Simply put, this is one of the best 2nd edition D&D sourcebooks ever released. It provides extensive detail on the mysterious and forgotten city of Ur Draxa, the city of doom, which is found on an island deep in the Sea of Silt. This immense walled city is the home of The Dragon, the resident bad ass of the Dark Sun setting. The Dragon is the closest thing Athas has to a god and only the greatest of heroes will even have a chance of getting within sight of Ur Draxa's walls, much less into The Dragon's inner sanctum. The Valley of Dust and Fire is masterfully conceived and helps lend a sense of awe to the power of The Dragon. Now, the only problem here is that if you own the Revised Dark Sun boxed set instead of the original, you're going to be utterly lost. I once foolishly recommended in an RPGnow review that the revised edition was a better value than the original, but after reading both thoroughly, I've changed my mind. It just changes too many things about the world. For example, you might have noticed that I capitalize "The Dragon." Well, that's because The Dragon, as presented in this book, could squash a terrasque with a flick of its wrist. Seriously, it would kill all but the most incredibly powerful PCs just drawing life energy to power its spells. Of course, in the Revised Boxed Set, we're supposed to believe that some hero from the Dark Sun novels got a spiffy sword and killed The Dragon. Right. Only TSR would put out novels that make existing source material utterly useless (Ur Draxa is destroyed in one of the novels). Anyway, if you like the doom and gloom oppressiveness of the original Dark Sun setting, you will love this book. The Dragon is the ultimate villian: An invincible foe who resides in an almost invulnerable city behind nearly impenetrable defenses. Long life The Dragon!<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Well written and well laid out. The whole concept of the Valley itself is great. It does an amazing job of making the average Dark Sun character feel small, inadequite, and insignificant in the face of The Dragon, which is exactly characters are supposed to feel on Athas in general. If you want an optimistic world where heroes will always prevail, play in another setting.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Well, aside from the fact that TSR threw everything in it out the window within a few years by destroying both The Dragon and Ur Draxa in the Dark Sun novels, what's not to like?<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This box set has detailed information on the planes that are more or less neutral in alignment with respect to law and chaos. The Beastlands, Bytopia, Elysium are the neutral Upper Planes and Carceri, Gehenna, and the Gray Waste are the neutral Lower Planes. This box set gives extensive information about each of these planes and does a good job of explaining how they interact with the rest of the Outer Planes. These planes are essential the battlegrounds for influence between the greater forces of the Planescape multiverse. The eternal Blood War between the demons and devils, for instance, is waged primarily on the Gray Waste. An adventure booklet is also included to give GMs an idea of the type of adventures that might bring players to these planes. A nice assortment of maps are also included in this excellant scan. Like all of the Planescape books, the pages were originally printed on a strangely tinted paper so the scan, while easily readable, might be difficult to print out (though I haven't tried it). If you're going to get this box set, you really should get the Planes of Law and Planes of Chaos sets as well. They're all unique in their own right, but the Outer Planes are so interrelated that it really helps to have enough information to get the entire picture of the multivers. Besides, as cheap as these downloads are, it's not like you'll have to break the bank to get them.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Well written and brilliantly concieved, like most products in the Planescape setting. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The information on the planes is divided into two books, one for the Lower Planes and one for the Upper. While the start of each book is bookmarked, the entries for the individual planes are not so you have to scroll through the entire booklets to find the plane you want. On the plus side, there are only 3 planes for each book so it's just a minor inconvenience.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Ah, the joys of chaos. Planes of Chaos is a must have box set for anyone who wants to adventure in the Outer Planes or just plain wants to know what makes a land ruled by the forces of chaos tick. It's divided into three books: The Book of Chaos, which describes the Outer Planes of the Abyss, Limbo, Pandemonium, Ysgard, and Arborea in general and specific terms; The Travelogue, which gives an overview of how to get around on each of these Planes and what a cutter is likely to see there; and the book of Chaos Adventures, which provides three adventures (for low, medium, and high level characters) for each of the Chaotic Planes. There is a ton of valuable information in this box set and it does a wonderful job of building upon the details provided in the main Planescape box set. If you're going to get Planes of Chaos, you really should get the Planes of Law and Planes of Conflict sets as well. They're all unique in their own right, but the Outer Planes are so interrelated that it really helps to have enough information to get the entire picture of the multivers. Besides, as cheap as these downloads are, it's not like you'll have to break the bank to get them.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Well written and organized. The scan is meticulously bookmarked so you don't have to scroll through anything to get to the section you want to read. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No complaints. This is one of the best Planescape products (and pdf scans) available.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The Planes of Law box set covers the Outer Planes that are lawfully aligned: Mount Celestia, Mechanus, Arcadia, Baator, and Acheron. Each plane is detailed in a separate booklet, and each booklet contains three adventures (for low, medium, and high level characters) pertaining to that particular plane. A player's guide is also included that describes the ins and outs of the lawful planes and how to get around them. This box set also contains a book of monsters native to these five planes. Overall, the books do a good job of describing the nature of the lawful planes, which I've always felt were the most difficult ones to both explain and portray (maybe I'm just too chaotic myself). If you're going to get this box set, you really should get the Planes of Conflict and Planes of Chaos sets as well. They're all unique in their own right, but the Outer Planes are so interrelated that it really helps to have enough information to get the entire picture of the multivers. Besides, as cheap as these downloads are, it's not like you'll have to break the bank to get them.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Well written, entertaining, and informative, like most Planescape products. The included maps are excellant as well.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Unfortunately, this pdf scan is NOT bookmarked so you have to scroll through the entire 320 page document or scan through the Adobe Reader page listing to find what you're looking for. An inconvenience, to be sure, but nothing that should prevent you from getting this otherwise excellant box set. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Dark Sun is a really cool setting, but unfortunately this box set only hints at much of it. Two booklets are included with it and the larger book is devoted to rules. The smaller book details the world of Athas in almost painfully brief terms. On the plus side, the quality of the scan is pretty good and it's well bookmarked. Perhaps I should have gotten the Expanded and Revised boxed set instead. I went for the original version because whenever TSR advanced the timetables of their campaign settings, the changes didn't always seem to be for the better. I've gotten the impression from some comments from old time Dark Sun players that Athas suffered when TSR updated it. Anyway, this is a good, if a little sparse, introduction to Dark Sun's world.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: There are a lot of interesting elements to Dark Sun, such as the defilers/preservers and the generally harsh nature of the setting. There are 3.5 edition rules conversions for Dark Sun available at www.athas.org as well.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Too little information about Athas itself. The booklet covering the world needs to be about twice as long. Also, if you plan on using the downloadable 3.5 edition rules conversions then the entire rulebook will be pretty much irrelevant for you. That makes you notice the brevity of the setting book even more. Still, a good starting point for the price.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Pay no attention to the review that claims this scan is missing a book. While that might have been true at one time, I recieved everything that was in the original box set when I downloaded the file. Both the Lorebook of the Void and the Concordance of Arcane Space are included, but only the Lorebook of the Void is bookmarked so you have to scan through the other book manually. Let me say again: BOTH BOOKS ARE INCLUDED WITH THIS SCAN.

