Inter universe (campaign setting) travel?

[dragonkingofthe]

question: is is possible to travel between universes in D&D? And i don't mean planes, Suppose i was in Eberron and wanted to be able to travel to the Forgotten Realms, could I? is it even possible?

Obviously a GM can house rule what he wants, but going by the books is there a way to pull it off? Wiki mentioned something called the "void (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29#Between_the_separ ate_cosmologies)" but I've never heard of it before, though it does souls like what I'm asking about.

[AuraTwilight]

There's no citation given and I've never heard of it before. That Void thing sounds like bullocks.

That being said, the Manual of the Planes describes the Plane of Shadow as being capable of doing this. Urban Arcana, a d20 Modern setting that involved D&D fantasy stuff showing up in the 'real world', explained this as entities from the D&D multiverse crossing over using this exact method.

[Emperor Tippy]

Wish and Gate can do it. As can the Plane of Shadow, the Plane of Dreams, and the Plane of Mirrors; although in all three cases that requires significant travel on said planes and adventuring.

[Gemini476]

That "void" thing sounds pretty made-up. They probably (?) meant the Plane of Shadows, which does indeed connect most cosmologies.

Or you could just Spelljam across the Phlogiston, but that only works for some settings. Krynnspace to Realmspace, for instance.

Eberron is so different, cosmology-wise, that it's probably better if it's just connected to the rest via Shadow if at all.

[Rubik]

That being said, the Manual of the Planes describes the Plane of Shadow as being capable of doing this.This, and a few others. In the PoS's case, you travel to the center of the plane, where the deepest darkness lies. If you survive what lies there, it's possible to travel to other multiverses -- that is, other campaign settings.

It also might be possible to traverse other planes, such as Faerie or the Plane of Mirrors (which is basically an infinitely long stone hallway linking every mirror in existence together). Faerie is filled with all sorts of fey-related insanity (as the fey are capricious and have very odd magic, which they enjoy tormenting mortals with). The PoM says that whenever a creature enters the plane, an equal-but-opposite creature is also spawned somewhere among the mirrors, and it acts almost exactly like the creature spawned by a mirror of opposition. Its sole purpose is to hunt and kill the original, and if it manages to do so, it takes its place and can then leave the plane, to take up the life of the original it killed.

There are other possibilities, too, such as the Plane of Dreams or the Far Realm -- though nobody ever wants to visit the Far Realm. Not even then.

[Togo]

Spelljammer allows this quite handily. Each campaign world is a planet, within a planetary system, that is contained within a crystal sphere. Travel between crystal spheres is possible, if very dangerous, and when you arrive in a new sphere, you'll be in the new campaign world.

Spelljammer was last officially published in 2E, but has been maintained in 3.X by fans, and by semi-official updates from organisations like the RPGA (cf polyhedron magazine)

[Melcar]

Yes there are various ways to travel between crystal spheres.

Spelljammer ships, the correct planeshift spells, and the like (gate?) might do it also. Havent consideres in any of my own games, but there was a series of short storries in Dragon magazine by ed greenwood, where Elminster, Mordenkainen and Dalamar met on earth to talk about there state of there respactive worlds... SO it can be done. How they did it, I do not know!

Edit: Wow... so many replies while I was posting. Sorry for the echo!

[Gemini476]

Yes there are various ways to travel between crystal spheres.

Spelljammer ships, the correct planeshift spells, and the like (gate?) might do it also. Havent consideres in any of my own games, but there was a series of short storries in Dragon magazine by ed greenwood, where Elminster, Mordenkainen and Dalamar met on earth to talk about there state of there respactive worlds... SO it can be done. How they did it, I do not know!

Edit: Wow... so many replies while I was posting. Sorry for the echo!

The original framing for the Forgotten Realms, back when it was just serials in Dragon, was that Ed Greenwood was retelling stories that his pal, Elminster, had told him in the pub.

Elminster also has a magical space station above Earth, IIRC.

It's all very silly in retrospect, but it served the same purpose as Tolkien claiming that he was merely translating the Red Book, or something like the story of the original Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern.

