D&D 5E Check Out Planescape's Table of Contents & More!

Brandes Stoddard has received a copy of Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse (which come out in two weeks!) and is posting loads of photos over on Blue Sky. You can check out his feed for the whole treasure trove--here's a look at the table of contents.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, the more time goes on, the more convinced I am that this Vecna adventure is going to feature some sort of partial-reset of their multiverse - something to give them cover to get rid of anything they now consider controversial or problematic, while simultaneously allowing them to retain whatever elements they want to keep.

Which is fine, I guess - it's their multiverse to do with what they will. Unfortunately, 'problematic' is very much a moving target, so any hope this is a one-and-done project is unlikely to be justified.

As expected, not seeing anything outside monster statblocks worth getting here if you have access to the old material.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

This sourcebook is focused mainly into Sigil and the Outlands.

I guess later we will see a new Manual of Planes, after the "reboot" by Vecna event. Then this planar handbook will show new PC species as the ardlings, the glitchlings, bariaurs and others. And old elements from previous editions will be recovered, for example the "fading lands" and the "half-worlds".

What are fading lands and half-worlds?

 

[Reynard]

It stands for I make typos. And then am snow blind to them.

That would be IMT. You're not good at this at all.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Yep. Any hope that this setting wouldn't be like Spelljammer has just been shot to hell. Now admittedly Sigil is very important and gets a lot more pages than the Rock of Bral did, but the setting is the multiverse. The outlands gets two whole pages and none of the other planes get any. The DMG isn't detailed enough to cover that lack. Then we get gate towns for two pages each. They gave us bupkis outside of Sigil and as important as Sigil is, Sigil isn't Planescape.

The Outlands gets 2 pages? Where in the world are you getting that number? It gets 36.

And you are completely wrong about Planescape. It's 90% about Sigil and the Outlands. Re-read the original Planescape box set if you don't believe me (where most Gate Towns got zero description other than being on a list). And if you try to say that it should cover everything all Planescape products eventually did, then please say what price point WotC needs to have on that 1000+ page product, and whether they should ship it with its own wheelbarrow to allow you to move it around...

 

[Reynard]

I am definitely going to have disdvantage on my save against buying this thing...

As someone who never gave Planescape much thought in 2E (aside from enjoying the art) I am looking forward to both exploring it and filling out Sigil with every OSR weird fantasy book of tables I can find. I wonder if you could run this with Shadowdark or one of the B/X clones...

 

[delericho]

As expected, not seeing anything outside monster statblocks worth getting here if you have access to the old material.

Out of curiosity: what would you consider being worth getting if you have access to the old material? (Excluding the monster stat blocks and the adventure.)

One of the issues that they have is that the boxed set must be pitched primarily at players who may have heard of Planescape but are otherwise new to it (since the vast majority of current D&D players are new with 5e). So the boxed set basically has to hit the highlights of the setting - Sigil and the Gate towns, the Lady of Pain, the factions. Once they've covered that, there's probably not much scope for new stuff.

(I suppose they could do a full-on reboot of the setting, so that all the lore is new again. But given my reaction to their approach to Spelljammer, I'm not convinced that would be welcome. )

(Also, for the avoidance of doubt: that's a genuine question. There isn't some veiled attack in there. )

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Outlands gets 2 pages? Where in the world are you getting that number? It gets 36.

And you are completely wrong about Planescape. It's 90% about Sigil and the Outlands. Re-read the original Planescape box set if you don't believe me. And if you try to say that it should cover everything all Planescape products eventually did, then please say what price point WotC needs to have on that 1000+ page product, and whether they should ship it with its own wheelbarrow to allow you to move it around...

I have a lot of boxed sets and supplements that say otherwise. Maybe I'm just imagining they exist?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have a lot of boxed sets and supplements that say otherwise. Maybe I'm just imagining they exist?

So, this product would have been acceptable if it included everything in the original boxed set PLUS all the subsequent boxed sets and supplements?

Why would you buy it when it was reprinting stuff you already own?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Out of curiosity: what would you consider being worth getting if you have access to the old material? (Excluding the monster stat blocks and the adventure.)

One of the issues that they have is that the boxed set must be pitched primarily at players who may have heard of Planescape but are otherwise new to it (since the vast majority of current D&D players are new with 5e). So the boxed set basically has to hit the highlights of the setting - Sigil and the Gate towns, the Lady of Pain, the factions. Once they've covered that, there's probably not much scope for new stuff.

(I suppose they could do a full-on reboot of the setting, so that all the lore is new again. But given my reaction to their approach to Spelljammer, I'm not convinced that would be welcome. )

(Also, for the avoidance of doubt: that's a genuine question. There isn't some veiled attack in there. )

Information about areas of the setting not covered or insufficiently covered by the old material. New realms, new setting details, an example would be setting information on planes that didn't exist in 2e (at least not in the same form), like the Feywild, the Shadowfell, or the Far Realm.

A decent amount of player-facing material, both new and updated from the old work. They can't even be bothered to include rogue modrons in this thing, for Primus' sake! There's a world of material in the old Planewalker's handbook they could have looked to update, for example.

Now, given that I consider the adventure book a waste of page count, don't particularly see art as a big selling point, and see the slipcase format as little more than an excuse to justify a price hike, this was always going to be a very hard sell for me. Hence my plan to buy the monsters off DDB (once I know if there's enough material to be worth their price), store it offline, and move on to check out the stuff on DMsGuild. It's what I did with Spelljammer, and I see no reason to do differently here.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, this product would have been acceptable if it included everything in the original boxed set PLUS all the subsequent boxed sets and supplements?

Why would you buy it when it was reprinting stuff you already own?

See my response above. Also note I was refuting the claim that Planescape was always 90% Sigil and the Outlands.