The print version of this collector's edition of Tales from the Astral Plane has the exact same contents as the standard edition, but features a special cover with the appearance of leather.
Few places in the multiverse are more mysterious and unexplored than the Astral Plane. We are pleased to introduce an action-packed astral adventure, new rules for exploration and combat on the plane, and comprehensive resources for creating your own adventures on the Astral Plane
- Our trademark is unique and memorable encounters. Every encounter has a new monster, unexpected tactics, an unusual environment/battle map, or some surprise element.
- The adventure can easily be inserted into an existing campaign as an elaborate and unexpected side quest. We also show how to incorporate it into our Dawn of the Necromancer campaign.
- Even if you decide not to run the adventure as is, all 15+ major encounters are designed to be easily extracted and repurposed. You can basically treat this book as a giant book of random astral encounters.
- One of the locations the PCs visit, an astraloid called Elysia, has its locations and NPCs detailed in order to provide a convenient base of operations for future adventures.
- Strangers to the Void runs from 3rd level to 5th, since this is a window during which PCs have access to spells and items that can accidentally transport them to the Astral Plane, but not the means to get back home. Plus, there just so happens to be an official planar adventure that conveniently begins at 5th level…
- This adventure is setting agnostic. The Astral Plane is the setting.
This book also provides extensive rules for living and adventuring on the Astral Plane, including over 45 encyclopedic entries on topics such as:
- Spellcasting—Which spells work the same and which function differently?
- Combat—How does the lack of gravity effect every aspect of combat? How does stealth work?
- Physics—How do liquids behave? What about fire? How does the environment differ from outer space?
- Magic Items—Do some magic items have different characteristics on the Astral Plane? Do some items fail to work altogether?
- Physiology—How do creatures travel? Is respiration still a thing? What are the implications of the lack of aging? Does healing work the same way?
- Origin of the plane—Why is the Astral Plane the way it is?
- And much, much more, including…
Adventuring in 3D—We include six different methods for tracking movement in 3D combat, running a spectrum of complexity from “Theater of the Mind” to detailed approaches meant to delight adepts of trigonometry (and everything in between).
Random Encounters: Not only do we give you an expansive random encounter table, but even more helpfully, a sample encounter for every result on the table.
Dreamquests: We have a section on a new concept called dreamquests. On the Astral Plane, the latent magic and psychic energy in the environment can latch onto the anxieties and half-remembered dreams of the PCs and manifest into encounters called dreamquests.
- These dreams might replay past experiences, reflect the subconscious fears of the PCs, be guided by unseen forces, or even communicate messages from the gods.
- We include guidelines for building your own dreamquests, with eight helpful charts that can do all the heavy lifting for you.
- This is the perfect tool to get any campaign back on track, even after your PCs blow up the train and take the passengers hostage.
- Every GM that has seen the subsystem we created for dreamquests has instantly wanted to incorporate it into their campaign, regardless of setting.
The book is also jam-packed with flavor and crunch, providing resources for adventuring on the Astral Plane. Included are:
- New races
- New monsters
- New magic items
- New backgrounds
- New factions
- New spells
- New feats
- New classes
- New locations
- Tons of detailed adventure hooks
- And a table of 100 unique random items found on the Astral Plane
