Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.
Pros
Lots of full colour art. In fact, it’s some of the best I remember seeing recently. It could be my bias for environmental art and scenery, but I really liked it here. Some truly beautiful stuff.
There’s a pretty cool gimmick dealing with death here. The characters don’t really die like normal for most of the adventure. Instead, they come back in a different form. It really does give this adventure something of its own, and allows solutions to situations that normally wouldn’t be considered by a party.
There’s lots of variety since the adventure is mostly a tour of the different gate towns, each with their alignments and vastly different inhabitants.
Could Go Either Way
There’s quite a bit of referencing going on. Morte from Planescape:Torment shows up. I like the character, I like his use of cant, but something comes to mind. If Morte is still there in the Mortuary, when does Planescape: Torment actually take place?
The adventure plot itself isn’t the strongest I’d say, but it is done fairly well and allows some creative things to happen. It’s one of those where oddness will be important, and you have to like the exploring side of things. The locations are better than the story connecting them.
Cons
If you’re a Planescape fan, there’s nothing new here and you probably wanted to see more. You can’t fit all Planescape into a single adventure, or even into 2 books. So without those extras, it remains an incomplete Planescape.
No PDF*
* Denotes nitpicking.
 |
| The boxed set itself. It looks impressive. |
Introduction
I’ve been saying “it’s not Planescape” during Dungeons & Dragons 5th quite a bit. And that we got several Magic the Gathering books before Planescape tells me I wasn’t wrong. But here we are. It’s finally here. Years of waiting.
What is Planescape? It’s a well loved setting having to do with travelling through different planes across the multiverse. That you and the Dungeon Master have so much freedom to make an adventure really makes it a feast for the imagination. You can visit impossible cities full of portals to anywhere, where angels and devils share a drink at a bar, or compete in seemingly trivial games as part of an ancient bet. Whether your experience was through games like Planescape:Torment, or through D&D itself, it has a rich history. But all of that is what Planescape was, and why I wanted it. What is it in this edition? Let’s jump in.
The Adventure
New Player Options
There not much here, but there is a little bit. Most of it deals with helping to make player characters who are related to a plane, or to Sigil itself.
New Monsters
There’s more here than I expected, but there's not tons either. What I do like is there’s very little fluff. Not tons of very similar creatures. The creatures included are interesting and there’s not near repeats.
What You Need to Play
The Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide as usual. This is the standard at this point in this edition.
 |
| An example of a piece of art for a gate-town. Really, please show more environmental art in the future. |
The Adventure Itself
The beginning of the adventure starts off pretty strong. The characters meet in The Mortuary, and begin exploring Sigil afterwards in a quest due to their unique condition. A lot of time is spent on the factions of Sigil themselves, and also gives the characters a chance to join them. I wish more side stuff was given though. All kinds of side quests they can do. It would also give players a chance to explore and have more adventures, would make this book more useful outside of just the adventure, and give material for the Dungeon Master if they wanted to keep the party in Sigil longer.
There’s also something of a weakness right at the start too. The players run into Morte, an important character from the video game Planescape:Torment. It’s a good one, I recommend it. But it’s an odd cameo, and it confused me when I saw it. At what point does Planescape:Torment take place then? Shouldn’t the story be over already? I’m not the biggest Planescape expert, but this sort of situation has me worried about other reference sin the adventure for those that are.
My players had a real good time with the gimmick of this adventure. Basically, the characters come back when they die. But rather than a certain grey-skinned amnesiac who woke up in the mortuary, the players jump right back in the same place, but with a slightly different character. I really like this. My players liked it too, as it gave them new ways to solve challenges in the campaign that are normally not possible. I like it enough to use it even in a mini-campaign of my own later, or at least something like it. We’ve had years of standard adventures by now. I think we need more of this sort of thing to help keep things feeling new and fresh. Let’s have some more experimental elements and gameplay features that make a campaign unique.
The adventure takes place in Sigil, and the surrounding areas of the borderlands. The cities on the borderlands are close to different planes, giving them their own unique feelings. The city in tune with the plane of logic and reason is not the same as the one attuned to hell. This makes exploring and seeing the differences really quite fun. There’s a lot that could be done here too. I wish we had some more side-quests here though at each location. The Dungeon Master could add a few to mix things up as needed, and it’d help have more material to work with if you don’t use the included campaign at all. I also wish was more spent on the planes themselves. And that there was a bit more plane hoping in the adventure.
