Planescape Check Out The Planescape Character Options

WotC has unveiled some of the character options to be found in the upcoming Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse setting in a D&D Beyond article and a video.

The player options include two backgrounds and a handful of feats. The backgrounds are the Gate Warden and the Planer Philosopher, and the feats include Scion of the Outer planes, which gives you a damage resistance and a cantrip based on the plane you have a connect with. For example, a chaotic Outer Place give you resistance to poison and access to the minor illusion cantrip, which the Outlands give you resistance to psychic damage and the mage hand cantrip. Also included are a couple of new spells and some magic items.

Preview Planescape Character Options for Your Multiversal Adventures

This article is a deep dive into the backgrounds and feats found in the three-book set Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse!

www.dndbeyond.com

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[Micah Sweet]

I don't think it's a matter of quality, so much as negotiating a deal with the 3rd party. Matt Mercer is pretty chummy with WotC. Keith Barker's Eberron stuff would be a logical next move, but it would require both sides to negotiate a mutually beneficial arrangement. And KB seems to want to move away from Eberron at the moment.

Yes, like most decisions in the industry, this one is based far more on $$$ than it is on good design or creativity. Who gets WotC's gold star is a business decision.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes, like most decisions in the industry, this one is based far more on $$$ than it is on good design or creativity. Who gets WotC's gold star is a business decision.

All decisions in business are based on profit. That's the point of doing business. If you make unprofitable decisions, very soon you find yourself with no business.

 

[Parmandur]

All decisions in business are based on profit. That's the point of doing business. If you make unprofitable decisions, very soon you find yourself with no business.

All those old TSR products were chasing profits.

 

[bedir than]

I would have no problem if this book had no player options and was just glorious setting content, but it's not, and it's being sold to folks as having meaningful player content and its got dregs of player content, just enough to say it does.

So WotC is rightfully getting raked over the coals for this in the video comments and likely across the internet too.

People upset about a single video mentioning a single chapter don't have a leg to stand on. Would they spew vitriol about a video discussing two dozen monsters? No.

No one at Wizards is selling this as a player-centric book no matter how loud the claim is

They are in the Monster book. Better than a specific Player option, I'd rather they made general rules to turn any Monster into a PC.

That exists in the DMG btw

 

[Parmandur]

That exists in the DMG btw

Weeeeell, sort of. Those are templates to change NPC stat blocks into various Humanoids, and they say offhand can also work for making PCs. Not very robust though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

All decisions in business are based on profit. That's the point of doing business. If you make unprofitable decisions, very soon you find yourself with no business.

Its an important factor, but it doesn't always trump all other considerations like it to does with WotC.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Its an important factor, but it doesn't always trump all other considerations like it to does with WotC.

If it doesn't trump other considerations, the company will go out of business, and there will be no product.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If it doesn't trump other considerations, the company will go out of business, and there will be no product.

I guarantee you that a game company can be financially solvent while not basing every creative decision for the game they make on which choice will make the most money for our shareholders. Like almost everything else, its not either/or, no matter how much easier pretending it is makes your rhetoric.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

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WotC has unveiled some of the character options to be found in the upcoming Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse setting in a D&D Beyond article and a video.

The player options include two backgrounds and a handful of feats. The backgrounds are the Gate Warden and the Planer Philosopher, and the feats include Scion of the Outer planes, which gives you a damage resistance and a cantrip based on the plane you have a connect with. For example, a chaotic Outer Place give you resistance to poison and access to the minor illusion cantrip, which the Outlands give you resistance to psychic damage and the mage hand cantrip. Also included are a couple of new spells and some magic items.

Preview Planescape Character Options for Your Multiversal Adventures

This article is a deep dive into the backgrounds and feats found in the three-book set Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse!

www.dndbeyond.com

​

So question, do they have rules for PC Bariaurs or is the picture of a Bariaur in association with "PC options" just a wind-up lol?

It seems like the monster book would have room for some PC races honestly.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

All decisions in business are based on profit. That's the point of doing business. If you make unprofitable decisions, very soon you find yourself with no business.

Firstly, I think that's an overstatement - decisions don't tend to be as pure as you're suggesting, and indeed, when people try to make them that pure, they usually screw up and end up driving audiences away (this can be seen across a variety of products and media).

Secondly, even if we see this as true, this product is prima facie evidence that WotC aren't very good at making profit-centric decisions with D&D. The reality is, for example, that crunch sells (demonstrated across decades of RPGs, very much including WotC ones), but WotC have been doing less and less crunch for quite some time.

I have no doubt that a Planescape which had more player options - like races, factions which were actually mechanical, and so on, would sell more copies than this one will, simply because people who aren't intending to run Planescape will pick it up for those options.

This is, if anything, evidence of a company kind of going against its best financial interests.