Now available! Go where mortals fear to tread!

Thanks Liz!

This sourcebook includes art of the 3 new player races by ENnie-nominated artist Hugo Solis.

Maxim, Warpling, and Deva now available. The whole thing is my favorite planar book since the Planescape box.

The Print/PDF bundle says "Unavailable".. will that be changing soon?

Should change very soon, yes. Print copies were delivered to Paizo today by kobold courier, they just need to get into the system.

*beats back cave raptors*
Phew! Now available. Really really! :D

Open Design has created a dazzlingly worthy successor to the Planescape legacy." —Colin McComb, Planescape designer

punches the Add Print/PDF button so hard that the shockwave rips through time and murders the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago

WANT

I have to say, there is a LOT of really cool stuff in this thing!!!

A preview of one of the monsters, the Fate Eater, is up at the Kobold site. It's mind-bendingly awesome.

Quote:

Open Design has created a dazzlingly worthy successor to the Planescape legacy." —Colin McComb, Planescape designer

punches the Add Print/PDF button so hard that the shockwave rips through time and murders the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago

You realise this is why James Jacobs has (secretly) vowed to never let any celestial totems enter a book published by Paizo, right?

I did say that about this book, and I stand by it. I actually had to put it down a couple of times so that I could let ideas percolate properly.

I didn't see it mentioned, so if anyone is curious this is a 112 page PDF and very swank!

I was on the fence about this, and then I saw it was the same author as Northlands. Sold!

Dan Voyce is a freelancing force of nature, and he really delivers the goods in this one.

Gozuja, any chance you'd say that in a review for the book? :)

I have my PDF for a week and the mailman delivered my copy today.

Thank you KQ for the immediate service.

The source material looks very good, very crunchy, and I can integrate it with any Third Edition/Third Edition revised/Pathfinder I need. DR&GH is a good utility book on planar adventures and an excellent player's guide.

I have to say, there is a LOT of really cool stuff in this thing!!!

Not the least of which is the awesome job you did with the layout. It really looks great!

The source material looks very good, very crunchy, and I can integrate it with any Third Edition/Third Edition revised/Pathfinder I need. DR&GH is a good utility book on planar adventures and an excellent player's guide.

Thank you! This book was designed from the ground up to be compatible with the traditional planes as presented in Pathfinder and 3E, and also to provide new twists for players who think they've seen it all.

Glad it worked!

the Eleven Hells

So... these hells go up to eleven?

Seriously though, this would be something I would buy in a heartbeat if I weren't broke. I love planar stuff.

Marc Radle wrote:

I have to say, there is a LOT of really cool stuff in this thing!!!

Not the least of which is the awesome job you did with the layout. It really looks great!

Thanks! That's really cool of you to say!

It's really hard to do layout on infinity, but Marc pulled it off. :)

Part II of my review:

The final chapter details the bestiary and kicks off with new templates: From the Animus, to the fallen/risen templates to the servants of death (Ankou, CR +1) and the radiant creatures to those called neverborn, I enjoyed the templates. The first new creature is the Algorith, an angel of force, pure math, universal physics and impeccable guards against things that none should know or witness. Fidele Angels are more benevolent: Born from a love so pure it transcends death, they retain their memory to guard their mortal lovers. Perhaps against the threats like the Cambium, which seek to steal the mortal creatures humors – a great call-back to this pseudo-medical concept, which imho should see more support in the game. Also rather disturbing, the fate-eaters may unhinge certain abilities and devour not only a mortal, but also his/her/its abilities, skills and feats. The idiot-savants of chaos, the headless hundun are creatures of creation and might seem almost chthonic, though they remain a general brainless benevolence. We also are introduced to clockwork dogs, rust drakes and eyeball-like observers, to finally the spinning hags, which could essentially be pictured as lesser versions of the Norns with some cool additional abilities. All the creatures herein come with a multitude of signature abilities and the b/w-artworks are fitting, where provided.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any significant glitches while skimming through the pages of this pdf – great to see that the somewhat major editing glitches that plagued some ODs have been purged from these pages. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard and is mostly black and white, accentuated with an elegant gold that should provide a great synthesis between good looks and printer-friendliness – kudos to layout-artist Marc Radle. The artworks contained herein are b/w, adhere to a rather nice style and can be considered top-quality as well. The pdf is also excessively bookmarked.

