The Outer Planes in first edition

[BOZ]

I am trying to identify all the source of information on the outer planes that were printed pre-Planescape. So yes, I’m expanding the definition to the original D&D just prior to the release of AD&D, and I figure we might as well include the sparse mentions from early second edition (up through 1993) before the first Planescape boxed set was released.

My understanding is that the outer planes were first mentioned in Dragon magazine #8 (1977), outlined briefly by Gary Gygax, with a similar presentation not long after that in the 1978 Players Handbook. I don't know if they were all given detail as a group until 1987 in the Manual of the Planes, but I know that some of them received individual attention in Dragon and other places, so that's what I'm trying to ascertain.

Looking through articles on Wikipedia, I created the following list:

"The Politics of Hell" in Dragon #28
The original first edition Deities and Demigods
Ed Greenwood’s articles on the Nine Hells in Dragon 75-76 and 91
"Plane Facts on Gladsheim" in Dragon 90
Throne of Bloodstone details the Abyss
Tales of the Outer Planes includes adventures on various planes

The second edition Player's Handbook is also mentioned as a source, but I doubt there was much detail. I don't think second edition really got into the outer planes until the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix (1991).

Quick name-drops like "this monster is native to the Nine Hells" and "this god's realm is in Elysium" are fine; better than that is at least a sentence or two worth of detail, like "this god's realm in Elysium is filled with butterflies and flowers, with singing bunnies" or "this monster serves the lords of the Nine Hells by eliminating lesser creatures that try to assassinate them". Better still would be anything that actually gives some level of detail on the environment, the natives, or anything about the nature of one or more of the outer planes.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

IIRC there's some additional info in the 1E DMG (though I don't have mine handy to double-check), and of course there's a lot of information in the original Deities & Demigods book.

Don't forget adventures, either. Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits detailed that layer of the Abyss, for example.

 

[pemerton]

Monster Manual 1 allocated the various devils and archdevils to layers of the Nine Hells. MM2 went further, and had rarity tables by level for devils, and long lists of names for devils and demons. Much of the devil info came from Ed Greenwood's Dragon articles, but I think not all of it. Plus MM2 may have been the first appearance of a quasi-elemental (Ligthning) - or was that from a module?

 

[Grazzt]

Plus MM2 may have been the first appearance of a quasi-elemental (Ligthning) - or was that from a module?

First appeared in EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror I believe.

 

[BOZ]

IIRC there's some additional info in the 1E DMG (though I don't have mine handy to double-check), and of course there's a lot of information in the original Deities & Demigods book.

Don't forget adventures, either. Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits detailed that layer of the Abyss, for example.

thanks, forgot about Q1. not sure there is much in the DMG though.

 

[Stormonu]

Don't forget about the Manual of the Planes and the adventure Tales of the Outer Planes.

 

[Orius]

Didn't the concept of the planes first originate in Eldritch Wizardry?

 

[pemerton]

not sure there is much in the DMG though.

In the section called "The Adventure", there's a discussion of planar adventuring in general terms, I think. It also comes up again in "The Ongoing Campaign", with the discussion of Boot Hill and Gamma World as "alternative Prime Material planes". And then there's the Astral Plane encounter table in Appendix C.

 

[Crossposter Erzuli]

Dragon #32 had an article entitled "Playing on the Other Planes of Existence"

 

[BOZ]

I'll have to check this stuff out, thanks.