Grim Tales for Planescape?

[whydirt]

I find it interesting that a couple of you have said that you'd stick with DnD classes for Planescape. I'd always thought that the DnD rules (especially 2nd edition) held back the setting.

 

[Desdichado]

I find it interesting that a couple of you have said that you'd stick with DnD classes for Planescape. I'd always thought that the DnD rules (especially 2nd edition) held back the setting.

Well, 2e held back everything associated with it (I didn't recommend it because I'd ever play it again, but if they guy wants Hackmaster for PS, that seems like more trouble than it's worth), but I don't know how D&D itself can hold back Planescape. After all, Planescape was built around such essential D&Disms that I don't know how else you'd do Planescape. I'm curious what you mean here; I'm not a huge fan of the D&Disms and I typically play other d20 games that are not D&D because of it, but even I can't think of any other way to play Planescape that is even vaguely reminiscent of the setting without using the D&D rules pretty much as is.

 

[whydirt]

double post

 

[whydirt]

Well, 2e held back everything associated with it (I didn't recommend it because I'd ever play it again, but if they guy wants Hackmaster for PS, that seems like more trouble than it's worth), but I don't know how D&D itself can hold back Planescape. After all, Planescape was built around such essential D&Disms that I don't know how else you'd do Planescape. I'm curious what you mean here; I'm not a huge fan of the D&Disms and I typically play other d20 games that are not D&D because of it, but even I can't think of any other way to play Planescape that is even vaguely reminiscent of the setting without using the D&D rules pretty much as is.

As an example, I ran a short PS campaign using Mutants and Masterminds for a ruleset. It allowed for diverse characters that would have been much tougher to build and balance using DnD. One was an artificer's apprentice who's body was replaced by clay golem after a failed experiement. Another was a warrior from an exotic prime world who became stranded in Limbo and became infused with chaos energy from the plane. Both of these characters could have been made in DnD through use of templates or unique classes, but MnM allowed for these characters to be built quickly from the ground up.

Obviously you could run Planescape in DnD3e very easily and have it be fun. I'm just looking for some alternatives, and while MnM works well for high-powered games, I thought Grim Tales could work nicely for a planar game with more grit.

 

[Desdichado]

Probably so; but a big part of the problem is that survival on the planes, particularly on the really hostile planes, requires the D&D magic system pretty much intact, I'd think.

Of course, if you just spend most of your time in Sigil, or otherwise on the Outlands, then you're probably OK. But you'll have to avoid most of the really exotic locales so your PCs don't all burn to ash in the Plane of Fire, for instance, or shrivel and die in the Plane of Negative Energy.

Note: I'm not going to say you can't do Planescape without D&D; I'm a big fan of adopting settings into rulesets that I like, but without D&D, I'd think it'd lose some of it's Planescapy distinctiveness.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing; I think a game using Grim Tales, the Manuall of the Planes, the old Planescape ESD and maybe even Beyond Countless Doorways that tossed some of the Planescape conventions and ran with the ones you did like, would be tons of fun. But it wouldn't really be Planescape anymore.

 

[Von Ether]

Hmmm, how about d20 Modern, fantasy style?

*combat is deadler, hence more grit
*more modular critters and classes to create new things on the fly (especially funky outsiders)
*uses DnD magic at a lower level, so offering a more low powered setting
*DnD stuff can be tweaked to in to fit.