Planescape 5e Planescape- What would you like to see in the upcoming setting?

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Going in-depth on the Lords of Hell and the Abyss would be fodder for a book along the lines of 3E's Fiendish Codex or the Planes of Law (Baator)/Chaos (Abyss). I'd rather not more than an overview of the power structure/court clutter up a Planescape campaign book that supposedly covering ALL the planes (I'm not fond of the fascination with demons & devils in the game - especially rulers who are unlikely to ever be directly faced, and the less of them, the happier I am).

I agree, more or less - good for a deep dive book on fiends or a guide to the Abyss/Nine Hells, not so much for a guide to the multiverse as a whole.

That said, I would very much love to get a Fiendish Codex/Fizban-style deep dive on fiends down the road... Lower Planar politics is my jam.

 

[Vinicius Lessa]

I hope the new edition bring on the power of belief theme through strong playing advice, procedures and rules.

Yes, rules. Don't know what the latest technology D&D is employing but I always found that the concept of Flags would fit like a glove in Planescape, things like Belief/Instinct from Burning Wheel or Passions from Pendragon, the Obsessions from Unknown Armies, or MHR milestones, etc. Which is something the Belief points system in Planewalker Sourcebook tried to address, but that always felt tacked and half-baked to me.

Could 5e Inspiration be tweaked/expanded to do something like that? Or some other concept/mechanic?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Could 5e Inspiration be tweaked/expanded to do something like that? Or some other concept/mechanic?

I've had luck with this:

Your faction comes with a Belief. At any point, you can state that you are doing something because of your belief. If there's some significant drawback that happens to you because of what you do, you'll gain Inspiration. Examples might include: Rejecting healing if you're a Sinker, doing the first bad idea that comes into your head as a Cipher, or giving help to someone who needs it at significant personal cost if you're a Bleaker. The DM is the final judge on whether or not you acting in line with your belief gives you a significant drawback, and note that the drawback must be personal - causing problems for your fellow party members isn't very cash money of you, and your belief isn't an excuse to be a fart.​

​

Anyone can have a belief and gain Inspiration for acting in accordance with it. If you're a member of a Faction, though, you gain an additional benefit: you can spend your Inspiration to use a faction ability. The greater your reputation within your faction, the more powerful abilities you can access.​

This makes it:

• something the player can trigger (the player defines their beliefs, and states when their belief is relevant), which is nice because I don't want to keep 5 different motives in my head for every PC's action.
• something I can overrule if there's shenanigans, which is nice because absolutely some of these can be shenanigans if there's no guidelines.
• something that makes the game more interesting, because it requires that the PC suffer some problem to get the Inspiration. There's no benefit to adhering to your belief without cost. Beliefs are only powerful when they are tested.
• something that rewards the player for hosing themselves, encouraging players hosing themselves, which is an important part of the
• something that lets me use the 2e tiered faction abilities, more or less, and ties them to rank within a faction rather than level.

 

[humble minion]

I hadn't considered the centrality of belief in Planescape in light of the inspiration/flaws/bonds/etc mechanics in 5e, it's a good call-out though. Personally I was hoping Dragonlance would flesh out or give guidelines/alternate rules for an expanded role for Inspiration, and ways of making a PCs passions and desires drive a plot and impact gameplay. Dragonlance is all about the romantic melodrama after all, it seemed a good fit, but WotC opted to emphasise the war aspect of the setting instead. Obviously the focus of this sort of think in planescape would be less romantic and more philosophical, it would still fit though. Inspiration really is a kinda weaksauce system and could use some beefing up.

 

[pnewman]

I would like to see WOTC slap the person who says 64 pages of setting, 64 pages of monsters, and a 64 page adventure. Yell, "NO!" and do 64 pages of crunch, 64 pages of fluff, and 32 pages of monsters bound with a 32 page adventure. Oh, and the map had better be double sided with the planes on one side and Sigil on the other.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I would like to see WOTC slap the person who says 64 pages of setting, 64 pages of monsters, and a 64 page adventure. Yell, "NO!" and do 64 pages of crunch, 64 pages of fluff, and 32 pages of monsters bound with a 32 page adventure. Oh, and the map had better be double sided with the planes on one side and Sigil on the other.

