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

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The cosmology was so, so much better in 4E. One of the many, many instances of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

It had it's ups, but I mostly prefer the Great Wheel. (Which was thrown out at the start of 4e, so they are both examples of doing that)

The biggest flaw of the World Axis was trying to make all the settings that did not use it, suddenly start using it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The biggest flaw of the World Axis was trying to make all the settings that did not use it, suddenly start using it.

Yeah, making it be the Nentir Vale's cosmology would be better.

I also think the Forgotten Realms cosmology that I was first introduced to in 3E was better for that world, as it had bespoke connections to Toril.

And, of course, the less WotC messes with Eberron's cosmology, the better.

For those who insist on crossing over between settings, an optional/default multiverse connecting all of them can just sit in the DMG.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Exandria is clearly based on the World Axis Cosmology, so I would probably use it there too.

 

[overgeeked]

It had it's ups, but I mostly prefer the Great Wheel. (Which was thrown out at the start of 4e, so they are both examples of doing that)

The biggest flaw of the World Axis was trying to make all the settings that did not use it, suddenly start using it.

I cannot stand the great wheel. It’s so boring and useless for gaming. Here’s a plane made entirely of one element, you will die in a few rounds without this one exact spell or magic item, go have fun and explore. So dull. The Elemental Chaos was much better presented, made sense, and was itself a cool place to adventure.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They were desperate to jettison anything that smelled like 4E stuff, even stuff that worked better.

whispers: "like their version of the multiverse"

It works differently, and is easier to use for gamist purposes, but it's very clinical and built as a game construct first to my mind.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I cannot stand the great wheel. It’s so boring and useless for gaming. Here’s a plane made entirely of one element, you will die in a few rounds without this one exact spell or magic item, go have fun and explore. So dull. The Elemental Chaos was much better presented, made sense, and was itself a cool place to adventure.

It's a great alternative to the Wheel, but in no way do I like it better. Like most of 4e for me, I would have preferred it in a game not labeled, "Dungeons & Dragons" and touted as a replacement going forward for earlier versions I liked better.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I cannot stand the great wheel. It’s so boring and useless for gaming. Here’s a plane made entirely of one element, you will die in a few rounds without this one exact spell or magic item, go have fun and explore. So dull. The Elemental Chaos was much better presented, made sense, and was itself a cool place to adventure.

The Elemental Planes are more interesting now, and I prefer them to the Elemental Chaos.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I also think the Forgotten Realms cosmology that I was first introduced to in 3E was better for that world, as it had bespoke connections to Toril.

In some ways that's true, but also remember Ed created the Realms with the Great Wheel as the default, as it was for all settings at the time. He has plenty of Dragon Magazine articles from before the setting was published that used the Great Wheel for the Realms.

 

[Parmandur]

Well that's a derp on my part. Hooray for reading comprehension, I suppose.

No worries, I think it's more my disjointed thoughts.

Yeah, it really drives home that the RPG space is more or less two industries - 'D&D' and 'Everything Else'. Any other publisher would love to have the numbers of the least-successful D&D product.

Got a chance to listen to the video, and that 84k is for big box stores only, excluding both hobby shops (so my purchase isn't counted) and Amazon. Also, apparently it outsold most everything from 3.5???

Did Spelljammer really outsell Planescape back in the day? That's surprising to me, as I vaguely recall Spelljammer having a product line life of three years, and Planescape being significantly longer.

Yeah, the numbers are pretty direct. Ben Riggs got access to TSR internal numbers, and shared them last year:

TSR settings sales numbers from Ben Riggs, starting with Lankmar, Maztica, Al-Qadim and Planescape!

Ben is releasing quite a few settings today so I thought I’d do a mega thread for those. I’ll update when things are posted. Lankhmar is one of my favorite things. In fact after The Hobbit it was among the first fantasy I read. In 1985, TSR produced Lankhmar: City of Adventure based on the...

www.enworld.org

 

[Parmandur]

That's refreshing to here. Everyone I've heard reviewing Spelljammer commented on the linearity of the adventure, so you are the first one I've heard describing it having modular parts.

Wel, as @Demetrios1453 says, it is both the case that there is a ham-fisted railroad (to the point that the railroad points include Flash Gordan style cliffhangers), but the 12 modules in the campaign are easily extricated and represent different scenarios that a DM might want to use in a custom campaign (like an abandoned ship-as-dungeon, or a gladiatorial combat moon excursion, or Space Elf court politics).