretations were accepted as well. The models of the Great Tree patterned after the Yggdrasil of the Norse Pantheon, The Great Mountain from the Roman-Greco Pantheon, The Great Pyramid from the Mayan Pantheon, Grecian Celestial Sphere model, The Twin Rivers of Darkness and Day from the Pharonic Pantheon, and even the original Immortals 5 Planar Realms were accepted. People forget that d20 allowed the greatest freedom of interpretation. As the main theme of this era was that you the player's were truly in control of your world, not the game mechanics.
Sadly the great divide came when d20 was forced to shut down, and the 4E spewed forth. Much of it was saved an honored by its successor, Pathfinder. However, the ruinous 4E era bought forth an alternate prime material plane of Oerth, and destroyed the Great Wheel. The Astral Sea replaced much of the Outer Planes, while the Inner Planes were redone as the Elemental Chaos which collapsed into the Abyss. Some of the transitive planes like the Plane of Shadow was renamed the Shadowfell, and the faerie plane became the Feywild. It shook some things up and is attempting to reconcile with 5E.....
Reason for this article is in the defense of Spelljammer, the for mentioned article seems to treat this campaign setting as a problem. Spelljammer takes the terrestrial fantasy D&D campaign into wildspace. The author claims one of the biggest failing was the fact that you could travel to any D&D world. That in my opinion was one the best reasons you could get it, bypassing planar travel! It also started you thinking on the influence of gods...in how a cleric power was affected by wildsapce travel. The "Phlogiston" was also an interesting explanation of deep space. One could simple see that area as "Hyperspace", when a spelljammer shifts to an area of the border ethereal allowing them to cover the distance between systems in a shorter length of time.
Spelljammer is a great setting which is worth a try, especially if you like sci-fi dramas, but with Asteroid Dungeons and Stellar Dragons!
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