using the planes

[Voadam]

Ronin Arts has a pdf mega-adventure dealing with a planar invasion adventure, I believe. Clockwork Hearts or something like that for mid to high level characters. I don't own it. My party was at the high end of the levels it gets to when I was first looking for adventures for them so I passed on getting it.

 

[Voadam]

FFG's Portal & Planes as noted above is pretty good and is a steal at $5 for the pdf http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catal...Path=36_37&products_id=502&affiliate_id=17596

Ronin Arts also has the Directory of Demiplanes 75 pages and $10 http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catal...h=192_395&products_id=1902&affiliate_id=17596

And Malhavok has Beyond Countless Doors 224 page planar sourcebook $13 http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catal...Path=49_87&products_id=854&affiliate_id=17596

 

[Voadam]

Also Malhavok's BoEM (Book of Eldritch Might) III (incorporated with the other two into CBoEM) has a planar nexus setting with associated planes, magic, plots, NPCs, etc.

BoEMIII 96 pages $9.00 http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catal...Path=49_83&products_id=516&affiliate_id=17596

CBoEM 224 pages $13 http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/catal...th=49_83&products_id=11973&affiliate_id=17596

 

[DM_Jeff]

Another vote for Beyond Countless Doorways by Malhavoc Press. Great planar stuff there.

As a side note, Mongoose does produce a hardcover called Classic Play: Pook of the Planes that does a pretty good job of supplying a bunch of unique new planes and planar sites and a lot of tools for creative DMs to stretch their wings. It's not bad, but I'd throw in for Portals & Planes and Beyond Countless Doorways first, as others have said.

-DM Jeff

 

[Ripzerai]

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

Did you miss Monte Cook's take on that very subject?

 

[Shemeska]

Did you miss Monte Cook's take on that very subject?

*chuckle* Never seen that before now, hehehe.

 

[grodog]

I didn't find Beyond Countless Doorways to be a very Moorcockian-inspired book, and was disappointed in the book in that sense (it's a good book otherwise, just not very MM-like IME). I also don't find Planescape to be very applicable to a Moorcock multiverse, although I did enjoy Fantasy Flight's planar book that others mentioned above, as well as the 3.0 Manual of the Planes (which is much more of a toolkit than it's 1e ancestor). With all that in mind, I also recommend the following planar sources:

• Ed Greenwood's seminal gates article "From the city of Brass... to dead Orc Pass... In one small step: the theory and use of gates" in The Dragon #37. IMO, this is Greenwood's finest game writing (right up there with his three classic Nine Hells articles), in which he examines gates and planes in fantasy literature, including Moorcock. A fine start for your reading, this article appears in the Dragon Archive, as well as the Best of Dragon Magazine Volume #2 (just in case you don't own Dragon #37 already).
• Chessboards: The Planes of Possibility is a generic D&D book published by WotC prior to their MtG days; it's an excellent resource (in my mind, the planar resource), and expands upon the Planes chapter in The Primal Order very well. Both are OOP, but great books, well-worth tracking down.

In terms of Moorcock's books themselves, if you're only familiar with the early Elric, Erekose, and such Eternal Champion cycles, also pick up the following books, which greatly expand upon MM's conception of the multiverse:

• the conclusion to the original Eternal Champion cycle appears in the Count Brass Trilogy, which ties together Elric, Corum, Erekose, Hawkmoon, and many other stories from the 60s and 70s
• The Warhound and the World's Pain (Moorcock's Grail quest, and my favorite among his fantasy novels; introduces the beginnings of the new take on the multiverse)
• Blood: A Southern Fantasy (blows the lid off off the planar conception of the multiverse)
• The Dreamthief's Daughter (ditto, though many early Elric fans don't like the latter novels, I've found the writing to be more mature, and the expansion of the concept of the multiverse to be well-worth my reading time)

What kind of MM-type game are you thinking about running?

 

[Eben]

What kind of MM-type game are you thinking about running?

Well, since none of my players seem to be familiar with the details of Moorcock (Beyond albino with big evil sword), I was thinking about setting them up against some chaotic and/or evil invasion (sorry, but the D&D allignment system and the Moorcockian multiverse don't match to well), supported by an unknown nation. (PC's will be part of a bit of an isolationist backwater of the campaign world.) At first it will seem like there is a mundane threath of invasion, but later a deeper plot will reveal itself: the invaders are allied have invited forces wich turn out to have an agenda of their own. The players will have to find a way to travel the multiverse to find allies to help save their world (I'll have to leave a trail of hints throughout the adventures, perhaps even some sort of portal which leads the players to some interesting magic items, just at the time they are chasing their thought nemesis.

And if you've got no idea what I'm on about, go read the Elric stories right now.

Peter

 

[grodog]

Sounds like classic MM, Peter, and lots of fun!

 

[00Machado]

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

I think the benefit to the dragon incursion material isn't the antagonists per se, but it's use as an example invasion strategy that accounts for various D&D bits.