I remember the day like it was yesterday.
Every week I would go to the mall with my mother and I would check the book store for any new RPG hardcovers.
One week... there it was... all bright-red with this monstrosity on the front reaching for... are those adventurers flying?
Oh! Oh! I WANT this! I NEED this! Mom! I'm 5 dollars short! Can I have an extra 5 dollars? THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
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So begin my love-affair with my most precious book - Manual of the Planes.
I've read through the original so many times that it's burned into my subconscious. I quite often have to check if an idea is an original or if Jeff Grubb more than planted the seed there.
Now, I love all of the planes, but the ones that caught my attention were the inner planes and I would pour over that portion of the book, my imagination swimming with the ideas of what I could do to an adventuring party.
To this day I lament there being no real, in-depth treatment on the elemental planes, the apparent lack of concern about the loss of the quasi- and para- elemental planes... an almost complete lack of treatment on non-evil Archomentals (or most of the evil ones) and the pre-occupation that everyone has, when the elements are touched-upon, that it's.... ALWAYS.... fire....
*sigh*
Anyway. That's my favorite.
What's yours?
I love the Manual of the Planes.
Speaking of which, when will Frog God Games produce their own Tome of Planar Wonders?
Planescape pdf scans, Manual of the Planes (3.0), and Beyond Countless Doorways.
Planescape w/ 1st and 3rd edition manual of the planes stuff. Love the great wheel and really enjoy Sigil. Picking one from this batch, "Planes of Law" boxed set. Loved the descriptions of Acheron and the Nine Hells.
Second would be Spelljammer. If I had to pick one from this, it would be "Practical Planetology".
Favorite of all time... early stuff, a tie: The Greyhawk supplement to the original D&D and the boxed Empire of the Petal Throne set. Those three little mousy booklets had so much promise and Greyhawk unleashed it. The Thief class, weapons, the Paladin. EPT was a beautifully concieved very different and detailed setting chock full of new mechanics and ideas with, for the time, outstanding production values. After that the Blackmoor supplement, the First Fantasy Campaign book (about Blackmoor) from Judges Guild, and the City State of the Invincible Overlord. I've enjoyed a lot of products since then but it was so rosy and new then... I am overdosing on nostalgia right now :D
I love the Manual of the Planes.
Speaking of which, when will Frog God Games produce their own Tome of Planar Wonders?
Do you think we should?
Planescape pdf scans, Manual of the Planes (3.0), and Beyond Countless Doorways.
All good choices, imho.
The City of Greyhawk boxed set. I lived in that thing.
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3.0 Epic handbook... the City of Union. It was a city (much like Sigil) that people came from all other planes to trade. It had stair cases that went on for miles with door ways that oponed up on all the planes. Sometimes they were linked to a caverns or other natural area often timeit would be a door of a room in an inn on that plane.
If you were adventuring in Union you could be anywhere in a matter of minutes on grand adventures.
Do you think we should?I love the Manual of the Planes.
Speaking of which, when will Frog God Games produce their own Tome of Planar Wonders?
I know I'd buy it. I don't know how many others are like me.
Beyond Countless Doorways was amazing.
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It is impossible to narrow it down to just one.
The 2E Monstrous Manual. Hot damn. It was my first D&D book.
Planescape Boxed Set. The universe just exploded outward with this thing and it never stopped. EVERYTHING was possible.
Faces of Sigil. I'm not sure if it's the most beautiful book in that line, but it was one truly amazing book. I had read Big Books of NPCs before, but this one just brought the world portrayed to life like no other. This was probably the book that really made me fall in love with Sigil.
3.0 Epic handbook... the City of Union. It was a city (much like Sigil) that people came from all other planes to trade. It had stair cases that went on for miles with door ways that oponed up on all the planes. Sometimes they were linked to a caverns or other natural area often timeit would be a door of a room in an inn on that plane.
If you were adventuring in Union you could be anywhere in a matter of minutes on grand adventures.
