using the planes

Eben · Sep 20, 2006

I want to set up a campaign with a strong focus on the planes. Mainly because it's something we've never done before and because I'm a bit of a Moorcock fan. So most likely, I'll be going for an extraplanar threath to the world (excuse me: prime material plane). I have a few ideas floating around (if you've read my recent posts) and I want to introduce the planes at a somewhat advanced point in the campaign. (I want the players to think they are up against a mundan threath first.)
But I'm pretty new to the D&D planes. I guess the Manual of the Planes will be a good place to start. But should I also look at other things?

Peter

tonse · Sep 20, 2006

There was an article in the dragon quite some time ago detailing a githyanki invasion on the prime material plane. It was built like a long story arc and a good read. Don't know thw exact issue, though.
By the way, Manual of the Planes is a nice book. Especially the alternate cosmologies should inspire a Moorcock-fan.

airwalkrr · Sep 20, 2006

And here I thought this was a thread about implementing technology into your campaign.

Gold Roger · Sep 20, 2006

Look if you can get your hands on some old planescape stuff, especially Planes of Chaos, Planes of Law, Planes of Conflict, The Guide to the Astral Plane and Maybe the Guide to the Elemental Planes.

Eben · Sep 20, 2006

tonse said:
a githyanki invasion

Yeah, well, I'm not sure I want to use psionics and I understand that that's one of the main components of these critters.

Peter

librarius_arcana · Sep 20, 2006

Every time I see the word "Plane" I think "Snakes on a Plane"

DAMNED MEMES

lol

Shemeska · Sep 20, 2006

librarius_arcana said:
Every time I see the word "Plane" I think "Snakes on a Plane"

And I immediately think of a planetar with Samuel L. Jackson's face fighting a bunch of mariliths...

Shemeska · Sep 20, 2006

But as others have said, the 3e Manual of the Planes is a great place to start. If you then want more detailed material, you can't go wrong with the 2e Planescape material (Planes of Chaos/Conflict/Law, Guide to the Ethereal, Guide to the Astral, Faces of Evil: The Fiends, Hellbound: The Blood War, etc).

And for ideas, there are a number of planar related storyhours here on Enworld, and there's absolutely tons of great ideas on Planewalker.com and the old mimir.net

werk · Sep 20, 2006

Yeah, for 3e, Manual of the Planes gives you the info to do it. It is 3.0 (IIRC) but it doesn't really affect much of it's content. The Planewalkers Handbook is just extra stuff, and is better used by eager players or people wanting to recapture some of the planescape fluff.

Other than that, it sounds like you are already looking in the right places...flavorful fantasy that you like.

My favorite thing about the planes is that there is so much infinity! You have infinities inside, overlapping, intersecting, and colliding with other infinities. Belief is reality, and morals are destinations. The only real problem with the planes is there is SO MUCH you can do, you are never able to actually realize it all.

DMH · Sep 20, 2006

The absolute best book I have read on the planes is FFG's Portals and Planes. It doesn't have any set cosmology but provides many ideas and themes for the DM to create his own.

Personally I hate the great wheel and have so since I read the first MOP. P&P, and to a lesser point Beyond Countless Doorways, gave me tools to replace it with something I like.

Finally, this free download might give you some ideas on advantages of dealing with planar dwellers: http://towercoda.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=31