As for the material, it is top notch. Spelljammer is certainly not for everyone, or every player for that matter, but it is an interesting campaign world. I don't think it should be used simply as a mechanic for getting from Krynn to Toril, however, because doing so sells the whole concept of adventuring in space short (and you don't want the whole thing to end up feeling like the movie Krull). In essence, Spelljammer should be similar to a seafaring campaign set upon a fantastic ocean of unexplored and mysterious wonder. Not a setting for everyone, but definately recommended for those with the imagination to pull it off. And for a low price you're getting over 200 pages of material so you're bound to find something worthwhile in it even if you decide against running a Spelljammer campaign.

Nice. Very nice. As with all the Planescape books I've downloaded from RPGNow, I bought this solely for the source material. Since I don't use the old 2nd edition rules, I could care less about the adventures that come packaged with it and have yet to even read them. As the title suggests, this box set is all about the fiends and their eternal Blood War. It gives a great rundown of the war's history as well as its tactics. The details about how the war is actually fought makes this set worth the purchase (again, for the price, it would have to be a pretty horrible collection of material for it not to be worthwhile). Not that I'd ever want to throw players into the middle of one of these engagements, but its nice to know what a battle between a rampaging horde of tanar'ri and a disciplined army of baatezu would actually look like. This set is a nice companion to the Faces of Evil:Fiends book as well. And as an added bonus, you get a DiTerlizzi illustrated comic book that was originally packaged with the box set. Nothing of earth shattering importance, but its always great to see a great artist's work displayed so prominently.

A decent collection for the price. I will say that I'm glad I didn't spend whatever the cover price might have been for it. It's not that what's here is bad because it actually has some wonderful information; there's just not enough of it. The book is only about 40 pages and doesn't elaborate on some of the Outlands sights mentioned in the original Planescape box set. Also, the cd tracks aren't included in the download. You can get them from Wizards of the Coast on their website (I had to do a search for it though because I couldn't find it listed in their archives). The cd tracks are a decidedly mixed bag. You can see that they were trying to give players a taste of life on the Outlands but mediocre voice actors and forced dialogue ruin the experience whenever you get a "first hand account." To be honest, the map is probably the best part of the book. I just wish there was a little more detail for the subjects the book covers.