The borderlands are perfectly adequate for a D&D campaign. The planes are vast, and not all of them can be captured in this adventure. The borderlands provide a very understandable and interesting place to explore, and for players to get their feet wet with Planescape. That said, it would be nice to see the planes get some more attention in the future, and for things to go beyond the borderlands.
The plot, well, I think it’s one of the less strong aspects. There’s an interesting aspect there where the players have a personal stake in events, and they are trying to solve the mystery of their affliction. And it does do it’s job of getting players through the borderlands. But it doesn’t really have that villain, or plot point that players mention years later. When my players discussed the adventure, they instead said “remember when we were in this town and that happened? Remember that cool town?” The locations and the gate-town are the big standouts. It’s serviceable, and there’s certainly parts I like. My players have always liked role-playing casino scenes. But some more would be nice, like a truly memorable combat encounter and intense ending fight.
 |
| Some of my favourite examples of scenery and art. Please, show more scenery in future products too. |
The Art and Book Build Quality
The environmental
and scenery art here is beautiful. I like it. There’s some odd
parts sometimes to do with shadow and texture. I’m used to seeing 1
or 2 pieces I really like and then more of the normal cartoon-y style
I’m fine with. Here there was beautiful scenery after beautiful
scenery. Seeing the gate towns and different plane influence was just
beautiful. It’s miles ahead of the previous book I reviewed. Actually, really do show more scenery in future books. I want to see the location, and even show my players some of the illustrations to spur their imagination. Reading through this book, it became clear to me that this was an area of bias for me. Even if the art isn't the best, if it's got lighting and it shows a nice scene, I'm prone to liking it.
It comes as a set. There's three thinner books, a Dungeon Master's screen, and a fold-out map. The fold-out map is something that has become standard for this edition, and I'm glad it's not gone. The screen and 3 books thing isn't as standard. I find myself wondering if combining it into one thick book while keeping the other parts of the set wouldn't have saved on costs. Sure, it'd be harder for players to look at their options without spoilers. But previous adventures were a single book with everything inside, including player options.
The physical quality of the book and the set is good. Being this sort of multi-book collection, it looks impressive on the bookshelf. It also matches well the style of previous books in the edition. If you have other books, you know what to expect. I’m also happy my copy didn’t have any of those quality issues I’ve observed with copies in the past. No pages are stuck together. The pages are nice and undamaged. The covers are fine. It’s not my favourite cover art, but also not my least favourite. It’s good.
Price
It’s the new larger price. Since it’s a set, the price is again higher too. I wish there was a single book version or something, just so the costs could be lower. The covers, and box cost extra, and help to push the cost up. And of course higher cost for the same number of pages results in lower value.
What I felt was Missing
No adventure can capture all of Planescape. This adventure is trying to, or at least capture Sigil and the border towns. However, for fans of the setting, this is just an appetizer. And I wonder if we’ll ever get more. Ravenloft probably got the most love this edition in terms of number of books, but it also falls short previous editions.
I really would like some more side quests for each location. These could be easily reused by Dungeon Masters seeking to set their campaigns in these locations. And I always do like a good side quest.
There’s just a need for more. One set would never to Planescape right, and I wish they had gone more weird and out there, instead of what feels to be very Planescape: Torment inspired.
Old Books
If you like this setting and this set, you really should dig up some of the older books. The stat blocks will require a lot of work. But adventures, and the world are well developed there. Really, it can’t be said enough. Older editions are a treasure trove, and unfortunately there isn’t as much work building up settings as there once was.
Free Stuff
Nothing to see here.
Summary
I did like this adventure. The art was a step up from the previous book by a lot. Or at least it feels that way to me. The environmental and location artwork is wonderful. The gimmick was fun, and it’s one that can have big changes on how your players act. In fact, it’s so good I’d consider stealing it for other campaigns. Maybe a devil’s contract gone wrong, or a way for one devil to snub another. The detail given to the areas is pretty good for this kind of adventure in this edition of D&D. But if you have the previous Planescape books, it’s hard to give a reason to get this one. As common for this edition, it tries to be both setting and adventure all at once. But that also means there’s less setting than a pure setting book, and Planescape has a large wealth of previous work that fills in the setting. The plot is serviceable, but not my favourite. I think this adventure is most fun when your group likes travelling and exploring. The plot is really a vehicle to have you moving through and enjoying the sights, with a few moments that rise about that. And as an introduction to Planescape for a new generation, it’s not bad at all. But we could also use more, especially since books prices increased.
