3rd Edition - Manual of the Planes - Brave New Planes, Rpg, D&D 3ed

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Brave New Planes
Variant Planes in Your Campaigns:
A Manual of the PlanesWeb Enhancement
by Jeff Grubb
The new Manual of the Planes book isn’t just a toybox
filled with cool completed toys. It’s also a toolbox you
can use to create your own planes. Like the earlier edi-
tion, this one goes into great detail on the core cosmol-
ogy of the D&D
®
game universe. Unlike the previous
version, however, this book also includes a number of
variant planes that you can use in addition to (or
instead of ) the Core Planes. In this way, you can create
a unique fantasy universe of your own, molded to fit
the needs of your campaign. Your universe need not be
the same as another DM’s, any more than two
dungeons in your campaign world need to be the same,
though they may use the same components.
The various planes are categorized into five general
groups. The Material Planes are the various campaign
worlds in which characters may adventure. The Outer
Planes are the homes of gods and other great powers, as
well as the “final resting places” for spirits of the dead.
The Inner Planes are wellsprings of elemental forces
and pure energy—the building blocks of the cosmol-
ogy. Demiplanes are finite planes with limited access,
often created by magical force and mortal endeavors.
Stitching all these together are the Transitive Planes,
which allow movement along and often between other
planes. In the core cosmology, the Astral Plane, the
Ethereal Plane, and the Plane of Shadow are all Transi-
tive Planes. The World Serpent Inn (described in detail
below) is also a Transitive Plane. You can use it in addi-
tion to the core Transitive Planes, or as a replacement
for one of them.
WORLD SERPENT INN: A
PLANE
The World Serpent Inn is both a place and a non-
place, existing in multiple planes simultaneously
and nowhere at all. It is a gathering place for dead
races, unborn gods, forgotten heroes, restless ghosts,
and the engineers of worlds as yet uncreated. Almost
all the inhabitants of the Inn are travelers, either by
design or by chance. Many have simply stopped here
during journeys to other places, while others came to
the Inn accidentally, then realized they could not get
home.
The central chamber of the World Serpent Inn
resembles nothing so much as an ancient tavern, with
plank floors underfoot and venerable wooden beams
overhead. This “common room” is a large, rectangular
chamber dominated by a pair of flagstone fireplaces,
one at each end. Great tables and heavy oak chairs fill
the space in between, and patrons gather around these
tables in groups of twos and threes to chat. A balcony
with more tables, accessible via a spiral staircase in one
corner, forms a partial second floor for the chamber.
There are no windows, either on the ground floor or
along the balcony. Corridors lead off from both floors
Additional Credits
Editing
Penny Williams
Typesetting:
Sue Cook
Web Production:
Julia Martin
Web Development:
Mark Jindra
Graphic Design:
Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege
Based on the original D
UNGEONS
& D
RAGONS
® game by E.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and on the new edition of the
D
UNGEONS
& D
RAGONS
game designed by Jonathan Tweet,
Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, and Peter Adkison.
D&D, D
UNGEONS
& D
RAGONS
, F
ORGOTTEN
R
EALMS
, D
RAGONLANCE
, and D
UNGEON
M
ASTER
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1
VARIANT TRANSITIVE
of the common room into other parts of the World Ser-
pent Inn (see World Serpent Inn Features, below).
The World Serpent Inn is a Transitive Plane that can
replace the Astral Plane in D&D core cosmology, or in
cosmologies that eschew the Astral Plane. While the
Astral Plane is generally accessible from any point on
other planes, the World Serpent Inn is coterminous
with (connected to) a given other plane at only one par-
ticular point at a time, and sometimes not at all (see
World Serpent Inn Links, below).
• Alterable Morphic Trait: The items and terrain
native to the plane can be affected by normal
actions (brute force, magic, and the like).
• No Elemental or Alignment Traits: The World Ser-
pent Inn has no tendencies favoring one particular
element or alignment over another.
• Minor Positive Energy Dominant Trait: The World
Serpent Inn has a mild affinity for positive energy,
which makes it seem more vibrant than most
other planes. All individuals in the Inn gain fast
healing 2 and may even regrow lost limbs over
time.
