3rd Edition Planar Books?

[TheGogmagog]

My opinion of planes is Sigil/Planescape. I would call what you seem to be looking for is more other prime worlds. SpellJammer is a 2e system with that in mind. There are a lot of detailed campaign settings that can provide thier own unique twists. From 2nd edition Darksun to Birthright have thier good bits. Sword and Sorcery also seems to have a complete campaign setting, maybe more than one. We quit using S&S stuff several years ago (to simplify not because of quality), so I haven't followed what they offer.

 

[Psion]

Might I ask about the meaning or purpose of "planar factions"? Is this a reference to Planescape?

Well Mouseferatu put in his 2 cents regarding what his product covers, but there are factions in Mongoose's Book of the Planes as well. Basically, they are organizations with specific goals (often philosophical in nature) and a connection to the game. Planescape did feature factions as a central edifice, but any campaign can use them, really.

On another note (hopefully not derailing my own thread), are most people's conceptions of planar adventures involve fiends or Sigil/Planescape? Planescape was before my time (I've only started playing D&D in late 3e), but I'm not sure I see the appeal of planar factions? Of course, I'm planning to use the "Purveyors of Dichotomy" idea from BCD, so perhaps that's similar . . .

Well, so long as you bring it up, I guess I can expound on my campaign. Since you have Portals & Planes, you can read up on the concept in that book. I developed the concept further in this thread.

I assume that the great wheel encapsulating the planes where deities dwell is "out there", but those planes usually aren't directly on the river. You can get there FROM the river, if you know which gate-islands to go to. (So you can have things like elven ships that sail to the afterlife...) Sigil I assume is out there too, but my PCs have never been there. I have used Yggdrassil, though I sort of syncretize it with the Shamanistic concept of the "great tree of the spirit world" and the tree of the Book of the Righteous.

More typically, my adventures are among "worlds", like those from Beyond Countless Doorways and Book of Eldritch Might and the ones listed (and randomized) in Portals & Planes. There are planes that are alignment-tainted as well (on place I really differ from BCD), but you don't go there every adventure. BCD was my primary resource for planning visits to new planes. My PCs have been to:

• "Shadow Isle" (an island on the river that was a home of a recently slain deity; I got to play around with the material from Malhavoc's Requiem for a God
• "Briar" - A world of my own making that featured hostile thorn-elves and weresharks.
• Ouno (BCD)
• The Ten Courts of Hell (BCD)
• "Dragonwatch Harbor" (a port on the river; I used The Game Mechanics Theives and Temple Quarter books for the baseline).
• "The Jeweled City" (a city ruled by Jewel Mages, I used the Great City maps by 0one games, tweaked to make the castle district into a mage district.)
• "Windhaven" (a wind elf city, basically a forest floating in the elemental plane of air.)
• The Lizard Kingdoms (BCD)
• The Buring River (DMs Directory of Demiplanes)
• Mal (Book of the Planes)

I also planned visits to Palpatur (BCD), Sleeping God's Soul (BCD), the dragon valley in CBOEM (forget the name), the clock tower (DM Directory of Demiplanes), & others, but never got a chance to run those.

I picture my adventures a bit like a fantasy version of Star Trek or Farscape, where players hop from world to world, dealing with new cultures and situations as they go.

 

[Jdvn1]

Are there any other books that other companies have produced? I'm really looking for 3/3.5e books that discuss running planar games in general, but I'll take what I can get...

Does FC1 count? I'm surprised there isn't a thread on that yet, I have the book...

 

[Shemeska]

And I think it goes without saying, but if we're going into pdfs and non printed material, there's the absolute treasure trove of planar material on www.planewalker.com, www.mimir.net, and Pits of Evil/Umbrassa Gravelands.

I know that I've rightiously plundered random ideas and concepts off of mimir from its archived golden age and the current material on Planewalker and from a few specific authors *cough*Rip and Orri*cough* when they've posted material in various places. Anything from demiplanes to fiends to pages upon pages of planar speculation, philosophy, and crunchy material as well.

Of particular note might be Planewalker's pdf releases covering the factions, Sigil, and other topics covering the planes. There is also The Encyclopedia of the Planes with nearly 2000 entries, the Lady's Sharper Eye an in-character Sigilian newspaper (now accepting submissions for the next release), and the Gods List by Enworld's own Alzrius.

There's a hell of a lot of planar stuff out there.

 

[Dav]

Something that I never see (or not very often) is . . . how well do each inhabitants of a plane know about other planes, if at all?

In my current game idea, I keep going back and forth between the average person knows nothing about other planes and that he knows that other worlds exist. In Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, Lyra's world seems to, at first, have minimal knowledge of the other worlds, but then growing so that, at least the persons in power (the Church, etc.) know of the many worlds, while Will's world (ours) is as clueless about other worlds other than scientists who hypothesize on the existence of these planes.

All of this probably ties into how I much I plan to allow the players to know, in addition to how plane-residents would treat any planar-travelers that appear or act wildly different from the norm.

My current "introduction/hook" idea is to have the PCs as low-level assistants (or guinea pigs) who are sent out just as some unknown (or known) force turns their home plane into a prison plane, and the wizards who sent them have commanded them to bring their home plane back into conjunction, so their meta-plot is to free their plane, but they'll need to explore the unknown and countless worlds as they seek to find a way to free their plane.

I do like what you've done with your game, Psion (though I don't like alignments). While I may have a Celestial River (BCD's equivalent of the River of Worlds), I probably won't go into sailing much, other than the Sleep Pirates and the Silken Ship.

 

[Shemeska]

Something that I never see (or not very often) is . . . how well do each inhabitants of a plane know about other planes, if at all?

The various fiends, celestials, etc will tend to be pretty knowledgeable about the planes, especially the more intelligent ones. But don't expect a fiend to be an expert on the inner planes, nor a djinn to be very keen on the outer planes, etc.

Mortals on the planes will vary a bit. You'll have people simply born on the planes from immigrant parents, and they may know very little unless they actively go planewalking themselves. Traders, mercenaries, explorers, all the true planewalkers will likely be very knowledgeable about the planes that they've been to, but in general they may be relatively sheltered about knowledge about some areas of the multiverse (ie lifelong residents of Sigil used to the Outer planes may be pretty dim regarding the worlds of the prime material, etc).