Adventures
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Books
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the
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Planescape Adventures
Product:
Hellbound: The Blood War
(2621)
Designers:
Monte Cook and Colin
McComb
What's
It About? Anything you could
possibly want to know about the Blood War, its combatants,
battlefields, tactics, weapons, magic, bystanders, history
and on.
What
Do You Get? The Chant of
the War (32 page player's book with an overview on who
thinks what about the Blood War), The Dark of the War
(80 page DM's guide to all things fiendish and warlike),
War Games (96 page book with three adventures, the
last one - Squaring the Circle - is simply amazing),
Visions of War (24 page mini-booklet full of scenes
from the adventures), Hellbound: The Bargain (16 page
visually stunning comic telling a tragic story of the War -
also serialised in Dragon Magazine)
Merits:
Fantastic adventures and lots of
Lower Planar background. Squaring the Circle is a
terrific and potentially planes-shattering adventure. A
must-buy.
Flaws:
It's a shame there wasn't even
more!
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Product:
Tales from the Infinite Staircase
(2632)
Designer:
Monte Cook
What's
It About? A series of eight
adventures, inter linked but independent, that can be played
together or individually against a common backdrop of the
Infinite Staircase. For all levels of
play.
What
Do You Get? A 128-page
perfect-bound book. The adventure also inter links with
For Duty and Deity, described
below...
Merits:
A great premise behind the
story, and some fantastic locations. I haven't yet finished
the whole thing myself, cutter - it's that new! - but it
looks terrific.
Flaws:
Couldn't tell you yet, though
some of the artwork is pretty dire.
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Product:
The Great Modron March
(2628)
Designers:
Monte Cook and Colin
McComb
What's
It About? A collection of
eleven adventures that can be played individually or in a
series, following the Modron March as it progresses around
the Great Ring.
What
Do You Get? Eleven adventures
(128 page perfect bound book) with very varies themes, from
protect the modrons to destroy the modrons, to rescue or
escape, or explore and more. The very varies environments
encountered display the full range of planar
weirdness.
Merits:
A cracking bunch of
adventures, with some great ideas and concept behind them. I
particularly liked the mechanical cybernetics idea... The
adventures and time scale were flexible enough to adapt to
many campaigns, though more as in-between adventures than a
concurrent series.
Flaws:
Some of the adventures are a
little formulaic -- crazy wizards, evil knights and the like
-- but that's made up for with some truly original ideas. I
was also a bit surprised the Sinkers didn't feature more
heavily, but that's easy enough to remedy by adding 'em
yourself...
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Product:
Dead Gods (2631)
Designer:
Monte Cook
What's
It About? A colossal adventure
spanning planes, times and then some, Dead Gods is an
amazing story with surprises at every turn. To say much
more'd give the game away, and Dead Gods goes to
great pains to keep things secret as long as
possible.
What
Do You Get? A 176 page perfect
bound book, with a full-colour poster map and eight pages of
colour scene-setting art in the back. It contains two
adventures, that can be played separately or together...even
simultaneously. The book claims "deluxe adventure" and it's
not a word of a lie.
Merits:
The plot is stunning, and very
plane-shaking. The art is good; better than most recent PS
releases, and the layout makes the book very accessible. The
colour art in the back is also a very nice
touch.
Flaws:
It's expensive, sure, but
it'll last you ages. Well worth the cash.
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Product:
Something Wild (2619)
Designer:
Ray Vallese
What's
It About? A strange plague of
barbaric behaviour strikes the Cage, and seems to be
sweeping several planes too. It's the PCs job to figure out
what's causing it, and put a stop to it. A they soon
discover, there's a lot more going on than initially meets
the eye, with some six groups subtly influencing
events.
What
Do You Get? A 64-page
adventure, a 2-page glossy map sheet, and a strange flimsy
DM-screen-like thing with cut-off bits.
Merits:
A fantastic plot, very
cleverly worked out, with great potential for follow-up
adventures. Some really cool characters to meet too. Very
nice.
Flaws:
Very challenging to DM, and
pretty deadly too. But hey, that's half the fun! Some of the
Sigil encounters were a little lacklustre.
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Product:
Harbinger House (2614)
Designer:
Bill Slavicsek
What's
It About? A great adventure
set in Sigil, and the Gate Towns involving...well...that'd
give too much away. Let's just say the Lady of Pain's
getting uncomfortable about competition, and isn't about to
let sentimentality get in the way of a good flay. Add to
that a bit of Abyssal intrigue and a good old fashioned
murder mystery, and a bunch of the most interesting barmies
you'll ever meet, and you've got my favourite adventure for
the Planescape setting yet. ..
What
Do You Get? A 64-page
adventure, and a 4-panel DM screen with maps and
artwork.
Merits:
A great plot, nice full-page
artwork, brilliant characters, and lots of help if things go
wrong. Good locations (you'll love Harbinger House
and the way the rooms connect!), and a real cliff-hanger
ending! Classic stuff...
Flaws:
A challenging module to DM,
but very rewarding. Could've been more artwork throughout
the text.