• Impeded Magic: All spells and spell-like abili-
ties, whether arcane or divine in nature, are
impeded within the World Serpent Inn. To cast a
spell or use a spell-like ability, a creature must
make a successful Spellcraft check (DC 15 + the
spell’s level).
• Damage Reduction: While within the common
room of the Inn, all individuals gain damage
reduction 10/–. Leaving the common room
negates this benefit.
• Visibility: This unique trait of the World Serpent
Inn grants all within the ability to see invisible to
the limits of their normal sight range as though
affected by a see invisibilityspell. As a result, invis-
ible and ethereal creatures are plainly visible to
everyone with any sort of visual capability, though
ethereal beings remain incorporeal. Potions of
invisibilityand rings of invisibilitysimply do not
function here.
World Serpent Inn Traits
Each plane has attributes known as traits, which
define the basic laws operating within that particular
part of the universe. These traits include the nature of
gravity and time, the size and sometimes the shape of
the plane, and how stable it is. (That is, are its features
relatively fixed, or can they be moved around by magic,
mental powers, godly decrees, or just plain brute
force?) Elemental or energy traits, normally the
province of the Inner Planes, represent affinities with
particular elemental or energy forces. Alignment traits,
which often define the Outer Planes, indicate a disposi-
tion of the plane and its inhabitants toward one or
more of the standard alignments. A plane may also have
magical traits, which affect the way magic works there.
For example, some magical traits enhance spells and
spell-like abilities, causing them to function as if
affected by one or more metamagic feats (such as
Quicken Spell, Extend Spell, or the like). Others
impede magic, typically making spells more difficult to
cast and spell-like abilities more difficult to use, but not
negating them entirely. Finally, a plane may have its
own unique traits. One such trait might cause a particu-
lar spell or spell-like effect to work in a certain way,
while another might grant special abilities to inhabi-
tants and transients alike while they are within the
planar boundaries.
The World Serpent Inn has the following traits.
World Serpent Inn Links
The Inn’s primary portal (called the main entrance)
connects its common room with first one destination,
then another, seemingly at random. On the connected
plane, the portal usually takes on an appearance appro-
priate for its surroundings, such as a never-before-
noticed storefront in town, a roadside tavern conve-
niently placed to provide shelter from a storm, or a
cavern revealed by a rockslide. Anachronistic appear-
ances are possible, but rare.
Often, it seems as though the World Serpent Inn is
waiting for a particular individual or group to cross its
threshold. Once that occurs, the portal vanishes, only
to open anew elsewhere—on either the same con-
nected plane or a new one. Roll on the table below to
determine the portal’s new location.
The portal, regardless of its appearance, is always
marked with the symbol of a serpent curled into a hori-
zontal figure eight (the sign of infinity), eating its own
• Normal Gravity: Gravity is the same as it is for
your regular campaign.
• Timeless: In the World Serpent Inn, creatures do
not age. They do hunger and thirst, however, so
food is provided from a kitchen alongside the
common room. This kitchen, in turn, connects
with vast catacombs and warehouses.
• Infinite Size: Though the World Serpent Inn is
limited by walls, floors, and ceilings, it extends for-
ever. Visitors can wander through the back pas-
sages and chambers forever, or until they find
themselves back in the common room.
2
Random Portal Appearance Table
Main Entrance, World Serpent Inn
occur mostly in the back rooms and corridors. Such
portals usually lead to the wild, desolate reaches of
Deep Shadow.
d%
Connected Plane
1–50
Material Plane (if previously on the
Material Plane, then a new location there)
World Serpent Inn Inhabitants
An ever-changing cast of characters, including
githyanki, illithids, outsiders, planetouched, half-ele-
mentals, humans, and humanoids, can be encountered
in the World Serpent Inn. At any given time, between
one and two dozen travelers are lounging in the
common room. Some have lived in the Inn for years
and remember no other life. Others are waiting for por-
tals to open to particular locations so that they can find
loved ones, complete quests, or just return home.
The minor positive energy and damage reduction
traits reduce the incidence of death in the common
room, though they by no means eliminate it. Brawls
are frequent there, particularly between sworn ene-
mies (such as celestials and devils, or githyanki and
illithids).
