Yora
Legend
Since I wrapped up my last 5th edition campaign 2 years ago, I've been on and off thinking about an idea for a Planescape campaign. And when the other options are AD&D and 3rd edition, 5th edition looks like a really good choice. At some point, I even made a whole bunch of conversions of more obscure monsters from the 2nd edition monster supplements, and adjusted the non-Monster Manual planar monsters to have their relatively power levels match the original hierarchy already.
Now that I see the murmuring about new Planescape books for 5th edition, this seems to be as good a time to look for players as there ever will be. And I won't even have to wait for those to come out.
I do have a general outline for antagonists, allies, and conflicts, and just would like to hear what people think about these and how I could build on the existing setting material to develop it into a full campaign.
The thing I always found the most disappointing with the planes is that it seems to be 90% Abyss and Baator, with the remaining stuff being Sigil, Limbo, and the Plane of Fire. But there are so many more places with cool concept that I imagine almost no D&D players ever got to see. So with my campaign, I want to focus of the chaotic inbetween planes: Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Carceri, and Gehenna. With yugoloths as the main fiendish power, and the Bleak Cabal, Doomguard, Dustmen, Fated, and Revolutionary League as the primary factions getting involved.
At the center of the campaign is the Heart of Darkness, a gigantic Sphere of Annihilation 200 feet across that is burried beneath the ice of the lowest layer of Carceri. An arcanaloth (the big bad) has learned of its existence and sees it as the key to destroy his rivals and rise closer to the top of the yugoloth hierarchy. Being a high ranking yugoloth, he has no concern for the widespread death and destruction unleashing this artifact might leave behind. But in his search about the Heart's exact location and a way to control it, the secret leaks out and others realize what he's after and what is at stake.
One of these is a rogue asura, who has decided that this artifact would be an incredibly powerful weapon to fight evil and that she must possess it. To that end, she is gathering a crusade of Fated in Ysgard, who believe that might makes right, and the asura is promising them a lot of might to shape the planes to their will. The church of Selûne based in Ysgard is deeply concerned about that, since a huge sphere of annihilation sounds like right in the domain of Shar. They want to see the asura stopped, but are hesitant to go to war with another being of Good.
The Revolutionary League learns of this crusade and they see two parties fighting over an artifact that will give incredible power to whoever possesses. Power always creates tyrants in the eyes of the Anarchists and no person should ever possess a power like this. So they have to stop it from falling into anyone's hands, (Though there are of course some Anarchists who think that maybe they should keep it themselves to destroy the authorities.)
And to the Doomguard, such a vast manifestation of Entropy must belong only to them!
(No idea yet how the Bleak Cabal and Dustmen play into this, but they fit thr general mood.)
My modified stats for arcanaloth had them at CR 15, so the PCs could potentially face off against one as the final showdown as early as 10th level. I also don't have a lot of experience with running 5th edition, so I want to start at 1st level and let the campaign get gradually more complex as powers and encounter are concerned. So 1st to 10th level is roughly what I am aiming for. Nothing too overly crazy ambitious.
I want to start in the Outlands with native planar characters, with tieflings and githzerai as options in addition to the original D&D races. (Though I'll probably recommend against picking druids because of where the adventures will be going, and against paladins because the NPCs they will deal with will be overwhelmingly chaotic.) Outland is the most normal of all the planes with nothing too crazy going on, so a good place to get everyone settled in and slowly introduce the Planescape weirdness. Early adventures into the Beastlands might also be a good idea because things are pretty straightforward there with generally friendly NPCs, and I just always wanted to have adventures there.
After that, I think about taking the campaign to Pandemonium. It's a lower plane that looks pretty freakish but is not actually that horrible to adventurers in practice. It's desolate, the inhabitants aren't that powerful, and the environmental challenges won't kill you immediately, so it's not too outragous to have even 4th level characters explore there and learn from the madmen what the whole thing that they've been pulled into is actually about. Also a great opportunity to make contact with the Bleak Cabal, who always make useful allies for the future.
