The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Let me be up front about two things. 1) I hate commecial adventures. In my experience, very very few adventures produced by a company are anywhere near their value and are usually a waste of time and money. 2)I love the Planescape setting. It is by far the most mature, whimsical, wonderful, fantastic setting I have seen for any RPG (though Heavy Gear comes close...). And it is dead. Planescape has been killed and its influence will be forever wiped off the face of D&D when 3rd edition comes out. Most people won't miss its passing, but those that do feel it to the depth of their souls.

Onward to the review. As mentioned, I am particularly adverse to published adventures. Especially ones put out by TSR. Most published adventures suffer from the same problem: they try to cover EVERY aspect of gameplay to appease the most people. In doing this they tend to lose focus. On the flipside, an adventure which is too focused on one aspect also loses it's appeal. Making an adventure for the masses is walking a tight path indeed. Being a dedicated fan of Planescape, I knew that Planescape products were generally of the highest standards. Knowing this, I decided to test the waters and see if they could actually write good adventures and purchased "Well of Worlds." I was quite surprised by how good this set of adventures was. In turn I bought several others, and they range from mediocre to very good, but one stands a head above all the masses, and that is Dead Gods, the crown jewel to my Planescape collection.

Okay, now the review really begins. I've broken up the review into style and content. A warning, the content section will have quite a few spoilers, so you've been warned. If you want to avoid these, the style and summary sections should provide an adequate review of the book.

Style:

Dead Gods is a sturdy, soft-bound book of 176 pages, including a poster map. The last six pages are illustrations meant to be used as player handouts. These illustrations are mostly mediocre, containing only one or two gems, but they serve their purpose. The inside front cover contains a small map for DM reference and the back cover contains the order of events of the two campaigns within the book so a DM can run the games simultaneously (it works, trust me). The book is divided into two campaign sections: Out of the Darkness and Into the Light. Out of Darkness is an epic plane-spanning campaign and it takes up about 80% of the book. Into the Light is a small campaign set in Sigil that gives a lot of insight into the death of a Power (god). These campaigns are mutually exclusive, but as mentioned, can be run simultaneously.

The art inside the book is high quality, and while not illustrated by Ditzerri, the man who set the illustrated tone to Planescape, the art is much better than most PS material after he left. The book contains an extensive forward explaining the deep rooted history of Out of the Darkness and has some good advice for the DM in the forward. The book is written in typical Planescape style, although Cant is only used in the quote blurbs and "read aloud" sections. The layout is well organized and info is easy to find. The appendix even contains the stats for important NPCs and monsters. Each campaign is divided into several chapters with pertinent DM information at the beginning along with a summary of the events...very useful. There are also two interlude chapters which contain a page or two of fiction so the DM knows what the main protaganist is doing while the PCs are gallyvanting around. Overall, the layout is superb, including the poster map. Info is substantial and easy to find. I give the style the highest score possible.

Content *SPOILER WARNING*

Ah, the meat of the review. Dead Gods is written by Monte Cook, one of Planescape's major designers. A lot of thought went into this and it really shows. Most of this will cover the "Out of the Darkness" campaign, as "Into the Light" is only a small portion of the book.

Dead Gods is a sequel to the well-done "Great Modron March" adventure anthology. A DM doesn't have to run The Great Modron March, and actually has to know nothing of it as all the info is presented to them in the DM section. Still, taking your players through The Great Modron March and then into Dead Gods will answer a lot of hanging questions and be more rewarding to the players. The basic plot of "Out of the Darkness" is that a dead god has come back to life and is wreaking havok across the Planes in trying to get back his lost power. Who is the dead god? Why, it's none other than Orcus, of classic D&D fame. He's out in search of his wand, which holds a good portion of his power and he'll do anything to get it.