The one permanent inhabitant of the World Serpent
Inn is the barkeep, Mitchifer. He always appears as a
large, bearded, human male, but his abilities (and even
his character class) seem to change depending upon
the situation. Regardless of his specific abilities, he is
always 20th level or higher, and he most often seems to
be a fighter. Speculation runs rife that Mitchifer is a
refugee of one cosmic faction or another, or perhaps
even a god or former deity in his own right. There have
been reports of his death over the years, but he has
always returned.
Mitchifer provides newcomers with basic informa-
tion about the Inn. (“Food’s on the house. Leave when
you’re ready. Management is not responsible for loss of
property or life in the back rooms.”) Beyond that, he
swears ignorance, though he often hooks up like-
minded individuals in the common room or recom-
mends a source for particular information that some-
one seeks. Mitchifer employs an ever-changing crew of
waitstaff and cooks, some of whom are former travelers
who have chosen to remain and serve. Should he not be
present, one of these employees or another traveler
greets new arrivals and acquaints them with the law of
the land.
Mitchifer may or may not be a god or godlike power,
but his superior (known only as “ The Owner”) proba-
bly is a deity—perhaps even of Uber-God status. The
nature and identity of the Owner is a common topic of
conversation around the fireplace. Most travelers
assume that this being can determine where the
common room’s portal next opens, and Mitchifer lends
51–60
Alternate Material Plane
61–62
The Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia
63–64
The Twin Paradises of Bytopia
65–66
The Blessed Fields of Elysium
67–68
The Wilderness of the Beastlands
69–70
The Olympian Glades of Arborea
71–72
The Heroic Domains of Ysgard
73–74
The Ever-Changing Chaos of Limbo
75–76
The Windswept Depths of Pandemonium
77–78
The Infinite Layers of the Abyss
79–80
The Tarterian Depths of Carceri
81–82
The Gray Waste of Hades
83–84
The Bleak Eternity of Gehenna
85–86
The Nine Hells of Baator
87–88
The Infernal Battlefield of Acheron
89–90
The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus
91–92
The Peaceable Kingdoms of Arcadia
93–94
The Concordant Domain of the Outlands
95
Plane of Elemental Fire
96
Plane of Elemental Earth
97
Plane of Elemental Air
98
Plane of Elemental Water
99
Positive or Negative Energy Plane
(roll d% again; a result of 1–50 indicates
the positive energy plane, and 51–00
indicates the negative energy plane)
00
Demiplane (DM’s Choice)
tail. The door, if there is one, is never locked, and it
opens into the World Serpent Inn’s common room.
This main entrance is a two-way portal, though as
noted above, its destination changes frequently. The
Inn also has hundreds of other exits, which are accessi-
ble from a maze of passages leading out of the common
room in all directions. Most of these other exits are
one-way portals, and they are usually (though not
always) clearly marked. Some always lead to the same
plane, but others have variable destinations.
The World Serpent Inn has its own Ethereal Plane,
which does not connect to the Ethereal Plane coexis-
tent with the Material Plane. Like its counterpart, this
Ethereal Plane is home to creatures such as ethereal
filchers and ghosts. The Inn’s Ethereal Plane coexists
primarily with its back rooms and corridors, but the
presence of a powerful ghost may cause a tendril of it to
reach into the common room from time to time.
Because of the Inn’s visibility trait, ethereal creatures
are visible to those within the Inn.
The World Serpent Inn is also coterminous with the
Plane of Shadow, but again the points of connection
3
credence to this theory by occasionally taking requests
for destinations. Sometimes, such requests are fulfilled,
though there seems to be no pattern as to which are ful-
filled and how soon.
Storage Room: These rooms are little more than clos-
ets filled with supplies, unused furnishings, and food
or treasure stashed here by travelers who never found
their way back. Roll d% to determine the exact contents
of the room. A result of 1–40 indicates food, 41–80 indi-
cates linen, 81–95 indicates old furniture, and 95–00
indicates treasure. Any treasure in a storage room is
appropriate for a 6th-level encounter and has an 80%
chance of being trapped in some way.