I think you might be mixing Union (we're just like Sigil except everyone is EPIC and we're owned by Mercanes and have no realistic way to protect from deific or fiendish invasion) with the Infinite Staircase (infinite with each landing having a doorway that opened onto another plane).
Personally I didn't care for Union. It came off to me as trying too hard to be Sigil without any of Sigil's flavor. Also it seemingly operated in a vaccuum because it had tons of Epic level groups which spanned the planes but had never been mentioned before anywhere and which didn't go into how they interacted with any other groups. It struck me as corny.
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3.0 Epic handbook... the City of Union. It was a city (much like Sigil) that people came from all other planes to trade. It had stair cases that went on for miles with door ways that oponed up on all the planes. Sometimes they were linked to a caverns or other natural area often timeit would be a door of a room in an inn on that plane.
If you were adventuring in Union you could be anywhere in a matter of minutes on grand adventures.
I think you might be mixing Union (we're just like Sigil except everyone is EPIC and we're owned by Mercanes and have no realistic way to protect from deific or fiendish invasion) with the Infinite Staircase (infinite with each landing having a doorway that opened onto another plane).
Personally I didn't care for Union. It came off to me as trying too hard to be Sigil without any of Sigil's flavor. Also it seemingly operated in a vaccuum because it had tons of Epic level groups which spanned the planes but had never been mentioned before anywhere and which didn't go into how they interacted with any other groups. It struck me as corny.
Nope it had staircases... even the one adventure from the Epic book... A visit to the Elemental Plane of Fire had you leaving from Union and taking a staircase (30 miles if i remember right) to end up in the plane of Fire. Great adventure... had to deal with an Infernal to get an epic cold item to take on a CR 25 Red Dragon just to get to the Wizards keep. You were helping out a CR 19 Ranger female looking for her CR 25 Ranger brother who disappeared on a mission for one of the fractions out of Union.
Each their own... this post was about listing what you liked not about what other people thought about what you like.
I love Planescape. Always have, always will. It's impossible for me narrow it down to one book or boxed set. Loved the whole setting.
That being said, I wasn't that big of a fan of Manual of the Planes. IMO it went a little too far in the direction of 'kill everything and take their stuff'. On the other hand, I may just be biased because I loved Planescape's fluff.
Oh, and Planescape: Torment is the greatest CRPG ever.
Do you think we should?I love the Manual of the Planes.
Speaking of which, when will Frog God Games produce their own Tome of Planar Wonders?
Yes. Yes you should. And it should be as big as the Tome of Horrors. And it should have a bestiary, and its own cosmology, and defining traits of all the planes, and encounters for every plane, and its own adventure path style sample campaign that takes a group to 20th level.
I'd buy two. Plus the pdf.
The first time I walked into a game store I asked the guy at the counter if he had anything about dragons cause, ya know, I kinda liked dragons. He showed me the newly printed Forgotten Realms softcover Draconomicon. I bought it ahead of any RPG book and read it cover to cover many times; growing ever more curious about the mysterious world described therein.
Many years later I awaited the 3rd edition Draconomicon with bated breath. Walking into another FLGS some thirteen years later to see it sitting on the shelf and then flipping through its full-color art-laded pages was as near to a religious experience as I've ever gotten.
Rereading this thread in the light of day (and with coffee), I realize that I understood the question as: what are your favorite planar books?
The book that offered a reaction similar to Chuck Wright's for me was the paperback Tome and Blood for third edition. Wayne Reynolds' black and white artwork (which I've come to prefer) blessed every page and immersion seemed to pour out of the book. I bought the book after reading the back and seeing the artwork, and I've never questioned that decision. In fact, I would have bought two (one to read and one to hoard) had I thought about it.
While many books made me very happy simply by reading them (Ghostwalk, Unearthed Arcana, Complete Arcane, Ravenloft GMG for Sword and Sorcery, Book of Vile Darkness, Stronghold Builder's Guidebook to name a few), nothing I've read came close to Tome and Blood.
