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Yora
2013-08-07, 01:03 PM
Hello, berk...

We had a couple of Planescape related threads recently, with occasional talk of simply having one big thread for the Planescape Campaign setting. So here it is.
Though Planescape was published as an AD&D 2nd Ed. setting, all the relevant crunch aspects have been adapted for D&D 3rd Edition over time and in the end Planescape is all about the fictional world and not so much about any gameplay elements. So putting it here seems to be the best place for it.

--

I just read that one of the major inspirations for Zeb Cook for the Planescape setting was Piranesis "Le Carceri" series, and noticing the name, I had to look these drawing up. You can see them here (http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Renaissance/Facsimiles/PiranesiCarceri1750/), and I have to say, these really nail down the iconic Planescape look. :smallbiggrin:

Eldan
2013-08-07, 01:11 PM
I predict this will last for three threads, then die.

Driderman
2013-08-07, 01:27 PM
Pretty sure "Le Carceri" translates to "The Prison" or "The Cage" so a very fitting name in any case.
I've never actually played anything meaningful in the Planescape setting, other than of course Planescape: Torment, but I've always been a big fan of the gritty and yet wonderful city of Sigil, enough so that the City of Doors has had a role, although often small and offscreen, in most of my D&D-related creations.

Yora
2013-08-07, 03:56 PM
I'd like to see the original sketch of the Lady of Pain. Apparently, someone made a doodle during a brainstorming session, and they liked it so much they made the Lady the official setting logo.

Calmar
2013-08-07, 04:03 PM
I'd like to see the original sketch of the Lady of Pain. Apparently, someone made a doodle during a brainstorming session, and they liked it so much they made the Lady the official setting logo.

As far as I know her face was originally a concept artwork for a faction symbol. They then developed it into the LoP because of its awesomeness.

Yora
2013-08-08, 02:27 PM
I have to say the diTerlizzi illustration of the lady is not so great. The one that looks even a bit short with the very heavy robes on. The more common unnaturally tall and slender version just seems far more imposing and otherwordly.

Eldan
2013-08-08, 02:45 PM
This is my favourite illustration of hte Lady:


http://1-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/tg/image/1357/39/1357396440509.jpg




This one is probably by far the worst:


http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070603101035/sfery/images/9/95/Ps-cage.jpg

The picture here isn't very good. But her facial expression is just laughable.

Yora
2013-08-08, 02:56 PM
Yeah, that bad is really quite bad.

I am quite fond of the version in Torment.
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/planescape/images/characters/lady.jpg

The cutscene with her was appropriatly freaky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpEimi2JLws).

Plerumque
2013-08-08, 03:36 PM
That's brilliant.

BWR
2013-08-08, 03:42 PM
This (http://faily-chan.deviantart.com/art/The-Lady-of-Pain-100980431)is my favorite picture, but I'm biased when people make things for me.

Eldan
2013-08-08, 04:27 PM
Hmm. I don't know...

I just think Her Serenity should look, well, serene. Detached, emotionless, deadly calm. In that picture, she looks at least slightly annoyed, maybe even angry.

Yora
2013-08-08, 04:37 PM
I'll probably running a Pathfinder game this fall, and I think my homebrew setting won't be quite ready by them and I also believe most of the players won't be playing for more than three or four sessions. So it will be more of a one-shot thing anyway.
Perfect opportunity to finally run an actual planescape game. :smallamused:

--

The rough idea I have so far is this:
The PCs start in some random town on the Prime, where there is a call for volunteers to take down an evil sorcerer in his lair in the wilderness. The PCs join the mob and take part in storming the lair and taking out some of the minions, until they reach the sorcerer and in the ensuing battle the sorcerer grasps a magical artifact that knocks everyone out cold. When the PCs wake up, everyone else from the mob and the minions have vanished, and they find themselves in another part of the dungeon. They make their way through the empty and dust covered halls trying to find a way out, until they reach a rotting wooden door through which they can see daylight and hear people.
"We are not in Sembia anymore..."
In the next part, they learn that they have ended up in the Hive in Sigil with only the things they are carrying on their body. However, they learn that the sorcerer has also made it to Sigil and has the artifact with him that brought them all there.

