The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Planar, for those who are not familiar with the D&D term, refers to the Planes, the extra-dimensional locations (including the D&D version of Heaven and Hell) that make up the mythology and cosmology of the D&D multiverse. It is a place of altered physics and reality, where anything, and everything is possible.

The layout of Vortex of Madness is simple. The cover is their new black border style with a central art piece. The cover art of these planar products (including Warriors of Heaven and a Guide to Hell) are very good. The interior is stark in contrast. Text is a standard black on white, and the interior art is black pen on white. I suppose that cuts down on production costs, but I miss Planescape's full color watercolor paintings.

So what is this supplement called Vortex of Madness? That is a good question. By the time I got to the end of Vortex, I realized that the question answered itself. I don't know what Vortex of Madness really is. Officially, the Wizards of the Coast website labels it a trade paperback adventure. But an adventure, I believe, requires a plot, some hooks for the players, background information for the DM, an explanation of how the adventure will play out, and descriptions of the locations. Well, Vortex has these, but it's not an adventure. I'll try to explain....

There are five chapters. The first explains what the Vortex of Madness is and what it does. It takes place on the Plane of Chaos called Limbo. There is a list of encounters with the Vortex and a basic plot. But that's it. The encounters are very linear, and the results very singular. The DM would have to put a lot of time and effort into this chapter to give the players any illusion of choice, and even to flesh out the tone and feel and theme. Three things can happen; either the characters die (since every encounter is a straight up fight), they get kicked out of the Vortex (in other words, they fail), or they succeed in each encounter. The chapter then details the whys and whos involved in the Vortex of Madness and offers the suggestion that all the information is optional. While any good DM does not need to be reminded this, the sparse material suggests that even the writer of this adventure thought the story to be optional. There is not even a scenario detailing the characters' discovery of the Vortex. The DM has to create that on his or her own. (All right, so there is a paragraph, but that might as well be nothing...)

The next four chapters detail different planar locations to be used with the first chapter, or as a stand-alone adventure. There is a githyanki fortress in the Astral Plane, a junkyard in the Demiplane of Invention, encounters with the titans of Tartarus (Carceri), and the City of Glass in the Elemental Plane of Water. Each chapter begins with an idea of why the players would be there on their own, or why the Vortex would send them there. Again, the lack of a solid story in either the individual chapters, or in the overarching plot, forces the DM to invent a story. Each chapter has a map and a legend describing all the different locations that the players can visit. Lastly, there is a basic history and a list of villains. And that's it. There is no story, just a list of encounters, a list of places, and a list of bad guys. Nothing unifies these elements.

So what is this supplement good for? There are maps, legends to maps, encounters (with statistics), and even a main bad-guy to each chapter so the DM can easily throw the characters into each of the chapters, tell them how strange the place looks, and let them fight their way to the final enemy. The back of the supplement suggests this.

I am an avid fan of the Planescape campaign setting, which brought me back to gaming. With the discontinuation of Planescape, Wizards of the Coast has been producing planar products that focus less on Planescape gamers, and more on the general D&D gaming populace. So do these new non-Planescape supplements satisfy Planescape fans and general D&D fans?

For those who know little of Planescape, yet are interested in the rules and mechanics of planar adventures (or just weird places to adventure), then this is a good general introduction as a places and location supplement. Just don't think of it as a full adventure anthology to be run as is.