This book covers a lot of information that's already in the Planescape box set but it does a pretty good job of it. It's also handy as a quick reference book if you don't want to go digging through the three books from the main box set. And as the description says, its a good way to help introduce the Planescape setting to players. It contains a lot of game mechanics info which isn't of much use if you're not using the 2nd edition rules but any rule you want to incorporate is fairly easy to modify for a 3.5 campaign. Unlike some people, I think the situational rule changes in Planescape not only make sense but are in fact necessary considering the nature of the setting. You can't go jumping around the planes and not expect physical or magical laws to be the same everywhere. On another Planescape note, a lot of reviewers have complained about cant, the slang of people who live on the various planes. Personally, I think its a great way to immerse players in the world. All of the Planescape books are written as if someone from the game world wrote them, even when describing game mechanics. It helps drive home the point that the world of Planescape is a unique one that has a vibrant life of its own. But I digress...

Even if you have no intention of ever sending players into the astral plane, this book is an absolute must have for the detailed look at githyanki society. The githyanki and githzerai have always been very interesting races so it never hurts to get more information about them. Aside from that, the book is still pretty good. It's nice to have a book that portrays the astral plane as something other than an empty void that connects the outer and prime material planes. It gives the requisite info on how to get around and such as well as detailing the "dead gods" that are mentioned from time to time in other Planescape sourcebooks. All interesting stuff, but I can't imagine that I would want to set a series of adventures in the astral plane. The githyanki, however, I can use anywhere, which certainly makes the book worthwhile in my eyes.

The main Planescape box set has a good deal of information on Sigil, but if you're planning to use Sigil as something more than a stopping off point between excursions to the Outer Planes then you pretty much need this book. It contains a detailed breakdown for each ward of the sprawling city as well as a few specific places within them. The nice thing about Sigil is that its always changing, so you can always add more locations around town if you need them and not have a player screaming about it not being on the map. Speaking of which, the map included with the book is pretty useful as a guide but some sections of it seem to have been scanned on a different scale from the others because when printed out the pieces don't fit together really well. But that's a minor complaint, really. Let's be honest, it's not going to ruin your campaign because some of the streets don't line up on the map. After all, you're getting a 125 page sourcebook for a third of what it cost in 1995. This actually goes for all of these scanned books. If you're so distraught by the piecemeal maps then by all means go to ebay and pay three times the book's original price for a copy of the map that may or may not be covered with seven year old coffee stains.

An absolute must have for any DM running a campaign in Sigil. The factions are part of what makes the city of doors so interesting in the first place and the small overview of each faction in the main box set only had enough info to pique your interest. This book provides a backstory for each faction as well as rumors surrounding their activites which characters might hear about. It also provides information on each faction for the DM's eyes only. All in all, a great book that can't be beat for the price.

All I can really say is "Wow." I recall gazing enviously at the original box set in my local book store but I never had a chance to really get into it until now. In my opinion, Planescape represents everything good about role playing. The game world it presents is unparalleled and the fact that this core box set can be had for such a low price is unbelievable. The only downside to this pdf is the piecemeal maps, but I suppose there is really no other way to scan a poster sized map. Planescape is the intelligent and complex campaign setting I've always dreamed of running and now I have access to it for an absurdly low price. I can't stress enough how well this entire concept it conceived. The best part is that the majority of the content focuses on the setting itself, which makes it easy to run a 3.5 edition campaign in the planes. I can't wait to download the other Planescape books that are available.

I probably enjoyed this book more for the ideas it can give you than for the actual items. If you ever wanted to run a game set in a fantastical version of medieval Europe, this book is certainly for you. It gives a great background on every item and organizes them according to era (ancient world, classical world, early medieval, etc.). A lot of the items are rather overpowering (the kind of relics you would base an entire campaign around) and you probably wouldn't use the majority of them in any one setting, but practically every item is interesting enough to warrant consideration of how to incorporate it into a game. Great content for the price, even if you only want to see what relics made the list.

I've always loved Greek mythology so it's great to see someone offer up suggestions for playing in Bronze Age Greece. Of course, that leads to my single complaint about this book: It only details the Trojans. While it provides great info on the magnificent city itself and several key Trojan characters, it doesn't provide similar profiles for the Greeks. Not that I wanted to replay Hector versus Achilles, but it would have been nice to have stats for the Greeks as well. Still, this is a worthy effort at capturing a neglected setting. The book details how the core D&D classes fit into a Bronze Age world as well. All in all, a good package for the price. We'll see how many people flock to it after watching the movie (which has already become a love it/hate it experience).