Why would you want less than what we are getting? Or did you miss the posts here saying that it's going to be 96 pages or setting, 64 pages of monsters, and 96 pages of adventure?

 

[Stormonu]

Why would you want less than what we are getting? Or did you miss the posts here saying that it's going to be 96 pages or setting, 64 pages of monsters, and 96 pages of adventure?

Dump 80 of those pages back into the setting section, and I'd feel a lot better about considering getting it.

<Edit> - Savage Worlds does a lot of 1-page adventures, and 1-page dungeons are a thing many people have done for 5E. I'd love to see that here for any campaign settings they do in the future, giving you enough ideas to use the setting, but not bogging down or intruding upon information for the setting.

 

[Vinicius Lessa]

I've had luck with this:

Your faction comes with a Belief. At any point, you can state that you are doing something because of your belief. If there's some significant drawback that happens to you because of what you do, you'll gain Inspiration. Examples might include: Rejecting healing if you're a Sinker, doing the first bad idea that comes into your head as a Cipher, or giving help to someone who needs it at significant personal cost if you're a Bleaker. The DM is the final judge on whether or not you acting in line with your belief gives you a significant drawback, and note that the drawback must be personal - causing problems for your fellow party members isn't very cash money of you, and your belief isn't an excuse to be a fart.​

​

Anyone can have a belief and gain Inspiration for acting in accordance with it. If you're a member of a Faction, though, you gain an additional benefit: you can spend your Inspiration to use a faction ability. The greater your reputation within your faction, the more powerful abilities you can access.​

This makes it:

• something the player can trigger (the player defines their beliefs, and states when their belief is relevant), which is nice because I don't want to keep 5 different motives in my head for every PC's action.
• something I can overrule if there's shenanigans, which is nice because absolutely some of these can be shenanigans if there's no guidelines.
• something that makes the game more interesting, because it requires that the PC suffer some problem to get the Inspiration. There's no benefit to adhering to your belief without cost. Beliefs are only powerful when they are tested.
• something that rewards the player for hosing themselves, encouraging players hosing themselves, which is an important part of the
• something that lets me use the 2e tiered faction abilities, more or less, and ties them to rank within a faction rather than level.

This is exactly what I had in mind, thanks. For the exact powers each faction could give, there's a great fanmade 5e planescape pdf flying around that gives lots of suggestions. I think it's by author "Greyleaf", IIRC.

Also, in pure story now! fashion, I would love to see those same belief "flags" to be not only sources of PC powers, but also kickers for the GM to challenge, build situations around, and drive adventures.

These two would make the campaigns really about the PCs beliefs and convictions, and not have them just as secondary gimmicks to your default heroic fantasy hack & slashing. Planescape is so ripe for these adventures with so many hooks - the philosophical factions, the planes as embodiment of ideas, etc. that it would be a disappointment seeing this new edition present that only in style and a coat of paint, and no actual substance (guidelines/procedures/mechanics) to back it up.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

They could create magic item whose prequisites to be attuned were loyalty to some faction.

 

[Quickleaf]

This is exactly what I had in mind, thanks. For the exact powers each faction could give, there's a great fanmade 5e planescape pdf flying around that gives lots of suggestions. I think it's by author "Greyleaf", IIRC.

Also, in pure story now! fashion, I would love to see those same belief "flags" to be not only sources of PC powers, but also kickers for the GM to challenge, build situations around, and drive adventures.

These two would make the campaigns really about the PCs beliefs and convictions, and not have them just as secondary gimmicks to your default heroic fantasy hack & slashing. Planescape is so ripe for these adventures with so many hooks - the philosophical factions, the planes as embodiment of ideas, etc. that it would be a disappointment seeing this new edition present that only in style and a coat of paint, and no actual substance (guidelines/procedures/mechanics) to back it up.

Might have been yours truly: Planescape - Planescape: Fantasy Taken to the Edge (5e conversion)

Another poster here (@I'm A Banana IIRC) did a 5e writeup for Planescape factions too that's quite good: Current Project - Jacob's Personal Wiki