Any descent Planar or hell descriptions from early TSR perio

[AxeMental]

I think this has come up before, but can't remember what was said (and don't see a link when searched). I'm looking for early TSR referrences (Dungeon mag, modules, encounter tables etc.) of what these places look like (so anything with planar or traveling into hell maybe 82' or earlier, certainly before that planar travel book which sucked).

[T. Foster]

You can glean a lot of info about the Nine Hells from the MM & especially the MM2, including general descriptions of what each of the 9 layers is like and what lives there. Combined with your imagination (and memories if you read Dante back in high school or college) that should be enough

[grodog]

Axe, here's the bibliography to my "From Kuroth's Quill" column on the planes from Knockspell #3: it may be helpful, although I don't focus on planar info as much as planar architecture in general.

Planar Gaming Bibliography

Ed Greenwood’s “The Theory and Use of Gates” provides an excellent overview of gates-related fiction released through the late 1970s. Other than Greenwood’s piece and Sepulchrave’s works, I do not reference fiction otherwise in this bibliography. Instead, I focus narrowly on useful sources about planar architecture and gates, rather than on content describing the people, places, and things found within any specific plane: this is one reason why I don’t list most Planescape titles in the bibliography, for example (that I can’t stand Planescape’s cant is another…). The Dragon Archive details a cornucopia of such content specific to various planes, including the Nine Hells (issues #75, #76, #91), Gladsheim (#90), Hades (#113), and the Demiplane of Shadow (#213), in addition two planar adventures (in issues #67 and #90), and an alt Prime adventure (#100). In addition, a wide variety of Planescape and d20 products have provided support content detailing specific planes as well, such as Necromancer Games’ City of Brass, most of Mongoose’s line of planar books, and Monte Cook’s Beyond Countless Doorways. If I’ve missed any interesting or worthwhile books about gates and the structure of the planes, do please let me know---I’m always on the lookout for these kinds of resources!

Without further ado, here is my list of preferred sources about gates and planar theory, including many formative articles about the origins of D&D’s “great wheel” multiverse from The Dragon:

• Peter Adkison, The Primal Order, Wizards of the Coast (1992)
• Bruce Cordell, A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, Wizards of the Coast (1998)
• Bruce Cordell and Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel, Planar Handbook, Wizards of the Coast (2004)
• Jameson Ferris, “Tales of Wyre” (Story Hour) and “Eadric et. al. (The Paladin and his Friends)” (Rogues Gallery) in Sepulchrave’s “Wyre” threads on EN World at http://www.enworld.org/forum/tags/wyre.html (2002 to date)
• Ed Greenwood, “From the City of Brass… …to Dead Orc Pass… In One Small Step: The Theory and Use of Gates” in The Dragon #37 (May 1980)
• Gary Gygax, "The Inner Planes " in Dragon #73 (May 1983)
o "Planes" in The Dragon #8 (July 1977)
o "Playing On the Other Planes of Existence" in The Dragon #32 (December 1979)
o "Protection Circles and the Like..." in Dragon #56 (December 1981)
• Jeff Grubb, Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan , Manual of the Planes, Wizards of the Coast (2001)
• Gareth Hanrahan, Classic Play: Book of the Planes, Mongoose Publishing (2004)
• Dave Howell, Chessboards: The Planes of Possibility, Wizards of the Coast (1994)
• Steven Kienle with Gary Gygax, "Elementary Ideas for Elemental Adventuring" in Dragon #47 (March 1981)
• Lenard Lakofka, “The Inner Planes” in Dragon #42 (October 1980)
• Mike Mearls, Legends & Lairs: Portals & Planes, Fantasy Flights Games (2003)
• Phil Reed, “A Dozen Planar Traits”
• Roger E. Moore with Gary Gygax, “The Astral Plane” in Dragon #67 (November 1982)
• Roger E. Moore, “Gates in the World of Greyhawk” originally in the Greyhawk AOL folder, later available on wizards.com, and now archived on Canonfire at http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules ... tit&lid=11 (March 1995)
• Carl Schnurr, Mythic Places and More Mythic Places for Ars Magica, White Wolf (1991)
• David C. Sutherland III with Gary Gygax, Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, TSR (1980)

Other likely sources for planar inspiration include the rpgs Stormbringer/Elric, Everway, Amber Diceless Roleplaying, and Ars Magica.

[AxeMental]

Good stuff grodog, much thanks!
I'll do that Foster, forgot about the MM2 devils/demons.

[deathanddrek]

How about that chapter in Lyonesse where Murgen tunes his perceptions using conjured sandestins and travels to Irerly? That bit is awesome!

[grodog]

Good stuff grodog, much thanks!

Happy to help. If you're looking for planar inspiration from fiction, I would definitely dig up Greenwood's article from TD#37 (it also appears in Best of Dragon #2).

[prespos]

The definitive guide to the Nine Hells is in Dragon 75 and 76.

Hell Awaits,
Prespos

PS.
There was a revisit of these articles in either 90 or 91.