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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Planescape RPG
Tales from the Infinite Staircase
An anthology of eight separate but linked adventures, Tales from the Infinite Staircase takes adventurers to exotic locales throughout the planes. A crossover product meant to be usable with the FORGOTTEN REALMS, this is a great introduction to PLANESCAPE for players unfamiliar with the setting.
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1998
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About the author
Monte Cook
211 books124 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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February 17, 2022Read these tales pretty spaced out, but I think that does them a favour; easily the weakest part of this book is the provided thread to stitch the individual adventures together. A vague force, known as the Iron Shadow, is plaguing various corners the multiverse and draining its creative energies, and the players have to wander around and work out what's what, then find a way to cure it.
The book goes to some length to describe the terrible effects the shadow has on these communities, but as the players are unlikely to have been to these far-flung planar locations before, that's not going to have any impact on them. Best, I think, to ditch the connective tissue altogether and just run these as separate adventures--and the book does provide help for how to do that. So more importantly, for the adventures specifically:
1. Planewalkers: more setting description than adventure, but adventuring inside an Escher drawing is novel enough to make up for that. Also nicely malleable; the enemies are environmental/social challenges for a low-level party, or potentially combat fodder for a high-level party. This is a design principle that continues throughout, actually.
2. Lost Sovereignty: even the pleasant upper planes can provide room for adventure, if something is going wrong there. Includes: centaur ants, piloting a raft through flooded tunnels, fun NPCs, a potential slaad invasion, and some nice trickery going on generally. Not astounding, but would that all adventures had this baseline level of inventiveness.
3. Lord of the Worms: a compelling, if bleak, setting for the players to run around in, with some really gross decisions on offer. I wish there was a little more plot to it, but as a sandbox, it's certainly unlike any other sandbox.
4. In Disarray: hard to visualise/describe the primordial chaos, but the totally unhinged slaad are always a lot of fun, and there are numerous small details here that are very good, with some stunning imagery.
5. Winds of Change: a murder mystery in a city on the plane of air, which is an excellent location, but as with most serial killer stories, when the truth is revealed it's just a bit silly.
6. The Dream Well: I gained a fondness for the Astral Plane from Cook's own guide to it, and the githyanki NPCs here and their scheming is good, but the dream stuff itself, while very fun, is a little cumbersome to actually achieve the specific success needed to progress, a puzzle with little in the way of clues. Appropriate for a dream, of course, but still might prove frustrating in play.
7. Reflections: fun mirror shenanigans, and I always love an infinite library, but the mechanics for how the mirrors work is needlessly bitty. Not a bad adventure by any means, but feels a bit slight as well in comparison to some of the others here.
8. A Devil's Dream: the city of chains is a truly awful place to be, as you might expect, just chock full of devils. But oh, the aesthetics! One of those cool adventures that's tense and calculated as long as the players are careful, and turns quickly into a deadly slugfest if they're not. The traps, too, are particularly brutal. Adventurers don't need feet anyway really.
The book goes to some length to describe the terrible effects the shadow has on these communities, but as the players are unlikely to have been to these far-flung planar locations before, that's not going to have any impact on them. Best, I think, to ditch the connective tissue altogether and just run these as separate adventures--and the book does provide help for how to do that. So more importantly, for the adventures specifically:
1. Planewalkers: more setting description than adventure, but adventuring inside an Escher drawing is novel enough to make up for that. Also nicely malleable; the enemies are environmental/social challenges for a low-level party, or potentially combat fodder for a high-level party. This is a design principle that continues throughout, actually.
2. Lost Sovereignty: even the pleasant upper planes can provide room for adventure, if something is going wrong there. Includes: centaur ants, piloting a raft through flooded tunnels, fun NPCs, a potential slaad invasion, and some nice trickery going on generally. Not astounding, but would that all adventures had this baseline level of inventiveness.
3. Lord of the Worms: a compelling, if bleak, setting for the players to run around in, with some really gross decisions on offer. I wish there was a little more plot to it, but as a sandbox, it's certainly unlike any other sandbox.
4. In Disarray: hard to visualise/describe the primordial chaos, but the totally unhinged slaad are always a lot of fun, and there are numerous small details here that are very good, with some stunning imagery.
5. Winds of Change: a murder mystery in a city on the plane of air, which is an excellent location, but as with most serial killer stories, when the truth is revealed it's just a bit silly.
6. The Dream Well: I gained a fondness for the Astral Plane from Cook's own guide to it, and the githyanki NPCs here and their scheming is good, but the dream stuff itself, while very fun, is a little cumbersome to actually achieve the specific success needed to progress, a puzzle with little in the way of clues. Appropriate for a dream, of course, but still might prove frustrating in play.
7. Reflections: fun mirror shenanigans, and I always love an infinite library, but the mechanics for how the mirrors work is needlessly bitty. Not a bad adventure by any means, but feels a bit slight as well in comparison to some of the others here.
8. A Devil's Dream: the city of chains is a truly awful place to be, as you might expect, just chock full of devils. But oh, the aesthetics! One of those cool adventures that's tense and calculated as long as the players are careful, and turns quickly into a deadly slugfest if they're not. The traps, too, are particularly brutal. Adventurers don't need feet anyway really.
Displaying 1 of 1 review