d20 Mongoose Publishing Classic Play - Book of the Planes.pdf - Mongoose Publishing - R5700

Classic Play

The Book of the Planes

Gareth Hanrahan

Credits

Contents

Introduction 2

Planar Traits 4

Travelling the Planes 26

Fellow Travellers 36

Magic of the Planes 50

The Ethereal Plane 61

The Astral Plane 68

The Plane of Shadow 82

The Plane of Dreams 89

The Elemental Plane of Earth 93

The Elemental Plane of Air 101

The Elemental Plane of Fire 108

The Elemental Plane of Water 115

The Plane of Positive Energy 121

The Plane of Negative Energy 127

The Vault of Stars 132

Tarassein 137

Mâl 142

Infernum 148

Chasm 153

The Halls of Order 159

The Afterworld 164

The Firmament 171

The Questing Grounds 177

Nexus Planes 183

The Grand Orrery of All Reﬂected Heavens 184

The Wandering Inn of the Glorious Toad 197

Dunmorgause Castle 207

Lesser Planes 216

Building the Cosmos 222

Planecrafting 234

Designer’s Notes 247

Random Plane Table 248

Index 250

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INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Including rules for each of these planes, according

to a set of magical traits, along with the secrets of

the art of Planecrafting, this book allows characters

to shape their own home planes or wreak havoc by

changing the laws of reality.

G o beyond the ﬁelds we know, into the

realms of high fantasy and legend. The

planes are a far grander stage for adventure

than the mundane wilderness and dungeons of the

world. Out there, the characters can walk with the

gods themselves, delve into the foundations of the

cosmos or quest in the lands of the dead or be the

deciding factor in the great wars of Good and Evil.

Travellers do not walk the planes alone, however;

there are all sorts of fellow travellers out there,

including reality-spanning organisations with their

own agendas and conspiracies. Along with advice

and new magic for travelling the planes, the wise

traveller will consider using one of the Nexus

planes: pocket worlds that share borders with a

multitude of other planes.

This is truly a place for heroes.

The Book of the Planes describes the myriad planes

of existence in exacting detail, offering encounters,

hazards and adventures in dozens of alternative

worlds. Beginning with the elemental planes of

Earth, Air, Fire and Water, travel outwards through

the transitive Ethereal, Shadow and Dream Planes

to the wild planes of Positive and Negative Energy.

Beyond them, the wide gulf of the Astral Plane and

the vast Outer Planes.

The Classic Play Series

Classic Play is a series of books from Mongoose

Publishing, each examining an element of fantasy

gaming in glorious detail. Each book contains

new rules, new ideas and insightful essays to

bring a particular aspect of the game to life in your

campaign.

Presented herein are ten entirely new outer planes,

along with suggestions for how to arrange and

integrate them into your campaign cosmology.

† The Vault of Stars, where travellers walk

amid the shining pools on the far side of the

night.

† Tarassein, a shifting land of pure chaos.

† The dark realm known as Mâl, where ancient

horrors are awakening.

† The hellish Infernum.

† The great Chasm where condemned souls

fall.

† The cold Halls of Order.

† The Afterworld, the estates of the faithful

dead.

† The bright Firmament, the high heaven.

† The Questing Grounds, the realm of living

stories.

INTRODUCTION

When all you have is a sword that cuts holes in the fabric of reality, everything begins to look like a

door.

The inherent problems with such a device are legion, but two present particular difﬁculties. Firstly, the

weapon calls itself Gyedding and claims to be the executioner’s blade for condemned worlds, and does not

like my possession of it at all. Secondly, and this is the more pressing problem, is that it really does not do

much to these abhorei , or ancient horrors from beyond the known places , for those who do not speak the

elvish tongue. One cut and they are torn apart by the opening portal, certainly, but they seem to contain

multitudes of themselves. Every time I chop one up, another half-dozen form from its death throes in a

singularly obscene fashion.

We are very close to being catastrophically outnumbered and overwhelmed. We, by the way, consists of

myself, you and Fiac. I do not count the sword because I have grown to hate the damned thing. Fiac is a

planewright who really should cast a spell about now.

I should perhaps explain who you are. You are my spell, the spell that I’m composing in my head. Do not

think I am some muscle-bound oaf just because I wield Gyedding around with élan. You are to be a very

special spell, because you are going to survive this. The abhorei can track me if I plane shift , and they

could doubtless track a sending . Anyone I contact will soon be beset by this host of horrors following

you to their doorstep. So, and here is the clever bit, I am going to impress you onto the magical weave,

and you will burst into the brains of sorcerers and seers across the worlds. You will not do much, but

you will carry word of the abhorei. Assuming, that is, I do not get eaten before I ﬁnish designing you,

and assuming the abhorei do not have the numbers to simultaneously hunt down every target throughout

reality – and even if they do, then that will warn people just as well as you might.

Fiac’s spell goes off. This little demi plane of ours shuts up tighter than a dwarf’s purse – nothing can get

in or out. It also begins to unravel the threads that keep the plane together. In a few moments, this whole

world will boil away to nothing. The abhorei here are going to boil away to nothing too.

