Dungeons & Dragons is lastly returning to the Planescape marketing campaign setting with some thrilling additions.
It has been over twenty years for the reason that final Dungeons & Dragons e-book set in Planescape. The as soon as extraordinarily common setting was deserted by Wizards of the Coast beginning with Third Version in 2001 with a purpose to give attention to one principal airplane of existence, with solely temporary forays into others reminiscent of Avernus occurring just lately. However with Dungeons & Dragons’ latest fondness for the ever-popular Multiverse, it is the appropriate time for a return to the setting that first appeared in 1994, however with a number of enjoyable new twists.
Pondering With (Multiversal) Portals
The enchantment of Planescape comes from the truth that it hyperlinks to all the things. You possibly can go from any setting, from any marketing campaign e-book, by way of to the nexus level of the multiverse. Certainly it is inspired to hyperlink in a single shot right here and there in case your gamers resolve that they need to discover a specific portal and find yourself in one other realm, utilizing books like Journey By The Radiant Citadel as a place to begin, for the reason that Radiant Citadel itself is a spot the place vacationers from throughout the multiverse mingle. As Co-Lead Designer Wes Schneider acknowledged:
“That is one of many fascinating issues about this. There’s all the time been type of the concept each sport, each desk, each story, each journey, each private DM marketing campaign setting is all a part of the multiverse. That is a part of what makes the D&D multiverse so wondrous is that if you wish to hop from the marketing campaign setting you have been creating and taking part in in for many years to your buddy’s setting to a printed marketing campaign setting to one thing else totally. It is all on the market. All of it connects.”
That is represented in a three-book field set that incorporates a mixture Gamers Handbook/Dungeon Masters Information, a Monster Handbook, and an Journey e-book. The objective right here is to reintroduce gamers to Planescape as a setting, much like how Spelljammer was reintroduced, earlier than releasing new standalone adventures on this universe.
Nothing Ever Ends, Adrian. Nothing Ever Ends.
A particularly fascinating new mechanic has additionally been added with the Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse. The core journey that comes within the three-book boxset, Flip of Fortune’s Wheel, is designed for characters ranges 3-10 earlier than a pointy bounce to degree 17, which is definitely defined within the narrative. You see, Flip of Fortune’s Wheel relies on the concept one thing goes flawed with actuality. Whether or not it is associated to the truth that you are within the Nice Wheel, the nexus level for each marketing campaign setting in Dungeons & Dragons historical past, or one thing else, you are not fairly proper.
Attributable to this bizarre aberration in actuality, once you die you come again. It isn’t like a True Resurrection spell or Revify, although — you come again completely different. It is as much as the gamers and the Dungeon Grasp to manufacture precisely what this implies of their sport, however the instance given in the course of the press convention was that any individual who died would come again as a special multiversal variant of themselves. Maybe you died as a Degree 5 Tiefling Fighter and got here again as a Degree 5 Drow Cleric, or maybe you got here again with a special weapon than what you used to make use of. It opens up the sport to a variety of completely different prospects and affords an especially fascinating twist on loss of life that does not trivialize the expertise however enhances it.
“One thing that gamers are going to find on this journey is that they are on the heart of this multi-planar glitch the place one thing about actuality is not clicking with them proper. In the middle of studying about that, what they are going to uncover is that after they die or when one thing dramatic occurs to them, they do not simply die. The soul does not transfer onto one other airplane within the multiverse like traditional.
After a number of beats, they arrive again as a special incarnation of themselves. So in the middle of this journey, you may begin off and also you may be taking part in a fighter, but when you find yourself dying… your character will return barely completely different. What which means is totally as much as the gamers and the Dungeon Grasp.”
What we do not learn about this return to Planescape is whether or not or not it’s going to play an element within the long-running story surrounding the Obelisks that preserve showing across the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. Might no matter is occurring to actuality in Planescape be the explanation that so many magically infused objects are dotted across the journey books? We additionally know from the unique announcement showcase that Planescape: Adventures within the Multiverse units up the massive journey to return in 2024, which is able to encompass the long-beloved Dungeons & Dragons villain Vecna, so how will he issue into this? We’ll have to attend for the complete launch to search out out.
Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse is on the market October third for digital D&D Past purchases. Bodily variations will probably be out there by way of your native sport retailer on October 17.