All right, I’ll say it straight away: When Dan Voyce, lead designer of Northlands announced he would head the planar sourcebook for Midgard, I knew that this would rock in the end. Little did I know how much not only Dan, but also the patrons understood the peculiarities that make the planes different from the prime. In no way did this book ever amount to the rehash of a prime material concept, instead providing not only a strikingly original cosmology, but also featuring a splendid array of locations and creative ideas that can enhance your game, even f you already use other cosmologies: The ease of plug-and-playing any component of this book is beyond belief and in fact, in my opinion, the crowning achievement: While the content herein could stand alone as a cosmology, whether Planescape or the Great Beyond are used – all components retain their usability without losing their conceptual identity, thus making this book, at least in my opinion, vastly superior to all 3.X-plane-books. And yes, that does include the otherwise awesome “Beyond Countless Doorways”. I’ve been waiting for such a book since Planescape and the only other planar resource I could mention that somewhat is similar in quality, though different in focus, would be Paizo’s. Yes. It’s that good – and it’s also intelligent. I only touched upon all the awesome concepts herein, briefly even and delivered only a fraction of potential interpretations. This book can enrich any campaign and even if you don’t want to go planar (yet), I guarantee that the content in this book and its ideas can influence any campaign in some kind of positive way. And even the crunch (of which I’m not as big a fan – I can’t see those boring traits anymore…) has its stellar quality, from the cool patronage feats to the excellent spells and incantations, we’re in for fun galore. My final verdict, if my rather lengthy tirade of joy and praise has been no indicator, will be 5 stars + seal of approval.

Also reviewed on DTRPG, sent to GMS magazine and posted about it on RPGaggression. Cheers!

Endzeitgeist out.

Fantastic review End! This is probably one of the coolest supplements I've bought--there's a lot to digest here (as End's review doubtless shows!) I'll endeavor to weigh in as well, but that's a very thorough review already. :)

Endzeit, thank you for that review! I agree that Dan and the other designers completely got it right.

Gozuja, would love to hear your review as well. This may be my favorite Open Design book of 2012.

I just got it, and mostly browsing through it right now. Looks good so far. I especially like how all the Good and Evil planes got folded into Heaven and Hell. I honestly prefer that to segregating Demons, Devils, Daemons and others into their own separate infernal domains.

But the fluff was mostly focused on the world of Midgard, where I was hoping for a more setting-neutral approach. I do still want to use this cosmology to either replace or enhance Golarion's own Great Beyond.

Wow, I disagree almost completely on that second point, Lonewolf23k.

I'm not even sure it's possible to generate "setting-neutral fluff", but even if it is, the writer didn't refer to Midgard much and some readers have complained that there's not nearly enough Midgard content.

The designers made the deliberate decision to make almost all the crunch setting-neutral, with only a few references to Midgard. The PC races, spells, items, hazards, diseases, GMing infinity, all of it useful in any planar campaign.

I dunno, there's a reason there's no Midgard logo on this book. It's as useful for Golarion as it is for Midgard as it is for Greyhawk.

I have to agree with Wolfgang - as far as planes go, this is as modular and easily inserted as possible. Another reason why it's so awesome!

Please add bookmarks!

I agree with Wolfgang and Endzeitgeist: The book does say "Midgard" a couple of times, out of the blue, when referring to the material plane. But you can just replace every occurrence of the word "Midgard" with "Golarion", "Earth", or whatever. It'll still make sense.

Or (and I prefer this interpretation) assume that the planes described in this book are so far out that its inhabitants only know the material plane by the mythical name of "Midgard".

