Returning to the Cage - A Review of Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
Alternate DM Screen Artwork by Tony DiTerlizzi
Planescape was one of the most ambitious campaign settings ever designed for Dungeons & Dragons. Originally published for AD&D 2nd Edition in 1994, the setting was to make the otherworldly planes (previously defined in The Manual of the Planes) playable not just for high-level characters who crossed the paths of deities and demons but also for low-level characters that found themselves wandering the cosmos. With principal design by Zeb Cook and principal art by Tony DiTerlizzi the setting became a truly unique world based on the idea that philosophies and ideas shaped reality and in realms of extreme belief factions would rise up to defend those philosophies as dogma. With the D&D alignment system as a framework, the setting would be a great wheel of planes where one could theoretically travel around the wheel from lawful good Mount Celestia to chaotic evil Baator if given enough time and motivation and at the center of it all was the city of Sigil floating high above the true neutral Outlands - a common ground for all of these philosophies to collide. Sigil would be a paradox - a city of doors that led to everywhere but a cage that captured those who couldn't find the way out.
Planescape was weird, vast, and groundbreaking. It has endured as card games and video games and has been kept alive by those that love it and even revisited occasionally in subsequent editions of D&D. Now, with Adventures in the Multiverse, 5th Edition finally returns to the planes and brings the setting back to life with modern updates, beautiful artwork, and a clever adventure campaign that pays homage to the past.
There are three truths in Planescape:
The Rule of Three - Things happen in threes (Law-Neutrality-Chaos, Good-Neutral-Evil, Inner-Transitive-Outer Planes, etc).
Unity of Rings - Much like the Great Wheel Cosmology, things have the habit of coming back around.
Center of All - Wherever you are, that is the center of the multiverse. The planes are each infinite and they are infinitely near each other. Yet, wherever you are in the multiverse that is ultimately all that matters to you and where you can affect the greatest change.
Given these three truths, we will take a look at Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse.
The Rule of Three
Alternate Cover Artwork by Tony Diterlizzi
It is fitting that there are three volumes in this boxed set. The first outlines Sigil and the Outlands that surround it. The second is a menagerie of strange creatures and beings found throughout the planes, the third is an adventure designed to take the adventurers from Sigil, around the Outlands, and beyond in a truly Planescape fashion.
The boxed set itself is beautifully designed and the deluxe edition featuring cover art by the legendary Tony Diterlizzi is spectacular. The set also includes a DM Screen and while setting specific DM Screens are not often that useful in my opinion, I will forgive it slightly because of the wide-angle artwork of Planescape characters by DiTerlizzi that graces its front. Everything fits nicely into a slipcase for an elegant package on your bookshelf.
Unity of Rings
In many ways, the content of Adventures in the Multiverse falls into the theme of "What Was Old is New Again". Sigil is the same as always - an extraplanar cosmopolitan hub where angels and demons rub elbows with elementals and clueless adventurers. The Lady of Pain, the city's enigmatic ruler, still floats above all keeping order and overseeing chaos. The factions that drive the city's politics are still there pushing their personal ideologies ahead of each other.
However, even though everything is mostly the same there are some things that have gotten a new coat of paint or been omitted. For example, while the Factions presented in this set are the same as they were in the original setting, it does appear that the events of the Factol's War - the final 2e Planescape adventure that led to the destruction of several factions - did occur even though that adventure ended with the Factions no longer in control of Sigil which is not the case now. It seems that Faction control came back around.
Cover Art by Tyler Jacobson
In 2e, the Planar Cant - a thick cockney-like slang, was heavily prevalent throughout the story as well as the books themselves. Introductory or flavor text would be written in Cant and possibly attributed to one of the denizens of the locale being discussed. This gave Planescape lore a "word of mouth" feeling to it that also allowed for the flexibility of an unreliable narrator. Cant is still referenced in Sigil and the Outlands as being "a complex local slang heard in some corners of the city." While concerns about Cockney stereotypes are completely valid, it would have been nice to see a few examples of Cant in practice without needing to lean too heavily into caricature. Overall, the boxed set does a great job of refreshing the setting for modern use and seems to avoid the sensitivity pitfalls that Spelljammer stumbled on.
While the set is called Adventures in the Multiverse, it spends a lot of time just on Sigil and the Outlands. There is a gazetteer of the various wards of Sigil and Gate Towns of the Outlands. That's not necessarily a bad thing because Most Planescape campaigns (including the one included in this set) will start in Sigil and make their way out to the more extreme planes. But, it would have been nice to see chapters devoted to the cosmology of Inner Planes, Transitive Planes, and Outer Planes to help those who are new to Planescape understand how it fits into a standard Prime Material campaign or even a Spelljammer campaign.
Lastly on the topic of updated and improved content, the monster manual - Morte's Planar Parade - contains many classic Planescape creatures like dabus, modrons, cranium rats, bariaurs, gaurdinals, and, of course, faction agents. There are even pages devoted to Petitioners, the souls of mortals who have moved on to the planes to carry on living in the outer plane they align with. Attention is also paid to planar influences on existing creatures and templates are given for making plane-specific variants of monsters. What does a bulette from Mechanus look like? What about an owlbear from Mount Celestia? But, I would have liked to see more NPC stats. The only one from the original setting that has a statblock is Shemeshka the Marauder, the arcanaloth information broker of Sigil. While the factols, leaders of the factions, are listed they are not detailed nor are other classic Planescape NPCs like Kylie the Tout or Estavan of the Planar Trade Consortium. Hopefully, we see these characters in their own supplement someday.
Center of All
The last piece of the boxed set to discuss is the adventure campaign, Turn of Fortune's Wheel. For those familiar with the setting already you will recognize The Fortune's Wheel as Shemeshka's casino in the Lady's Ward. The adventure does indeed center around the fox-headed fiend and her machinations and underhanded deals.
For anyone familiar with the video game adaptation, Planescape: Torment you will find certain elements of the players' story very familiar. I do not want to give away specific spoilers but dying on the planes is only the beginning!
The majority of the storyline involves another classic Planescape element, The Great Modron March, in which thousands of the lawful neutral mechanical Modrons periodically march across the outer planes. The reason for this march has been debated over the ages and this adventure puts forth one very specific, important reason why the Modrons march. It also requires the adventurers to take their own march around the Outlands in search of answers allowing for stops and side treks along the way. Given that time is relative in the planes, this campaign could potentially last for centuries in-game with little detriment to the characters!
Worldbuilding Wrap-Up
Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse is a great starting point for planes-hopping campaigns. It gives plenty of foundational material to kick things off and refreshes the setting well. As a long-time fan of Planescape, I wish there was more. I want more details about the various planes, I want more creatures, more NPCs, and more Sigil locations. But then, I have to pause and remember that I am asking they cram an entire product line into less than three hundred pages. Could they have skipped the adventure and put in more setting material? Sure, but I don't fault the D&D Team for wanting to tell a story alongside the setting. I hope that we will get more Planescape supplements even if they are only in digital form to flesh out the rest. Until then, I highly recommend picking up the classic supplements on the DM's Guild if you want to go deep into Planescape lore.
If you are not interested in Planescape itself, there are still things here for you to kit-bash into your own campaign setting. There are character options like backgrounds, spells, and magic items that can be used for any type of extra-planar adventure even if it doesn't use the official D&D cosmology. Many of the monsters and creatures found in Morte's Planar Parade can be reskinned or imported over into any world setting.
Whether you are a longtime fan looking for 5e Planescape content, a seasoned DM looking to branch out onto the D&D planes, or a new player looking to see how weird D&D can get, you will find something here to enjoy.
You can purchase Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse at your local game shop or support this site by purchasing through our affiliate link.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher for this article.
