Like many old-timers, I awaited this book's release (as I did--and do--with so many others) with some trepidation. The original version of the book, back in the latter half of AD&D's 1st edition, doesn't bring back as many fond memories for me as for others. Fortunately, I was not disappointed; the new version of
Manual of the Planes stands heads and shoulders over its predecesor.
Like all of the D&D hardcovers to date, this is a gorgeious hardcover that sports a design motif similiar to that of the Dungeon Master's Guide. It shouldn't be a secret that this is likely to be an intentional decision; as it was with the Psionics Handbook with respect to the Player's Handbook, the emulation of the DMG's scheme is the way of saying "This product is for DMs first and formost; players will not attain as much from it." The interior artwork maintains the same top-quality artwork and layout that the core rulebooks received. It's just plain beautiful to look at inside and out; this alone justifies about half of the book's price.
Of course, if that's what you really wanted then you'd buy an art book and not a cap-system module for D&D. What you really want is to know if the content is worth what you're playing for it. Here is how that content breaks down. Do note that I'm going to go into some detail; if these details constitute spoilers, then consider yourself warned.
Introduction
Page 4 of the book spells it all out for you. It tells you that the book is about elsewhere, places that can be either close to or far from the ordinary world. It tells you that this book will introduce and explain the default cosmology of the default setting: Greyhawk. It tells you that there are tools in this book that allow you to make your own cosmologies, and it will show you examples of such things to help you get going. It breaks down the contents of the book, one chapter or appendix at a time, and tells you in no uncertain terms what's where. Finally, it tells you that you'll need the three core rulebooks to make full use of this one.
The chapters, in order, cover: the nature of the planes, connecting the planes, characters and magic (and the planes), the Material Plane, the Transitive Planes, the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Demiplanes, (new) monsters and an appendix filled with examples of other cosmological ideas. This whole introduction takes one page, says a lot and doesn't waste time or space saying it.
Chapter One: Nature of the Planes
This chapter assumes that the reader isn't intimately familiar with any version of D&D's cosmology, or that he's not used to putting any alternate reality into hard numbers. This is a damned good thing, as I suspect that this is true amongst the masses of the gaming public; the planes in D&D are now well-defined in meaningful ways, and it definately pays to borrow a copy of this book and read it first before doing anything extraplanar.
Right off the bat, after presenting the idea itself of extraplanar adventure, there's a handy (very) general guideline for how a usual D&D campaign may incorporate the other planes of existence. Next is a section defining a series of terms that arise frequently in the text: Material Plane, Transitive Plane, etc. After that is the list of planar traits, what they mean and how they work in mechanical terms. The rest of the chapter goes over these traits in great detail. In a sidebar is a note on three-dimensional combat, and opposite that is a full-color depiction of the D&D cosmological map. (There's also a schematic design in this chapter, which also helps to wrap one's mind around the concept.)
The planar traits are the key elements here. With these, you can put together a mechanical description of any location you desire; planes are just the beginning. Need that vortex aspected to a certain style of magic? Use one of the magic traits. Need to recreate the Nile Empire of TORG? Use the Good-aligned and Positive-dominant traits. Do you want to recreate the Matrix? Use the Highly Morphic trait, for starters. These tools are useful far, far beyond their intended D&D context; I hope that this subsystem becomes Open Game Content sometime in the future.
Chapter Two: Connecting the Planes
This chapter defines a few more terms: seperate planes, coterminous and coexistant planes. Right after this, the D&D cosmology returns in the form of what planes exist and how they relate (roughly) to each other. It goes over, briefly, what you'll need to do when building your own cosmology--either as a variant or out of whole cloth--and why you need to do it. As a further example, there's a simplified D&D cosmology offered as an example. The sidebars attached deal with how to work changes into your campaign.
The other section of this chapter deals in getting from here to there, wherever "there" may be. The usual suspects of portals (They get a sidebar.) and spells get most of the attention, but the sidebar on portal keys makes this rather interesting to DMs who want to make the use of a given portal (or network thereof) difficult to employ. The other major heading goes to borders, which may be as firm or porous as desired; some details on this concept illustrate what the text has in mind for each. Closing the chapter is a new item, the Dimensional Sextant, which aids in finding planar portals. The facing page has a picture of it.
Chapter Three: Characters and Magic
This chapter is longer than the first two; as it delves deeply into some of the crunchy bits of the text, this should not be a surprise. The Effective Character Rules arise here, as they have in a few other products by now; the races given ECLs are all planar-related in one manner or another. A chart for your reference is provided, along with the whole of the subsystem needed to make use of the ECL rules and the races affected by them. Following them are four prestige classes: the Divine Agent ("God's Right Hand Man"), the Gatecrasher (the ultimate in cosmic breaking & entering), the Planar Champion (more high-end swordplay) and the Planeshifter (magician who specializes in planar magics). At a glance, I doubt that many spell-casters will go for the Divine Agent as it doesn't have a good spell progression chart; I think that more will go towards Planeshifters for that same reason. The Gatecrasher is quite a specialized class, which is fine for this book; I see the Planar Champion that way as well. More than that, I can't say.
After the classes and rules come the spells. There's a list of spells that have planar aspects to them, so messing with the cosmology has a major effect upon them. Some of them are new, and those are the ones given a full description. Most of them are practical magics that any plane-heavy campaign will see in use; one of them is a variant of Raise Dead for outsiders, another is a positive energy version of Negative Energy Protection and there other spells that are improved or alternate-media variants of known spells. Capping this is a chart for random planar destinations (for use when a character gets thwapped with a Prismatic Spray, etc.) and some spells that help make inhospitable planes bearable.
Good crunchy stuff is always a plus.
