Planescape Planescape Pre-order Page Shows Off The Books!

You can now pre-order Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse from D&D Beyond. The set comes out on October 17th.

Scroll down through the comments to see more various peeks at the books!

Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

An adventure setting spanning the infinite realities of the world’s greatest roleplaying game

www.dndbeyond.com

• Discover 2 new backgrounds, the Gate Warden & the Planar Philosopher, to build planar characters in the D&D Beyond character builder
• Channel 7 otherworldly feats, new intriguing magic spells & more powered by planar energies
• Explore 12 new ascendant factions, each with distinct cosmic ideologies
• Face over 50 unusual creatures including planar incarnates, hierarch modrons, and time dragons in the Encounter Builder
• Journey across the Outlands in an adventure for characters levels 3-10 and 17
• Adds adventure hooks, encounter tables, maps of Sigil and the Outlands & more to your game

This 3 books set comprises:

• Sigil and the Outlands: a setting book full of planar character options with details on the fantastic City of Doors, descriptions of the Outlands, the gate-towns that lead to the Outer planes, and more
• Turn of the Fortunes Wheel: an adventure set in Sigil and the Outlands designed for character levels 3-10 with a jump to level 17
• Morte’s Planar Parade: Follow Morte as he presents over 50 inhabitants of the Outer Plane, including incarnates, hierarch modrons, time dragons, and more with their stats and descriptions

 

[Ondath]

In 5e, Outlands arent one of the "Outer Planes".

Yes it is. DMG p67.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

In 5e, Outlands arent one of the "Outer Planes".

Eh, only by virtue of how they chose to classify it in the '14 DMG. I'm not interested in arguing the semantics of "technically it's grouped in 'Other Planes' not 'Outer Planes'".

Traditionally the Outlands have been an Outer Plane and they still fill the exact same role in the cosmology that they did in previous editions, serving as the "hub" around which the (other) Outer Planes of the Great Wheel (which all exist within the Astral) "turn", so as far as I'm concerned, close enough.

 

[SkidAce]

Actually the rules for Spelljamming were not fine, the rules for landing on planets for example don't work.

On a glance I missed any problems, could you clarify for me?

 

[Yaarel]

Eh, only by virtue of how they chose to classify it in the '14 DMG. I'm not interested in arguing the semantics of "technically it's grouped in 'Other Planes' not 'Outer Planes'".

Traditionally the Outlands have been an Outer Plane and they still fill the exact same role in the cosmology that they did in previous editions, serving as the "hub" around which the (other) Outer Planes of the Great Wheel (which all exist within the Astral) "turn", so as far as I'm concerned, close enough.

Right.

Im wondering if decoupling Outlands from the Outer Planes relates to how it fits within the Astral Sea. A floating island.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

In that new map of the Outlands, Thebestys and the Realm of the Norns are the only ones linked to any real world deities. Which matches up with the real world pantheons they bother referring to in the PHB.

I still think they'll eventually remove those pantheons in favour of ones of WotC's creation.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Right.

Im wondering if decoupling Outlands from the Outer Planes relates to how it fits within the Astral Sea. A floating island.

It was never "coupled" to the Outer Planes - again, the Great Wheel is a conceptual framework.

The Gate-Towns don't really "neighbor" their respective planes in a literal, geographic sense - you can no more reach Baator by walking in the direction of its Gate-Town of Ribcage and beyond than you can reach the moon by walking in the direction where it first rises above the horizon each day. Walking ringward (i.e. away from the Spire) from Ribcage just takes you into the Hinterlands, which is still the Outlands, just the more unexplored and unmappable parts.

Instead, the Gate-Towns contain stable portals to their corresponding planes. The plane on the other side of a portal can be anywhere, it doesn't have to be "next door".

There's a heavily guarded portal in the depths of Phlegethos in Baator, an Outer Plane in the Astral, that leads to the Elemental Plane of Earth, an Inner Plane in the Ethereal. Doesn't make the Baator and the Plane of Earth geographic "neighbors".

Every plane is an "island".

 

[Stormonu]

It was never "coupled" to the Outer Planes - again, the Great Wheel is a conceptual framework.

The Gate-Towns don't really "neighbor" their respective planes in a literal, geographic sense - you can no more reach Baator by walking in the direction of its Gate-Town of Ribcage and beyond than you can reach the moon by walking in the direction where it first rises above the horizon each day.

