An In Depth Commentary On The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes By Jeff Grubb

"...from Arcadia to Pandemonium, from the plane of elemental Fire to the Astral plane, vast new worlds of adventure are now open to players."
The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes By Jeff Grubb came out in 1987 & it remains a favorite of mine; 'The original Manual of the Planes was written by Jeff Grubb, with a cover by Jeff Easley and interior illustrations by Stephen Fabianwith Easley, and was published by TSR in 1987 as a 128-page hardcover.^[3] 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.^[4] This creature was later identified in 2nd edition as an astral dreadnought.'



The year is Nineteen Hundred & Eighty Nine there's one book that I wanted for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes was on my 'must get' list of AD&D books. Why?! Because the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes was/is a dungeon master's book. There lots of crunch here & very little flavor per say for the dungeon master to create & deal with the 'Great Wheel' of the planes of AD&D. This book does exactly what it sets out to do. The wiki entry summarizes quite nicely what the Manual of the plane covers;

"The book describes various planes of existence, and what creatures characters might encounter there, covering the astral and ethereal planes, the elemental planes, and the outer planes.^[3] 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."

All of this canon would change right around the time that second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Planescape setting came out.  But the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes does exactly what it sets out to do which is to be cross compatible with the Monster Manual, the Monster Manual II, & The Fiend Folio.

The difference between the Manual of the Planes & the Planescape setting books is stark because the goals are vastly different. The Planescape line of products is meant to have the dungeon master create adventures & complete campaign within that setting. The Manual of the Planes is a whole cloth kit meant to have the dungeon master create their own adventures & campaign. This same design philosophy is at the  root of one of the problems of the 'OSR' as a whole.A point  where rpg makers & writers seem to think that you need their product to play in their settings. The Manual of the Planes allowed the DM to set adventures among the dangerous residents & the adventure  environments of the planes. There was little to no support for the Manual of the Planes over the years & its only recently that I found out why;  "Manual of the Planes is mainly a location book, describing the various planes, delineating how spells work, and - in the style of the Survival Guides of 1986 - talking about how to survive there. Other than a few monsters, there's very little crunch and there's no support for GMs who want complete adventures instead of encounter tables.
Grubb planned to publish that missing crunch through a new "Plane Speaking" column in Dragon. However, he only ended up writing three entries, for issues #120 (April 1987), #125 (September 1987), and #128 (December 1987). Adventure support came through the OP module series, but only one of those was published, "OP1: Tales of the Outer Planes" (1988)."
While this is all water under the bridge at this point I think that we as players & dungeon masters have to reflect on how & why there are some great ideas that are a part of the Manual of the Planes. Here are ten ways which I use the manual:

1. The Manual of the Planes is perfect for planing an alien invasion of your favorite AD&D or BECMI Dungeons & Dragons campaign. 
2. While the Manual of the Planes is high level the book can be used as a quick & dirty introduction for players to the planes with a random & quite dangerous encounter or two. 
3. The real star of the Manual of The Planes is the environs which showcase & shine the many facets of the book. 
4. Because this book is bare bones there's some real room for the dungeon master to get very creative with how & why they set up their cosmology in their home game's version of the planes. 
5. The Elemental planes are fleshed out & the DM can really go to town to create these as they wish. But beware the encounter tables in the Manual of Planes. 
6. There is a sense of deadliness in the Manual of the Planes that represents a degree of respect that the player's PC's must have for the planes over all. 
7. The DM is not hamstrung by some of the elements of the Planescape second edition AD&D setting. 
8. There's lots of room for campaign intrigue with the planes and it always seems to trickle down to the adventurer's level. 
9. The Manual of the Planes is still relevant today because it can easily work with 90 percent of the OSR products & rule sets on the market. 
10. There are some very cool but dangerously high level environs that can be worked into complete adventures using the AD&D Manual of the Planes 

More Commentary on Jeff Grub's Manual of the Planes For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

"...from Arcadia to Pandemonium, from the plane of elemental Fire to the Astral plane, vast new worlds of adventure are now open to players."

A vital source book for players and DMs of all levels of experience, the Manual of the Planes details the manifold worlds of the known planes of existence. This book describes the inhabitants, rulers, and environments of these worlds, as well as rules for movement, survival, combat, and spell use in these alien surroundings. A different style of AD&D adventures awaits!

Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes was always a favorite to thumb through growing up & other worldly plane adventures were & are my speciality. There wasn't a Planescape in sight when this book came out & man did I get it in the neck growing up for liking this 'dry commentary' on the planes.
I mentioned Roger E.Moore the other day & it was him as well as Ed Greenwood who really fleshed out some of the planar information as we see in a bit of the Drivethrurpg background; "The Great Wheel of Planes first appeared in The Dragon #8 (July 1977). It was refined in the Player's Handbook (1978) and Deities & Demigods (1980).

