Planescape Do You Care About Planescape Lore?

[Tony Vargas]

I run two 4e campaigns, but I wonder why it is that the 4e lore doesn't resonate with me. Is it drier? Am I just a different age than I was 15 years ago?

Part of it may be that it's more generic. The Astral Sea is just kinda formless and anything could be there, while the Great Wheel has a form and a sense of everything slotted into place.

Also, the "Points of Light" conceit extends even to the astral and the gods themselves, with the Lattice of Heaven still in pieces and souls after-living like war refugees.

OTOH, I find the Dawn War quite evocative (since it echos the Gods & Titans of Greek mythology) and it's sparked a lot of ideas.

 

[Yora]

I care very much about Planescape. But I don't care at all for 5th Edition, so whatever....

 

[Incenjucar]

Rehashes are generally pretty bad, and not especially valuable given the PDFs are now available, and books can be reprinted. Planescape's actual rules were always pretty terrible, but the fluff is perfectly good for any edition or even other game systems, and the setting was mostly fluff anyway. Put in the rules necessary to play in the setting, but otherwise just point people at the original works with the original spark, ideally minus the absurd bookkeeping charts.

 

[pemerton]

minus the absurd bookkeeping charts.

What are Planescape's absurd bookkeeping charts?

 

[tangleknot]

The +1 to this, and -1 to that given a planes alignment compared to yours plus any odd weather patterns that maybe happening.

or +1 to -6 levels of divine magic a cleric fluctuates dependent on how far they might be from their deity?

or -1 to -4 bonuses weapons and armor experience when you travel to other planes beyond where it was made?

BTW I probably don't have all the +'s and -'s perfect above, I never played Planescape with clerics due to them being neutered, the plane adjustments were rare but fun when they happened and the weapon adjustments were pretty easy to keep track of, and required players to bring an assortment of weapons to defeat their foes. "Got to kill Balor" "I got the perfect weapon for this!"

 

[DMZ2112]

What are Planescape's absurd bookkeeping charts?

I, for one, am reminded of the one in the original boxed set that resorts to an enormous grid of symbols to show on which planes each school of magic is negated, enhanced, or altered in some way. The immediate text defines "negated" and "enhanced," I believe, but to find the plane-specific meaning of "altered" you still have to look up the plane's write-up.

I always found that one particularly egregious. The arbitrary magic rules are definitely my least favorite part of Planescape.

 

[Incenjucar]

All of the above.

The good parts of Planescape are everything but the rules, and those good parts are very unlikely to be rewritten as well as they were when they were someone's brand new passion.

 

[pemerton]

The +1 to this, and -1 to that given a planes alignment compared to yours

<snip>

+1 to -6 levels of divine magic a cleric fluctuates dependent on how far they might be from their deity

<snip>

-1 to -4 bonuses weapons and armor experience when you travel to other planes beyond where it was made

an enormous grid of symbols to show on which planes each school of magic is negated, enhanced, or altered in some way.

Thanks. I remember all that stuff from the AD&D Manual of the Planes, but it didn't have it in charts, just in text descriptions.

 

[DMZ2112]

Thanks. I remember all that stuff from the AD&D Manual of the Planes, but it didn't have it in charts, just in text descriptions.

It's definitely legacy. A holdover from the time when the planes were AD&D's "epic" setting. Difficulty masquerading as challenge.

 

[Savage Wombat]

It's definitely legacy. A holdover from the time when the planes were AD&D's "epic" setting. Difficulty masquerading as challenge.

Which means, if you think about it, that it's not Planescape's fault.