The adventure starts out in a very unassuming way intending to throw the players off track. Once involved the PCs only get hints of what is going on until the very end, when the plot is reveled to them (if they have enough insight to figure it out). Even at the end, the goal may remain unclear to the PCs, but the pieces are there if they can put them together. The campaign takes them all across the multiverse, so I'll just hit the high points:

The first few chapters: The game begins in such a subtle way, that even saavy PCs won't pick up that this is the beginning of something big unless you haul the whole Dead Gods book in front of them. The PCs are sent on a mission to negotiatae with a group of Khaasta that are stealing people's beauty. After this is accomplished, the PCs are introduced to the town of Crux located on Yggdrasil (near the Khaasta camp), where a lot of the story unfolds. There, the minions of Orcus, now called Tenebrous, are at work. Several events unfold here and neccesitate a trip to many places, including the Negative Energy Plane. NPCs are interesting and given character. The interesting thing about this is that the campaign is not made to be played in one big chunk, though it could be. The writer encourages other adventures to take place between major events so certain things can have time to unfold and the PCs won't have get too much of a hint about what's happening. This is where "Into the Light" comes into play. Adventures in that campaign are made to fit into the slots left open by "Out of the Darkness." It works out quite well as the focus of the two campaign are completely different and allow for variety in gameplay.

Pelion and Time Travel: Maybe the most ingenious chapters in the book involves the PCs going to a Plane in search of info. There they are allowed to time travel (sort of) and really have a ball, as they are not playing their usual characters. This chapter is not neccessary to advance the game (Mr. Cook gives ways around it in case the PCs didn't pick up the hint to go there), but is one of the best parts of the book. Valuable information is included in this section which will help the PCs figure out what's going on...

The Vault of the Drow: Yeah! Drow! Another part of the book involves heading into the Vault of the Drow to find a very old soul (quite literally!). This chapter is very flexible, more so than my liking, as the author gives many hooks of adventures to do in the Vault, but no clear path to the goal. This is good and well, but it is hard to run a detailed game in the Vault (which is quite possible giving the happenings described) if the DM has no further info on the area...which I don't. It is quite an interesting part of the book, it really needs filled out more. Much of the politics is described here, but not a lot of info on the setting itself. This has potential for a grand amount of adventuring outside of the campaign if the DM has a lot of info on the Drow.

Into the Light: A nice little series of adventures which complements Out of the Darkness well. This involves dealing with a dead god, politicking with the factions, and general hobnobbing in Sigil. Not something I would run as a stand alone, but a good complement none the less.

The CONS:

Though I really like this adventure, it does have some downfalls. The climax of the campaign can only be completed with a certain item the PCs could have picked up earlier, though there is a chance they might just pass it by as it is not over-emphasized. While this subtlety does well in keeping the players guessing at the plot, without it the PCs cannot end triumphant. The author takes this into account and gives several options as to the ending and prologue, but still, its a little disheartening to know that if they miss that item their hard work is virtually for nothing.

Also, the mentioned problems with the Vault of the Drow being so intriguing, yet to vague can bring down that part of the adventure (which has a LOT of potential).

While some would say, that keeping the PCs in the dark as long as this campaign does, is bad form, for this campaign it is quite the opposite. The PCs really have to rely on their investigative skills to pull them through this one, which I think is a good thing.

Summary:

Dead Gods is a great addition to any Planescape collection, and made me rethink my shunning of published adventures. It's major advantages are its flexibility and just the overall coolness of the adventure. When I read this I though, "Now this is what Planescape should be like!" Though it has a few minor shortcomings, Monte Cook did a wonderful job with this, and not only lays the material before the DM's eyes, but explains his thinking in virtually every part and gives the DM ways to change things without ruining continuity. This was the most fun my group ever had and is still a campaign we talk about. A must for any Planescape fan.