In the second and third session, they will be trying to hunt down the sorcerer while navigating their way through this very strange and weird place. At the same time, they will meet another group of stranded people, who are from some weird race, but ordinary people who were kidnapped and left behind when the slavers were killed in Sigil. There will be a healer or alchemist in the group, who will be the main supporting ally for the PCs.

In the end, they will find and defeat the sorcerer, and take the artifact from him, but they can use it only once. Either to get back home, or return the stranded commoners to their homeworld and families.
Since the commoners will have lots of backstory while the PCs will probably simply start as generic 1st level adventurers, I am very much hoping that they will give the artifact away and try to find other ways to find their way home. Or even chose to stay in the Planes. Which would make both a nice ending with sufficient closure, as well as a great hook for any further adventures if the players are interested.

--

Now I've never run a Planescape game and came up with these things in the last 20 minutes, so I think it might be huge fun to hear what ideas you guys might have for that mini-campaign?
Here are some more specific things I think I want to do:

- Not telling the players we're going to play Planescape. I don't think anyone of them knows anything about D&D, let alone Planescape, but I want them to enter the game with some expectation of a normal european medieval orcs and dragons campaign. However, I will tell them not to get too attached to any complex backstories, as their characters will experience a "major disruption" of their lives and end up in very unexpected circumstances.
Not that players, particularly new ones, writing complex backstories were a common occourance. :smallbiggrin:
- I tend to go with the approach "alignment is only for outsiders with the good, evil, law, and chaos subtypes" and have all the PCs be Neutral. Planescape seems to be the one setting where alignment is particuarly unfit for the game, as everyone is somewhat shifty and conspicious, and not the least, barmy. The PCs can of course want to act like saints and be very generous, anarchistic, or whatever, but I think it will work out best if any notion of ethics or morality are simply cultural bias.
- Of course, I want to include the factions in some sense. I particularly like the doomguard. Since some groups in the doomguard are very keen about charity, so the commoners the PCs are meeting might be camping in a doomguard shelter. I think an encounter with a Harmonium press gang might also work well. Either to conscript the PCs themselves, or some of the commoners, if the PCs have become good friends with them. But any ideas to have the more esoteric groups make an appearance? Like Sensates, signers, and the like?
- Another thing will be music: For the prolog part on the Prime, I will use some really generic and flowery stuff. Maybe Baldur's Gate or Lord of the Rings. Just to build up completely false expectations until they get to Sigil, where I will get out some more weirder stuff, to emphasise the strangeness of that foreign place. PS:T and Myst 2 soundtracks probably will do a good job. Anything else that you would consider planescape music?

Eldan
2013-08-08, 04:55 PM
I think you're confusing the Doomguard with the Bleak Cabal, there? I've never heard of Doomguard charities.


Your plot isn't really a Planescape plot, or at least not one that takes a lot of advantage of the setting. That might be a problem. Hunting down a sorcerer can be done almost anywhere, youre just adding interesting setpieces. Now, that is not a problem per se, but I just think that someone's first experience with Planescape should make a bit more use of themes of faith and belief and relative reality.


Anyway, if you send low-level people to the planes and want to have them encounter weird things in Sigil, have a look at Desire and the Dead. It's a first to third level Sigil-based adventure, a bit sandboxy and with a lot of interesting random encoutners that's available for free on Planewalker. Even if you don't use it, you can throw in Mister Click, Lord Winsome, Gnarlybones, Granny Marduk, Ratter's Boss or my personal favourite, Armoury99 the Modron Poet into almost any adventure.


Ah, Armoury99. Such a wonderful character. Named after the adventure's creator. In the adventure, he works as a receptionist. The PCs just have to make him open the door for them. There's two problems. FIrst, he takes anything said literally.
"Could you open the door for us?" - "Yes."
"Do you know if your boss is here?" - Yes."
"Can you tell us how to get in?" - "Yes."

It took the PCs five minutes to figure it out. The second and much more fun aspect of his character is that he would very much like to be an artist of some kind. Whenever anyone gets annoyed near him, he calms them done with one of his famous factually correct poems. The adventure uses "corrected" Shakespear sonnets, but almost anything works.