Next chapter would be Ysgard where the players get drawn into the conflict between the Asura, the Fated, and the Church of Selûne. More allies but also enemies to be made here.
After that it's oft to Carceri where the full picture reveals itself and the players learn what the arcanaloth and asura are actually after, and the Anarchists become an active player in the conflict.
Finally the campaign goes to Gehenna where the party takes the fight to the Arcanaloth, perhaps exposing his plan to his rivals so the players have a distraction and opportunity to end the threat of the Heart before the arcanaloth or asura can take control of it. (Maybe the Doomguard could be of help with that?) Ultimately it of course has to end on Agathys where the party confronts the arcanaloth as he prepares to raise the Heart from the ice.
Cool stuff. Plenty of endless dark voids and frozen wastes. Very metal. But this is still mostly a style concept and not much in the way of adventures. I think things are becoming more specific towards the end, with clearer goals and a direction to follow. Learn what the arcanaloth plans to do, find a weakness to make him vulnerable and neutralize the sphere, and then destroy him and end the threat. While managing the Asura and her Fated crusaders, and the Anarchists determined to keep the sphere out of anyone's hands themselves.
It's the earlier parts of the campaign that are still vague. What are these 1st snd 2nd level PCs doing in the Outlands and Beastlands that ends up getting them pulled into the business with the Heart? What makes these insignificant no-names pick up the quest to deal with such a great threat? The Church of Selûne and the Anarchists can't tollerate the Heart being controlled by anyone on ideological grounds and they have much greater resources at their disposal than the PCs. Of course, the Anarchists can't be trusted to get it done right, and the Selûnites might want to avoid launching an outright crusade into Carceri or Gehenna when there are more subtle ways about it. But what's the stakes for the PCs? Why is it urgent for them to see the quest done themselves instead of leaving it to other much more powerful people?
I think that it might perhaps be a better approach to split the campaign into two separate arcs. Whatever the PCs are doing in the Outlands and the Beastlands as low-level characters has nothing to do with the Heart of Darkness. Instead they could be eatablishing connections who will then be pulling them into the great treasure hunt someway?
Do you have any ideas how I could expand on this, and how it could perhaps build upon other existing aspects of the Planescape materials?
Now that I see the murmuring about new Planescape books for 5th edition, this seems to be as good a time to look for players as there ever will be. And I won't even have to wait for those to come out.
I do have a general outline for antagonists, allies, and conflicts, and just would like to hear what people think about these and how I could build on the existing setting material to develop it into a full campaign.
The thing I always found the most disappointing with the planes is that it seems to be 90% Abyss and Baator, with the remaining stuff being Sigil, Limbo, and the Plane of Fire. But there are so many more places with cool concept that I imagine almost no D&D players ever got to see. So with my campaign, I want to focus of the chaotic inbetween planes: Beastlands, Ysgard, Pandemonium, Carceri, and Gehenna. With yugoloths as the main fiendish power, and the Bleak Cabal, Doomguard, Dustmen, Fated, and Revolutionary League as the primary factions getting involved.
At the center of the campaign is the Heart of Darkness, a gigantic Sphere of Annihilation 200 feet across that is burried beneath the ice of the lowest layer of Carceri. An arcanaloth (the big bad) has learned of its existence and sees it as the key to destroy his rivals and rise closer to the top of the yugoloth hierarchy. Being a high ranking yugoloth, he has no concern for the widespread death and destruction unleashing this artifact might leave behind. But in his search about the Heart's exact location and a way to control it, the secret leaks out and others realize what he's after and what is at stake.
One of these is a rogue asura, who has decided that this artifact would be an incredibly powerful weapon to fight evil and that she must possess it. To that end, she is gathering a crusade of Fated in Ysgard, who believe that might makes right, and the asura is promising them a lot of might to shape the planes to their will. The church of Selûne based in Ysgard is deeply concerned about that, since a huge sphere of annihilation sounds like right in the domain of Shar. They want to see the asura stopped, but are hesitant to go to war with another being of Good.