They are not especially pleased by this and attempt to make me bleed. My sword would go snicker-snack

if it was vorpal, but it just opens more portals to nowhere as it chops through abhorei . It sounds sort of

like thuk-FWOOM .

‘You know,’ says Fiac casually over a telepathic bond , ‘there will be a moment just as this demiplane

dissolves that it will be open again. If we could open a portal then, we would go…somewhere; and

somewhere is better than nowhere.’

‘Do you have a plane shift left?’ I ask rhetorically. I know he does not.

I know he is going to ask me to ask Gyedding to open a portal at that precise moment. I know Gyedding

is going to demand that it be allowed to fulﬁl its purpose and force me to execute a world – and not a

tawdry little demi plane like this one. Thousands of deaths by my hand, another great black blot in the

records of the Grey Judges.

Choices, always choices.

I will cast you ﬁrst, I think.

Then…there is a hell of a good plane next door.

And is not that always that way?

PLANAR TRAITS

Planar

Traits

Coterminous, where they touch at particular points,

or Coexistent where they overlap completely. For

example, the Material Plane is usually coterminous

with each of the elemental planes, linked to the Plane

of Fire in the heart of volcanoes and to the Plane of

Water in the depths of the ocean. It is coexistent with

the Ethereal Plane, as the Ethereal can be accessed

from anywhere on the Material Plane. Finally, the

Material Plane is separate from the Infernum as the

vast gulf of the Astral Plane lies between them.

F irstly, some deﬁnitions. The Games Master

should use this information with the discussion

of the planes in Core Rulebook II.

A Plane is a space (of any size, from minuscule

to inﬁnite) with its own unique physical and

metaphysical laws. Planes manifest themselves in

several different forms. The Material

Plane is the ‘normal’ world, the

world where the majority

of humanity lives, a plane

balanced between the four

elements. The Material

Plane is sometimes

referred to as the Prime

Material Plane or Prime.

Close to the Material Plane are the

Elemental Planes, planes dominated by

one of the elements such as Fire or Positive Energy.

The Material and Elemental Planes are collectively

referred to as the Inner Planes .

A Mingling occurs in a region where two coterminous

or coexistent planes bleed into each

other and, in such cases, it is

possible to move from

one to the other without

using magic. A Portal

is an item or place that

allows a traveller to

travel to another plane. A

Door is a portal between

coterminous or coexistent

planes, while a Gate is a more

powerful variant of a door; it also creates a channel in

the transitive plane between the two ends of the gate,

allowing the direct linking of two separate planes.

Finally, a Nexus is a place where multiple planes

touch, allowing quick access to numerous portals.

‘ While the multiverse is perforce inﬁnite in its

combinations, those combinations are made

from a ﬁnite set of properties. How a ﬁnite set

can give rise to inﬁnite planes is but the ﬁrst of

the thirty-six paradoxes of creation.’

– Alastherion’s Planar Encyclopaedia

Beyond the Elemental Planes are the Outer Planes,

strange places that tend to be dominated by a particular

deity, ethos or concept. These Outer Planes are more

rareﬁed and specialised than the Inner Planes. The

Outer Planes might include the realm of demons and

devils, the Infernum , as well as the stronghold of

good, the Firmament.

Each plane has a number of Planar Traits that

describe the properties of these planes. These traits

can be manipulated or even permanently changed by

cosmic events and especially potent spells.

Traits

Each plane has its own properties, rated either from

0 to 20 (a scale ) or –10 to +10 (an axis ). These have

been studied and codiﬁed by sages of many races and

spells have been wrought to investigate and alter these

properties. For the purposes of this book, the Material

Plane has all scales at 10 and all axes at 0. Most

scholars use the universally-accessible Astral Plane as

the baseline, not the backwater of the Material. The

traits are divided into several types:

Flowing between and connecting the Inner and

Outer Planes are the Transitive Planes , the regions

travellers must pass through to access another plane.

The greatest of these is the Astral Plane , but they also

include the ghost-realm of the Ethereal Plane and the

dark Plane of Shadows .

There are also lesser planes, referred to as Demi-

Planes , these stand alone or ﬂoat in the Astral Plane,

or are contained within Pocket planes if they are

inside another, larger plane.

† Physical Traits: Gravity, Time, Size,

Morphic

† Environmental Traits: Life, Weather

† Elemental and Energy Traits: Water/Fire,

Earth/Air, Positive/Negative

† Alignment Traits: Good/Evil, Law/Chaos

† Magic Traits: Arcane Intensity, Divine

Intensity, Green Intensity

† Relation Traits: Proximity, Accessibility

An Elemental is a creature composed wholly of one

of the elements. An Outsider is a creature that comes

from a plane other than the Material Plane. A Native

is a creature on its home plane; a creature outside its

home plane is referred to as a Traveller .

Two planes can be Separate , where there is a third

plane (usually a Transitive Plane) between the two;

d20 Mongoose Publishing Classic Play - Book of the Planes.pdf

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