Do you think we should?I love the Manual of the Planes.
Speaking of which, when will Frog God Games produce their own Tome of Planar Wonders?
I know I'd buy it. I don't know how many others are like me.
Beyond Countless Doorways was amazing.
Hoping for such a thing was why I joined the Open Design project Dark Roads and Golden Hells, but the crowd on that one is a bit too metaphysical for my taste; they're spending more time on philosophical issues of the soul and Fate than on actually gritty plane stuff like I was hoping for.
The 3e Manual of the Planes really hit the mark for me, as do the two Fiendish Codexes. While I like the two Books of the Damned put out by Paizo, they're not as generally useful to me as the codexes. The Paizo book The Great Beyond has awesome writing, but because of the timing of when they put it out (I think that's why), it has no game mechanics, which is tremendously unfortunate and limits its actual usefulness.
The 3.5e Planar Handbook was okay, but given it's nature as a player-oriented book, it never caught me like the Manual of the Planes did.
It's a shame that the ELH didn't really have much in the way of planar support; that would have been awesome as well.
In terms of roleplaying game purchases that fall into the category of save this first if fire or flood threatens the collection, I have to say the products that really grabbed me are the following:
World of Greyhawk boxed set from 1983. Between the great hex maps, the intriguing style, the indications where all of the classic modules were located, etc. it's one of my first game purchases and has always been a favorite.
Original Ravenloft boxed set. Here again was a game product that really had a ton of bang for the buck. I love how the design of the product, layout of the book, the interior art and the writing of course all made me really want to explore running a gothic horror game. The Clyde Caldwell cover with the vampire holding the woman is awesome and one of my favorite pieces of D&D art ever. I have a signed print of that framed on my game room wall.
Planescape boxed set. Talk again about a product which conveys a mood and style! This is an awesome product (and the lead in to many more great products in the line) and the art and layout were so original I just poured over it. Like Ravenloft, to me it really gave you great ideas on how to take a D&D game into a totally different direction.
D&D Rules Cyclopedia. While this product is somewhat lacking in terms of the graphical and artistic elements that usually mark my favorite game products, it's such a wonderful one-stop-shop experience of D&D that if I had to lose all of my game books but one, this is the one I'd keep. Honorable mention goes to the second edition revised and expanded of WEG's D6 Star Wars roleplaying game.
If we're talking about great products specifically planar in nature, in addition to Planescape, I have to say (gasp!) I really like the 4E Manual of the Planes - one of my few recent game purchases I've had the urge to read cover to cover. Yes, the cosmology has significant differences from the older versions of the game but taken as a product on its own I think there are some great ideas and its inspired me to merge it with my Planescape material if I do run a planar game someday. The Book of Vile Darkness and Fiendish Codexes from 3E are also must owns for wanting to run a planar game in my book.
L
I remember the day like it was yesterday.
Every week I would go to the mall with my mother and I would check the book store for any new RPG hardcovers.
One week... there it was... all bright-red with this monstrosity on the front reaching for... are those adventurers flying?
Oh! Oh! I WANT this! I NEED this! Mom! I'm 5 dollars short! Can I have an extra 5 dollars? THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
--------------
So begin my love-affair with my most precious book - Manual of the Planes.
I've read through the original so many times that it's burned into my subconscious. I quite often have to check if an idea is an original or if Jeff Grubb more than planted the seed there.
Now, I love all of the planes, but the ones that caught my attention were the inner planes and I would pour over that portion of the book, my imagination swimming with the ideas of what I could do to an adventuring party.
To this day I lament there being no real, in-depth treatment on the elemental planes, the apparent lack of concern about the loss of the quasi- and para- elemental planes... an almost complete lack of treatment on non-evil Archomentals (or most of the evil ones) and the pre-occupation that everyone has, when the elements are touched-upon, that it's.... ALWAYS.... fire....
*sigh*
Anyway. That's my favorite.
What's yours?
Are we the same person? I went through exactly the same process (though instead of dollars, it was chilean pesos, and it was my dad rather than my mom-).
