Questions about Planesacape 3e (or 3.5 whatever...)

[brun]

I have a few questions about Planescape third edition and hoped you might help me a bit.

I know that planewalker is working on it. And their products are called official. But the license is still owned by WotC. And at least their prewiews are not produced by WotC. So ... Who will produce the final work? Will it be like other settings where Wizards produce the core rules and another company the rest? Will everything be labelled as WotC?

And who are these people?
Ken Marable
Ed Owaki
Peter Schombert
Gabriel Sorrel
Sarah Wallen
Johannes Weyrauc

Have they worked on other projects before? I don't seem to recall any of these names.

Oh yeah, and even though the core mechanics, that is, feats and races will be released at Gen Con, when will we see a final product?

 

[Murrdox]

I've never played Planescape... I stopped playing 2nd Edition before I discovered it.

But Planescape: Torment (the Black Isle PC game) made me fall in love with the setting, and we do a bunch of planar traveling in some of our 3E D&D campaigns as a result.

I haven't heard anything about a 3E Planescape yet... can you post some links?

 

[brun]

Here is the main link
planewalker

You can also check
city of doors initiative

 

[crater]

Many of those working on PS3E can be found at the Planescape board at www.realmsofevil.net
Like Mr Blonde says: These guys have forgotten more about Planescape than you or I will ever know!

 

[Southern Oracle]

Just as with DarkSun, Mystara, and Birthright, Wizards of the Coast has given permission to the webmasters of the official fan sites for those campaign settings to convert old material to 3E/3.5E. No one has licensed Planescape or any of those other worlds at this time...the only ones currently licensed are Ravenloft (to White Wolf) and Dragonlance (to Sovereign Stone).

What you see on Planewalker is what you're going to get. They'll add artwork, of course, and probably convert it to pdf format, but there aren't going to be any hardcover books or boxed sets, if that's what you're looking for.

The people you listed are all dedicated fans of Planescape that have put a lot of their own time and effort into bringing the greatest campaign setting ever devised up to speed with the current edition. Ken Marable is grand poobah over the project since Brannon Hollingsworth (former webmaster of planewalker) ascended to game designer and art director for Bastion Press. (Ken has done some game design for Bastion Press as well, most notably the Oathbound campaign setting.) Gabriel Sorrel is the man cracking the whip over all us creative types, and he's the public face for the project. You can catch his attention on the Wizards of the Coast Planescape boards or over at the City-of-Doors Initiative for Neverwinter Nights. Sarah Wallen is the lady who got the planewalker website back in shape. I'm afraid I don't recognize the names of the other people you listed, but I'm sure they're just as dedicated and hardworking as those mentioned above.

In answer to your last question, a project like this will likely never be complete. It's hard enough to get people to meet deadlines when you pay them...quadruple the time when people are designing and editing for free. This project started right after 3E debuted, and we're just now seeing the fruits of fandom labor. Some people have real jobs that draw them away from the project (like me), while others find their design talents better suited for commercial aspects (like Brannon). Still others simply get tired and quit. C'est la vie.

Check out what they've got on planewalker.com so far...the races, skills, and feats are all up, so you can certainly start up a campaign. Until the "official" version of the factions is released, try using my prestige classes to tide you over...track down a back issue of Dragon #287 for six of them, then follow the link in my signature for the rest. Yes, there will be prestige classes in the Planescape 3E version but no, that is not the mechanic decided to handle the factions. You'll just have to wait and see.

 

[DaveMage]

Southern Oracle: A big THANK YOU to you and those like you who do spend the time "pro bono" to enhance the Planescape universe. It was my favorite 2E setting, and keeping it alive for 3.0/3.5E is most appreciated.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Actually, the method they used for the factions is pretty much out there right now -- feats.

What used to be free faction abilities now are more varied, more individual, and more flexible -- you choose them as feats when you level up.

The higher ranks of the faction (like the Doomlords) are done through PrC's.

Me? I'm pretty involved in it, but I'm distant enough to take grains of salt. I'll be putting up my own personal PS3e campaign on Stuff, Etc. at some point, which will use a lot of the same rules but differ on some subtle levels, I'm sure.

And, yeah, theirs is the officially licenced 3e conversion of the Planescape campaign setting. And it's scrumptious. It'll basically wind up, I think, like the Dark Sun conversion did on Athas.org. And the names are basically bloods over at Planewalker and PS3e that are the most intensely involved in the conversion project.

 

[Shemeska]

The Sigil draft is on the way as well, just needs editing before it too is ready to release. If it's not gutted in the editing process anyways.

And Chris, with Sarah Wallen you say she brought the website back up... if you're referring to the new page design, that's a different Sarah the webmonkey girl who did the new page, FYI.

 

[Southern Oracle]

And Chris, with Sarah Wallen you say she brought the website back up... if you're referring to the new page design, that's a different Sarah the webmonkey girl who did the new page, FYI.

My bad. Apologies to Sarah Wallen, whomever she may be...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

When I think about Torment, I pimp myself

[pimping myself]

I fell in love with Planescape while waiting for the Torment game. Great freaking game. Best. Game. Ever. Anyway, I wrote a humor site for it. It's hosted by some other folks now and it has mucho ads, but for those who are interested: http://torment.db-forge.com/ouch/

A sample:

Becker: Hello and once again welcome to the Torment Interviews. With us today is a very special guest, Morte the Mimir.

Morte: Thanks, but I'd like to correct you there. I'm not actually a Mimir, I only play one in Torment. Not every single decapitated head you meet is an ever flowing wellspring of information and knowledge you know.

Becker: I see.

Morte: Well, it's a stereotype. I mean how would you feel if I randomly walked up to you and assumed that you had a fundamental understanding of the fabric of time and space just because you had legs?


[/pimp]