"Shall I compare thee to a length of time on the prime material plane when the local star is in visible for a longer than average time?" is probably his best, but take any random one.
Later, when they met him again, he was painting. Completely white canvases, since, obviously, his logic went like this: "Paintings are flat pieces of cloth with paint on them. Certain combinations of colours and patterns cause emotions in mortals. That is what art tries to achieve. The colour white contains all the colours of the spectrum. Therefore, a completely white surface contains all possible colours in all possible patterns and causes all possible emotoins. It is therefore hte perfect art."

BWR
2013-08-08, 05:19 PM
Hmm. I don't know...

I just think Her Serenity should look, well, serene. Detached, emotionless, deadly calm. In that picture, she looks at least slightly annoyed, maybe even angry.

You mean like if she was facing someone who worshipped her?
Anyway, that's not the intention, nor the way I interpret it. She just looks emotionless to me.


I've never heard of Doomguard charities.
So long as you need something destroyed, the Doomguard are probably pretty charitible.

Driderman
2013-08-08, 06:37 PM
- I tend to go with the approach "alignment is only for outsiders with the good, evil, law, and chaos subtypes" and have all the PCs be Neutral. Planescape seems to be the one setting where alignment is particuarly unfit for the game, as everyone is somewhat shifty and conspicious, and not the least, barmy. The PCs can of course want to act like saints and be very generous, anarchistic, or whatever, but I think it will work out best if any notion of ethics or morality are simply cultural bias.

Alignment is a very big deal in the Planescape setting. There are planes of existence where you go when you die, and your destination is decided by your alignment. Alignment is particularly fitting in Planescape because for a Planewalker, it is quite possible to actually visit the planes the epitomize the various alignments.
If everyone were neutral, they'd all end up in the Beastlands and there wouldn't be any reason for the existence of the various Archetypes of Good, Evil, Law and Chaos. Alignments are a very big deal.

Yora
2013-08-08, 06:40 PM
Wait? Those two are not the same?
Turns out they arn't. I did mean the Bleak Cabal, thoug.

Regarding the adventure plot, hunting the sorcerer to get his artifact is merely the premise of getting the PCs to Sigil as completely clueless Primes who have no idea where they ended up. Tracking him down in Sigil and learning how to use the artifact to open a portal will be where the Planescape specific stuff is going to happen.
But I havn't been thinking much about that yet, and was hoping for ideas. Desire and the Dead will be a starting point.

NichG
2013-08-09, 12:23 AM
Alignment is a very big deal in the Planescape setting. There are planes of existence where you go when you die, and your destination is decided by your alignment. Alignment is particularly fitting in Planescape because for a Planewalker, it is quite possible to actually visit the planes the epitomize the various alignments.
If everyone were neutral, they'd all end up in the Beastlands and there wouldn't be any reason for the existence of the various Archetypes of Good, Evil, Law and Chaos. Alignments are a very big deal.

I think you mean the Outlands. Beastlands is NG, on the mildly chaotic side next to Elysium.

But even beyond that, assuming the players aren't playing petitioners (and they shouldn't, since petitioners can't actually grow, change, or in many cases leave the plane they're a petitioner of), living people on the planes aren't 'sent' anywhere by their alignment. A CE person might be very uncomfortable on Mechanus, but they can still go there.

I do think that Planescape works better with an alignment-lite style, because that helps highlight just how strange the cosmic archetypes are. Compared to a Solar, a very Good person might as well be neutral. It then makes the alignments what the cosmic entities are about, and the factions what the mortals are about, and then you get interesting things when the two overlap or conflict.

VariSami
2013-08-09, 03:16 AM
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/329/4/d/lady_of_pain_by_dominuself-d4h8qjv.jpg
There is my favourite illustration of the lady - a version of it is also my current desktop wallpaper.

Oh, by the way: any suggestions on "big (philosophical) questions" around which campaign could be based? "But what can change the nature of man?" is a no-brainer, of course. I have used (although not explicitly expressed) "What is a person?" or alternatively "Where does the identity of one end and another begin?"

Eldan
2013-08-09, 05:10 AM
A good starting point for me is always the Factol's Manifesto. Choose two factions. Read their philosophies. Think about where they clash and where the most extreme stances of either would be and where the moderates might end up.

