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5e Planescape- What would you like to see in the upcoming setting?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8978551" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>If Zeb Cook had done it, yeah, maybe that would be the biggest issue.</p><p></p><p>But Monte Cook (no relation) did it and would have done the follow-up.</p><p></p><p>And I don't think he has the mind, or the taste level, or even the basic interest in philosophy as well demonstrated by his own works - which are often excellent in many regards, but philosophically vapid - he's great at setting up a conflict, but terrible at coming up with ideologies - they tend to be simplistic as hell even compared to Planescape's Factions (which aren't exactly super-complex). You can see this in Ptolus, Numenera, Diamond Throne.</p><p></p><p>I like his work but he was absolutely the wrong person to mess with the Factions. It's like having U2 do a follow-up album for Rage Against The Machine or something. It's not like either band dislikes the other (directly the contrary, even, they're buds and have toured together), but U2 could not do RatM's style (not even Sunday Bloody Sunday comes close).</p><p></p><p>If he'd had his druthers, I daresay we'd have just had a bunch of super-bland Factions dumbed down just like the Mind's Eye and Sons of Mercy. And he'd have been very satisfied with it - it'd probably have had more obvious conflicts, too - but it would have been about 5% as interesting and daring, and instead been very trope-y and obvious.</p><p></p><p>The reason I'm advocating for a retcon is that I do not believe WotC currently employs anyone who has the interest in philosophy and thought to do anything good with the Factions in a post-Faction War scenario. Nor the love for Planescape/Sigil. But I am confident they could simply reboot what already existed without a problem.</p><p></p><p>Even authors I like have screwed this up - 4E's DMG 2 version of Sigil being a prime example. We have no idea (AFAIK) who actually wrote that, but James Wyatt, who I normally respect, signed off on it. And it's basically a straight-up <em>hate crime</em> against Sigil. And we know there are people out there who realllllllly hate Sigil/Planescape/the Factions.</p><p></p><p>Also totally irrelevant but Sigil is incredibly funny as a name if you use the American pronunciation (which I doubt Zeb Cook intended), because it rhymes with "wiggle", whereas in British English it's "Si-Jil" which sounds much more uh, serious. I had to check after Crawford pronounced it that way lol (interestingly the American D&D players I know IRL who I've discussed Planescape with all pronounced it the British way, when I think about it - I'd have been lying on the floor laughing otherwise).</p><p></p><p>TLDR: Don't smash something someone else made unless you know how to put it back together.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8978551, member: 18"] If Zeb Cook had done it, yeah, maybe that would be the biggest issue. But Monte Cook (no relation) did it and would have done the follow-up. And I don't think he has the mind, or the taste level, or even the basic interest in philosophy as well demonstrated by his own works - which are often excellent in many regards, but philosophically vapid - he's great at setting up a conflict, but terrible at coming up with ideologies - they tend to be simplistic as hell even compared to Planescape's Factions (which aren't exactly super-complex). You can see this in Ptolus, Numenera, Diamond Throne. I like his work but he was absolutely the wrong person to mess with the Factions. It's like having U2 do a follow-up album for Rage Against The Machine or something. It's not like either band dislikes the other (directly the contrary, even, they're buds and have toured together), but U2 could not do RatM's style (not even Sunday Bloody Sunday comes close). If he'd had his druthers, I daresay we'd have just had a bunch of super-bland Factions dumbed down just like the Mind's Eye and Sons of Mercy. And he'd have been very satisfied with it - it'd probably have had more obvious conflicts, too - but it would have been about 5% as interesting and daring, and instead been very trope-y and obvious. The reason I'm advocating for a retcon is that I do not believe WotC currently employs anyone who has the interest in philosophy and thought to do anything good with the Factions in a post-Faction War scenario. Nor the love for Planescape/Sigil. But I am confident they could simply reboot what already existed without a problem. Even authors I like have screwed this up - 4E's DMG 2 version of Sigil being a prime example. We have no idea (AFAIK) who actually wrote that, but James Wyatt, who I normally respect, signed off on it. And it's basically a straight-up [I]hate crime[/I] against Sigil. And we know there are people out there who realllllllly hate Sigil/Planescape/the Factions. Also totally irrelevant but Sigil is incredibly funny as a name if you use the American pronunciation (which I doubt Zeb Cook intended), because it rhymes with "wiggle", whereas in British English it's "Si-Jil" which sounds much more uh, serious. I had to check after Crawford pronounced it that way lol (interestingly the American D&D players I know IRL who I've discussed Planescape with all pronounced it the British way, when I think about it - I'd have been lying on the floor laughing otherwise). TLDR: Don't smash something someone else made unless you know how to put it back together. [/QUOTE]
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