Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse Review

It's been nearly thirty years since Planescape was first introduced in Dungeons & Dragons. It's been almost that long since we've seen anything major happen in Planescape in the TTRPG, too. Now, though, Planescape has returned to Dungeons & Dragons with a new box set featuring character options, a monster manual, and an adventure for you and your friends to play through, but is it a triumphant return? Or is it a setting that should have been left long in the past?

Planescape's Big Comeback

First off, there are three separate books in this box set. You've got the following:

• Turn Of Fortune's Wheel - A level 1-10 adventure with a sharp jump to level 17
• Sigil & The Outlands - A setting book that also has planar character options
• Morte's Planar Parade - A Monster Manual

In addition to this, you also get a double-sided poster map of the Outlands and a four-panel Dungeon Master's Screen. Depending on the version of the set you get, there are two different DM's screens available: an alt-art and a regular art, both of which look great.

Turn Of Fortune's Wheel: Return To The Wheel

An absolutely brilliant idea that Turn of Fortune's Wheel introduces is the idea of a Multiversal Glitch. Essentially, you and your fellow players shouldn't be in The Great Wheel — you don't belong there and you're not welcome there. The book goes into further depth on this, stating that any character that dies returns as a slightly tweaked version of themselves. The book leaves it up to you as to exactly what that entails, whether you want your players to be completely different classes or completely different races, or just have mildly different facial hair, but it allows for an incredible amount of creativity.

Death has a stigma of not mattering in Dungeons & Dragons past a certain level, due to the fact that you can just revive any character with various different spells, but the Multiversal Glitch makes it matter again at all levels. You can't just cast Revivify on somebody if they die, and True Resurrection won't work. If a character dies then they vanish from this plane of existence entirely and it's time to move onto a new character. In terms of story beats, it lets your players experiment with different character builds, try out new races, or even completely new alignments. It can't be understated how much this idea changes the game. 

The best part is that once you work out exactly what's going on with your glitch, you jump from level ten to level seventeen. It's unusual for any Dungeons & Dragons adventure to hit level seventeen, and it'll be a real treat for your players to finally get to mess around with higher-level spells and higher-level abilities. Just be wary that this could easily break your game if you're not careful, so plan accordingly. 

Monster Manual: Planescape's Planar Parade

"Sure, a living guide will tell you how to explore the planes and keep your head, but take it from the dead, chief. We'll tell you all the ways there are to lose your head, and when it's absolutely worth the risk"- Morte

The Monster Manual introduced in this set is Morte's Planar Parade, a 64-page collection of new and old monsters for the Planescape setting. It's a pretty great selection, too, with fifty-four monsters collected in this hardback. In addition to the collection of monsters, there are also details about potential planar influences.

These planar influences dictate the exact Alignment of enemies across the Outer Plane. You see, there are a lot of different planes out there, and each has its own planar influence. You get details on the following Planes in this book:

• The Abyss
• Acheron
• Arborea
• Arcadia
• The Beastlands
• Bytopia
• Carceri
• Elysium
• Gehenna
• Hades
• Limbo
• Mechanus
• Mount Celestia
• The Nine Hells
• Pandemonium
• Ysgard

The book also details exactly how being on different planes affects a creature. Anybody who ends up on a plane for a certain amount of time starts to change and become morphed by their environment. The book specifically details what potential changes could affect creatures, with examples including Arcadia causing a creature to be able to automatically succeed one Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution Saving Throw. Alternatively, they might find themselves influenced by the darkness of Hades, allowing them to become semi-incorporeal and gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. It allows a lot of Dungeon Master creativity, meaning they don't have to stick to a rigid idea of what this adventure could be, which is backed up by the aforementioned Character Glitch options.

You'll also find a lot of tables on these pages. Since random encounters are common, and no Dungeon Master wants to repeat the same encounter as another if they can avoid it, there are D4 tables that change what a party might encounter throughout their travels, and it really does add a lot of flavor. There's nothing quite as exciting as the D100 tables that you find with a Wild Magic Sorcerer in the Player's Handbook, but they're still pretty cool. 

Sigil & The Outlands: No New Options, But Great Depth

Unlike Spelljammer: Adventures in Space ( a similar release to this, with three books available in that too), there are no new races in this release. In terms of character options, you've got a few new backgrounds and a few new feats related to those backgrounds, but no new races or classes. It's expected, but it is disappointing, especially seeing as this is a book set in the multiverse where anything could be sentient. 

It'd have been nice to see a couple of extra feats in the book, more than the few included, or perhaps a new class directly related to the fact that you're gallivanting across the entire multiverse. We know the reason why there are no new races or classes in this book, though: Wizards of the Coast are all-in on the future of Dungeons & Dragons being about DNDOne, an entirely new system that they're playtesting on DNDBeyond. There's absolutely no sense in them creating classes and races that they might have to modify sooner rather than later, or that they might have to completely scrub from the game. 

What Sigil & The Outlands does have is a detailed exploration of the City of Gates, explaining the different planes and exactly who lives somewhere that's between universes. You've got explorations of different factions that exist in the city, their reason to exist, and what exactly they plan to do here, and you've got a detailed exploration of the Outlands,s somewhere that nobody really wants to be because it's filled with terrifying mutations, and beings that aren't just otherworldly, but are completely unnatural.

Verdict

Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse is a pretty great pick-up for a Dungeon Master, but hard to recommend for a player unless you're really into the setting. The lack of new character options means that there are no real additions on the player's side, but it can't be ignored how great it is to return to this setting after such a long time away.

The brand-new death mechanic is absolutely amazing, allowing for so much variety in one playthrough of the otherwise fairly short adventure, and it's great to see so many familiar locations appear in the City of Gates. Pick this up if you want a brand new location or mechanic to mess around with in your campaign.

A Review Copy Of Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse Was Provided By Wizards Of The Coast & Bastion PR