NichG
2013-08-09, 05:37 AM
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/329/4/d/lady_of_pain_by_dominuself-d4h8qjv.jpg
There is my favourite illustration of the lady - a version of it is also my current desktop wallpaper.

Oh, by the way: any suggestions on "big (philosophical) questions" around which campaign could be based? "But what can change the nature of man?" is a no-brainer, of course. I have used (although not explicitly expressed) "What is a person?" or alternatively "Where does the identity of one end and another begin?"

I did a campaign based on 'if belief determines everything, is there truth that is independent of belief and what is it?'. One episode of this campaign involved the players going to a Prime world so small that the only reason it had an atmosphere was because of the constant intervention of its one deity, and a religious schism had weakened the deity enough that they could no longer keep the world completely habitable.

I also did an episode of a different campaign in which a Cipher killed someone without thinking about it or realizing what they were doing, and the question of whether or not the cadence itself had will or intent.

There's the question 'do gods actually have free will?' or to a lesser extent the exemplars of the cosmic alignments. I had a plot line that centered around A'kin trying to arrange for the definition of Evil to change, and also involved a paladin who got hit with a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' type of situation and decided that alignment itself needed to be altered on a fundamental level because of it (with the assistance of an Athar who just wanted to cast down some gods in the process and a Modron who wanted to fix what it saw as 'bugs' in the rules of the universe).

Driderman
2013-08-09, 07:20 AM
I think you mean the Outlands. Beastlands is NG, on the mildly chaotic side next to Elysium.

But even beyond that, assuming the players aren't playing petitioners (and they shouldn't, since petitioners can't actually grow, change, or in many cases leave the plane they're a petitioner of), living people on the planes aren't 'sent' anywhere by their alignment. A CE person might be very uncomfortable on Mechanus, but they can still go there.

I do think that Planescape works better with an alignment-lite style, because that helps highlight just how strange the cosmic archetypes are. Compared to a Solar, a very Good person might as well be neutral. It then makes the alignments what the cosmic entities are about, and the factions what the mortals are about, and then you get interesting things when the two overlap or conflict.

Yeah, Outlands. Been a while since I read through it all. I may be misremembering, but when a prime dies, aren't they "sent" to the plane that corresponds to their alignment and become petitioners?

Totally in agreement that the alignment archetypes are extremes that will illustrate how different perspectives on the same alignment can be, and how alien the Outsider proponents of alignments can actually be. But that, in my book, means that alignment is a very big deal.
If everyone just goes around being neutral, there's not really much meat on the moral implications of differing perceptions of alignment since there's no personal investment. On the other hand, if you're lawful good, and you just witnessed some atrocity (by non-Outsider standards) committed by a paragon of your own alignment, that's interesting :)

Asmodai
2013-08-09, 07:52 AM
So, I'm running a new Planescape game. It's a heist game where the characters are all kinds of thieves, crooks, hustlers, conmen, gamblers, thugs, nighttime locksmiths and other assorted needs of the genre.

I've taken Adventure! as a basis for the rules - I've find the trinity of atrributes, skills and inspiration to mirror the Rules of three quite well and the approach to skills makes it a perfect match for the needs of the game. By allowing the increase of attributes over 5 and limiting the points in different categories I could easily map the races.

The cast is currently:
Duergar safecracker jinx, former vault architect (enslaved for embezzlement), former Drow slave (mutineed), former pirate on a spelljammer (ship exploded)
Changeling Face master of disguise who forgets who he is
Nagaji Samurai lord that protects his exiled people in Sigil and looks for a new home
Athasian Elf Athar marksman, burglar and professional God saboteur
Intelligent Gorilla Artificier with a giant mechanical hand that fell from Eberron
A Tiefling cutpurse and distraction with large... eyes.


Three sessions down by now, and they've had the joy of kidnapping a hiearach Modron, jumping gears while the Modrons are in hot pursuit, getting fired from a Modron Cannon and getting shafted by Pentar on their money. This was followed by intentionally getting imprisoned by the Baatezu that took over Raiden's castle as an outpost in the Blood War so they could get him his hat back. Hijinks ensued, including rescuing the poor Succubi concubines, cooking the Barbazu cook and buying time with the baatorian general by talking him into embracing the culture of his new conquest in a very colonial manner...

It's looking good, and the players seem happy. Got all sorts of madness planned, next up is their infiltration of the Baatorian embassy in the City of Brass for the Emir of Efreet. I'm hoping to get one of the other players to run the occasional one shot, so I can play as well :)

Farastu
2013-08-09, 05:52 PM
Planescape is easily my favorite setting. I've been running a in person campaign for about 8 months now using it. I love how I can include philosophy, political intrigue and scheming along with epic mythological stuff, and just the general quirkiness of the setting.
I run it as a true multiverse game though, in the sense that while the players mostly adventure on the inner and outer planes, they also end up in all kinds of other places (i.e. different settings). I even brought them into an ancient mythological version of earth, as well as into Faerun, and very briefly Ebberon.

I do try to draw inspiration from a variety of sources, including of course the actual Planescape setting material (and Planescape Torment also), but also real world mythology and historical events, as well as groups like the Discordians (which are the best inspiration to pull off Xaositects well IMO).

I've also really really tried to keep belief a very important powerful thing as well, which the players can use (I kept belief points, which existed in 2e, but I expanded upon them allowing them to be used to achieve a very wide variety of different effects). Letting players manipulate reality with the power of belief, even if they are limited by points that they have to earn, allows for some really fun things to happen.

Eldan
2013-08-09, 06:03 PM
Discordianism (and Dada) works, but I also put some cynicism into the Xaositects. Because they need something to make them a bit more approachable, instead of just being bat**** crazy.

Eldan
2013-08-10, 11:10 PM
Picture time!

This turned up on a totally unrelated google search (like, I wasn't searching for anything related to RPGs, mechanical or a landscape). The most awesome picture of Mechanus I've ever seen.

http://cghub.com/files/Image/015001-016000/15979/161_large.jpg

NichG
2013-08-11, 12:24 AM
Picture time!

This turned up on a totally unrelated google search (like, I wasn't searching for anything related to RPGs, mechanical or a landscape). The most awesome picture of Mechanus I've ever seen.


Awesome! But, I just have to say, those bridges seem unwise...

Eldan
2013-08-11, 05:46 AM
Looking at the bottom left, it seems that at least that bridge could only be attached to one of the cogs. Which could work.

Eldan
2013-08-16, 12:53 PM
Okay. Let's do something so this thread doesn't die. How about a few more pictures of Planescapey Landscapes first, to set the mood.


http://imageshack.us/a/img12/3093/o1xa.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img694/6396/2qvd.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img35/7724/svv1.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img703/6452/73j3.jpg

A popular subject on Planewalker is inspiration. Can you think of any media that have a Planescape flavour? Any storylines that you have always wanted to adapt to Planescape?

I recently watched Hellboy: the Golden Army again. It has a lot of great monster designs (it's a Del Toro movie, after all), but the Troll Market, in particular, could be dropped right into Sigil.

Echo Bazaar, for those familiar with it, is a bit more low-magic than Planescape tends to be, but very flavourful. While I haven't done it yet, I'm sure one or the other idea could be stolen from there.

NichG
2013-08-16, 01:24 PM
Book-wise, almost anything by Neil Gaiman is good Planescape inspiration, even just the idea of 'how to think mythically'. And of course the movie adaptations of some of his stuff is good for this too - Neverwhere and Mirrormask in particular come to mind.

There's an Alice in Wonderland movie where Wonderland is a place addicted to emotions extracted from people in the 'other world'. I forget exactly what the movie was called though, it might have just been 'Wonderland'. That particular idea, of distilling emotions into potions to sell to addicts, strikes me as very Planescapey; something the Sensates would do.

Now, here's a kind of obscure thing. Has anyone read 'Fire and Dust'? Its a novel-length Planescape story that was up on mimir.net way back when that site was still alive. There's surprisingly little actual Planescape literature, compared to the glut of Forgotten Realms novels and the like.

Eldan
2013-08-16, 01:56 PM
There are a few official Planescape novels, but I think fans prefer to pretend they don't exist. Especially the one that reveals the Lady's backstory.

I did read Fire and Dust. Liked it a lot, too.

Another obscure one, though I suspect Yora might know it: City of Dreaming Books.

Allow me to elaborate for the non-Germans here: In this book, wyrms (I think that might be the English translation) are roughly humanoid dinosaurs who have a civilization obsessed with literature. Every single one of them is a poet and poetry determines their entire ranking in life.
The book is the autobiography of one such wyrm who, as we know, will in the future be the greatest author of all. It begins when his dying mentor hands him the manuscript to the perfect text that he was sent by letter. A text so perfect, his mentor could never even think again about writing, since every word he could think of looked so horrible in comparison.
The young Wyrm then leaves for the city of Bookheim, a city built entirely out of old books, built on ancient catacombs filled with even older books, to find the author of said manuscript. He descends into the catacombs and encounters everything from book spider to the Shadow King to alchemical monsters. And, of course, the book hunters, viscious warrior-adventurers who battle each other in the dark tunnels over the rarest and most valuable volumes.

A wonderful book. Full of meta-humour about writing, too, as the author constantly points out which literary devices he is using right now. I so want to use some of its ideas in Planescape, but it never came up. Other books by the same author, too.

Yora
2013-08-16, 02:04 PM
Zamonia could very well be some weird demiplane or even a prime world.

And said "City of Dreaming Books" is indeed one of the most similar places to Sigil you can find.

Eldan
2013-08-16, 02:09 PM
Ah, so I'm not the only one. Though Sigil also has a good few aspects of Sigil. Competitive lying as a crowd sport.

VariSami
2013-08-16, 02:19 PM
The Lady's backstory can be found in a novel? Please tell me she is a group of psionic squirrels employed by the Dabus... Ok, seriously: I am interested. There are speculative ideas all around the books but which did they opt for in the novel?

I have not had a chance to read good literature in a while. Admittedly, Neil Gaiman is just great. If I had to choose, I would probably say that American Gods and its sequels are the best kind of inspiration from him.

I have not read Terry Prachett all that much but I suppose some of his quirky ideas would fit as comic reliefs and sometimes be turned darker. I have only read Good Omens which was written in collaboration with Gaiman but it was very good.

Fritz Leiber, probably. Although he writes sword and sorcery, the novels contain a lot of exotic characters and situations. The powers are petty, Death is a white-collar worker and Pain finds it a good idea to give a hero a handjob while he is trapped underground. Not to mention the Half-Rat loli sadist and a invisible-fleshed ghoul. Or a German-speaking dimension traveler working for a monster zoo.

Yora
2013-08-16, 02:21 PM
If the story appears anywhere, it's in a book that noe true fan (TM) would consider canonical. :smalltongue:

BWR
2013-08-16, 02:28 PM
"Pages of Pain" wasn't too bad. It didn't reveal all the secrets of the Lady. It revealed one incident in her past, one current plot against her and was written mostly from her POV, and didn't really spoil much of anything.
The PS:T novel had little to do with the game and was bad. Not quite "Baldur's Gate" bad, but bad. The Blood War trilogy was horrible. We're talking "Elminster in Hell" level excrement.

"Fire and Dust" was the best story and should have been canon. There were some decent fics on Ken Lipka's site (http://www.deathstar.org/~krlipka/ps/), buit the link to the fiction archive seems to be down.

Eldan
2013-08-16, 02:32 PM
I have heard second-hand reports that there was apparently a novel that revealed that she is the daughter of the god Poseidon. Which sounds stupid.

Edit: for other decent Planescape fiction, I'd say Shemeska's Story Hour definitely counts. Along with the Demented Cycle, for those who like the 'loths.

BWR
2013-08-16, 03:01 PM
I have heard second-hand reports that there was apparently a novel that revealed that she is the daughter of the god Poseidon. Which sounds stupid.

That was Pages of Pain, though I can't recall anything about her being the daughter. I think someone just got a bit confused about what happened there. You never really learn much of anything about the Lady beyond a few hints which may or may not be true.

