Reviews: Recent D20 Books for Horror Games

I was a big fan of the original Manual of the Planes, for 1st edition. Mind you, this is way back when my games tended to be ... pretty twinky. I liked to call them "epic" (still do), but they were twinky (still might be, come to think of it). One of the things I liked about the Manual of the Planes, believe it or not, was "Raining on Mars syndrome."

I suspect not everyone's familiar with that term: Ever read a science fiction novel and come across a line like "It was raining on Mars"? You know, that narrow-sightedness that makes an entire planet share the same weather -- or in the case of Star Trek, the same culture and attitudes (an entire planet like Renaissance France?). The Manual of the Planes did that. The Abyss was one thing, the Ethereal Plane was another ... they were infinite, and yet they didn't seem to have much intraplanar variety.

For me, that was good; I wasn't running any of the published settings, so I filled in the blanks with things from my homebrew world.

Planescape, in 2nd edition, shot that to the moon. Everything was detailed now; entire cultures living on the planes, which we 1st edition players had never suspected. Some people hated it. Some people loved it. Personally, I liked everything except the slang and the bulk of the modules. Planescape, in many ways, was just not Dungeons and Dragons -- as written, it was more about philosophical conflicts, at a time when D&D was pumping out more and more munchkin sourcebooks clearly aimed at combat and magic powers.

As the title indicates, the Manual of the Planes is a return to the 1st edition approach -- with one significant, but very nice, change. The standard, default, assumed cosmology of the planes is presented -- and then there's a chapter on alternate possible cosmologies (less alignment-oriented) and suggestions for developing your own. If Spelljammer had been handled that way, it might have actually taken off.

So -- I can neither recommend nor warn you away from the 3rd edition Manual of the Planes. Skim through it. Be aware of what it is: a 3rd edition, better-written, return to the original approach of "The Abyss is rainy." It's very good for what it is, but it's more of an overview of the planes than a manual to them -- the DM will need

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