Manual of the Planes, for 1st Edition AD&D
|
|
Author | Jeff Grubb |
---|---|
Genre | Role-playing game |
Publisher | TSR |
Publication date
|
1987 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Manual of the Planes for D&D version 3.
|
|
Author | Jeff Grubb, Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan |
---|---|
Genre | Role-playing game |
Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
Publication date
|
September 2001 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | 224 |
ISBN |
Author | Richard Baker, John Rogers, Robert J. Schwalb, and James Wyatt |
---|---|
Genre | Role-playing game |
Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
Publication date
|
2008 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
The Manual of the Planes (abbreviated MoP) is a manual for the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. This text addresses the planar cosmology of the game universe.
The original book (for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition) was published in 1987 by TSR, Inc. For 2nd Edition, concern over inclusion of angels and demons led TSR to forgo the release, though they compensated years later with the Planescape campaign setting. A third edition version of the Manual of the Planes was published in 2001 by Wizards of the Coast, while a new version for 4th Edition debuted in 2008.
The original Manual of the Planes was written by Jeff Grubb, with a cover by Jeff Easley and interior illustrations by Stephen Fabian with Easley, and was published by TSR in 1987 as a 128-page hardcover. Easley's cover featured an illustration of a creature named in the book as an "ethereal dreadnought", although the book had no description or game statistics for the creature. This creature was later identified in 2nd edition as an astral dreadnought.
The book describes various planes of existence, and what creatures characters might encounter there, covering the astral and ethereal planes, the elemental places, and the outer planes. The book also details how to survive in the planes, and how combat and magic differ under each plane's special conditions. The Ethereal Plane, The Inner Planes—including the Plane of Elemental Air, the Plane of Elemental Fire, the Plane of Elemental Earth, and the Plane of Elemental Water, the Para-Elemental Planes (Smoke, Magma, Ooze, and Ice), the Energy Planes (Positive Energy and Negative Energy), and the Quasi-Elemental Planes (Lightning, Radiance, Minerals, Steam, Vacuum, Ash, Dust, and Salt) -- and the Astral Plane. After these planes, the Outer Planes are briefly described, including Nirvana, Arcadia, Seven Heavens, Twin Paradises, Elysium, Happy Hunting Grounds, Olympus, Gladsheim, Limbo, Pandemonium, The Abyss, Tarterus, Hades, Gehenna, The Nine Hells, Acheron, and Concordant Opposition. Manual of the Planes explains how each of the outer planes is related to each of the character alignments. For example, "The Seven Heavens" is the final resting place for characters of Lawful Good alignment.