Plane of Shadow as Parallel World / Dark World

[ffone]

An olde theme in fantasy and fiction is the Dark World, a parallel but darker world to our own where buildings line up spatially but are more evil-looking or run-down, etc. It's so iconic that I was able to guess its trvtropes.org page title ('Dark World') and which example they'd features(Zelda: Link to the Past).

DnD's Plane of Shadow seems to fit the bill roughly enough, with similar traits to the Material World (unlike the ethereal, for example, it has gravity).

- Fun plot ideas (like the existence of a PoS city coterminal with a Material city, and the bad guys who run the former preparing for an en masse crossover invasion)

- This is Forgotten Realms, so using Shar (Forgotten Realms darkness goddess) as humanoid baddies' deity is likely (as are the Shadow Adept, Shadowdancer, and Nightcloak PrCs for class-leveled NPCs.)

- Appropriate creatures / encounters like the Shadow undead and Shadow Mastiff. I had a similar thread about dark-templating things, which garnered such templates as: Dark (ToM), Shade (RoF), Shadowwalker (UE), Shadow Creature (LoM), and Umbral (LM).

I haven't found a concise way to search for monsters by terrain (http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/mainlist.shtml has a creature finder but only lists non-planar terrains).

[dsmiles]

I believe Manual of the Planes covers this theory somewhat. Since the demi-plane of Shadow is already coterminous with the material plane, adding weak spots to the planar boundries at dawn/dusk (or at midnight, or even at noon, if you like) sounds like a plausible means of transit from the prime material to the demi-plane of shadow. As for planar encounters, you could just take regular encounters (by terrain) and add one of those templates to make it a demi-plane of Shadow encounter..

[Dralnu]

DMG has a section that sorts MM creatures by terrain. Honestly though, I'd save yourself the trouble and start throwing the Dark template (ToM) on any monster that you want to use. It's a very easy adjustment.

If you want to go the "dark plane is eeeeeeevil" route, possible plot hook could be having a rebel "good" faction. An underground group of renegades trying to overthrow the evil governments or just trying desperately to escape their world. If they make contact with the PCs at some point, they can help advance whatever storyline you've got.

[Jair Barik]

It's not a demiplane actually. It's a transitive plane of infinite size. Or at least according to sourcebooks it is, if you are GM you are allowed to fludd the shadow planes however you like, make it what fits best in your campaign

[dsmiles]

It's not a demiplane actually. It's a transitive plane of infinite size. Or at least according to sourcebooks it is, if you are GM you are allowed to fludd the shadow planes however you like, make it what fits best in your campaignSorry, I'm old. It was initially invented as a demiplane.

[Psyren]

As far as settlements on the Plane of Shadow, the Illumians have a large capital city there called Elirhondas. Synads are originally from there too IIRC.

[Coidzor]

Hmm. I wonder what that does to the Shades though. Or maybe that's what really got them to lose so much of their magical and magitech knowledge, the merging of their material city with its shadow self... and possibly the merging of the denizens of the city with their shadow counterparts is what made them so wiggy.

...And which then leaves the question of whether they'll have shadows again now that they're in the prime material plane once more or if what they did will prevent themselves from having shadow counterparts... Or if shadow counterparts are still in the nascent stages of forming for them...

Aren't there ways to travel between the shadow planes of various material planes? Are you going to leave that in or nix it?

[TakeABow]

I ran a survival-horror based game that was set on the Plane of Shadow. The party took shelter in an abandoned temple, and they found a subterranean chamber featuring only a giant lever. When pulled, the lever caused a massive flash of light and knocked everyone out, then plane-shifted them to the identical room on the plane of shadow. Even with some pretty severe hints, it took a while for the PCs to realize that Kansas had gone bye-bye.

The premise of the Shadow plane as a dark and twisted parallel realm worked out perfectly for that game. I got the idea from the Manual of the Planes, so fluff-wise I would say there is no problem with it, and I can say from experience that the idea works out pretty well.

[ffone]

DMG has a section that sorts MM creatures by terrain. Honestly though, I'd save yourself the trouble and start throwing the Dark template (ToM) on any monster that you want to use. It's a very easy adjustment.

If you want to go the "dark plane is eeeeeeevil" route, possible plot hook could be having a rebel "good" faction. An underground group of renegades trying to overthrow the evil governments or just trying desperately to escape their world. If they make contact with the PCs at some point, they can help advance whatever storyline you've got.

Rebellious rescues is a good idea.

And I like the idea of throwing dark or shadow templates (most of the random encounter table entries in Manual of the Planes are just 'shadow' dire animals) on. those templates don't 'modify the numbers' much (no ability score mods, just hide or move silently bonuses), they just add new special qualities or spell-like abilities, which makes them very quick for a DM to add onto things. No need to recalculate or even rewrite its stat block, just remember its new options.

[umbrapolaris]

Sorry, I'm old. It was initially invented as a demiplane.

and discovered in FR by the Netherese Arcanist Lord Shadow aka Telamont Tanthul :smallwink: