The Rule of Threes

[Planescape]

Published Planescape Books

What I think of as the "default" Planescape setting, and the one that I use as the basis for my version of Planescape (in which games I run are set), is Planescape encompassing the TSR products published in that line up through Faction War and The Inner Planes. To my mind, the default setting is pre-Faction War, as that adventure shakes things up in Sigil pretty seriously, and I'd rather take advantage of all the material written for the era before that shakeup.

Everything in the line is out of print. Good luck finding them! You can still sometimes find them in used racks in gaming stores, and in online auctions. Once upon a time, much of the line was available for purcahse in PDF format. However, a few years ago, Wizards of the Coast figured out that there was such a thing as piracy, and in a fit of pique removed all of their PDF offerings. Meaning that, yes, if you want to get PDFs, you now have no choice but to pirate, because you can no longer purchase them legitimately. Somehow, I guess somebody there thought this was a good idea. In reality, this is probably related to the fact that I find Paizo a much more interesting publisher of D&D than Wizards of the Coast nowadays....

Although there isn't a purely clean division one can make, I divide the Planescape books I've got as follows:

There are a couple of possibly Planescape related books which were published outside the Planescape line which I don't have; from what I've heard, Wizards of the Coast was trying to distance itself from the Planescape setting as it had been presented while that line was alive. Still, doubtless some of the material in these books will be useful for the somebody using Planescape more as I see it (though perhaps one wouldn't use it all directly as is– though when does one ever do that with a gaming product?). These books would include A Guide to Hell and Warriors of Heaven. Perhaps someday I will get my hands on them, and write about them here.

Over at planewalker.com, they've done a lot of work creating a post-Faction War version of Planescape as as setting for 3.x versions of D&D. They've done some good work. I eventually hope to say more about it, but for now, all I can encourage you to do is check it out.


Last modified 2012-11-22 by Omar.