3.5 "Planar" Adventure Path?

[ShadowDenizen]

Anyone know of any? (Either online or for purchase would be fine.)
...
Or, failing that, anyone interested in helping me CREATE one?

I know that there are several "anthology" modules, and several of the Planescape modules are designed to be tentatively connected, and there have been modules from Dungeon Magazine, but I would LOVE to see a fully-connected, 3.5/OGL Adventure Path focused on Plane-Hopping.

A bit of a (long-winded) background to the question..

Several days ago, I finished reading all 3 Paizo Adventure Paths, and the final quarter of the "Savage Tide" blew me away, especially the issues that focused on the Abyss and the other planes of existence.

Inspired, I just completed my "Planescape" collection this morning (I have most books/sets in physical form, and the rest printed from the PDF's, thanks to Paizo.com.), and, after all these years, I find I am STILL in awe of the setting and it's attendant books.

In particular, "The Inner Planes" sorcebook drew me in, especially the Earth/Air/Fire/Water realms, and I thought "What a cool place to set an adventure in!!"

And that, naturally, brought me to thinking about the cornerstone of the Planescape setting "Sigil", and again, I thought "There's so much potential in this for an awesome Adventure Path!"

So, I've been looking for something like this online, but to no avail..

If anyone knows of anything like this (or is SERIOUS about helping me brainstorm and/or write them), feel free to shoot me a PM or an Email. Alternmately, if there's enough interest, perhaps we could even use this thread to bounce ideas around.

Thanks in advance; any help is appreciated!

 

[Psychotic Jim]

I was thinking it might be fun to run a converted Dead Gods, perhaps proceeded by a converted Great Modron March, game that lead into the 3.5 adventure Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. That is, if you don't mind drow involvement.

 

[Psion]

Are you looking specifically for something tied to the Great Wheel cosmology and/or the Planescape setting?

Are you just wanting a string of adventures not necessarily related, or one continuous story arc from 1-20.

I did a lot of planar gaming and could contribute, but honestly, the 1-20 "single story arc" model never worked for me.

 

[Voadam]

City of Brass by Necromancer Games is set on fiery planes and covers a lot of ground for high level characters.

Hellstone Deep by Monkey God Press takes the characters to Hell for part of it.

Beyond Countless Doorways by Malhavok Press has a ton of short adventure ideas for most every level that involve (new) planes but not connected or fully fleshed out adventures.

All are 3.5 and available as pdfs from www.rpgnow.com

 

[Psion]

Beyond Countless Doorways by Malhavok Press has a ton of short adventure ideas for most every level that involve (new) planes but not connected or fully fleshed out adventures.

Malhavoc.

And yeah, that's one of the books I was getting at when I was alluding to my planar gaming experience above, in questioning whether the Planescape cosmology and setting were central to what he was looking for. For my long running planar game, I used BCD along with Mongoose's Classic Play: Book of the Planes, FFG's Portals & Planes, and Phil Reed's DM's Directory of Demiplanes. I use the great wheel too, and sigil and the faction are "somewhere out there", but things didn't end at the Great Wheel and the factions were never a big element.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

First: Thanks for the input everyone! It's appreciated!

Are you looking specifically for something tied to the Great Wheel cosmology and/or the Planescape setting?

No, doesn’t need to be tied to Planescape directly, though that line IS a major influence for me.

I WOULD plan on using the Great Wheel cosmology, though.

Are you just wanting a string of adventures not necessarily related, or one continuous story arc from 1-20.

Definitely the latter.
I very much enjoying reading modules done in the “Adventure Path” way. (Buring Sky, the Paizo AP’s, even Mongooses’ “Drow War”.)

I did a lot of planar gaming and could contribute, but honestly, the 1-20 "single story arc" model never worked for me.

Well, I could still se the input, especially from those familiar with planar travel.

City of Brass by Necromancer Games is set on fiery planes and covers a lot of ground for high level characters.

Beyond Countless Doorways by Malhavok Press has a ton of short adventure ideas for most every level that involve (new) planes but not connected or fully fleshed out adventures.

The former is on my list, the latter I already own.
And, of course, I'm happy to consider any other quality 3rd party supplements.