Edit: I remember, that was part of the plot of Poseidon. We never really learn if that was the truth or just something made up to try to trick the Lady. Since Poseidon was trying to pull a fast one in any case, I wouldn't be too certain of the truth of any claim he makes.

Asmodai
2013-08-17, 09:35 AM
Pages of Pain postulates that she actually feeds of pain and seeds pain throught the populace of Sigil. It's something that really shouldn't be taken as canon. I do wish the parts weren't written from her perspective as it would be less galling.

Farastu
2013-08-17, 01:34 PM
A popular subject on Planewalker is inspiration. Can you think of any media that have a Planescape flavour? Any storylines that you have always wanted to adapt to Planescape?


Like others all ready said, anything Gaiman, Alice in Wonderland, those are good inspiration. I'd say most material dealing with jumping around to different worlds/planes is probably a decent source (assuming the material itself is decent). I'll add Wizard of Oz to that as well.
The Neverending Story Novel is a great one as well. Anyone here read that? Probably fits a White Wolf Changeling (new WOD) game even better as source material, but works for Planescape too.

As far as other inspiration, some of it depends what particular aspect of Planescape we are talking about. For example obviously real world mythology was a huge impact on Planescape, so going back to those sources is a good idea.
Then for the various factions, actually reading some of the source material that influenced those can be helpful.

Oh, What Dreams May Come, good inspiration for what sort of things a Sign of One member might try to do (and it goes along with their general philosophy that from thought/imagination reality is born). Also could be inspiration for some of the creations that people dwelling in Limbo might come up with.

Eldan
2013-08-17, 02:01 PM
Of course I know the Neverending Story. Still probably my number one spot for best book, though I haven't read it in years, I don't know what I'd think of it now. So many wonderfully designed creatures and locations, too. And a good philosophical story. The book Auryn (as opposed to film Auryn) would make a great campaign artefact, too.

VariSami
2013-08-17, 03:28 PM
Oh, I forgot one of the biggest inspirers I have: Magic: the Gathering. The planes the design team crafts are truly inspiring, IMHO. For example, Racnica is essentially a plane of endless cityscape with a few ruined areas and parks here and there. The guilds taking care of the infrastructure are a blast as well. I also enjoy Zendikar and Innistrad (although it comes close to Ravenloft).

Anyone else who uses the game for inspiration? I have also cut a pile of the art in trash cards to use as aids for elaboration and improvisation inspiration.

Beacon of Chaos
2013-08-17, 05:54 PM
Big fan of the Planescape setting, though sadly I've never had a chance to play in it, except for P:T, which was awesome.

Has anyone read the "Death Gate Cycle" books? They would be excellent inspiration for an elemental planes themed adventure. The first four books each deal with a world with a different elemental theme (includes an interesting take on the "fire" world which has become a huge jungle due to basically being a hollow planet with everything on the inside, including the sun which means no night time). Worth checking out.

Sebastrd
2013-08-17, 11:24 PM
Anyone else who uses the game for inspiration?

I love the Eldrazi. They remind me very much of the types of creatures on might find in a Lovecraft story.

Sebastrd
2013-08-17, 11:25 PM
Has anyone read the "Death Gate Cycle" books? They would be excellent inspiration for an elemental planes themed adventure. The first four books each deal with a world with a different elemental theme (includes an interesting take on the "fire" world which has become a huge jungle due to basically being a hollow planet with everything on the inside, including the sun which means no night time). Worth checking out.

I read them a loooong time ago. I used to have the appendix that explained magic printed out as a reference. It was the first time I'd seen anything like it.

Asmodai
2013-08-27, 05:19 AM
So, to keep the thread going, here's one of the characters in our new Planescape game :)

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/231/0/5/kingala_son_kong_by_clone_artist-d6iuxq1.jpg

Eldan
2013-08-27, 06:37 AM
Damn is that cute.

NichG
2013-08-27, 10:59 AM
This reminds me of that one picture of Tripicus the Ursinal from Faces of Sigil. Ah, here we go, found a link:

http://mrbass.id.au/D&D/journal/jrn_img/tripicus.jpg

Must be the pince-nez.

VariSami
2013-08-28, 03:49 PM
I am mostly reminded of King Solomon from Tom Strong::

http://ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/leahtom.jpg