Setting Travellin´

[shaka gl]

So, after 2 years (almost 3) of playing in FR, im totally tired. I was thinking of trying either A) Dark Sun or B) Eberron.
Which would you say are the strenghts and weaknesses of both? and also: how do you think a character in the FR could end up there? Is there a way or do you think is cheesy?

[FlyMolo]

So, after 2 years (almost 3) of playing in FR, im totally tired. I was thinking of trying either A) Dark Sun or B) Eberron.
Which would you say are the strenghts and weaknesses of both? and also: how do you think a character in the FR could end up there? Is there a way or do you think is cheesy?

Maze+Transdimensional Dimension Lock. He/she falls out of reality and lands in Eberron. Beats me.

[Ascension]

how do you think a character in the FR could end up there? Is there a way or do you think is cheesy?

One word: Sigil. They're not kidding when they say it's got portals to everywhere. My last DM (in a Planescape campaign) once threatened to send us to the Halo-verse on a quest. Our party had two people from Faerun, two from Oerth, one from Eberron and one from the Outlands.

[Emperor Tippy]

One word: Sigil. They're not kidding when they say it's got portals to everywhere. My last DM (in a Planescape campaign) once threatened to send us to the Halo-verse on a quest.

So long as your spells and abilities keep working that would be sweet. I wonder what the UNSC would give you for unlimited energy.

[Ascension]

So long as your spells and abilities keep working that would be sweet. I wonder what the UNSC would give you for unlimited energy.

He also said that the technologically advanced planes were under permanent worldwide anti-magic fields, but I think that was a hasty addition to quash the cleric's plan to travel to the Mechwarrior/Battletech plane and use magic to steal a bunch of mechs.

[Emperor Tippy]

He also said that the technologically advanced planes were under permanent worldwide anti-magic fields, but I think that was a hasty addition to quash the cleric's plan to travel to the Mechwarrior/Battletech plane and use magic to steal a bunch of mechs.

Awh, thats no fun. Well go Cleric with Initiate of Mystra so you can cast in AMF's or Dead magic zones.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Eberron's canonically completely outside all other D&D continuities, but that doesn't mean you can't put it in one (say, via Sigilian Portal) if you think it'll be fun.

Also, I heartily recommend Eberron as a fun, reasonably well-thought-out and open-ended campaign setting. I hear Dark Sun is fun, but it looks like it's really pretty focused on low-magic, post-apocalyptic campaigns. If that's what you want, go for it. Eberron can do pretty much anything else, though, from murder mysteries up to high adventure.

[Ascension]

I highly dislike Eberron due to the high technology level, but if you don't mind the anachronisms it's not that bad.

[Collin152]

Shadow walk.
Go to alternate material plane.
Ta da.

[Prometheus]

I really like Dark Sun. Since it is mostly a post-apocalyptic, I say try to incorporate it into the plot-line via apocalypse. Maybe the characters narrowly escape by getting into something that functions as a time capsule, and waking up thousands of year later. Or maybe it happens all at once, and you have to play around with the settings to make it fit in the same map-shape and such.

[Ascension]

I really like Dark Sun. Since it is mostly a post-apocalyptic, I say try to incorporate it into the plot-line via apocalypse. Maybe the characters narrowly escape by getting into something that functions as a time capsule, and waking up thousands of year later. Or maybe it happens all at once, and you have to play around with the settings to make it fit in the same map-shape and such.

The problem with that is he's currently playing in Forgotten Realms. Elminster wouldn't allow an apocalypse. And Elminster gets what Elminster wants.

...unless the PCs assassinate him first. I recommend this option.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Dimensional travel to Athas is really difficult, since it's cut off from other dimensions except for the conduit to the elemental planes, but it's possible. After all, an entire city and it's Sorcerer-Queen were enveloped by the Mists of Ravenloft. Not too convinced they have a Plane of Shadows, though. There's the Grey and the Black and the Hollow, but none are the PoS, are they?

Portal travel sounds more likely, so Sigil is a great way to get there.

Dark Sun is all about survival, the deadly deserts, choosing between bad and worse, and the like. Very cool setting. PCs from FR would have a bunch of trouble adapting - they're weaker (well, used to be; stat generation was 5d4 in AD&D, so the average and the maximum were higher), they're not used to the constant unyielding sun, they can't use the local magic (there's no deities and no connection to them; the arcane magic draws power from life, plants by default), and everyone's going to try to kill them to get their metal objects, steel especially. It could be very interesting.

[Devils_Advocate]

The Plane of Shadow theoretically connects any two material planes. The great thing about it is that it's under the DM's control. You can totally make your own isolated little setting, because the PCs can't try to visit alternate realities that they don't know about. And if they decide to just cast shadow walk and just wander around until they find something, the DM decides what they find, if they find anything at all.

I like Eberron because, basically, the setting tries not to just disregard the implications of elements it incorporates, which is more than one can say for a lot of science fiction and fantasy settings. It may not perfectly succeed, but it seems to at least sincerely try, and that alone makes it above par.

[Tsotha-lanti]

The Plane of Shadow theoretically connects any two material planes.

In general, yes; Material Planes are also by default linked to the Astral, the Ethereal, and the Elemental Planes (don't quote me on that one, though; might be the connection was throught he Astral or the Ethereal). But Athas is cut off from almost all the planes, with only the Near-Ethereal (the Grey) accessible, a special conduit to the Elemental Planes (which druids and clerics use to cast magic, and with the Sorcerer-Kings use to grant templars magic, having bound themselves to the Elemental Planes magically). Shadows and the like come from the Black, which was either a deeper part of the Grey, or a separate plane altogether (my Athasian cosmology is rusty). The Hollow is a "demiplane" in the Black, where Rajaat (the guy who began the ongoing apocalypse) was trapped.

[Ascension]

they can't use the local magic (there's no deities and no connection to them; the arcane magic draws power from life, plants by default),

For this reason I would suggest not transferring your characters, at least not the casters. The divine casters might be able to get by, at least they have good hit dice and armor proficiencies, but really they're all going to be screwed. Unless you let them get their magic back in like the first quest or so.

[Tsotha-lanti]

Arcane casters from Faerûn would be especially boned, since their magic relies on the Weave, which doesn't exist in Athas. (Then again, technically they should be boned on any plane that isn't Faerûn or directly connected to Faerûn, shouldn't they? The fluff for the source of magic tends to get pretty well ignored in D&D.)