The Manual of the Planes

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Ideally, in Dungeons & Dragons your players will be leveling up and able to beat the living shit out of anything on God's green Earth... or Oerth, or Krynn, whatever. You've been using stuff like evil wizards summoning demons, or fire elementals, or djinni, and maybe your players are gonna get the idea that they're gonna close the Hellmouth from the other side.

Well, TSR Wizards of the Coast has a splatbook for everything.

The first book gave a chapter on fluff, settings info, survival skills and random encounters for the alternate dimension in the default "Great Wheel" cosmology of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It depicted an Astral Dreadnought on the cover, but an actual monster manual entry for the beast didn't show up until 3rd edition.

AD&D 2nd edition didn't have it's own Manual of the Planes, but it did have Planescape, so we forgive them.

D&D 3rd edition got a new manual of the Planes, where it suggested some ways of having alternate cosmologies, and had some prestige classes just for those who travel planes often. It gave passing mention to Sigil, the main city of the Planescape setting, but just glossed over it.

D&D 4th edition broke with tradition and didn't use the "Great Wheel" cosmology, but still has alternate dimensions. Those planes that were the residences of gods (good or evil) were now described as planets in the "Astral Sea" (read: outer space), while the elemental planes were mish-mashed together into the depths of a "Primordial Chaos" (read: Hell). Since player characters can achieve nigh-godlike powers with just the abilities described in the core rulebooks, planar travel is more likely to happen in order to find appropriate challenges.

Gallery

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  Manual of the Planes AD&D Cover
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  Planescape map from AD&D 2nd
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  Manual of the Planes 3e Cover
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  Manual of the Planes 4e Cover