Chapter Four: The Material Plane
This is home to whatever campaign you're running, whether you call it "Greyhawk" or "The Realms" or "Garweez Wurld" or whatever you've come up with after too much sex, drugs and Jack Chick tracts. This is also the foundation of whatever cosmology you decide to employ in your D&D campaign, so paying some attention to its traits as a plane has merit. Specifically, what links there are between it and the other planes (if any) need consideration.
After this is a discussion on possible alternate material planes, and how they may differ from the default. The variances listed include changes in magic, time, terrain, cultural dominance and the ever-popular "evil doppelganger" universe- amongst many others. (Want to rip off The One as a D&D campaign? This book has all that you need to set it up.) This also deals with the issues of traveling to those alternates as well as how clerics from one world may cope with being on another. It covers all of the usual suspects and a few more after that, so only the really wacky stuff may require some DM love and attention.
Chapter Five: The Transitive Planes
This chapter deals with the Astral, Ethereal and Shadow Planes. It's all about the details of getting in, going through and getting out again; this includes a sensory overview of what being there is like, including the hazards. This information is geared towards playability first and acting like a travel guide second, which ought to please the majority of gamers who use this book. By this I mean information on combat, injury and death in these plains as well as random tables for the DM's pleasure and plenty of options for those who want a little more than the default presentation of these three planes.
Chapter Six: The Inner Planes
This chapter covers the four elemental planes as well as the Positive and Negative Energy Planes. As with the previous chapter, the data here focuses on use and playability over anything else. The data on how the planes relate to each other cosmologically matters within the context of someone wanting to build his own because he can see how it was done. The rest of the chapter goes over the Inner Planes in some detail, describing environmental conditions and the usual (default) inhabitants therein. Random encounter tables are in the back of the chapter.
Chapter Seven: The Outer Planes
This is the meat of the book, as all of the planes in the D&D cosmology get a fair shake. Every last layer (of note) of every plane gets some time in the spotlight, and this includes things like what god or demon lives where. The planar traits of these planes do vary, but not as much as you'd think; save for the poles of the alignments, where one of the four components is in its purest form, it's a rare thing for any plane to vary from the default given up front in every way.
Again, the descriptions stick to playability and usefulness as plane construction examples. As with the Inner Planes, the descriptions go over the environmental aspects first and then specific places or individuals within that plane that warrant attention. The section up front covers the rest of the necessary details, such as how to get to them and travel between them as well as how gods can morph a plane's physical state. It also handles the dead souls of D&D and how they play into the cosmology; these form the raw material for the new Petitioner template detailed below, when they aren't used for some other purpose.
Some specific things to note is that layers can move between planes, as is going on between Mechanus and Arcadia, that there are full stat blocks for Tiamat (in the Nine Hells) and Bahamut (in the Seven Heavens) but neither are gods--no domains or spell-granting, unlike the new version of Orcus published in Dragon Magazine #89--and that throws me. There are random encounter tables at the back of the chapter.
Chapter Eight: Demiplanes
This is a purely optional section of the cosmology; by default, there are no demiplanes. Those presented here are both examples as well as options for a DM to consider. For those of a chaotic bent, there is a random demiplane generator for your use. Of those present, I am quite fond of Common Ground: the god-only demiplane of negoitation. Others include Neth: the Plane that Lives and The Observatorium.
Chapter Nine: Monsters
You can't have a planar book without new creatures to encounter, so here they are. First up is that old force-of-nature, the Astral Dreadnought; owners of the original version will recognize this as the monster on the cover of that long-gone book. He's tough, as in "I'm Old Wyrm tough.", and not one to take with a laugh and a smile. The rest include planar versions of centaurs, new celestials, demons, devils and the return of the yugoloths, Xag-Ya/Xeg-Yi, Dao, Marid, (non-psionic versions of) Githyanki/Githerzai, and many more. No, modrons aren't present; you'll need a web enhancement for that.
There are also new templates: half-elemental (earth, air, fire, water, wood, cold), axiomatic (Lawful), anarchic (Chaotic), shadow and petitioner (for all those dead souls). These rock as they add so much to one set of spells: the Summon Monster series. They also have the effect of making other monsters interesting again; imagine an Anarchic Carrion Crawler or an Axiomatic Treant. I can't wait to make full use of them in play.
Appendix: Variant Planes & Cosmologies
This is where the really wacky stuff is. The first is the Region of Dreams, where everyone goes when they sleep. There's also the Plane of Mirrors, where entrance triggers a Mirror of Opposition effect and you get hunted by your evil twin. The Elemental Planes of Cold and Wood receive attention here, and they get treatment similiar to the others. A very generic animist Spirit World sees print, as does the Temporal Energy Plane, the Plane of Fairie (Celesital and Fiendish Elves as Seelie and Unseelie? It works, I guess.) and the Far Realm (Alienists now have someplace to make them go mad, ala H.P. Lovecraft; not a bad adaptation of the Mythos feel to D&D.). Four other cosmologies--the Myriad Planes, the the Doppel Cosmology, the Winding Road and the Orrery Cosmology--make up the tail end of the book. Again, it's more useful as an example of what you can do with the book than anything else; I doubt that most of these will see use outside of a campaign designed to make use of them. That's not to say that they suck, but only that they're too different to see much use in your average D&D game.
Conclusion
For all you DMs and other GMs who need a damn good world-building tool set, get it. For all of you wanting D&D3e's take on the official way of the planes, get it. For all of you completists, get it. For the rest of the gaming public, take it or leave it as you desire; I'm one who'll get his own copy as soon as the time and money cross paths. This book is just too good, too useful and too inspirational for me to pass up.
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