In the early days of D&D, the planes mostly acted as a source of enemies - like demons, devils, slaads, elementals, daemons, and more. There was talk of publishing adventures set in the Plane of Shadow and even about creating a whole series of planar adventures related to Greyhawk, but because of Gary Gygax's creative role in many of these adventures (and because of his increasingly busy role as a manager at TSR), they never appeared. Instead, players' first chance to adventure in the planes was in "Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits" (1980), which took them to the Abyss. TSR would return to the planes (sort of) in T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985).

Meanwhile, Dragon magazine started covering some of the planes in more depth. Roger E. Moore wrote about "The Astral Plane" for Dragon #67 (November 1982), then Ed Greenwood covered "The Nine Hells" in Dragon #75 (July 1983) and #76 (August 1983). "
The Manual of the Planes took the information that was in Dragon issue #75 & completely updated it for use as an actual adventure location. It did the samething with the Abyss as well.


Not only did you now know as a dungeon master where you stood but why?! The Hells began become a bit more sane yet there was plenty of room for expansion as a dungeon master. Many folks have asked what my problem is with Second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons? Well its all that freaking canon & backstory that we have slog through as DM's. The system is good but you really have to pick a spot & then use it as the basis for your own campaign when dealing with later editions of D&D as well as AD&D.

C.Jackson from his Amazon review I think hits it on the head for the Manual of the Planes; "I am so glad that books like this exist. It is incredible the amount of thought and attention to detail that used to go in to D&D books. I like and play 5th edition, but you just would never, ever get a book of this caliber out of Wizards of the Coast. Most of the information contained within is probably not useful for anyone, and the exhaustive (and exhausting) amount of details about certain outer planes which seem primarily as enticements to buy the underperforming Deities and Demigods are a bit out of place, but nevertheless the fact that it was written and published is a major feat. The elemental planes I believe are still perfectly relevant in the 5th edition Forgotten Realms cosmology, but for someone playing 1st edition (or 2nd for that matter), and wants to delve even slightly into the planes, it's a must-have. It was a good read even just for "lonely fun" as personal exploration into the history of D&D. Plus it wasn't a very popular book then or now so can be obtained for generally reasonable prices." 
There are several points here that I agree on the fact is that is a book that didn't get its due like other Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books there fore its much easier to collect. The information the Elemental planes is killer stuff & solid for bringing in Elemental rulers & royals into a game.  Why?! Because the level of detail that the first edition book goes into on the planes the Manual of the Planes Wiki entry has a complete break down of the contents of the book; "The book describes various planes of existence, and what creatures characters might encounter there, covering the astral and ethereal planes, the elemental planes, and the outer planes.^[3] 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."

Basically the Manual of the Planes can be thought of as a side book for Dieties & Demigods because it brings home the home planes of the gods, their servants, & still manages to stand on its own merits.


Taken with Deities & Demigods By Ward & Kuntz the Manual of the Planes presents a very dangerous & definitive planescape. Clerics are no longer on their own & they becaome a part of the cosmic chess board we get in the manual. Taken as a whole cloth book we're presented with a dynamic & dangerlous multiverse of planes, gods, & very alien enities.

Astral Matters - Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes, Dragon Magazine 159, Voidjammers, & The Free Adventure ZA6: Journey to the Astral Plane By Joseph A. Mohr All For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

I wrote about the Ethreal plane with the origins of the Xill today. And yes its Dave Anreseon day but I'm taking a bit of time out to speak about one of my favorite articles of Dragon magazine. Confession time, I was never that much of a Spelljammer fan. Too bad there wasn't an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition article about something akin to Spelljammer but totally separate?!
Gasp the world comes to an end but in Dragon magazine #159 we got the voidjammers article by Randal S. Doering & her captain archmage Peregin;

"About a thousand years ago, an archmage by the name of Peregrin became bored with adventuring on the Prime Material plane. He had overcome the most deadly foes of his world and had no interest in politics or a life of quiet research. Forsaking his home plane forever, he packed up his belongings and set off to seek a life in other realities and planes. He wandered dozens of planes, frequently crossing the Astral as he did so, and eventually it dawned on him that he could do something greater than simply wander in boredom. He decided to help travelers get around in the Astral plane, making their lives more interesting and exciting. Drawing upon his extensive knowledge of the planes, Peregrin traveled to a dozen worlds to secure the materials and craftsmen for the vessels that would accomplish his dream. He envisioned a fleet of mighty ships that would sail the Astral plane, picking up voyagers from thousands of worlds and realities and taking them wherever they wished to go. No being would be discriminated against on the basis of race or alignment, so long as each obeyed ships's officers when on Peregrin's vessel"

Now while this looks like a prime opportunity to use the Githyanki & charge right into the astral plane let's take a step back here for a moment. You've essentially got a taxi service on the astral plane  & a possibility of really getting in deep into an adventure location. Too bad there wasn't an adventure that had the astral plane as the central focus?! Oh wait there's Joseph Mohr's free Dragon foot site adventure called ZA6: Journey to the Astral Plane. "The crown of the queen of Zanzia has been stolen! The culprit has escaped into the astral plane. Heroes are needed to chase down this villain and recover this priceless artifact. Only brave and powerful adventurers of at least 10th to 15th level could possibly successful in this adventure."

