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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crothian" data-source="post: 2011893" data-attributes="member: 232">DMs Guide to the Demi Planes    Over the past year there has been an unusual amount of books that cover the planes regions.  At first there was only the Wizards’ book Manual of the Planes.  While it was meet with compliments and enjoyed by many, there was a void for planar ideas that did not fit.  At first I was going to do a more comprehensive review that detailed many of the planes books, but with the review section set up to list reviews under specific books I have chosen to just do them all individually.  Or so I hope.      DM’s Guide to the Planes is PDF by Ronin Arts.  Unlike any of the other planar books it actually builds off of one of them, the Book of Planes by Mongoose.  The Book of Planes is not needed to use and enjoy this PDF though.  The DM’s Guide to the Demi Planes presents eight different demi planes.  Unlike most of the other planes that are written about many of these are very finite in size showing what interesting ideas and exploration can be done in such places of limited space.      The PDF is seventy five pages.  The art and layout are both very well done.  The book is well book marked and comes in a zip file a little under ten megs in size.      The book has a simple idea in it that none of the others does.  It includes the DC for a character to have some knowledge about the plane and makes great use of the skill Knowledge Planes.  Unlike other plane books though, this one does not specifically list adventure ideas for using the demi planes.  While some people will have no problems coming up with ideas to use the planes, others feel more comfortable with adventure seeds that are already provided.      The first demi plane is called the ageless chamber.  It is a small room sized plane that floats around the Astral Plane.  Time has no effect on anything inside the chamber.  It is a small and simple idea for a demi plane but shows some of the odd and even unique properties a demi plane can possess.  There are suggestions for where the gates into the plane exist and some hazards that people might not expect.      The Astral Ship is one of the few demi planes that is mobile.  It is currently occupied by a collection of demons but there could be a lot of interesting creatures and non player characters that could be used here.  It is actually a form of a demi plane that seems a little complicated and one might wonder why make a plane that is a ship when a magical ship might be easier.  But still the idea is different and creative making it a nice encounter to surprise the players with.    The Blackguard’s Tomb is a demi plane with a rich history and some long term campaign potential.  Basically it is the final resting place of a very powerful Blackguard and currently even his deity can not bring him back to life.  I think it can serve as an interesting backdrop for the players to discover and then worry about.    The Bone Field is a demi plane that exists just above the negative energy plane and consists entirely of bones.  IT is a haven for undead and has a bone mausoleum.    One thing that does annoy me though is when books introduce things like the mausoleum and give absolutely no hint or possibilities of what are inside or really anything about it.  As it is the only feature on the plane of bones and at least they could have something about it.    The Burning River is a really interesting idea.  It is a river of fire and lava that goes around in a basic circular like shape.  There are rocks and mountains to each side but the river is the prominent feature.  There are as can be expected a great deal of fire oriented creatures and hazards through out.  This one really just struck me as something different that could be used with ease.      The Chiming Clocks is a plane in decline that is slowly being destroyed.  However it houses a artifact like clock that can destroy worlds.  Celestials guard it but frankly I think they need to guard such a powerful item a little better.  I think because of what it is and the fact it is always guarded would make this a tough plane to use.    The Clockwork Driven Lighthouse is an extremely powerful artifact for good and thus has its won demi plane.  It is another interesting idea of a weapon that can destroy evil with ease but its singular use makes it a little difficult to use and this one also seems like it would be better just as an artifact and not so much as a plane.    The Great Corpse is an idea I have read before.  It is the long dead body of a once great deity that is now a plane of its own.  This seems like a great lead in to Requiem for a God by Malhavok Press.      The planes are creative but with some it does seem like they were made into planes because that is what the book is about when they might have been better presented as other things.  There is a lot of creativity in the book though.</blockquote>

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