{Look for reviews of other PS products in the future including Hellbound: the Blood War and The Well of Worlds}

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Planescape: Dead Gods
Author: Monte Cook Category: game Company/Publisher: TSR Line: Planescape Cost: $30.00 Page count: 176 SKU: 2631 Capsule Review by Lucias Meyer on 01/18/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Let me be up front about two things. 1) I hate commecial adventures. In my experience, very very few adventures produced by a company are anywhere near their value and are usually a waste of time and money. 2)I love the Planescape setting. It is by far the most mature, whimsical, wonderful, fantastic setting I have seen for any RPG (though Heavy Gear comes close...). And it is dead. Planescape has been killed and its influence will be forever wiped off the face of D&D when 3rd edition comes out. Most people won't miss its passing, but those that do feel it to the depth of their souls. Onward to the review. As mentioned, I am particularly adverse to published adventures. Especially ones put out by TSR. Most published adventures suffer from the same problem: they try to cover EVERY aspect of gameplay to appease the most people. In doing this they tend to lose focus. On the flipside, an adventure which is too focused on one aspect also loses it's appeal. Making an adventure for the masses is walking a tight path indeed. Being a dedicated fan of Planescape, I knew that Planescape products were generally of the highest standards. Knowing this, I decided to test the waters and see if they could actually write good adventures and purchased "Well of Worlds." I was quite surprised by how good this set of adventures was. In turn I bought several others, and they range from mediocre to very good, but one stands a head above all the masses, and that is Dead Gods, the crown jewel to my Planescape collection. Okay, now the review really begins. I've broken up the review into style and content. A warning, the content section will have quite a few spoilers, so you've been warned. If you want to avoid these, the style and summary sections should provide an adequate review of the book. Style: Dead Gods is a sturdy, soft-bound book of 176 pages, including a poster map. The last six pages are illustrations meant to be used as player handouts. These illustrations are mostly mediocre, containing only one or two gems, but they serve their purpose. The inside front cover contains a small map for DM reference and the back cover contains the order of events of the two campaigns within the book so a DM can run the games simultaneously (it works, trust me). The book is divided into two campaign sections: Out of the Darkness and Into the Light. Out of Darkness is an epic plane-spanning campaign and it takes up about 80% of the book. Into the Light is a small campaign set in Sigil that gives a lot of insight into the death of a Power (god). These campaigns are mutually exclusive, but as mentioned, can be run simultaneously. The art inside the book is high quality, and while not illustrated by Ditzerri, the man who set the illustrated tone to Planescape, the art is much better than most PS material after he left. The book contains an extensive forward explaining the deep rooted history of Out of the Darkness and has some good advice for the DM in the forward. The book is written in typical Planescape style, although Cant is only used in the quote blurbs and "read aloud" sections. The layout is well organized and info is easy to find. The appendix even contains the stats for important NPCs and monsters. Each campaign is divided into several chapters with pertinent DM information at the beginning along with a summary of the events...very useful. There are also two interlude chapters which contain a page or two of fiction so the DM knows what the main protaganist is doing while the PCs are gallyvanting around. Overall, the layout is superb, including the poster map. Info is substantial and easy to find. I give the style the highest score possible. Content SPOILER WARNING Ah, the meat of the review. Dead Gods is written by Monte Cook, one of Planescape's major designers. A lot of thought went into this and it really shows. Most of this will cover the "Out of the Darkness" campaign, as "Into the Light" is only a small portion of the book. Dead Gods is a sequel to the well-done "Great Modron March" adventure anthology. A DM doesn't have to run The Great Modron March, and actually has to know nothing of it as all the info is presented to them in the DM section. Still, taking your players through The Great Modron March and then into Dead Gods will answer a lot of hanging questions and be more rewarding to the players. The basic plot of "Out of the Darkness" is that a dead god has come back to life and is wreaking havok across the Planes in trying to get back his lost power. Who is the dead god? Why, it's none other than Orcus, of classic D&D fame. He's out in search of his wand, which holds a good portion of his power and he'll do anything to get it. The