Planescape Planescape Pre-order Page Shows Off The Books!

You can now pre-order Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse from D&D Beyond. The set comes out on October 17th.

Scroll down through the comments to see more various peeks at the books!

Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

An adventure setting spanning the infinite realities of the world’s greatest roleplaying game

www.dndbeyond.com

• Discover 2 new backgrounds, the Gate Warden & the Planar Philosopher, to build planar characters in the D&D Beyond character builder
• Channel 7 otherworldly feats, new intriguing magic spells & more powered by planar energies
• Explore 12 new ascendant factions, each with distinct cosmic ideologies
• Face over 50 unusual creatures including planar incarnates, hierarch modrons, and time dragons in the Encounter Builder
• Journey across the Outlands in an adventure for characters levels 3-10 and 17
• Adds adventure hooks, encounter tables, maps of Sigil and the Outlands & more to your game

This 3 books set comprises:

• Sigil and the Outlands: a setting book full of planar character options with details on the fantastic City of Doors, descriptions of the Outlands, the gate-towns that lead to the Outer planes, and more
• Turn of the Fortunes Wheel: an adventure set in Sigil and the Outlands designed for character levels 3-10 with a jump to level 17
• Morte’s Planar Parade: Follow Morte as he presents over 50 inhabitants of the Outer Plane, including incarnates, hierarch modrons, time dragons, and more with their stats and descriptions

 

[mamba]

Actually, it's well under 1/3, as the bestiary is 64 pages, while the other two books are 96.

in other words: a quarter is monsters

 

[I'm A Banana]

Being able to impose order on the inhabitants is in defiance of what the entire plane stands for. You have to be able to overcome the power of the whole plane to do something like that.

I think this is what I disagree with. Angels fall, demons atone, alignments are metaphysical energies, creatures make choices, gods make life in their own image. You don't have to overcome a plane to make a species. (Also worth noting that Primus FAILED in his mission - the order he created might not be Perfect Chaos, but it's still Chaotic, and given its reproduction, it spreads that chaos to things that would otherwise not be chaos).

IDK, part of what I like about the Slaadi - what I find very Planescape about them - is that they aren't perfect exemplars of Chaos. PS at its best is about challenging the idea of alignment as a metaphysical construct, about finding the evil in good and the chaos in order. Primus wanted to create more order and failed, but in a way that produced a critter that's weirdly ordered in the way it is chaotic. A more "logical" creature of Limbo would be too symmetrical. Instead, we got color-coded frog-things. It's not the way an intelligent designer would design things which fits, in a weird way.

So I'm OK with the story that they're a failed experiment of a hubristic entity attempting to force order on the multiverse, and with them having this weird perversion of order within them, too.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It was fun to read, but to be honest I don’t want to have to learn a new language to DM a setting.

I already know the language, and there was a simple glossary of terms in there anyway.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It was fun to read, but to be honest I don’t want to have to learn a new language to DM a setting.

In any case, fun to read matters rather a lot, as the layout differences between the last two editions show, for a lot of people.

 

[Parmandur]

I strongly suspect the reason they haven’t is that they haven’t locked in the details of new races and therefore don’t want to release something 9 months before the new core books. We won’t see something major like a race before 2024 is done. Whereas subclasses are already confirmed as compatible.

I mean, we already got options that are 2024 compatible in Monaters of the Multiverse (all the OneD&D Species matches their format, to the point that the Orc tested for the PHB is the same one that was printed in MotM). However, the terminology is up in the air last we heard, so yeah, might not want to touch that before Core is published.

 

[Parmandur]

They are. It's a matter of degree though. 1/3rd of a campaign setting slipcase devoted to monsters is A LOT, at least for me.

The issue is compounded by the size of the adventure as well. For example, if it was 2/3 campaign setting, 1/3 monsters, and a few pages of adventure? Yeah, that amount of monsters would be more palatable to me.

Of course YMMV.

