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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2219844" data-attributes="member: 172">A DM’s Directory of Demiplanes is a product describing a number of finite sized planes of existence that can be used as adventure sites in a d20 fantasy game. The book is published by Ronin Arts and written by Phillip Reed and Michael Hammes. The book is currently available as a PDF document or print edition from RPGnow, as well as DriveThruRPG. This review is based on the PDF obtained from RPGnow.A First Look[imager]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_3558.jpg[/imager]The PDF version of A DM’s Directory of Demiplanes is a 75 page PDF document, including two color cover pages and a 1 page ad. The PDF is available for $9.95 and the print version is available for $19.95. The product link is <a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=352&products_id=3558&" target="_blank">here</a>The covers are color. The interior features both color and black and white artwork. The color illustrations are by Ted Wind and black & white illustration. The color art has a somewhat abstract and blurry style to them (not my favorite style, by I imagine many Planescape fans of old will warm to it.) The black and white artwork is more concrete and conveys many concepts and fixtures in the book rather well, though are somewhat sketchy in style.There are some minor grammatical formatting errors but no major rules problems that I noticed.A Deeper LookA DM’s Directory of Demiplanes describes 8 unique demiplanes, in addition to a brief up-front rules section and an appendix detailing a dozen planar gateways.The up front rules section, Learning About the Planes provides a guideline for providing players whose characters have Knowledge skills with tidbits of knowledge about the planes. Planes have different “base” DCs based upon how obscure they are, and the sorts of knowledge conveyed by a roll is determined by the difference between the base and actual roll. This model is simple and flexible, and a variation of it is also used for knowledge about planar gates (both in the appendix of this book and in follow up products like Six Planar Gates and Six Living Planar Gates.)Each of the eight demiplanes is explained in a similar basic format, describing the planar traits (in a similar format to the 3.5 DMG and Manual of Planes), links to other planes (often described in generic campaign portable forms such as “an evil material city”), features of the plane, and inhabitants. Sidebars provide additional campaign materials and ideas.In summary, the eight demiplanes are as follows:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Ageless Chamber – This demiplane floats in the astral, and has simple but absolute properties: no magic operates therein, no time passes within, and only four creatures can ever be within at a time. This makes a convenient plot device for a variety of adventures.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Astral Ship – This ship-like demiplane can go anyplace in the astral with a thought. There are just two catches. One… it’s currently under the control of demons. Two… well, I’ll let you read the book.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Blackguard’s Tomb – This small demiplane is situated within the negative plane. It houses the crypt of a great blackguard who the powers of good denied the resurrection of. There’s pretty much only one use for this site, as it lacks many other details than the corpse and its protection.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Bone Field – This demiplane, also within the negative energy plane, has a bit more potential. One curious aspect of this plane is that, for those in the know, you can enter the plane via a fairly mundane method. It leads to a plane with an infinite supply of bones, and also a convenient site for lost necromantic artifacts.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Burning River – This ring shaped fire dominant plane features a river of lava and a number of appropriate rigors and sites of interest. Inhabitants include lava children (originally in the 1e Fiend Folio, and updated in the Tome of Horrors) and lave weirds (from Tome of Horrors II), replicated here for your use.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Chiming Clock – This bit is kicked off in an interesting fashion: a bit of flavor text alluding to the plane in a children’s rhyme, a potentially interesting way to introduce the idea of the plane into the campaign. The chiming clock is a huge tower full of clocks that correspond to the time in a great variety of planes. The demiplane is essentially an artifact that can be used to manipulate, or perhaps even destroy, worlds.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Clockwork Lighthouse – This is sort of a fantasy version of the James Bond style orbital laser satellite. It was forged by the forces of Law and Good, and serves as a beacon, or a weapon against evil on the material plane that it can be seen from. The catch – you knew there was a catch – the lighthouse can be converted to another alignment if it is held by forces of that alignment. As such, this is probably most appropriate to use as a challenge for good characters from the affected prime plane who wish to reclaim the Lighthouse from evil.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Great Corpse – The ideas of huge corpses of deities has been an edifice in planar gaming since planescape, and only renewed by Malhavoc’s Requiem for a God. This corpse hosts a planar town and floats in the positive material plane instead of the Astral. Would make for a nice spectator site, or potentially the focus of a campaign as it is said that the corpse is not entirely dead.</li> </ul>The appendix details 12  unusual gates. These vary in destination and flavor, providing a nice variety of methods for GMs to get their players involved in planar adventures.The book makes good use of open game content. Several creatures were extracted from other OGC sources to provide thematically appropriate inhabitants for various planes. In some places, destinations of gates or links refer to planes described in Mongoose Publishing’s Book of the Planes. For those who use the core cosmology, many of these planes represent staple core rule concepts like the astral, ethereal, or elemental planes. Others are specifically named outer planes, but if you do not own or desire to use the Book of the Planes, they can merely serve as placeholders for similar planes from the core cosmology.ConclusionGenerally, I find the book to be a strong addition to the arsenal of any GM who is running a planar campaign or who is running a standard campaign that might be interested in occasional forays into the planes. The demiplanes provide some interesting backdrops and a few plot drivers for GMs to make their own adventures.There are a few points that could use improvement. I felt that the blackguard’s tomb was a little dull, and almost amounted to a single dungeon room and a plot hook. Some demiplanes could have benefited from a handful of adventure seeds for each one, much like many of the planes in the oft referred to Classic Play: Book of the Planes.Overall Grade: A- –Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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