Planescape!

[chloe]

I finally started my Planescape campaign on sunday! Hurah!

It was really good and we all had fun, plus I was impressed by all my players RPing skills. I hope the campaign continues in a similar vein!

What has this got to do with me? Well I have the overall plot sketched out and have the next couple of sessions loosely planned but I wanted a few suggestions for some meat! Y'know, side treks and other quests I can tie into the main plot. That's where you guys come in - post a few ideas and help out!

Thanks,

Buh-bye!

Chloe

::smiley5

[Ian Watson]

Woot, Planescape!

Best. Setting. Ever.

[chloe]

Thanks Watson - that's my first 'woot' ever. Was it as good for you as it was for me? ::blush

::tongue

Any suggestions though?

Chloe

[Slagheap]

The closest contact I've ever had to Planescape was the comuter game. It was fun, but I liked Baldur's Gate better (mainly due to interface issues).

-Slag

[chloe]

I can understand that. But there was no floating skull calling all and sundry 'chief' in Baldurs Gate. ::biggrin The playstation version of Baldurs Gate was quite cool. There should have been legal battles calling it a role playing game, there was nothing but hacking and slaying and death, but it looked really pretty... Like too many other games today - all flash, no substance. Unlike my boyfriend! ::tongue

Chloe

[Aeon]

The comp game was really, really deep and intelligent - its a shame it didnt get the recognition it deserved (PC Gamer UK named it 18th best game ever tho in their top 100 last month - huzzah!)

[Bahamut810]

I know why. PLANESCAPE IS EVIL!! EVIL I TELL YOU!!!

Cant even walk through an archway without being TELEPORTED TO THE 667th PLANE OF HELL!!

::grumbles about a planescape game gone evil::

[knave]

Planescape is about wonder. It's about the factions and the plots between them. Most importantly, Planescape is about trying to shift the factions and beliefs of the outsiders. Back in my D&D days I ran a game where a bunch of Prime Berks ended up in Sigil. They ran into Machiavellan plot after Machiavellan plot and ended up in fight after fight. The thing with Planescape is that your players should be surprised at how the story twists and changes. Factions that were deadly enemies one moment could suddenly become allies due to apparently insignificant character actions.

[madcat82]

Knave, is this not true if said about almost every serious RPG in history?

(D&D does not count, cos its not serious ::tongue )

[knave]

Yes, I suppose it is Madcat. The difference in planescape is that they give you the factions. Each faction is working towards a goal of changing certain perceptions. Because in planescapes, much like in Mage, changing perceptions is exactly equal to changing reality. It's a place where people are prepared to do almost anything to get you to honestly think a different way. They'd certainly much rather that than see you dead.

[madcat82]

oh, cool...

[Obsidian Shade]

Hm, I thought this factions only exist in Sigil? But Planescape is about the whole planes of the Universe?

[phoenix]

You know, I kind of miss Chloe. She used words like boogie. ::teleport

[knave]

The way I recall it working Sigil is the centre of the planes right... but the planes kinda move depending on the prevailing perceptions. So if everyone starts thinking 'I'll be a good person' or some such thing the planes shift to the side of the upper planes -- they 'gain ground' -- particularly the ones most closely allied with that particular thought.

I don't believe they are limited to Sigil either... They're just all present there.

[Bahamut810]

Yes...they all have a doorway. Or archway. Or semi-circle. Or almost-look-like-an-archway thingie....

Never trust a door in planescape....never!! ::unsure ::crazy ::lookaround ::smiley4 ::smiley4 ::smiley4

[Obsidian Shade]

Erm, no, Sigil is not the centre of the planes... reading the Dungeon Master Guide you will find the Material Plane as the centre. Sigil lies on one of the outer planes, if i recall it correctly. And the factions are limited to Sigil - if my Planar Handbook did not wrong me.

[Ian Watson]

The planes are infinite. Pretty much anywhere you are, then, is the centre.

Sigil was considered the metaphorical centre because it had portals that lead everywhere, and was at the centre of the Outlands (at the centre of the Outer Planes).

Factions were throughout the Outer Planes and somewhat through the others... the Harmonium, for example, came from a world on the Material Plane. What made a faction a faction was that it had a presence/headquarters in Sigil. "Factions" that don't are just called sects.

The 3e Planar Handbook doesn't do Planescape justice.

[Obsidian Shade]

I got the new 3.5 Planar Handbook and Sigil is stated as "Located at the centre of the outer Planes" and "Sigil is in the centre of an infinite Plane (the Concordant Domain of the Outlands)". And there is only little stated about the factions and no hint they are powerful to battle throughout the planes.

[knave]

Gosh darn... looks like the old box set was better than the new book ::confused ::ninja

The old box definitely gave the impression of not so much a war as a sort of propaganda campaign throughout the planes. Also the Outlands was the centermost plane bounded by gates to every other - with Sigil as a wheel (with the actual city on the inner bit like one of those culture worlds from Iain M Banks or a 'Halo' spinning around a great spoke at the very center. The Prime Planes on the other hand borders the ethereal and astral plane everywhere. Crossing the ethereal plane used to take you to the inner planes (the planes of fire and water and earth and air - each touching each other to form such things as smoke and ash etc). Crossing the astral plane would take you to the outer planes. The centermost outer plane was concordant opposition (TN) or 'the outlands'. At the edges of the true neutral plane were gate towns that marked the beginning of other planes - like LN, LG etc etc...

So the difference is that given infinite time you could walk from a Lawful Good plane onto Concordant Opposition and onto a Lawful Evil plane. You cannot walk from a Prime Plane onto an outer plane except through a gate or by crossing the astral. You also cannot enter Sigil except by a gate.

[Ian Watson]

So the difference is that given infinite time you could walk from a Lawful Good plane onto Concordant Opposition and onto a Lawful Evil plane.  You cannot walk from a Prime Plane onto an outer plane except through a gate or by crossing the astral.  You also cannot enter Sigil except by a gate.

Not sure where you got this idea. Even given infinite time, without a portal, you can't walk from one plane to another. The "Great Wheel" of the Outer Planes is just an aid to show how planes relate to each other in a magical or metaphysical sense. It doesn't mean you can physically go from one to another by simple travel. The main box specifically says that if, say, you're on the Outlands and you go out past the gate towns, the land becomes even more weird. There may be other, stranger gate towns out there that lead to heretofore unknown planes. No one really knows.

I got the new 3.5 Planar Handbook and Sigil is stated as "Located at the centre of the outer Planes" and "Sigil is in the centre of an infinite Plane (the Concordant Domain of the Outlands)". And there is only little stated about the factions and no hint they are powerful to battle throughout the planes.

The Planar Handbook is like the Coles Notes for Planescape. It's got a lot of the information, but none of the original charm and flavour. The factions engaged in something called the kriegstanz... a sort of cold war of philosophies. They rarely, if ever, actually engaged in "battles."