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Product:
Doors to the Unknown (2626)
Designer:
Bill Slavicsek
What's
It About? Four linked but
sort-of independent adventures centred around a strange kind
of portal that only opens once in a blue moon. Various means
get the PCs involved, and soon they're tangled in a
centuries-old plot with a very dangerous
opponent.
What
Do You Get? A 64-page
adventure, 2-page glossy map, and thin card screen with
cut-out bits.
Merits:
There are some terrific ideas
here -- the last chapter is really interesting, and prompts
more questions than it answers. Some of the locations are
good, and DttU makes good use of some established
Cager characters like Estavan.
Flaws:
I really disliked the third
chapter, and elements of the first (while easily left out)
didn't fit with my vision of Planescape. Look at the map for
out-of-place objects. The plot made sense, but at times
seemed a little thin. On the whole okay, though I'd want to
heavily modify the third chapter to make it less Star
Trek and more Planescape.
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Product:
Fires of Dis (2608)
Designers:
Steve Perrin and Ray
Vallese
What's
It About? A deadly sojourn
into Baator to...well...read it and see. But the PCs
certainly meet their match in powerful enemies. Players
hell-bent on slaying fiends will last as long as a snowball
in Avernus. One for subtle diplomats
only!
What
Do You Get? A 64-page
adventure, plus 4-panel DM screen with maps and
artwork.
Merits:
Some really fantastic
locations and a great way to meet beings you'd not dream of
arguing with! Certainly a brilliant adventure for
higher-level characters capable of surviving a mistake or
two...What fun!
Flaws:
Can be hard to get the players
motivated to undertake the adventure, and the ending is a
little unfair on them -- but makes a great
finale.
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Product:
The Eternal Boundary (2601)
Designer:
M. Richard Baker III
What's
It About? A great adventure to
introduce both players and DMs to Planescape, Sigil, and the
factions too. It involves a sinister plot to infiltrate the
factions one-by-one, with great potential for further story
lines based on the characters and events
involved.
What
Do You Get? A 32-page
adventure, and a 4-page DM screen with maps and
artwork.
Merits:
I ran a campaign for a couple
of months dealing with the repercussions -- certainly the
best value I ever got out of a module! The colour plate art
was great, it's a shame there wasn't more. The Dustmen's
Mortuary is completely mapped -- a must for any Dead fan.
Super stuff!
Flaws:
It's not easy to get the PCs
to jump through that portal! But worth it for the looks on
the players' faces ;-)
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Product:
The Deva Spark (2606)
Designers:
Bill Slavicsek and J. M.
Salsbury
What's
It About? Mix and deva with a
bebilith and what do you get? Deva Spark gives you a
nasty idea. It's an adventure set mainly in Elysium that
concerns morals and ethics, good and evil, and presents the
PCs with some interesting quandaries.
What
Do You Get? A 32-page
adventure, and 4-panel DM screen with maps and
artwork.
Merits:
Some clever ideas about souls,
and the flexible resolution was good too.
Flaws:
Very sparse on pictures. Apart
from three full-page colour plates, there was no artwork.
The plot hook at the start was a little railroading, and the
last chapter (of three) was a little weak, but on the whole,
I liked this module.
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Product:
Well of Worlds (2604)
Designer:
Colin McComb
What's
It About? A series of
unconnected short adventures from a diverse array of planes,
both Outer and Prime. Meet a titan, explore Avernus, battle
slaadi, become trapped in a gate town sliding into the
Abyss, and get involved in Blood War
skirmishes!
What
Do You Get? A 128-page perfect
bound book, with 9 adventures, plus a full-colour poster map
of Avernus
Merits:
A great selection of
adventures. If you don't like one, you're sure to love the
next -- I've used several and they all worked really well.
They're all just the right length for one game session each,
and with a bit of work most can be expanded to much more
substantial pieces. Love Letter and Recruiters
are both particularly good, the former receiving a lot of
attention on the Planescape Mailing List.
Flaws:
There's no theme linking the
adventures like with more recent compilations, but maybe
that's not such a bad thing. Some adventures are definitely
stronger than others, but the best are really good
indeed.
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Product:
In the Abyss (2605)
Designer:
Skip Williams
What's
It About? The PCs are hired to
do some retrieval in the Abyss...of a magical flying chaos
ship of entropy, no less! Sounds like a great start to a
plot, but unfortunately, that is the plot in its
entirety.
What
Do You Get? A 32-page
adventure wrapped in a 4-panel DM screen with maps inside
and art outside.
Merits:
The chaos ship is very cool,
and some of the locations and NPCs are okay. But that's
it.
Flaws:
Certainly the weakest PS
product to date. While the adventure isn't flawed, it's just
not very inspiring. A fight with tanar'ri here, a random
encounter there, there's no structure apart from a start and
an end, and from a story-based game like Planescape that's
not enough. It's more of a shame because the chaos ship is
such a good idea; it's really wasted here. The interior art
is good, but half of it is just reprinted from the
PSMC1...For someone who's either in love with the
Abyss and Doomguard, or wants to complete a collection of PS
material only, really.
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