Rating: 
Summary: The best 3e book, period
Review: This is an excellent work. Its not perfect (what is?) but it lacks obvious flaws and comes off as a professional and solid read. It has attractive art, useful illustrations, and a distinct look & feel that all combine to create a specific identity for the work. Its not just another hardback with some crunchy bits; when you crack the covers, you know that you are reading a complete product.What I like about the MotP is that it basically says 'Heres how we've always done it, and here are a half dozen other ways it could be done too'. Rather than giving a DM a supplement on THE PLANES, chiseled in stone, it grants a structured and easy way to 'dial-in' a unique cosmology. It pretty much assumes that if you are reading it thinking 'where is Planescape in here?' you probably already have a fair amount of the Planescape material. This doesnt prevent you from using the setting laid out in those out of print products, nor does it expect that other readers have them. It does an exceptional job of presenting a modular approach to describing and defining the expanse of reality beyond the Material world. Unlike every other WoTC product I can think of, it is totally open to interpretation and individual implementation. The book is scattered with interesting variants, and indicators of what can be changed, a few examples of how, and coverage of important game mechanic concerns if you do change things from the 'default' cosmology. All that aside, however, the single most compelling feature of this book is that upon reading it, dozen of new ideas occured to me. Basically, it got the wheels in my head spinning in a way that only some Mage the Ascension supplements have previously. This alone is enough to Transcend the product from a good, solid, professional book to a SUPERB and crucial addition to my collection of RPGs. New ideas are priceless, and this book kick started several in my head at least. I have the original Manual of Planes (well cared for and treasured), which I have reffered to over the years, as well as the basic box set for Planescape and the Chaos boxed set, and the Monstrous Compendium appendix for the planes so much of the 'default' info was not new to me. What was new was the modular tool-box approach to Reality. Highly recommended to any DM designing thier own game setting for its Cosmology-building rules, and to any DM that is ready to take thier players beyond the Material plane, whichever plane that may be.
Rating:
Summary: This book must have delighted Jerry Falwell
Review: This was the last 1st Edition AD&D book I purchased before I became too cool for RPGs. Now that I have come back down to earth, I reread it and remembered how good it was. The tantalizing thing about 1st Edition is that so much wasn't as fleshed out...we didn't have any fancy-schmancy "Forgotten Realms" supplements, we had "World of Greyhawk" (regrettably vague) or better yet, our imaginations! I'm glad this survived. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have rules for the inhabitants of Gehenna, Modrons, or the denizens of the 7th layer of the 9 hells. If there was ever a book to make the anti-D&D faction foam at the mouth, this is it! Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: 3e skeptic of supplementary material converted . . . mostly.
Review: Until now, the only supplementary 3e book I've felt was worth the extra cost was the Forgotten Realms book. The Manual of the Planes provides information on exactly what it should: the planes. There is detailed information on aspects of every major Inner and Outer plane, as well as the Ethereal and Astral. For those, like myself, who have always found the Astral Plane boring, you now have good suggestions for using an alternate, either the Spirit Plane, or the Fairie Plane. The information provided on each plane includes rough planar features (magic type, time and gravity variances, planar alignments, etc.) as well as information on planar inhabitants. With the exception of the Abyss, various layers of a plane are also detailed, along with highlights of those layers/planes. As I mentioned before, there is also information on alternate planes, including in one case, a sentient plane. In the monsters section, there are a couple new monsters that are relevent to planar travels, and several new templates, such as half-elemental, the shadow template, and elemental creatures (such as the earth element minotaur, and the wood element leopard). The four prestige classes are pretty cool, and allow for progress by different base classes. This shows that the authors did not forget fighters, for example, when creating the classes. One of the prestige classes even allows the character to (slowly) start building a demiplane. Very small to start, but a very cool feature. Spells dealing with the various planes are also included, some of which are really interesting. For those who play games with a strong Shadow element (Forgotten Realms or Birthright, for example), will likely love this book. There are a number of spells dealing with the Shadow plane, and a lot of references to benefits/limitations of those spells and abilities on other planes. There is also the Shadow monster template, which dramatically expands a DM's ability to populate their Shadow realm with easily created monsters. Most of the artwork is pretty good. As usual, there are some that are excellent, though thankfully, there's only a couple I found to be disappointing. The book layout was also sensible. However, I find myself flipping back and forth quite a bit, but that is really due more to the nature of the planes than to problems with the book layout. Overall, I found the book to be well-worth the money. I still object to the WotC policy of jacking up the price of these supplementary books, but can't deny their logic in doing so. For those that don't realize it, this policy will result in more players using the same rules. With 1e and 2e, players had different experiences based on the books they or their DM had. Since this will result in fewer resource books being purchased, more people will have similar experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: A good example of the work WotC is doing
Review: With an attempt to convert my 2e's campaign to 3e, I was worried about the translation of key outer realms in my campaign. This book was flexible enough to accomidate ANY campaign's outer planular system. I recomend it. The new Manual of the PLanes is more like the 1e Manual of the Planes than Planescape for me, that's a good thing !
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