Community Suggestion: Universal Cosmology
What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?
There should be a universal cosmology option. The idea would be that instead of building a pantheon and/or realms/planes that a cosmology could be created outside of an individual world, allowing a world and/or campaign could select the cosmology to refence without forcing users to use multiple worlds.
While I don't know how frequently this feature would be used, it seems a reasonable number of people could find it useful. Some writers may find it useful to reuse the same cosmology, but I think the vast majority that would find it useful would be GMs, who would be able to reuse the same cosmology when hopping between settings, making one less thing to have to think about.
How does this feature request address the current situation?
As it stands right now, if I want to use the same cosmology in two different worlds, I have to copy over all of the information article-by-article into the new world (although secrets can be cross-refenced). This is a cumbersome solution.
Creating a top-level cosmology system would also allow creators to edit the cosmology in one location if they later decide to add or modify it in any way and it would apply to all worlds at the same time, where right now adding to one means additional effort if I want the same aspects to apply across all worlds.
The ability to apply the cosmology at the world or campaign level would mean that GMs would be able to easily swap between them if the GM or group would prefer one cosmology over the other without doing a bunch of work to make those adjustments.
What are other uses for this feature request?
Truthfully, a system like this could be applied to other aspects. As an example, a top-level magic system would allow creators to make one magic system and apply it anywhere. Even using the same game system, a particular world or campaign could use different explanations about how or why the mechanics work in that setting. That system could be used in multiple worlds, or easily swapped in the same world if the needs of the creator changes.
Side Note
I understand that this might be a really big ask, and may not even be possible under the current architecture. After I fully flesh out my cosmology, I'll be creating separate worlds to house the cosmology (one a 5E version and one a system agnostic version) for easier copying into my other actual worlds (those I've started and those I have planned), but it's a less than ideal solution.
Follow up
Since it's come up a few times, I'm going to address the idea that my idea is basically just Child Worlds. While I was unaware of Child Worlds being a thing because I didn't know that there was a whole separate blog (that doesn't have an obvious link to me), much less think to read up on a post from 2 years ago, I can't say for sure that Child Worlds is exactly what I'm talking about. Depending on how they implement it, it could or could not be. That being said, it seems like the architecture would at least be a similar concept. As near as what I can tell, Child Worlds is all about using someone else's world to play your campaign in, to have access to all that information and be able to set up characters, notes, events, etc. for individual campaigns. What I'm talking about is to have an external source of information that can be integrated into your world (with possibly an override for an individual campaign). Child Worlds would work well with my Universal Cosmology idea, though, as maybe a GM would be happy with the setting of one world and the cosmology of another (perhaps even by different creators). Probably the biggest difference is that what I'm looking at would be more akin to a parent campaign that would embed into a world or campaign. I plan on using separate worlds to be able to have a repository to be able to manually copy and paste every article into each world for better integration, which may be where the confusion about what I was talking about, but ideally there would be some easy way of selecting a cosmology. The big thing would be about linking articles from a world or campaign that would maximize navigation. Just opening up access to a different world to read cosmology stuff isn't that difficult, but then it requires a much clunkier navigation solution, as the audience or player group won't be able to as easily move about the world. That may not be a big deal for some (possibly even a majority), but it can be a huge hinderance for others, especially those not as technologically adept (or perhaps with some other limitation). I would also love to see a slightly different organizational structure. Like, maps and timelines aren't really that important in a cosmology, nor would things like a world atlas, but I will take what I can get. I have a plan for a very clunky workaround right now, but I think there's a better way. Is my solution perfect, or even viable? I have no idea. I'm a writer with absolutely no programming aptitude (trust me, I wish I did). If Child Worlds is an indication, it may be possible. Any improvement would be very welcome, and would probably save me (and others) a whole lot of time.
