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.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Also, by not really touching the other planes, it still leaves open the possibility of a full Manual of the Planes type product down the line. It would be a bit amusing to have the complaints silenced if they put a disclaimer text in this set saying that they plan to release something like that down the line.

With the page space limitations of the slipcase format, I fundamentally can't see them having the room to cover the planes at large in any more detail than they already do in the cosmology chapter of the DMG, and doing even that much would be to the detriment of everything else they have to fit in the book.

Trying to cram a full Manual of the Planes into a 96-page book was always a losing proposition, so I think they made the right decision by limiting the scope of the 5e Planescape release to focusing on Sigil and the Outlands.

If/when they want to delve into the Great Wheel properly, it's pretty much going to require a full, Manual of the Planes-style sourcebook - or perhaps they could go the "Planes of X" route and split it into chunks...

 

[Parmandur]

With the page space limitations of the slipcase format, I fundamentally can't see them having the room to cover the planes at large in any more detail than they already do in the cosmology chapter of the DMG, and doing even that much would be to the detriment of everything else they have to fit in the book.

Trying to cram a full Manual of the Planes into a 96-page book was always a losing proposition, so I think they made the right decision by limiting the scope of the 5e Planescape release to focusing on Sigil and the Outlands.

If/when they want to delve into the Great Wheel properly, it's pretty much going to require a full, Manual of the Planes-style sourcebook - or perhaps they could go the "Planes of X" route and split it into chunks...

I think something like Fizban or Bigby is more likely, focused on the inhabitants of given Planes and with Asvebtjre building apparatus.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The funny one is if multiverse and parallel worlds are oficially canon in 5e then if the old settings are rewritten, the "old" versions could reappear, for example in the 5e all the sorcerer-kings were killed or disappeared, and the slavery ended, but in the DMGuild somebody could publish a module where the sorcerer-kings were yet, and slavery hasn't been abolished yet.

Fading Lands - Greyhawk Wiki

ghwiki.greyparticle.com

The Fading Lands are demiplanes intersecting the world of Oerth. They were created by wizards, gods, and other powerful entities. The laws of magic and nature may be different in the Fading Lands than they are in Oerth.

Half-world - Greyhawk Wiki

ghwiki.greyparticle.com

A half-world is a plane of existence that has not yet been (and may never be) fully realized. They might someday become full alternate realities, but as now they're merely half-worlds, similar to demiplanes in the sense that they're finite. Unlike standard demiplanes, half-worlds don't exist within the Ethereal Plane. Unlike Fading Lands, they aren't coexistent with the Prime Material Plane, either.

 

[Maxperson]

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

The gate towns are not really the outlands the plane. Technically they are(and technically is the best kind of correct), but really they're far more the planes they border than the outlands. If I want to run an adventure IN the outland, I have 2 pages(60-61). 4 pages if I include the 18 realms, but do you really think 2 pages for 18 realms is enough to tell you enough about each realm?

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,

I love this wrong argument. The original setting is NOT the first boxed set. It's ALL of the boxed sets. They knew they were releasing the other stuff when they came up with the setting. Whether you like it or not, it DOES include all the Planescape products released, because that's how 2e rolled.

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 reject your false dichotomy of "Next to no information on the planes" and "1000+ pages all at once." WotC has a proven history of not releasing follow up setting books for 5e in anything resembling a reasonable amount of time. As in none yet, even if they've promised some are coming.

They could easily have not put an adventure into this boxed set and had a good amount of information on the planes simply by using the pages spent on the adventure as setting material. 100 pages on the planes(96+4) is far better than 4, and at no additional cost. Then we would have gotten, you know, an actual setting based in the planes.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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.

This is bull they give tons of Info on the Outlands.

 

[Maxperson]

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

Or really even if you don't. 2 pages on a gate town aren't worth buying, especially when you factor in artwork. 2 pages for the outlands aren't worth paying for. 2 pages coving EIGHTEEN realms aren't worth paying for. Then there's the 45 pages on Sigil, which is worth paying for, just not for the price of the boxed set.

The things of value are the monsters, backgrounds, feats, magic, magic items and likely the 45 pages on Sigil. That's a reasonable amount of space on the city. An adventure isn't worth paying for as setting material or if you don't run premade adventure paths, but I'll count it as worth paying for if you like adventures.

Mainly the problem is that it's supposed to be a setting and there really isn't much setting stuff worth paying for. When I look at a setting I'm looking at the setting material first and foremost when deciding whether to pay for it, not adventures and other little extras.

 

[Maxperson]

This is bull they give tons of Info on the Outlands.

Where? The 2 whole pages on the Outlands? The 2 pages covering EIGHTEEN realms? Ahh, I bet you're including the gate towns which are 1) on the "edge" and are far more the planes they border than the Outlands, but no, those are not information on the Outlands(the plane).

 

[JEB]

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.

The funny thing is, they already quietly did a number of retcons of this sort after Tasha's, particularly in Monsters of the Multiverse (but also in the "errata" that came out for books like Volo's before they were rendered Legacy Content). Some more extensive reboot is certainly likely, though (basically what they implied for 2E -> 3E in Die Vecna Die).

I am curious to see if there are any significant contradictions to older Planescape lore in this release, or if it's more like they handled Dragonlance (mostly keeping things vaguely compatible).

 

[darjr]

Wait. Someone wants to compare a single book set to an entire series of setting supplements and boxed sets?

That’s a recipe for disappointment. This release could be three times the size and fail that mark.

If the disappointment is the “one and done” style of 5e release so far, I think planescape may have the largest chance of getting multiple releases or big parts in other releases.

Wanna encourage WotC? Buy this set. The sales of Strahd seems to have def effected the release of the followin book.

 

[Maxperson]

What does that have to do with you being wrong about the amount of pages the Outlands gets?

Or are you referring to how little of the broader Planescape setting gets?

Because I agree, the page count is too low still, and the adventure eats up way too much of the available page count.

BUT at least unlike Spelljammer, there does appear to be an actual setting her made up of Sigil and the Outlands, especially the Gatetowns (which we'd gotten more space on the Gatetowns their their sphere of influence and that the 3rd book had been a manual of the Planes).

Yeah. The 2e sets really did ignore the Outlands, though we have more information than 5e gave. I always wanted 2e to give more on the Outlands, because it seemed like the perfect starter area for lower level adventurers.