The Revolutionary League learns of this crusade and they see two parties fighting over an artifact that will give incredible power to whoever possesses. Power always creates tyrants in the eyes of the Anarchists and no person should ever possess a power like this. So they have to stop it from falling into anyone's hands, (Though there are of course some Anarchists who think that maybe they should keep it themselves to destroy the authorities.)
And to the Doomguard, such a vast manifestation of Entropy must belong only to them!
(No idea yet how the Bleak Cabal and Dustmen play into this, but they fit thr general mood.)
My modified stats for arcanaloth had them at CR 15, so the PCs could potentially face off against one as the final showdown as early as 10th level. I also don't have a lot of experience with running 5th edition, so I want to start at 1st level and let the campaign get gradually more complex as powers and encounter are concerned. So 1st to 10th level is roughly what I am aiming for. Nothing too overly crazy ambitious.
I want to start in the Outlands with native planar characters, with tieflings and githzerai as options in addition to the original D&D races. (Though I'll probably recommend against picking druids because of where the adventures will be going, and against paladins because the NPCs they will deal with will be overwhelmingly chaotic.) Outland is the most normal of all the planes with nothing too crazy going on, so a good place to get everyone settled in and slowly introduce the Planescape weirdness. Early adventures into the Beastlands might also be a good idea because things are pretty straightforward there with generally friendly NPCs, and I just always wanted to have adventures there.
After that, I think about taking the campaign to Pandemonium. It's a lower plane that looks pretty freakish but is not actually that horrible to adventurers in practice. It's desolate, the inhabitants aren't that powerful, and the environmental challenges won't kill you immediately, so it's not too outragous to have even 4th level characters explore there and learn from the madmen what the whole thing that they've been pulled into is actually about. Also a great opportunity to make contact with the Bleak Cabal, who always make useful allies for the future.
Next chapter would be Ysgard where the players get drawn into the conflict between the Asura, the Fated, and the Church of Selûne. More allies but also enemies to be made here.
After that it's oft to Carceri where the full picture reveals itself and the players learn what the arcanaloth and asura are actually after, and the Anarchists become an active player in the conflict.
Finally the campaign goes to Gehenna where the party takes the fight to the Arcanaloth, perhaps exposing his plan to his rivals so the players have a distraction and opportunity to end the threat of the Heart before the arcanaloth or asura can take control of it. (Maybe the Doomguard could be of help with that?) Ultimately it of course has to end on Agathys where the party confronts the arcanaloth as he prepares to raise the Heart from the ice.
Cool stuff. Plenty of endless dark voids and frozen wastes. Very metal. But this is still mostly a style concept and not much in the way of adventures. I think things are becoming more specific towards the end, with clearer goals and a direction to follow. Learn what the arcanaloth plans to do, find a weakness to make him vulnerable and neutralize the sphere, and then destroy him and end the threat. While managing the Asura and her Fated crusaders, and the Anarchists determined to keep the sphere out of anyone's hands themselves.
It's the earlier parts of the campaign that are still vague. What are these 1st snd 2nd level PCs doing in the Outlands and Beastlands that ends up getting them pulled into the business with the Heart? What makes these insignificant no-names pick up the quest to deal with such a great threat? The Church of Selûne and the Anarchists can't tollerate the Heart being controlled by anyone on ideological grounds and they have much greater resources at their disposal than the PCs. Of course, the Anarchists can't be trusted to get it done right, and the Selûnites might want to avoid launching an outright crusade into Carceri or Gehenna when there are more subtle ways about it. But what's the stakes for the PCs? Why is it urgent for them to see the quest done themselves instead of leaving it to other much more powerful people?
I think that it might perhaps be a better approach to split the campaign into two separate arcs. Whatever the PCs are doing in the Outlands and the Beastlands as low-level characters has nothing to do with the Heart of Darkness. Instead they could be eatablishing connections who will then be pulling them into the great treasure hunt someway?
Do you have any ideas how I could expand on this, and how it could perhaps build upon other existing aspects of the Planescape materials?
