A Planescape question

[Psion]

Added note: We have some factions on the forums at planewalker as well from Christopher Campbell (same guy what did the stuff in Dragon)

How about Godsmen and Signers?

Mind's Eye? What are you talking about?

Faction war? There was no "faction war". I'm not listening. lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala

 

[Clueless]

Well - post a response to Chris's classes and harrass him for them. Thats how i got the indeps outta him.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Faction war? Mind's eye? What?

I only bought the first suppliment or two - I din't want to spend more money after my old gaming group decided they didn't like it out here.

So please, tell me more!

 

[Sammael]

WHAT Faction War? I will never accept that blasphemy as canon for Planescape.

 

[Psion]

Faction war? Mind's eye? What?

I only bought the first suppliment or two - I din't want to spend more money after my old gaming group decided they didn't like it out here.

So please, tell me more!

Faction War is the last released PS titled book. It's an adventure. It shakes up the factions real good.

[sblock]To sum up, I'll nick the wikipedia:

• The Believers of the Source, the Mercykillers, and the Sign of One were wiped out in the fighting, while the Bleak Cabal, the Dustmen, the Free League, the Society of Sensation, the Transcendant Order, and the Xaositects disbanded (although many former members continue to hold the same beliefs as they did under faction rule). The six remaining factions chose to leave Sigil behind. All former faction leaders gave up their claims to control over the city, handing it over to elected civil servants.
• The Mercykillers were forced to split into two much smaller groups, the Sons of Mercy and the Sodkillers -- two smaller factions which long ago joined to form the Mercykillers. The Sons of Mercy are concerned with redeeming and rehabilitating criminals, whereas the Sodkillers believe in simply exterminating them. Both remained in Sigil.
• The survivors of the Believers of the Source and the Sign of One merged into a completely new faction known as the Mind's Eye. (Ack -- spitooey!)
• The Athar fled the city to the base of the Spire, the region of the Outlands where all magic (including that of the gods) fails, to escape the wrath of the deities whom they defied. Their membership has declined due to the isolation of their new base.
• The Doomguard was decimated in the Faction War. Most of its survivors fled to the four Inner Planar citadels maintained by the faction on the borders of the Negative Energy Plane. The Doomguard now rarely leave their citadels, making forays outside only when some great act of creation (such as the formation of a new demiplane) demands a retributive act of destruction.
• The Fraternity of Order relocated to the plane of Mechanus, where they already had several strongholds. The Guvners continue to delve into the laws of the planes and plot their eventual return to Sigil, which they still believe to be the fulcrum around which all worlds turn.
• The planar chapter of the Harmonium relocated to the plane of Arcadia. They have become less of a police force and more of a diplomatic body. The Harmonium now believes that the best way to spread order is to peacefully unite the Upper Planes under the banner of law rather than forced conversion to their ideals.
• The Fated suffered a great loss of face because it was their factol, Duke Darkwood, who started the Faction War in the first place. They've moved their base of operations to Ysgard, but have otherwise changed little in their methods.
• The Revolutionary League retreated to the plane of Carceri, where most of its cells fell into disarray. Most of the remaining Anarchists seek to return to Sigil in force to become its new rulers. Other members of the League are apalled at the thought of ruling anything and have formed a splinter group, the Second Wave; these "Wavers" take the dissolution of the factions as proof that any political structure can fall and have spread to numerous planar metropolises to stir up rebellion.

According to Monte Cook, many of these were not intended to be permanent, but the follow up products never got written, and subsequent 3e material assumes that's the way things got left. Including supporting the "mind's eye" faction but not the Godsmen and Signers (my two favorite factions.)[/sblock]

 

[Clueless]

It was an extremely unpopular shift in the city which basicly dumped the factions out of power in the city (and encouraged them to spread out into the planes). Unfortunately follow up to the adventure weren't published b/c the line was ended so it left a foul taste in a lot of players' mouths. Personally I view it as a chance to make it clear that the factions have power in places outside the city, force them into deeper levels of intrigue, get a few new players on the board of politics there - and eventually apply the principle of 'Unity of Rings' and bring them back in, just in a different form.

 

[I'm A Banana]

People hate FW, but more people hate Die, Vecna, Die.... FW's main villain was the factol of the Fated, Rowan Darkwood, who basically started a war in Sigil.

In my "1000 years later" PS setting, I've embraced FW as a chance to shift around some of the comfortable favorites and make some important. I also helped design the system that Planewalker uses to translate the factions into 3e, which, IMHO, is the best way to do faction powers; more flexible than PrC's, and more integrated than templates...

Faction War has a bad rep, basically. A lot of fans see it as the "nail in the coffin" for Planescape, because it was the last real product for the setting. They saw it as TSR trying to kill off the setting (versus just letting it die like the other 2e settings. ). Perhaps it's a little aosiXtect of me, but I welcome the change it brought.

It has cool potential. I actually like the Mind's Eye enough to keep it around, because I don't think that the Sensates or the Signers loose anything by joining up, but gain a very interesting synergy. I kept the Doomguard as a marginal sect (they do the whole "terrorist cells" thing REALLY well, and I figure they would welcome their own entropy). Made the Sons of Mercy (aka: The Wussguard) a little bit more hardcore, made the Sodkillers more philosophical ("Survival of the fittest!"), added some jazz/blues/bebop flavor to Sigil, promoted the Escathon, and just had fun with it. It really allowed every DM to make the setting their own in a powerful way.

Not that, you know, I wouldn't like some resolution to this dangling thread...just that I think at this point, most people would not like the resolution as don't like FW right now.

 

[Clueless]

I'm hoping - once Planewalker finishes working up the campaign setting (and any revisions based on reader input - you *are* still in contact with us for that project - *right*? ) - that we'll get the chance to work up a series of adventures and modules to make faction war a little more edible for fans, and fix some of the problems that were left at the end of things.

 

[glass]

People hate FW, but more people hate Die, Vecna, Die.... FW's main villain was the factol of the Fated, Rowan Darkwood, who basically started a war in Sigil.

What was wrong eith Die, Vecna, Die?

I never had it or played it, but I always thought it sounded pretty cool. And I've never heard complaints about it the way I have about Faction War.


glass.

 

[Clueless]

Planescapers refuse to speak of it is all. It doesn't exist.