Beyond Countless Doorways...how good/bad? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Beyond Countless Doorways...how good/bad?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
uratoh
Jan 31, 2005 15:03:43 Seeing as I'm starting a 3.5 planescape game, I was wondering how good/useful this book is...I know its got no stuff on the existing, just new planes etc, but is it useful and in keeping with the 'flavor'?
#2
ripvanwormer
Jan 31, 2005 18:35:04
Seeing as I'm starting a 3.5 planescape game, I was wondering how good/useful this book is...I know its got no stuff on the existing, just new planes etc, but is it useful and in keeping with the 'flavor'?

It's got a different flavor than Planescape did. No cant, no cute quotes from planewalkers in Exocet font, etc. But it's not an incompatible flavor; there's absolutely no reason any of the planes/realms/worlds in Beyond Countless Doorways couldn't exist in the same multiverse as Sigil or Tradegate. Like Planescape, Beyond Countless Doorways is a mind-bending, sometimes bizarre take on D&D conventions, but still D&D. It doesn't break any of the rules Zeb Cook set forth - there's no anomalous starships, 20th century inventions as magic items, or shops with cutesy punnish names. Some of it is extremely Planescapey; Palpatur is a sentient demiplane devastated by a Blood War incursion, for example, and Harvock is a planewalking pirate who steals sleep. There are a few ideas that might require some work to fit into Planescape's assumptions, particularly the Ten Courts of Hell (I assume they're lower-planar locations accessible from the Palace of Judgement in the Outlands), and Curonost, the realm of dead angels (should it be in Belieren, Pelion, or the Gray Waste? Is there a realm of dead fiends? How about a realm of dead modrons, rilmani, or slaadi?).

But I think the locales in the book are the types of places you would find in Planescape adventures if the original design team was still making them. It's useful.
#3
factol_rhys_dup
Jan 31, 2005 22:17:42 On its own, the book is awesome. I love it. Extremely imaginative.

I think, for use in Planescape, it has planes that work excellently as cool locations on planes. Some very memorable and unexpected twists that remain, in the end, very reminiscent of Planescape's style and vision.

It has some cool ideas about how to work planar travel in a more detailed way than "find the right door and the right key and then magic yourself to your destination."
#4
bob_the_efreet
Feb 01, 2005 14:08:58
Harvock is a planewalking pirate who steals sleep.

That alone would make BCD worth it. I need to go get this book...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 uratoh Jan 31, 2005 15:03:43	Seeing as I'm starting a 3.5 planescape game, I was wondering how good/useful this book is...I know its got no stuff on the existing, just new planes etc, but is it useful and in keeping with the 'flavor'?
#2 ripvanwormer Jan 31, 2005 18:35:04	Seeing as I'm starting a 3.5 planescape game, I was wondering how good/useful this book is...I know its got no stuff on the existing, just new planes etc, but is it useful and in keeping with the 'flavor'? It's got a different flavor than Planescape did. No cant, no cute quotes from planewalkers in Exocet font, etc. But it's not an incompatible flavor; there's absolutely no reason any of the planes/realms/worlds in Beyond Countless Doorways couldn't exist in the same multiverse as Sigil or Tradegate. Like Planescape, Beyond Countless Doorways is a mind-bending, sometimes bizarre take on D&D conventions, but still D&D. It doesn't break any of the rules Zeb Cook set forth - there's no anomalous starships, 20th century inventions as magic items, or shops with cutesy punnish names. Some of it is extremely Planescapey; Palpatur is a sentient demiplane devastated by a Blood War incursion, for example, and Harvock is a planewalking pirate who steals sleep. There are a few ideas that might require some work to fit into Planescape's assumptions, particularly the Ten Courts of Hell (I assume they're lower-planar locations accessible from the Palace of Judgement in the Outlands), and Curonost, the realm of dead angels (should it be in Belieren, Pelion, or the Gray Waste? Is there a realm of dead fiends? How about a realm of dead modrons, rilmani, or slaadi?). But I think the locales in the book are the types of places you would find in Planescape adventures if the original design team was still making them. It's useful.
#3 factol_rhys_dup Jan 31, 2005 22:17:42	On its own, the book is awesome. I love it. Extremely imaginative. I think, for use in Planescape, it has planes that work excellently as cool locations on planes. Some very memorable and unexpected twists that remain, in the end, very reminiscent of Planescape's style and vision. It has some cool ideas about how to work planar travel in a more detailed way than "find the right door and the right key and then magic yourself to your destination."
#4 bob_the_efreet Feb 01, 2005 14:08:58	Harvock is a planewalking pirate who steals sleep. That alone would make BCD worth it. I need to go get this book...