Well, for the Monster side, SCAG is the only 5E Setting book that doesn't have a substantial Bestiary (Theros was a bit scant, because base D&D is already pretty heavy on Greek myth and Legend). And by substantial, I mean often bigger than 64 pages, Ravnica was a whopping 73 pages. And Planescape certainly is a place for a lot of out there critters and NPCs.

 

[TheSword]

I already know the language, and there was a simple glossary of terms in there anyway.

Sure but there’s a difference between being able to translate something and being able to comfortably work it into the dialogue of NPCs I’m trying to represent. I guess now it’s optional, rather than the DM failing if they can’t master it.

 

[Quickleaf]

Well, for the Monster side, SCAG is the only 5E Setting book that doesn't have a substantial Bestiary (Theros was a bit scant, because base D&D is already pretty heavy on Greek myth and Legend). And by substantial, I mean often bigger than 64 pages, Ravnica was a whopping 73 pages. And Planescape certainly is a place for a lot of out there critters and NPCs.

And Eberron had 37 pages of monsters, out of a 320 page book.

Van Richten's Guide had 34 pages of monster, out of a 256 page book.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh had 20 pages of monsters, out of 256 page book.

So I don't think we can arrive at your conclusion, or at least I'm not understanding how you're arriving at the conclusion that D&D setting books have monster sections that are "often bigger than 64 pages."

I think it's a rather new phenomenon to Ravnica & Spelljammer.

 

[Parmandur]

And Eberron had 37 pages of monsters, out of a 320 page book.

Van Richten's Guide had 34 pages of monster, out of a 256 page book.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh had 20 pages of monsters, out of 256 page book.

So I don't think we can arrive at your conclusion, or at least I'm not understanding how you're arriving at the conclusion that D&D setting books have monster sections that are "often bigger than 64 pages."

I think it's a rather new phenomenon to Ravnica & Spelljammer.

Ravnia was the first, to be fair, and like Spelljammer and Planescape calls for a lot of Monsters. Don't get me wrong, I would have preferred more pages overall, but the 64 page Bestiaries for Spelljammer and Planescape feel appropriate in and of the.selves (could be longer, even).

 

[Remathilis]

If that much of the total page count is an adventure I don't want or need, then the quality of the entire product goes  way down for me.

You (and by you, I mean most of the people in this thread) are still looking at settings as TSR once did: a setting as a fully fleshed out world that you will run multiple different games in for years. WotC doesn't expect that of a setting anymore, they see it as a self-contained story. They don't expect you to run game-after-game in Dragonlance or Spelljammer, they expect you will run exactly one game in it and move onto the next. Which is why they give you exactly what you need to run one campaign in it (a module to act as backbone structure, some supplemental material to flesh out things if needed, and a few PC options to tie your PCs to the setting).

Eberron, Ravnica, Theros, and Ravenloft are designed as DIY toolkits for DMs to put together a campaign (a starter adventure, some PC options, and lots of tables and charts to build off of) but in reality, there isn't enough in any of them to run more than one solid campaign in without heavy use of outside sources (be it wikis, DMsGuild, or homebrewing). Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Strixhaven, and Planescape are modules first, with enough supplemental setting material to run the module. No different than the amount of info we got on Chult in Tomb or Greyhawk in Ghosts. They don't expect you to run multiple campaigns in the same setting, they expect you to run Spelljammer for one and when it's done run Dragonlance or Planescape next.

So, the large lore-dumps on people, places, and organizations are gone because you rarely need that level of detail to run a single campaign. You get enough to run the module and little extra to help putty in the gaps, but you will never see the amount of worldbuilding you might have seen in 2e or even 3e. I suspect that's because WotC views setting supplements as diminishing returns and feels a single adventure/setting is sufficient for most players.

Which is why I've tempered my expectation on Planecape: it's going to be a planar adventure and enough lore to run it (plus a little extra). I don't expect any more than that.