For Planescape fans, Vortex of Madness resembles Tales from the Infinite Staircase. Both of these products are adventure anthologies, with each adventure separate from the others, yet inter-linked, to allow flexibility in play. What Infinite Staircase failed to do was create a tight-knit adventure. A lot of superfluous details choked the Infinite Staircase and, even though the concept had merit, the execution was flawed. Vortex of Madness suffers from the same problems, except it doesn't even have a strong overarching storyline to link it together. For those of us who have read the best and the worst of the Planescape line, Vortex of Madness has nothing new, nothing that we couldn't dream up on our own, and we certainly don't need to pay nearly $20 to remind us of this fact.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Vortex of Madness
Author: Chris Pramas Category: game Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro Line: Core D&D Cost: $17.95 Capsule Review by Monte Lin on 01/17/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Planar, for those who are not familiar with the D&D term, refers to the Planes, the extra-dimensional locations (including the D&D version of Heaven and Hell) that make up the mythology and cosmology of the D&D multiverse. It is a place of altered physics and reality, where anything, and everything is possible. The layout of Vortex of Madness is simple. The cover is their new black border style with a central art piece. The cover art of these planar products (including Warriors of Heaven and a Guide to Hell) are very good. The interior is stark in contrast. Text is a standard black on white, and the interior art is black pen on white. I suppose that cuts down on production costs, but I miss Planescape's full color watercolor paintings. So what is this supplement called Vortex of Madness? That is a good question. By the time I got to the end of Vortex, I realized that the question answered itself. I don't know what Vortex of Madness really is. Officially, the Wizards of the Coast website labels it a trade paperback adventure. But an adventure, I believe, requires a plot, some hooks for the players, background information for the DM, an explanation of how the adventure will play out, and descriptions of the locations. Well, Vortex has these, but it's not an adventure. I'll try to explain.... There are five chapters. The first explains what the Vortex of Madness is and what it does. It takes place on the Plane of Chaos called Limbo. There is a list of encounters with the Vortex and a basic plot. But that's it. The encounters are very linear, and the results very singular. The DM would have to put a lot of time and effort into this chapter to give the players any illusion of choice, and even to flesh out the tone and feel and theme. Three things can happen; either the characters die (since every encounter is a straight up fight), they get kicked out of the Vortex (in other words, they fail), or they succeed in each encounter. The chapter then details the whys and whos involved in the Vortex of Madness and offers the suggestion that all the information is optional. While any good DM does not need to be reminded this, the sparse material suggests that even the writer of this adventure thought the story to be optional. There is not even a scenario detailing the characters' discovery of the Vortex. The DM has to create that on his or her own. (All right, so there is a paragraph, but that might as well be nothing...) The next four chapters detail different planar locations to be used with the first chapter, or as a stand-alone adventure. There is a githyanki fortress in the Astral Plane, a junkyard in the Demiplane of Invention, encounters with the titans of Tartarus (Carceri), and the City of Glass in the Elemental Plane of Water. Each chapter begins with an idea of why the players would be there on their own, or why the Vortex would send them there. Again, the lack of a solid story in either the individual chapters, or in the overarching plot, forces the DM to invent a story. Each chapter has a map and a legend describing all the different locations that the players can visit. Lastly, there is a basic history and a list of villains. And that's it. There is no story, just a list of encounters, a list of places, and a list of bad guys. Nothing unifies these elements. So what is this supplement good for? There are maps, legends to maps, encounters (with statistics), and even a main bad-guy to each chapter so the DM can easily throw the characters into each of the chapters, tell them how strange the place looks, and let them fight their way to the final enemy. The back of the supplement suggests this. I am an avid fan of the Planescape campaign setting, which brought me back to gaming. With the discontinuation of Planescape, Wizards of the Coast has been producing planar products that focus less on Planescape gamers, and more on the general D&D gaming populace. So do these new non-Planescape supplements satisfy Planescape fans and general D&D fans? For those who know little of Planescape, yet are interested in the rules and mechanics of planar adventures (or just weird places to adventure), then this is a good general introduction as a places and location supplement. Just don't think of it as a full adventure anthology to be run as is. For Planescape fans, Vortex of Madness resembles Tales from the Infinite Staircase. Both of these products are adventure anthologies, with each adventure separate from the others, yet inter-linked, to allow flexibility in play. What Infinite Staircase failed to do was create a tight-knit adventure. A lot of superfluous details choked the Infinite Staircase and, even though the concept had merit, the execution was flawed. Vortex of Madness suffers from the same problems, except it doesn't even have a strong overarching storyline to link it together. For those of us who have read the best and the worst of the Planescape line, Vortex of Madness has nothing new, nothing that we couldn't dream up on our own, and we certainly don't need to pay nearly $20 to remind us of this fact. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 2 (Sparse)