So the PC's can basically use the services of the archmage Peregrin to hitch back to their own reality once the events of ZA6: Journey to the Astral Plane are completed. This is a fifteenth level PC adventure but with a little imagination this adventure could be used as an introduction to the world of the Godbound rpg. The astral plane is not static & even higher level demi god adventurers are gonna have to think outside of the box. The archmage Peregrin & his officers are not to be trifled with. I've always thought that he might be a demigod in disguise because of some of the hints that were thrown into the article 'Voidjammers'. The Githyanki play a central role in this adventure & much of Joseph Mohr's module is up to his usual specifications. This might be a very good adventure to use with the essential Manual of the Planes book for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition by Jeff Grub. 



The material in this book is essential to a voidjammer campaign with the PC's dealing with some very nasty planar issues within ZA6: Journey to the Astral Plane. The players are going to have to content with the legacy of many of the astral plane most dangerous issues. Again many of the rules from Manual of The Planes are already in ZA6 but overall I feel as a dungeon master the PC's need those rules as backup. Its nice as a dungeon master simply to have them within reach.

Grab ZA6 HERE
 ZA6: Journey to the Astral Plane

An Indepth Commentary On The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes By Jeff Grubb

"...from Arcadia to Pandemonium, from the plane of elemental Fire to the Astral plane, vast new worlds of adventure are now open to players."
The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes By Jeff Grubb came out in 1987 & it remains a favorite of mine; 'The original Manual of the Planes was written by Jeff Grubb, with a cover by Jeff Easley and interior illustrations by Stephen Fabianwith Easley, and was published by TSR in 1987 as a 128-page hardcover.^[3] 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.^[4] This creature was later identified in 2nd edition as an astral dreadnought.'




The year is Nineteen Hundred & Eighty Nine there's one book that I wanted for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes was on my 'must get' list of AD&D books. Why?! Because the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes was/is a dungeon master's book. There lots of crunch here & very little flavor per say for the dungeon master to create & deal with the 'Great Wheel' of the planes of AD&D. This book does exactly what it sets out to do. The wiki entry summarizes quite nicely what the Manual of the plane covers;

"The book describes various planes of existence, and what creatures characters might encounter there, covering the astral and ethereal planes, the elemental planes, and the outer planes.^[3] 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."

All of this canon would change right around the time that second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Planescape setting came out.  But the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes does exactly what it sets out to do which is to be cross compatible with the Monster Manual, the Monster Manual II, & The Fiend Folio.


The difference between the Manual of the Planes & the Planescape setting books is stark because the goals are vastly different. The Planescape line of products is meant to have the dungeon master create adventures & complete campaign within that setting. The Manual of the Planes is a whole cloth kit meant to have the dungeon master create their own adventures & campaign. This same design philosophy is at the  root of one of the problems of the 'OSR' as a whole.A point  where rpg makers & writers seem to think that you need their product to play in their settings. The Manual of the Planes allowed the DM to set adventures among the dangerous residents & the adventure  environments of the planes. There was little to no support for the Manual of the Planes over the years & its only recently that I found out why;  "Manual of the Planes is mainly a location book, describing the various planes, delineating how spells work, and - in the style of the Survival Guides of 1986 - talking about how to survive there. Other than a few monsters, there's very little crunch and there's no support for GMs who want complete adventures instead of encounter tables.
Grubb planned to publish that missing crunch through a new "Plane Speaking" column in Dragon. However, he only ended up writing three entries, for issues #120 (April 1987), #125 (September 1987), and #128 (December 1987). Adventure support came through the OP module series, but only one of those was published, "OP1: Tales of the Outer Planes" (1988)."
While this is all water under the bridge at this point I think that we as players & dungeon masters have to reflect on how & why there are some great ideas that are a part of the Manual of the Planes. Here are ten ways which I use the manual:

1. The Manual of the Planes is perfect for planing an alien invasion of your favorite AD&D or BECMI Dungeons & Dragons campaign. 
2. While the Manual of the Planes is high level the book can be used as a quick & dirty introduction for players to the planes with a random & quite dangerous encounter or two. 
3. The real star of the Manual of The Planes is the environs which showcase & shine the many facets of the book. 
4. Because this book is bare bones there's some real room for the dungeon master to get very creative with how & why they set up their cosmology in their home game's version of the planes. 
5. The Elemental planes are fleshed out & the DM can really go to town to create these as they wish. But beware the encounter tables in the Manual of Planes. 
6. There is a sense of deadliness in the Manual of the Planes that represents a degree of respect that the player's PC's must have for the planes over all. 
7. The DM is not hamstrung by some of the elements of the Planescape second edition AD&D setting. 
8. There's lots of room for campaign intrigue with the planes and it always seems to trickle down to the adventurer's level. 
9. The Manual of the Planes is still relevant today because it can easily work with 90 percent of the OSR products & rule sets on the market. 
10. There are some very cool but dangerously high level environs that can be worked into complete adventures using the AD&D Manual of the Planes