This has been the time of the multiverse in pop culture. Everything, Everywhere All At Once won the hearts of audiences and the acclaim on filmmkaers. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is building its next epic storyline on the concept, while Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse was one of the biggest superhero hits in recent memory.
For fans of Dungeons & Dragons, playing in the multiverse means one destination. At the heart of the multiverse lies Sigil, the City of Doors. Sigil is the place where every single D&D campaign can be connected if you just find the right portal at the right time.
Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse brings this wild setting to Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. The combination of urban fantasy, surreal detail and factional intrigue have made this setting a cult hit among long time D&D fans. Soon, they’ll be able to see what’s changed and introduce a new generation to the joys of being a berk.
What Is Planescape?
Planescape was an original setting published in 1994 and designed by Zeb Cook. It further detailed the Great Wheel cosmology of D&D that he created in the Manual of the Planes and offered a place where characters of any setting could meet thanks to the multiple magical portals scattered throughout the city. It focued on strangeness and players working for different factions within the city as a play style instead of the usual high adventure and dungeon crawling.
It also was the basis of Planescape: Torment, a computer game released in 1999. Torment was immensely influential on games like Knights of the Old Republic and other role-playings games featuring companion storylines and different resolutions to plots that weren;t always clear cut as good or evil. The upcoming books have a few nods to this classic game in their pages.
The upcoming release takes on a format similar to last year’s Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. The slipcase includes three hardcover books, a poster map of Sigil and a Dungeon Master screen. There will be two versions of the set, one of which will only be available at local gaming store.
Sigil and the Outlands
This book details the city of Sigil and what it means to live in a city in the middle of everything. There will be discussions of the current factions in power and locations where the players can find things to do. New additions include gatetowns which have sprung up around town and are permanently connected to a specific plane.
The designers called out the fact that they took an opportunity to look at the factions and locations with fresh eyes. Sigil is meant to be a dynamic place so things stated as fact in the original bozed set might not be true anymore. Retoring the power of an original factions sounds like a good hook for a campaign.
Morte’s Planar Parade
A new world needs new adversaries and those can be found here. That includes writeups for faction agents and unusual monsters that the city calls home. Players might think they’ve seen every dragon and then the time dragon appears to really mess with their place in history.
Morte also adds a familiar face to the release (well, a familiar skull). He’s one of the most popular characters from Torment and acts as the point of view character for much of these books. Many mimirs abound in the city to act like personal assistants and tour guides but Morte’s distinctive voice can be heard in the monster entries.
Turn of Fortune’s Wheel
The adventure offers players a chance to explore this unique setting and a chance to embrace the wilder elements. The developers said that dramatic moments like death aren;t the end for a character in this adventure. They might come back, but as a different version of themselves that could mean anything from a different haircut to a version that followed an entirely diffeent class.
The implication in the discussion with the developers is that Planescape is leaning into the modern concepts of multiverse with different versions of the same characters running around and meeting each other. It’s an intriguing idea and one that echoes something on the indie side of RPGs: discovering characters in play. Players might decide that the new version of their character is more fun that the original and continue to play that one after this adventure is over.
Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse is set for an October 17th, 2023 release. Fans that order the digital and physical bundle can unlock the content on October 2nd.
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