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.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's a spectrum of profit. It doesn't have to always be, "what will maximize our shareholders profits?"

No. There is profit, and there is loss. With rising printing and distribution costs, Amazon trying to force down prices, the need to keep FLGs afloat and inflation squeezing everyone's recreational budget, WotC cannot afford to burn money to keep a couple of old grogs happy.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

They didn't it was described as a theory in 2e Planescape and no one had anything to back it up. And was promptly forgotten the way "Memory Cores" have been forgotten.

Mechanus may have been called Nirvana in 1e, but it really didn't match anyone's idea of Nirvana. Other than showing the problematic Asian=Lawful thing previous designers had. Seriously Lao Zi is LN? As in the philosopher who is credited as inventing one of the very concepts of Neutrality doesn't actually have a True Neutral alignment?

It still called Nirvana in this this product too, although it's only mentioned when the Planes full name of Mechanus is used. But yeah any connection to Buddhist Nirvana is pretty think, although one assume that Nirvana refers to the Intangible part of Mechanus that can''t be physically explored.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't care. You can make a quality product, and actually be proud of your effort, AND be profitable. Pegging the scale just leads to shoddy work and constant upper level turnover as executives squeeze a company for all its worth and move on.

Making a good product is the most hard-nosed business orientated decision you can make. But a good product does not pander to minority interests, and it isn't necessarily a product that you or I would want to buy.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I doubt including real world Gods would impact profits.

Having no impact on profits is a good reason for NOT including it. All available space needs to be used for things that do impact profits, in a positive direction.

 

[Parmandur]

Having no impact on profits is a good reason for NOT including it. All available space needs to be used for things that do impact profits, in a positive direction.

Writer time and page space is money, yup, and WotC cannot possibly compete with the information resources of Wikipedia for public domain IP. If they are going to sink resources, they will want a return and ownership.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It still called Nirvana in this this product too, although it's only mentioned when the Planes full name of Mechanus is used. But yeah any connection to Buddhist Nirvana is pretty think, although one assume that Nirvana refers to the Intangible part of Mechanus that can''t be physically explored.

It's not and Nirvana is a state of being and beyond alignment, including law, and the closest thing to a Buddhist philosophy in Planescape is the what the Dustmen/Heralds of Dust believe (though it's a warped version of Buddhist philosophy) where they are trying to attain Nirvana which they happen to call True Death.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No. There is profit, and there is loss. With rising printing and distribution costs, Amazon trying to force down prices, the need to keep FLGs afloat and inflation squeezing everyone's recreational budget, WotC cannot afford to burn money to keep a couple of old grogs happy.

No. There is loss, there is profit, there is the most profit we could possibly make, and everything in between. Otherwise, the term "how much" would be meaningless.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Making a good product is the most hard-nosed business orientated decision you can make. But a good product does not pander to minority interests, and it isn't necessarily a product that you or I would want to buy.

Good is certainly subjective sure.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Good is certainly subjective sure.

I'm capable of considering something a good product, without thinking it's something I would want myself.

 

[Mecheon]

The Egyptian Pantheon had Heliopolis on the second level of Arcadia, which became its own plane in 3e FR (Mesopotamian Gods have Ziggaruxus which has made a appear in 5e,it's being pulled out our of moth balls after the return of Untherite Gods, were it goes is anyone's guess, I'd personally put it on the 3rd level of Aborea) Personally I'd make Heliopolis the 3rd layer of Arcadia.

Also it's often Forgotten l, but Limbo had Layers named after Hindu Gods Indra and Rudra, and a Japanese Goddess.

Mechanus is also call Nirvana.

Other Gods were more scattered.

And honestly the Greco-Roman, Egyptian and to a lesser extent Norse Pantheons shaped Western civilization so far much more then Eastern or sub-Saharan African ones, so it makes sense they'd have used those more, both because they are safer and because of greater familiarity. As immigration increases that is likely to change.

Heliopolis is a Greek name for a city, not Egyptian. And, well, we're talking Arcadia, which is named after a region of Greece. Why should the Egyptian gods be basically forced into being dumped into someone else's house? In fact, why are they even there and not, once again, their actual realm the Duat?

Naming a layer after gods isn't giving them the full respect of that mythology, especially when there's the aformentioned "Oh wait that's not actually where they live" from, y'know. The actual mythology

Mechanus does not act like nirvana in any way shape or form despite their early attempts to go 'yeah uh Nirvana that's totally a clockwork realm'. This is because nirvana is a state, it is the freedom from wordly desires and karmic reincarnation. It is freedom from the cycle of rebirth. I suppose one can argue an infinite robot realm is freedom from desires, but alsoo if we're acting like naming a realm after a philosophical concept is actually intending for it to be serving as the domain or home of deities then that's just laughable.

We're not making realms based on how much things influenced stuff, we're mkaing fun fantasy realms to adventure through. Like, let's be honest, Ysgard is only there due to that one highly liked Dragon magazine article. But regardless, this is part of why they're not going to show up in future stuff. 2E paid them the barest amount of lip service and shoved the gods willy-nilly (Go and read Deities and Demigods and see how many are just shoved into "The Plane of Air"). Imagine posting that today. They'd be torn to shreds, especially if they made the incredibly bad attempt to even remotely touch the Hindu deities. Plus, given how 'well' this fandom shows how it 'likes' changes, even to the setting where there's long established causes for things to just change on the behalf of the micro-managing Dark Powers as directors who absolutely would just reset a realm and change it up if its not going well....