I also agree with Coltaine: Bookmarks would be nice!

punches the Add Print/PDF button so hard that the shockwave rips through time and murders the dinosaurs 65 millions years ago

Man, now it all makes sense!

Also, ordered.

I just now noticed this. Will have to wrestle my couch cushion to cough out more coins so I can solicit this sexy wench to add to my harem.

Don't you have bookmarks? O_o

My patron copy is full of delicious bookmarks, with the chapter-headers even coming in bold, sub-entries in italics. Weird...

Please add bookmarks!

Hey Coltain, like End says, the PDF does have bookmarks ... are you saying yours doesn't?

My paizo.com-purchased PDF doesn't have bookmarks in it.

Was wondering why the print/pdf combo was not longer available?

That is weird. My pdf copy from paizo doesn't have bookmarks either.

Maybe the print edition already sold out? That would easily break Distant Worlds' record, wouldn't it? (The print run for this was probably much smaller, but it still looks like an achievement to me.)

Because the book has sold out at Paizo. There's still some copies left at the Kobold Store, and we'll try to get it back in stock at Paizo as soon as we can.

I'll look into the bookmark issue.

Coltaine wrote:

Please add bookmarks!

Hey Coltain, like End says, the PDF does have bookmarks ... are you saying yours doesn't?

Correct. It looks like the PDF up on Paizo has no bookmarks. I think End noted something similar in his review for the supplement to this book as well.

Marc Radle wrote:

Coltaine wrote:

Please add bookmarks!

Hey Coltain, like End says, the PDF does have bookmarks ... are you saying yours doesn't?

Correct. It looks like the PDF up on Paizo has no bookmarks. I think End noted something similar in his review for the supplement to this book as well.

The Pocket Hells supplement actually does not have bookmarks, but the main book does.

Hmmm .... Methinks there is something amiss! :)

Wolfgang,

My new job starts soon, so if you could get those copies to Paizo around the 1st of October, that would be great.

Cheers.

I've had this in my "to buy" list since the day it came out. Sadly though, it will have to wait until i get another job. The wife gets all frowny when I spend my unemployment check on game books instead of things like... food....

Because the book has sold out at Paizo. There's still some copies left at the Kobold Store, and we'll try to get it back in stock at Paizo as soon as we can.

I'll look into the bookmark issue.

Thanks for confirming. ;)

Dude, did I buy the last one in stock? Or am I going to be waiting for the restock?

FYI i agree that this is an awesome product. In fact, there is so much stuff there that i might never fully read through it.

TOZ, if you got through checkout without a hitch, then you got the last one. There are more on the way soon.

I wonder....

Might there be any copies at GenCon?

Bouncing back and forth about the pdf at the moment. Won't be able to give a thorough read until I get ahold of the physical copy, but...

I can tell this is one of those books.

The kind where you open it up, let your eyes wander to a paragraph at random, and SUDDENLY IDEAS.

Just read Mercy Street, which spontaneously generated four NPCs, three adventure hooks, and two encounters.

All of those planar pathways in Chapter 5, oh man.

Regarding that sidebar on page 11: Thank you.

Psychomachia is a very fun word. And an awesome name for a band.

Really like the new races, and the approach to wings and multiple pairs of arms for the Deva is something I'm really considering adopting now.

Just at a glance I can already vouch for this being easy to take elements from and plug into just about any cosmology. It seems to lend itself to a high degree of modularity.

This is a very good book and you should buy it.

Looking forward to your review, Mikaze! :)

Might there be any copies at GenCon?

Yes, there will be copies at the Paizo booth, at least until they sell out. :)

Thanks for your review, Mikaze!

Because the book has sold out at Paizo.

That fast!??? Holey moley. And I'm glad people are digging it.

In regards to an earlier point, I also agree with Wolfgang: a conscious effort was made to make the material largely independent of the Midgard cosmology so that it could be used in any campaign setting. Heck, that very reason is why I joined as a patron :)

The kind where you open it up, let your eyes wander to a paragraph at random, and SUDDENLY IDEAS.

Thousands of them?