I'm interested in running a 5e campaign in the Ethereal Plane specifically. (Possibly Astral Plane) I have the old Planescape "Guide to the Ethereal Plane," but I'd really like to see how someone else's Ethereal Campaign played out before I attempt one on my own. Any suggestions?
Something that has entertained me as a GM is a sort of demi-plane akin to the garden maze in the movie "Labyrinth" or the Hallmark version of Alice in Wonderland. You could have a Mazemaster similar to a dark lord or feylord, who would be the near-omnipotent god of the demi-plane, but whose mercurial, "chaotic neutral" personality would want to test and play with the PCs rather than help or harm them. The brilliant creatures of Jim Henson in Labyrinth served as a sort of blueprint for the weird and wacky characters the player characters would encounter: Cheshire cats (though this one is from Alice), creatures with three heads (funny not scary) who perhaps disagree with each other on when to eat the players and how to cook them (cf. "The Grail" by Monty), great, big, friendly fluff dragons ("The Neverending Story") on whose backs you can pass a couple of the thorny walls far below, but who have to set you down relatively quickly because of indigestion (they have to fart) and then forget all about you and fall asleep. Was there any mist obscuring the edges of the maze from on high? Did you see all of it? Not really, no to both of these questions. There was just too much too see and take in of this perpetual labyrinth, so that your mind couldn't process all of it. Like in Minecraft, more and more chuks just kept loading into your central memory cortex (or "mind" as us buff old, Tolkienista traditionalists would call it) so that you couldn't possibly process all of it. Too much for mortals. And then you were set down on a daisy-covered meadow in the middle (if it even has a middle) of the maze, reeling from thoughts and emotions, trying to categorise and understand the many tunnels and passageways you have just seen. Way out? There isn't any of course. There is just a way in: to its True Centre. There, with the proper keys you may or may not have picked up along the way, you may finally unlock and open up the portal (a bonfire? a pack of cards? a weather-proof wardrobe?) to reach your own World Primal... and if you haven't picked up all the right keys? Don't worry: you can always try to find your way back across the dimensionless leagues of grassy, sunlit pastures, though you never will, of course. Many, but by no means all of the verdant corridors shift and change like the ocean. You'll never find the same keys again, but certainly others that are just as good in places that are just as wonderful. Perhaps the Mazemaster will even take pity on you, because it is an emotion he has never savoured before, like a vintage wine that must be tested at least once, even for a Divine being, to be crossed off the bucket list. In the maze there is even a little wood, where merry Wood-elves live in perfect bliss and harmony though they were once taken from their Home World against their wishes by the Master. The only blight on their existence is that little tribe of smallish Orcs that pester and terrorise them so that they have to take precautions and perhaps even enlist the aid of some good-natured adventurers passing through their habitat. And then, there's the Green Dragon and the tyrannosaurus and the meat-eating plant (or its cousin) from the "Little Shop of Horrors"... Tutuapp9AppsShowbox
I'm interested in running a 5e campaign in the Ethereal Plane specifically. (Possibly Astral Plane) I have the old Planescape "Guide to the Ethereal Plane," but I'd really like to see how someone else's Ethereal Campaign played out before I attempt one on my own. Any suggestions?
Something that has entertained me as a GM is a sort of demi-plane akin to the garden maze in the movie "Labyrinth" or the Hallmark version of Alice in Wonderland. You could have a Mazemaster similar to a dark lord or feylord, who would be the near-omnipotent god of the demi-plane, but whose mercurial, "chaotic neutral" personality would want to test and play with the PCs rather than help or harm them. The brilliant creatures of Jim Henson in Labyrinth served as a sort of blueprint for the weird and wacky characters the player characters would encounter: Cheshire cats (though this one is from Alice), creatures with three heads (funny not scary) who perhaps disagree with each other on when to eat the players and how to cook them (cf. "The Grail" by Monty), great, big, friendly fluff dragons ("The Neverending Story") on whose backs you can pass a couple of the thorny walls far below, but who have to set you down relatively quickly because of indigestion (they have to fart) and then forget all about you and fall asleep. Was there any mist obscuring the edges of the maze from on high? Did you see all of it? Not really, no to both of these questions. There was just too much too see and take in of this perpetual labyrinth, so that your mind couldn't process all of it. Like in Minecraft, more and more chuks just kept loading into your central memory cortex (or "mind" as us buff old, Tolkienista traditionalists would call it) so that you couldn't possibly process all of it. Too much for mortals. And then you were set down on a daisy-covered meadow in the middle (if it even has a middle) of the maze, reeling from thoughts and emotions, trying to categorise and understand the many tunnels and passageways you have just seen. Way out? There isn't any of course. There is just a way in: to its True Centre. There, with the proper keys you may or may not have picked up along the way, you may finally unlock and open up the portal (a bonfire? a pack of cards? a weather-proof wardrobe?) to reach your own World Primal... and if you haven't picked up all the right keys? Don't worry: you can always try to find your way back across the dimensionless leagues of grassy, sunlit pastures, though you never will, of course. Many, but by no means all of the verdant corridors shift and change like the ocean. You'll never find the same keys again, but certainly others that are just as good in places that are just as wonderful. Perhaps the Mazemaster will even take pity on you, because it is an emotion he has never savoured before, like a vintage wine that must be tested at least once, even for a Divine being, to be crossed off the bucket list. In the maze there is even a little wood, where merry Wood-elves live in perfect bliss and harmony though they were once taken from their Home World against their wishes by the Master. The only blight on their existence is that little tribe of smallish Orcs that pester and terrorise them so that they have to take precautions and perhaps even enlist the aid of some good-natured adventurers passing through their habitat. And then, there's the Green Dragon and the tyrannosaurus and the meat-eating plant (or its cousin) from the "Little Shop of Horrors"... Tutuapp 9Apps Showbox