I am a sucker for the Grubberse and Planescape (which is Grubberberse with lots of icing and those small red fruits that taste like liquor) interpretation of the cosmology, and to this day all my campaigns involve it in some form or another (particularly the elemental planes, which I always find a way to tie-in, be it either through an actual part of the story, an elemental-themed puzzle, etc).
I too agree with the terrible loss that was the fade-out of things like the Paraelemental and Quasielemental planes, the aminoration of planar environments, and in general the simplification of it all (though Golarion has been quite more forgiving to the essence of the traditional cosmology than, say, 4e. Planet Hell, I'm looking at you). I mean, one of the best parts of D&D for me since pretty much the day I started playing has been the huge intricacies of the worlds beyond the worlds, the fact that you really can get tremendously deep discussions around stuff like how the different planes interact, what does it mean when a "layer" switches from one plane to another, how dangerous it would be to try and step into the Plane of Vacuum, and so forth.
The cosmology is the one thing that I never change, no matter the setting I'm playing. I do incorporate some elements of the particular world we're playing into it (such as the gods and myths), but always make them fit into the traditional model.
Manual of the Planes arr day, erry day. Got one copy of every version of it, though my personal favourite is the AD&D one.
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From the manual of the planes I most enjoy the plane of Earth and Nirvana.
I once played a wizard 5 / Elemental Savant(earth) 10 that retired to Nirvana. Being an outsider, the planes peculiarities would not touch him.
As for the plane of Earth: Of all the elemental planes, earth is the most difficult to survivie / traverse. Unless you can walk through stone, you are essentially entombed upon entering the plane.
I was also a big fan of the Blackmoor and Forgotten Realms settings. Greyhawk just never did it for me.
The 2E Faiths and Avatars - IMHO, still the best sourcebook on deities, Forgotten Realms or otherwise, ever. I've read it cover to cover several times and am still impressed with the detail and care given each entry. My only gripe, it was set after the fall of the Gods, so while I had to grit my teeth through entries for Cyric, Kelemvor, and a NG Mystra, it redeemed itself with entries for the Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal.
The original manual of the planes was a good book, too, and is the cosmology I still use in my FR games. I really loved the 1E Oriental Adventures, too - darn, I'm rambling - it is probably my second favourite expansion ever.
B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond.
Yes, seriously.
It was the first module I ever bought, and I ran those adventures in it over and over. (To a young kid on a budget, five adventures in one was a real value... 8^)
For the longest time my only RPG books were the PHB, DMG, and the B1-9 collection. Years of gaming with just that.
I remember keeping Castle Caldwell as a base. Good times.
The original Manual of the Planes was good, but I really enjoyed the planescape boxset. The concept of sigil is something I really enjoyed.
I love the Planescape boxed set! I have been dying to run a Planescape campaign since, well... forever... Sigil is amazing and so well done from a technical standpoint. I still play PS:T from time to time to scratch that Lady of Pain itch...
Of course that means the various incarnations of the Planes supplements have been among my favorites of all time, but aside from the Core books (Which I lovingly dogeared, every edition and every one) my all time favorite supplement was the 3.5 Draconomicon.
The artwork, the pregen dragons, well everything. I still love that book with a passion. It is one of the few supplemental RP books that I view as enjoyable outside the context of RP.
Planes of Conflict box set (from the Planescape line) was the most evocative 2e product I ever read.
Holy cow. No wonder I continue to use it today.
Honorable mention: Empires of the Shining Sea box set (FR). Awesome in almost every way.
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Can anyone top Planescape? That setting was a work of art.Can you top Planescape?Do you think we should?I love the Manual of the Planes.
Speaking of which, when will Frog God Games produce their own Tome of Planar Wonders?
Exactly my point - it's one hell of a high bar to aim for. Just about any other genre would be easier to aim for.
However ... if Frog God Games think they can hit the mark, then I'd love a
new imagining of the planes with a similar strength of flavour as Planescape.