adventure starts out in a very unassuming way intending to throw the players off track. Once involved the PCs only get hints of what is going on until the very end, when the plot is reveled to them (if they have enough insight to figure it out). Even at the end, the goal may remain unclear to the PCs, but the pieces are there if they can put them together. The campaign takes them all across the multiverse, so I'll just hit the high points: The first few chapters: The game begins in such a subtle way, that even saavy PCs won't pick up that this is the beginning of something big unless you haul the whole Dead Gods book in front of them. The PCs are sent on a mission to negotiatae with a group of Khaasta that are stealing people's beauty. After this is accomplished, the PCs are introduced to the town of Crux located on Yggdrasil (near the Khaasta camp), where a lot of the story unfolds. There, the minions of Orcus, now called Tenebrous, are at work. Several events unfold here and neccesitate a trip to many places, including the Negative Energy Plane. NPCs are interesting and given character. The interesting thing about this is that the campaign is not made to be played in one big chunk, though it could be. The writer encourages other adventures to take place between major events so certain things can have time to unfold and the PCs won't have get too much of a hint about what's happening. This is where "Into the Light" comes into play. Adventures in that campaign are made to fit into the slots left open by "Out of the Darkness." It works out quite well as the focus of the two campaign are completely different and allow for variety in gameplay. Pelion and Time Travel: Maybe the most ingenious chapters in the book involves the PCs going to a Plane in search of info. There they are allowed to time travel (sort of) and really have a ball, as they are not playing their usual characters. This chapter is not neccessary to advance the game (Mr. Cook gives ways around it in case the PCs didn't pick up the hint to go there), but is one of the best parts of the book. Valuable information is included in this section which will help the PCs figure out what's going on... The Vault of the Drow: Yeah! Drow! Another part of the book involves heading into the Vault of the Drow to find a very old soul (quite literally!). This chapter is very flexible, more so than my liking, as the author gives many hooks of adventures to do in the Vault, but no clear path to the goal. This is good and well, but it is hard to run a detailed game in the Vault (which is quite possible giving the happenings described) if the DM has no further info on the area...which I don't. It is quite an interesting part of the book, it really needs filled out more. Much of the politics is described here, but not a lot of info on the setting itself. This has potential for a grand amount of adventuring outside of the campaign if the DM has a lot of info on the Drow. Into the Light: A nice little series of adventures which complements Out of the Darkness well. This involves dealing with a dead god, politicking with the factions, and general hobnobbing in Sigil. Not something I would run as a stand alone, but a good complement none the less. The CONS: Though I really like this adventure, it does have some downfalls. The climax of the campaign can only be completed with a certain item the PCs could have picked up earlier, though there is a chance they might just pass it by as it is not over-emphasized. While this subtlety does well in keeping the players guessing at the plot, without it the PCs cannot end triumphant. The author takes this into account and gives several options as to the ending and prologue, but still, its a little disheartening to know that if they miss that item their hard work is virtually for nothing. Also, the mentioned problems with the Vault of the Drow being so intriguing, yet to vague can bring down that part of the adventure (which has a LOT of potential). While some would say, that keeping the PCs in the dark as long as this campaign does, is bad form, for this campaign it is quite the opposite. The PCs really have to rely on their investigative skills to pull them through this one, which I think is a good thing. Summary: Dead Gods is a great addition to any Planescape collection, and made me rethink my shunning of published adventures. It's major advantages are its flexibility and just the overall coolness of the adventure. When I read this I though, "Now this is what Planescape should be like!" Though it has a few minor shortcomings, Monte Cook did a wonderful job with this, and not only lays the material before the DM's eyes, but explains his thinking in virtually every part and gives the DM ways to change things without ruining continuity. This was the most fun my group ever had and is still a campaign we talk about. A must for any Planescape fan. {Look for reviews of other PS products in the future including Hellbound: the Blood War and The Well of Worlds} Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Planescape: Dead Gods