[Alleran]

Find the local door for the World Serpent Inn. In Realmspace (FR) it's in Arabel. In Eberron it's a flower shop in Aundair, in Krynnspace I'm not sure, and in Athas it opens up in the middle of nowhere in a burning desert, about fifteen minutes' walk from a halfling town (I think). On Oerth (Greyhawk) it's in the titular city, IIRC. And so on and so forth. It has doors to pretty much everywhere. Yes, even there.

Enter one door, make your way to the inn, find the door to the world you need, and step out. Just make sure you know the trick to getting back in through that door after you've left.

There are many ways, but personally, I like the World Serpent Inn the most. It's the easiest, has some nice flavour to it (a bit like Honest Johns' in the Riftwar Cycle), and allows ready access to a host of adventuring locations.

[Uncle Pine]

That's how Ravenloft's population grows (except for, you know... that): people from other worlds get trapped in the Mist and brought to Ravenloft. Although leaving Ravenloft isn't as simple and may require multiple campaigns.

[ShurikVch]

There's no citation given and I've never heard of it before. That Void thing sounds like bullocks.

That "void" thing sounds pretty made-up.
From the Elder Evils, Chapter 6: Pandorym

Long ago, a cabal of foolish wizards violated the laws of the multiverse in their search for ever-greater power, discovering spaces “between” the planes that should never have been breached. Their arrogance angered the deities, who jealously coveted this knowledge. To defend themselves (and incidentally, their people), the cabal members sought a weapon with which to threaten the gods. The wizards bent their wills toward a quasireality best described as “perpendicular” to that of the Great Wheel. The dark enticement of the chance to slay deities called to the Material Plane a sentient singularity of scarcely fathomable power and unrelenting destructiveness.
Given the name Pandorym by its summoners, it sought greedily to fulfill the terms of its contract, but was instead imprisoned. Knowing they couldn’t hold Pandorym’s full might with magic—mortal or divine—they cleaved its alien psyche from its body, trapping the former in a crystal prison beneath their city and the latter in a transdimensional space that touches the multiverse at only one point. (Knowledge [history] or [arcana] DC 28)

[Gemini476]

From the Elder Evils, Chapter 6: Pandorym

That sounds sort of like the Far Realm, to be honest. Or a bit like wherever Vestiges come from. There's some weird spots in the cosmology, certainly.

I don't see where the lore on Pandorym implies that you can travel through its home plane to alternate Prime Materials, though. "Between the planes" seems to mean, in this context, between the existing planes of the Great Wheel cosmology.

[Slipperychicken]

One could argue that a campaign setting with infinite material planes would contain most campaign settings within it, particularly those which stick to a single planet.


nobody ever wants to visit the Far Realm. Not even then.

Daruth Winterwood did, and his expedition of wizards did too, despite fears for their sanity. Granted, it didn't turn out so well, but one would assume that some other scientifically-minded and/or crazy people would want to try it too.

[CombatOwl]

question: is is possible to travel between universes in D&D? And i don't mean planes, Suppose i was in Eberron and wanted to be able to travel to the Forgotten Realms, could I? is it even possible?

In AD&D and 3.5e, all of the published settings (other than Planescape) take place in the Prime Material Plane. The same "universe" if you will. Different Crystal Spheres, in the Spelljammer parlance. If you want to go between them, play Planescape or Spelljammer.

3.5e never had a published setting for that, but there was a fan conversion for 3.5e Planescape.

4e changed the cosmology.


Obviously a GM can house rule what he wants, but going by the books is there a way to pull it off? Wiki mentioned something called the "void (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29#Between_the_separ ate_cosmologies)" but I've never heard of it before, though it does souls like what I'm asking about.

Spelljammer or Planescape is what you're looking for. If you're running 3.5e, find the fan site for Planescape conversion rules. Sigil's portals can show up anywhere with a doorway, lead practically anywhere, and the keys can be anything.

[Emperor Tippy]

In AD&D and 3.5e, all of the published settings (other than Planescape) take place in the Prime Material Plane. The same "universe" if you will. Different Crystal Spheres, in the Spelljammer parlance. If you want to go between them, play Planescape or Spelljammer.

3.5e never had a published setting for that, but there was a fan conversion for 3.5e Planescape.

That is wrong. Each of the published settings is in its own prime material plane.

[CombatOwl]

That is wrong. Each of the published settings is in its own prime material plane.

If you're going by the Manual of the Planes, that's because they changed the definition of a material plane for Third Edition.