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View Full Version : Planescape, What do I need to run the setting?



Jair Barik
2011-01-19, 12:45 PM
Thread title says it all.
I've finally got round to putting the time and effort into completing planescape torment (the origional release with the lovely map and 4 cds) having had it so long but never had the patience to get through the first few acts and I am really loving the setting.

In short then what I'm interested in is what resources are there for playing a game set in Sigil and the surrounding areas? 3.5 ideally but setting info doesn't need to be.

Zuljita
2011-01-19, 12:54 PM
my understanding (i could be wrong) is that there is no direct 3.5 support for planescape but that many of the ideas were migrated into manual of the planes (or a similarly named publication)

Aidan305
2011-01-19, 12:56 PM
http://www.planewalker.com/ has everything you need.

blazingshadow
2011-01-19, 12:56 PM
nvm.......

afroakuma
2011-01-19, 01:00 PM
Manual of the Planes is the most fundamental resource for Third Edition; the books from older editions have great fluff ideas that are still highly usable.

Planar Handbook is a useful secondary resource that's good as a "Player's Planescape Guide."

Fiend Folio was released to coincide with the Manual of the Planes, and as such a great many of its monsters are planar inhabitants.

Planewalker has other resources.

Apart from that, you can check out some of my own homebrew for my own take on the setting.

potatocubed
2011-01-19, 01:02 PM
Planewalker is a good place to start.

I recommend picking up a copy of the old Planescape boxed set if you can find one for a reasonable price - that's all you really need of the old goodies, although some of the other products are well worth getting if you can.

hamishspence
2011-01-19, 02:14 PM
Fiend Folio was released to coincide with the Manual of the Planes, and as such a great many of its monsters are planar inhabitants.

They're published several years apart.

MoTP: September 2001.
Fiend Folio: April 2003.

That said, Fiend Folio does indeed have a lot of good stuff.

afroakuma
2011-01-19, 03:04 PM
They're published several years apart.

Were they really? How odd.

Well, at the very least, it was certainly published to work with a planar campaign. Compared to Monster Manual II (sourcing recent Dragon and Dungeon monsters) and Monster Manual III (which was very clearly geared towards Eberron), especially.

hamishspence
2011-01-19, 03:07 PM
Fiend Folio seemed to make a lot of use of "prototype 3.5 rules"- skills were changed, vulnerabilities became "150% damage" rather than "double damage" and so on.

Its 3.5 update is thus shorter and more simple than that of other books- mostly just changes to DR.

afroakuma
2011-01-19, 03:41 PM
Fiend Folio seemed to make a lot of use of "prototype 3.5 rules"- skills were changed, vulnerabilities became "150% damage" rather than "double damage" and so on.

Its 3.5 update is thus shorter and more simple than that of other books- mostly just changes to DR.

It's also got 40 planar monster entries (out of 108 entries), plus a heap of new fey, constructs and undead. It's... a fairly planar book.

Especially as that includes gehreleths (as demodands), devas, a lot of new demons, piscoloths, and plenty of native beasties from several planes.

Oh, I suppose the BoED, BoVD and the two Fiendish Codexes should be suggested as well.

hamishspence
2011-01-19, 03:50 PM
It does have an unusually high proportion of planar monsters compared to the MMs.

Expedition to the Demonweb Pits is an adventure book- and has stats for dabus (among other monsters), and part of it is set in Sigil.

Might be a good choice for "planescape flavour".

afroakuma
2011-01-19, 03:59 PM
MMII had several planar monsters as well, mind you. The later ones get worse for it, though.

hamishspence
2011-01-19, 04:02 PM
Some books do have a smattering of them in with other monsters though.
Stormwrack, for example, has an aquatic devil and a yugoloth (and the nereid) Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, and a few others also have planar monsters.

afroakuma
2011-01-19, 04:43 PM
Some books do have a smattering of them in with other monsters though.
Stormwrack, for example, has an aquatic devil and a yugoloth (and the nereid) Tome of Magic, Tome of Battle, and a few others also have planar monsters.

True, but I'm referring specifically to Planescape-relevant monsters.

hamishspence
2011-01-19, 04:48 PM
Valkyries from Tome of Battle might qualify as a "typical celestial of Ysgard".

Not so much Planescape specifically, as helping to fill out the Outer Planes.

Some planes don't seem to get much coverage. There are dozens of types of demon and devil- but very few Creatures of Ysgard or Creatures of Arcadia (the Arcadian Avenger in MM V is one of the few).

Axolotl
2011-01-19, 05:08 PM
You don't really need that many Planar monsters really, I mean you could probably get along OK just using the Monster Manual. It's how you use them that gives them a Planescape feel.

For the setting, Manual of the Planes isa good start as it covers all the main planes and gives you enough info touse them (you'd still need to flesh most of them out though). If you want more detail then the Fiendish Codexes were very good (the Demon one moreso than the Devil one). And if you don't mind going 3rd party then Necromancer Games made a City of Brass supplement that's one of my favorite setting books ever.

But the main thing you'd need is some of the original 2nd edition stuff that goes into the factions. All the 3rd edition material I've seen dropped the whole "Philosophers with clubs" theme, which is a pity because it's easily the best part of the setting.

Jair Barik
2011-01-19, 05:17 PM
Thanks for all the advice. I have fiend folio and I seem to recall seeing cranium rats in there.