The Team's Response
From your description, it looks like you have different planets that exist in the same universe (and therefore have the same cosmology). On World Anvil, this is represented by having all planets in the same World Anvil world. You can use the geographic location template to describe each planet, and organize all of your cosmology articles into a "Universal Cosmology" category. Feel free to email us at [email protected] if you need more help with this.64/300 Votes · +10914 points
Votes Cast
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-300
by A Frightened Cthulhu
on 2023-03-08 15:05You're dumb
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+300
by 1337spectra
on 2023-03-08 01:22 -
+300
by Eraellas
on 2023-03-07 03:34 -
+300
by MKHETH II
on 2023-03-07 02:47 -
+1
by Aria Nicest Reynard
on 2023-03-07 00:07 -
+300
by eggoscrombled
on 2023-03-06 18:56 -
+300
by Siblis
on 2023-03-05 15:29 -
+300
by LisaGrimm
on 2023-03-05 09:10 -
+300
by Corvus Rex
on 2023-03-05 04:51 -
+100
by Destroyer831642
on 2023-03-04 17:06 -
+300
by A Cute Mlem
on 2023-03-04 13:30 -
+100
by restlessGalaxy
on 2023-03-04 07:30 -
+100
by DuskBlade
on 2023-03-03 18:38 -
+300
by TheRealSpaceBandito
on 2023-03-03 15:34 -
+100
by SamT
on 2023-03-03 10:45 -
+1
by A Wild Kobold
on 2023-03-02 23:03 -
+300
by Cirrusoftheunseenhights
on 2023-03-01 07:13 -
+1
by storyauthor
on 2023-03-01 03:58 -
+300
by L3G3ND
on 2023-02-28 23:07 -
+300
by A Uncontrollable Hobbit
on 2023-02-27 01:57 -
+300
by teffack
on 2023-02-26 20:19 -
+100
by A Filthy Goblin
on 2023-02-26 19:11 -
+1
by Nezorlath
on 2023-02-25 23:58 -
+100
by Krawczyk & Weaver
on 2023-02-25 14:56 -
+1
by A Thundering Hobbit
on 2023-02-25 02:03 -
+1
by LittleSister
on 2023-02-23 09:19 -
+300
by Dreadwish
on 2023-02-23 09:07 -
+300
by JackLink916
on 2023-02-22 19:15 -
+1
by Syncero
on 2023-02-22 08:06 -
+300
by A Cute Kitten
on 2023-02-22 01:12 -
+300
by A Adorable Goblin
on 2023-02-21 11:49 -
+300
by Saytama
on 2023-02-21 10:59 -
+1
by Mochimanoban
on 2023-02-20 16:51 -
+1
by Mk.94 Art
on 2023-02-20 12:21 -
+100
by A Fierce Cthulhu
on 2023-02-20 06:50 -
+1
by abbie-
on 2023-02-19 18:59 -
+1
by AvalonArcana
on 2023-02-19 17:11 -
+300
by CrypticCole
on 2023-02-19 10:44 -
+1
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+100
by Squash
on 2023-02-18 06:18 -
+300
by A Adorable Cthulhu
on 2023-02-18 01:32 -
+100
by A Adorable Goblin
on 2023-02-18 00:29 -
+100
by Secular Heirophant
on 2023-02-17 23:41 -
+100
by Rilameth
on 2023-02-17 17:31 -
+300
by arctrog
on 2023-02-17 13:27 -
+100
by wanzock
on 2023-02-17 07:20 -
+300
by Zimxter
on 2023-02-16 17:01 -
+300
by SoskaCream
on 2023-02-16 14:52 -
+300
by Nubs
on 2023-02-16 11:29 -
+300
by bladesmoss
on 2023-02-16 04:40 -
+100
by Goldenkni9ht
on 2023-02-15 17:35 -
+300
by Scalenex
on 2023-02-15 09:39I was considering a prequel (thousands of years in the past) and sequel version of my main fantasy world (thousands of years in the future). and this would help
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+300
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+100
by FictionFan1995
on 2023-02-14 20:09 -
+1
by Khaer
on 2023-02-14 15:16 -
+100
by Adcheryl
on 2023-02-14 10:34 -
+100
by Mme88
on 2023-02-14 01:45 -
+100
by Ratha
on 2023-02-13 21:29 -
+1
by SoulLink
on 2023-02-13 21:04This is already planned under the title Child Worlds or Project Hyperion in the old roadmap.
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+300
by sabinala
on 2023-02-13 20:55 -
+100
by Tijmuhn
on 2023-02-13 20:30 -
+300
by A Goodhearted T-Rex
on 2023-02-13 19:16 -
+300
by Artgalles
on 2023-02-13 18:49 -
+100
by ss2020
on 2023-02-13 17:04 -
+300
by Rubahak
on 2023-02-13 15:36
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