Demiplane: This two-way portal is the sole access to a
random demiplane. Effectively, this is a chunk of some
other reality that has hung onto the World Serpent Inn
during its planar perambulations.
Portal: The door opens onto another plane. Roll ran-
domly for its destination on the Random Portal Appear-
ance Table for the main entrance. This is a one-way
portal that disappears when the main entrance changes
its destination.
World Serpent Inn Features
Beyond the common room, the World Serpent Inn is a
mass of twisting hallways and passages, broken by
numerous doors and staircases to other levels. Some of
the doors are portals to other planes, while others lead
to libraries, studies, storage chambers, and rooms for
the various inhabitants.
Use the following table to determine the features
encountered by anyone moving randomly about the
back rooms.
Nature of the World Serpent Inn’s
Back Rooms and Hallways
d%
Type of Feature
Mapping the back rooms and passages is possible, but
such maps are valid only as long as the Inn’s main
entrance remains coterminous with a particular plane.
When it changes connecting planes, the back rooms
and hallways shuffle as well, forcing those within to
map their surroundings again.
Sometimes the movement of walls caused by such a
shift cuts off a few back rooms and passages entirely
from the rest of the World Serpent Inn. If these areas
are uninhabited, they tend to disappear. If they are
inhabited, those within may break through the wooden
walls to reconnect with the Inn. (Alternatively, at the
DM’s option, breaking through a wall can cause that
portion of the World Serpent Inn to shear off and
dump those within it unceremoniously into a random
plane.) Characters can use spells such as find the path
to locate particular spots within the World Serpent
Inn—such as the closet where they stashed a vorpal
sword before the main entrance changed connections.
Getting truly lost in the back rooms is difficult. A trav-
eler wishing to return to the common room merely has
to make that his or her goal. After that, every new door
has a 10% chance of leading back to a familiar area
(such as one of the hallways leading to the common
room, the balcony, or the warehouses near the kitchen).
Though killing an opponent is difficult given the
plane’s fast healing trait, subdual works normally. As a
result, there are stories of kidnappers roaming the back
halls—in particular, a gang of vampires that capture
and keep travelers for their blood.
A few of the hallways and rooms have windows. These
are always one-way portals that look out over other
1–10
Stairs
11–30
Additional corridor
31–60
Door to bedroom/living quarters
61–70
Door to library/study
71–80
Door to storage room
81–90
Portal to demiplane
91–00
Portal to another location or plane
Stairs: The stairs access another floor of the Inn that
has additional passages. Roll d% to determine the direc-
tion of the stairs. On a result of 1–50 they lead up;
otherwise they lead down.
Additional Corridor: Any such corridor has 1d4 doors
in it, as placed by the DM. These may include secret
doors as well as normal ones.
Bedroom/Living Quarters: These rooms are domi-
nated by large furniture—beds, armoires, sofas, large
chairs, and the like. Each such room has a 50% chance
of having a second door. Any living quarters or study
may (50% chance) be inhabited by one or more beings
of a challenge level equal to that of the visitors. An
inhabited room has only a 10% chance of treasure.
Library/Study: Libraries and studies usually contain
desks, chairs, cabinets, bookshelves, and the like. Any
such room may (25% chance) be inhabited by one or
more beings of a challenge level to equal to that of the
visitors, and there is a 20% chance of treasure in this
case. The selection of books in a study or library often
includes rare and fantastic volumes, the contents of
which may or may not be valid for the current cotermi-
nous plane. There is a 25% chance that such a room has
a second door.
4
planes. A traveler seeking to escape the World Serpent
Inn can sometimes find a likely-looking plane, open
the casement, and simply leap out.
the original F
ORGOTTEN
R
EALMS
® campaign setting.
Among his many credits include the original Manual
of the Planesback in the eighties, so he thinks of going
back to Outer Planes like going to a high school
reunion. (Hey, have you noticed Orcus has really put
on weight?) He is currently on the loose in the Star
Warsuniverse. The Empire has been alerted.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Grubb is a gifted veteran of game design, with
almost 20 years of experience behind him. He was one
of the cofounders of D
RAGONLANCE
® and cocreator of
5
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