A new Planescape record - visiting 7 outer planes in one session

[Sammael]

Thanks for all the compliments! I'll post stuff for the other nine planes tonight when I get home from work.

As for the party problems, I think there are several reasons.

First, one of the players pretty much can't stand another player (the girl whose birthday it was, let's call her Player A) and he was absent that night. Usually, his characters display a great deal of intolerance towards her characters, but he wraps it all up in good role-play and it never comes to actual aggression, just a lot of bickering.

Play styles of the four regular players in that campaign are wildly different.

System knowledge is likewise very different.

A lot of it stems from the fact that Player A usually plays very similar characters who resemble her in real life - loud, full of crazy ideas, fairly chaotic, no respect for authority, doesn't listen much to what others have to say (because she likes to push her own ideas).

Now, I, as the DM, know how to handle this sort of player (don't let her hog the spotlight, but give her enough time so that she doesn't feel left out; allow one or two of her crazy ideas to work; etc).

However, other players are still quite irritated by her general behavior, and simply can't resist being argumentative with her (even though they know it will accomplish nothing).

The game flows better when I limit the options and steer them in certain directions, but I don't like railroading that much and it can sometimes be counterproductive (e.g. the players start feeling that NPCs are pushing them around, and so on).

 

[Sammael]

Incidentally, aside from the already mentioned Planewalker site, which is a superb resource, I can highly recommend Li Po's Planescape guide (don't mind the late 1990s site layout and pictures, it's really full of useful information and includes oodles of inspirational links).

Also, Mimir used to be really good, but I haven't been there in a while.

 

[Madeiner]

Thanks for the links, i'm having a look!
Maybe i'll finally understand why dustmen don't commit suicide or just get themselves killed, for example

 

[Sammael]

Here's the original document I prepared for the session (that's pretty much ALL the prep work I did, story wise; "symbols" that are mentioned are parts of the key I wrote about in the first post):

Arcadia
Show that you are willing to sacrifice yourself for the common good. Hold the fort against superior odds.

Mount Celestia
Show charity, justice, fortitude, temperance, hope, faith, and prudence

Bytopia
Payment for an honest day’s work

Elysium
Ask and you shall receive

Beastlands
Save animals from hunter depredations

Arborea
Win three competitions

Ysgard
Steal symbol from the giants

Limbo
Shape symbol from chaos matter

Pandemonium
Decipher insane ramblings of egomaniacs to see who has the symbol

Abyss
Skin a huge goristro demon

Carceri
Find out which of the compulsive liars has the symbol

Gray Waste
Conquer apathy and death, wrest symbol from Cerberus

Gehenna
Bribe your way through

Baator
Sell your soul or help ambitious underling

Acheron
Capture the flag

Mechanus
Bureaucratic nightmare

 

[Sammael]

And here are the more detailed plans I made up (in my head). Hopefully, I'll get to use them

Arcadia
A dwarven batallion is holding its own against an invasion of formians. If the party agrees to help the dwarves, and the party fights without fear, accepting that they may die in defense of the dwarven village, they will be rewarded with the symbol - a badge of honor.

Mount Celestia
An archon will assume various disguises to test the party's charity, justice, fortitude, temperance, hope, faith, and prudence. Regardless of whether he is pleased with the results, he will hand them the key in the end - its value is immaterial here - but they will have to endure a lengthy lecture about their failings (if any) before they get it.

Bytopia
The folk of Bytopia dislike adventurers. But even an adventurer is capable of taking up a shovel or a pick and doing an honest day’s work. And those who do will be rewarded.

Pandemonium
As they exit the portal, they are picked up by a wind current and carried through the freezing tunnels until they land, battered and bruised, in a Bleak Cabal camp. The Bleakers are taking care of some poor insane sods - egomaniacs with delusions of grandeur, each and every one of them. Each will claim that he has the key but, in reality, neither does. However, their insane ramblings will contain a clue as to where the key can be found.

Abyss
A fairly straightforward task: the symbol they seek is tattooed on a huge goristro demon. All they have to do to get it is kill him - but be careful enough to avoid damaging the symbol.

Carceri
They find themselves in a prison corridor with six prison cells, each containing a compulsive liar (make them all planar creatures to spice things up). One of them has the key, but finding out which one will require some skillful questioning.

Gehenna
The item is held by the petty yugoloth warlord of the city-state they enter (they should see him carrying it around... from a safe distance). To get to the warlord, they will have to bribe their way up or take up less than savory missions for those who can open up the door leading to the next in line. By the end of this mission, the whole party should feel exceedingly slimy.

Baator
Once again, the item is in plain sight - and the devil who owns it is more than willing to sell it. The meager price is... their souls.

Of course, the devil has an ambitious underling who calls the party to the side and explains that if he were in charge, he'd GLADLY give them the item. Direct violence is unacceptable, of course. There will have to be incriminating evidence... Blood War draft dodging... consorting with angels... failing to secure souls... and so on, and so forth.

Mechanus
The party enters a huge steampunk-ish office building, with countless counters and windows, each manned by a modron. They inquire about the item at the information counter, and are told that they must fill request form #239b, sold at window 1. Which is, of course, located on the sixth floor, next to window 28. Once they reach window 1, they are told to obtain permit #18g and fill out section 7, subsection c. Of course, the modron has no clue where to obtain that permit. So they'll wander from window to window, from counter to counter, from office to office, until they (A) die of exhaustion (B) go insane (C) resort to violence or (D) try to find a loophole. The item in question is actually located at the information desk.

Asterix fans should recall the famous scene from The Twelve Tasks of Asterix.