Instead, they contain stable portals to those planes. The plane on the other side of a portal can be anywhere, it doesn't have to be "next door".

There's a heavily guarded portal in the depths of Phlegethos in Baator, an Outer Plane in the Astral, that leads to the Elemental Plane of Earth, an Inner Plane in the Ethereal. Doesn't make the Baator and the Plane of Earth geographic "neighbors".

Every plane is an "island".

So, in a manner of speaking, like you might go to Cape Canaveral to get to the Moon (via Rocket) would be like going to to Ribcage to get to the Nine Hells via portal?

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

So, in a manner of speaking, like you might go to Cape Canaveral to get to the Moon (via Rocket) would be like going to to Ribcage to get to the Nine Hells via portal?

I would say that using a rocket is more analogous to getting on a Spelljammer, flying it through a portal to the Astral Plane proper, and then finding a color pool leading to Baator from there. A portal's more in line with a point-to-point transport, a la a Stargate/wormhole or Star Trek style transporter. Still, that's the general idea.

End of the day, it's graph theory. If I have a portal in my house leading to the other side of the galaxy, the other side of the galaxy is conceptually "closer" to me than my local supermarket a couple of blocks down the road, regardless of the actual distance.

The Outlands is a heavily traveled hub region with a bunch of "Stargates" leading to other locations - the Great Wheel cosmological framework is more about how easy it is to get from one plane to another (plus a bunch of philosophical musings, i.e. alignment, mixed in) than it is where those planes are actually located in relation to one another.

Setting aside the "let's throw all these old planes in the bin and create new ones to replace them" part, 4e's model of the (Outer) Planes as "islands" in the Astral Sea works just fine in conjunction with the classical Great Wheel - it's just examining the same thing from two different perspectives.

 

[kenmarable]

On a glance I missed any problems, could you clarify for me?

If I recall, basically, under the originally published 5e rules, ships drop out of their fast speed (100 million miles per 24 hours) to their slow speed (4 mph or so) when coming within the air envelope of another large object. With air envelopes as wide again as the object, a 5,000-mile diameter planet has 5,000 miles of air above the surface. Now, just left like that, it means a spelljamming ship hits that planet's air envelope 5,000 miles from the surface and drops down from millions of mph to 5 mph, and then takes 1250 hours, or over 52 days to get to the surface! Which is obviously absurd and an oversight in the rules.

2e had rules for amount of time arriving or leaving a planet based on planet size, but in the original 5e rules they just removed that without replacing it. After the errata, now spelljammers stay in fast speed until within 1 mile of an object rather than when hitting the air envelop. So, technically, spelljamming ships landing on the planet mentioned above will go through 4,999 miles of air at millions of mph but don't burn up because physics as we know it already doesn't exist in Spelljammer. But that works better for the game than taking almost two months to land (although, technically, according to Xanathar's if you cut the engines and just fell from space, it would only take 3 1/2 days to fall to the surface if my quick math is correct rather than 52 days to fly down).

 

[Yaarel]

It was never "coupled" to the Outer Planes - again, the Great Wheel is a conceptual framework.

The Gate-Towns don't really "neighbor" their respective planes in a literal, geographic sense - you can no more reach Baator by walking in the direction of its Gate-Town of Ribcage and beyond than you can reach the moon by walking in the direction where it first rises above the horizon each day. Walking ringward (i.e. away from the Spire) from Ribcage just takes you into the Hinterlands, which is still the Outlands, just the more unexplored and unmappable parts.

Instead, the Gate-Towns contain stable portals to their corresponding planes. The plane on the other side of a portal can be anywhere, it doesn't have to be "next door".

There's a heavily guarded portal in the depths of Phlegethos in Baator, an Outer Plane in the Astral, that leads to the Elemental Plane of Earth, an Inner Plane in the Ethereal. Doesn't make the Baator and the Plane of Earth geographic "neighbors".

Every plane is an "island".

I understand Outlands links to Outer Planes via stable portals ("gates"). I imagine one can cross the threshold of an Outlands portal seemlessly without realizing one has entered thru a portal.

Every Outer Plane is an island floating in the Astral Sea somewhere - I hope so.

That said some Outer Planes comprise different parts. For example, CG Arborea can have Avandor be its own Astral island that is separate from other islands of Arborea such as (formerly?) Olympus. Meanwhile these Arborea island portal to each other directly.