Planes of Chaos

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Planescape RPG

by Wolfgang Baur, Lester W. Smith

Take the plunge into the infinite depths of the Abyss; the wild passions of Arborea; the immeasureable randomness of Limbo; the howling madness of Pandemonium; and the glorious battlefields of Ysgard.

Inside this tome, you'll find the following:

The Book of Chaos, a 128-page guide for the Dungeon Master to the places, creatures, and special conditions of the five Chaos Planes;
The Travelogue, a 48-page player's guide to these planes, profusely illustrated with full color maps and illustrations;
Chaos Adventures, a 32-page adventure book containing 3 adventure outlines for each plane—that's 15 adventures in all!
Monstrous Supplement, a 32-page booklet detailing 15 new monsters, including new tanar'ri, the inhabitants of Yggdrasil, and the ever-changing creatures of Limbo; and
Five fully detailed maps of the realms of Chaos.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming

210 pages, Paperback (Boxed Set)

First published July 1, 1994

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible detail on the five chaotic planes showcased in this boxed set - Abyss, Arborea, Limbo, Pandemonium, and Ysgard. It contains a wealth of information, lore, flavor, NPC details, location details, adventure hooks, and ideas. Just reading through everything was an enjoyable experience - and I read everything twice. There are four booklets and five poster-sized maps. The four booklets are a DM guide, a thinner player's guide, a 3-adventure booklet, and a monstrous supplement of 15 new monsters.

[Victor Merling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This amazing expansion to the original Boxset of Planescape, detailed the 5 Outer planes with a Chaotic aligment. Even though it's not structured as a novel it is an amazing and extemely imaginative read.

[Benjamin]

Here's the short version: the core Planescape box went through all the planes, but there's 16 of the outer planes, 4+ inner planes, not to mention the astral and ethereal, so there's only so much a core box could cover. Which is why so many of the accessories here cover different parts of the planes in depth.

So if there are 16 planes to cover, how should they be sliced up? Well, since the planes are dedicated to different alignments, they chose to cut them up that way so that each of the three big box sets cover both good and evil planes.

Refresher if you need it: D&D alignments have two axes: good-neutral-evil and lawful-neutral-chaotic, so there's nine alignments total. But when the Great Wheel (or Great Ring) of the Planes was developed, they went for 16 so that you could get some gradations. Or maybe they just had so many gods they needed to fit in. You know what, I have no idea why they did that.

But the end result is that this first accessory covers five chaotic planes in depth:

Chaotic Good: Abrorea
Chaotic Neutral/Good: Ysgard
Chaotic Neutral: Limbo
Chaotic Chaotic Evil: Pandemonium
Chaotic Evil: The Abyss

The box set includes a players guide, which provides some player-appropriate info and options (and some new rules, like shaping the chaotic soup of Limbo); and the much longer DMs book goes into depth on the planes (what magic like here, what gods/monsters live there, what services you might be able to hire in a town, what's the news); the adventure book includes 15 2-page adventure outlines, 3 for each of the planes, all nicely laid out recommended levels and factions; and the Monstrous Compendium includes all sorts of chaotic friends and foes to tangle with.

Now, if you weren't interested in Planescape before, this is unlikely to trigger a great rush of enthusiasm; and I'll be honest, I really skimmed this this time around; but I have so many adventure seeds written up from back in the day because that's really what this box set is about: there's no metaplot or story apart from the story that your players create. This box set is really an engine for making up stories.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is absolutely packed with a treasuretrove of lore and ideas for settings. I'm increasingly discovering that the richness of the lore created for previous D&D editions has nothing comparable in the current iteration. It is an unfortunate fact that writing has ceased to be a strong suit at WoT, which is one of the reasons why Paizo has continued to gain strength.

In comparison to recent adventure releases that are stocked with cheezy and often cliche tropes, these older works have dark, original, and entrancing stories and worlds, enhanced by unique twists to the rules-a feature that 5e seems incredibly hesitant to attempt.

[pemondelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilloso setting para el juego de rol Dungeons & Dragons, en el que se centra en los Planos del Caos. He tenido el placer de jugar y morir en los caóticos planos del Pnademonium, contra un poderoso liche, acompañado de dos vampiresas montadas en pesadilla, yo solo... nivel 10... Inolvidable.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aesthetically magnificent expansion. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...