***
More thoughts (I’m still in the early stages of brainstorming, since there’s a metric ton of cool ideas for planar travel.):

I was brainstorming with a friend last night, and we both agree that Devils are sorely underutilized ; Demons have been the focus of MANY books, but Devils? Not quite so much.

The idea he had, and it hits a little close to the "Savage Tide" theme for me, is "Lucifer Rising."

Apparently in an old issue of Dragon magazine, they printed stats and background for Lucifer, the Morningstar. My friend's idea was to have Lucifer be, at this point, a Vestige, and his followers are trying to return him to physical form....

Thus the crux of the campaign would be trying to prevent this by travleing to Other Planes, in a race to beat the "Bad Guys" (who we haven't fleshed out) to various items, and gathering allies for a worst-case scenario, with the devilish opponents trying to trick/tempt/torment the group the entire time.

I'm not sold completely on this idea, though.

I do, however, like the idea of Hell (and perhaps the Heavens?) playing a large role in the Path. (Maybe the campaign would even culminate in a trip to Hell?)

I have a print-copy of the old Dragon Magazines with the Ed Greenwood “Nine Hells” articles, the “Book of Vile Darkness”, and “Fiendish Codex II”, all of which are are fascinating reads and provided me LOTS of good ideas…

And, IIRC, Lemures are a CR1; great to throw at a beginning party!! (They do have DR5/SR5, but that’s not insurmountable for a low-level party, esp since their melee attacks only do 1D3, and they have a mediocre AC.)

I guess the other idea is what planes to use, and how to tie them in to the overall arc?? (I think I'm pretty sold on the idea of using the Elemental Planes, the question is how best to utilize them??)

 

[Psion]

Definitely the latter.
I very much enjoying reading modules done in the “Adventure Path” way. (Buring Sky, the Paizo AP’s, even Mongooses’ “Drow War”.)

(For that matter, AEG's Warlords setting.)

Sure.

But have you ever played one all the way through?

I guess if you parsed it out like the Burning Sky campaign did where you could jump in or jump out, that might be something I could be interested in. But I find doing the same thing for 20 levels to be something I'm just not capable of. (shrug)

 

[ShadowDenizen]

But have you ever played one all the way through?

Not yet, but working on it!
They're currently 10th level in Shackled City, hitting 5th in "Age of Worms".

I guess if you parsed it out like the Burning Sky campaign did where you could jump in or jump out, that might be something I could be interested in. But I find doing the same thing for 20 levels to be something I'm just not capable of. (shrug)

Differnet strokes for different folks.
That's another reason for the "Planar" Path; great variety over the course of a single campaign.

 

[Psion]

Well, that aside, what non-canon elements ARE you willing to incorporate? Obviously, you can't be in this to publish, since many elements that are central to Planescape and the Great Wheel are implicitly WotC's IP.

If you are going to be into this for a big story arc, the biggest question I would have is "what is this about?" The plot behind Dead Gods is pretty monumental, and even if you tack it onto the end of Great Modron March, it wasn't a 1-20 adventure campaign.

Then, I guess dual themes in planescape were "it's not always about the big things" and "the universe is bigger than you". So I suppose you would have some room to maneuver.

Still, given the variety of factions and other "elements in play" in the planes, it seems sensible to me that the underlying theme of the game would not be the undercurrent of one single plot, but the synchronicity of several major events going on at once and interleaving into each other. That alone could inject some of the plot variety I feel is missing from existing APs.

If you are going to make a planar AP, it seems logical to take advantage of the situation to make a sort of "tour through the planes" as part of the setting. But then, this was what GMM was about, and I feel that it fails in certain ways, and even if it didn't, you'd want to try something different.

 

[Goobermunch]

Some free advice: don't try to do too much too fast.

The Planes can be a very inhospitable place. Start out on the prime. Give the PCs a few levels dealing with a cult that's trying to raise Lucifer. Use devils as major villains from 1-6 or 7. Then make the jump to the planes.

Let them get the feel for what they're up against. But, when it's time for the change, let them lose. Have them fail to stop the cult leader/mid-level devil from obtaining the McGuffin (maybe have them accidentally hand it over to him).

Then, they've got no choice. They have to go to the Planes to stop him.

That's my $.02.

--G