Planescape Do You Care About Planescape Lore?

[Weather Report]

Quite possibly.



There was the plot that linked Great Modron March/Dead Gods which was also subtly foreshadowed in 'Doors to the Unknown' and the allusions to Orcus in some other prior material.

The only really big one was the ongoing metaplot involving Duke Rowan Darkwood and his quest to the topple the Lady of Pain, culminating in the events of Faction War. Little bits here and there in a number of sourcebooks touched on and hinted at it all, and it was really, really well done IMO. Also it was fairly self-contained as a metaplot, not really impacting things outside of Sigil and the factions.

Thank god I ignored the whole Faction War shenanigans, talk about ruining a perfectly good thing.

 

[Balesir]

Thank god I ignored the whole Faction War shenanigans, talk about ruining a perfectly good thing.

I agree - this was one aspect of PlaneScape that really annoyed me. The Great Modron March was a fun "event" to react to, but the rest was in the worst traditions of "great people plot and scheme interesting stuff while you schmucks get to watch". As a novel or a movie it might have been good, but as metaplot "adventure", what's the point? If we are roleplaying the idea is to follow the story of the player characters - to play the protagonists, not some bunch of bystanders or also-rans. Bleagh.

 

[Weather Report]

I agree - this was one aspect of PlaneScape that really annoyed me. The Great Modron March was a fun "event" to react to, but the rest was in the worst traditions of "great people plot and scheme interesting stuff while you schmucks get to watch". As a novel or a movie it might have been good, but as metaplot "adventure", what's the point? If we are roleplaying the idea is to follow the story of the player characters - to play the protagonists, not some bunch of bystanders or also-rans. Bleagh.

Disco, can't stand busybody writers messing with campaign settings, stick with the original boxed set/book; for me, the Faction War, Prism Pentad, Grand Conjunction, Age of Mortals, Time of Troubles, blah, blah, never happened.

Al-Qadim was one nice elegant campaign setting for not committing that crime.

 

[Umbran]

Canon for canon's sake. I will never, ever understand it.

Let me ask you a question that may help you understand. Do you have a favorite, or at least a highly favored, flavor of jam, or ice cream, brand of coffee, or *any* food preference?

I'm going to guess that you do - it is so common a thing in human experience that I'd be rather surprised if you could honestly claim to have *no* such preferences. Let us, for sake of argument, label one of your flavor preferences, "Strawberry".

When you order Strawberry, do you think it is "Strawberry for the sake of Strawberry"? Or do you think it is "Strawberry because you *like* Strawberry"?

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Thank god I ignored the whole Faction War shenanigans, talk about ruining a perfectly good thing.

Faction war? I know not of any such thing.

 

[Shemeska]

If we are roleplaying the idea is to follow the story of the player characters - to play the protagonists, not some bunch of bystanders or also-rans. Bleagh.

Given that the PCs are the ones ultimately responsible for choosing the direct effects of what Darkwood failed to do, I can't see them as bystanders in what happened in FW (unless you want them to likewise be stuck in their own closed time-like loop). I really enjoyed it, and while a lot of folks really really don't care for the module, it wasn't intended to be a permanent dismissal of the factions from Sigil. The line just got folded back into the core and they never had the chance to go forward on those plans.

 

[Aldarc]

Let me ask you a question that may help you understand. Do you have a favorite, or at least a highly favored, flavor of jam, or ice cream, brand of coffee, or *any* food preference?

I'm going to guess that you do - it is so common a thing in human experience that I'd be rather surprised if you could honestly claim to have *no* such preferences. Let us, for sake of argument, label one of your flavor preferences, "Strawberry".

When you order Strawberry, do you think it is "Strawberry for the sake of Strawberry"? Or do you think it is "Strawberry because you *like* Strawberry"?

Part of the problem, from what I understand of Hussar's perspective, is that you can like Strawberry all you like and you can order it all you want, but it becomes a problem when you demand that Strawberry flavor should pervade every other flavor of ice cream that he or others may order.

 

[Serpine]

Strawberry flavor should pervade every other flavor of ice cream that he or others may order.

I think a better match would be a Coke vs New Coke thing. You want your drink (setting) a certain way at which point some folks decide to improve it and make it the new official form. Even when the option is presented for the original form, it now has a label like "classic" that implies it is not the official thing you are dealing with (i.e. if every supplement starts assuming the events in a novel, you have to sort out what to change if you don't like the events in that novel).

 

[Jiggawatts]

More like...canon because it is good.

And I have to agree with Weather Report, the massive setting altering events are usually done poorly, and almost never actually achieve their goal of making the setting "better". I didn't like any of the events you mentioned, although the Time of Troubles didn't bother me anywhere near the level that the accursed Spellplague did. I also really didn't like the Age of Mortals, going so far as to create an alternate timeline (basically how the world progresses without the following events) where Takhisis doesn't steal the world at the end of the Chaos War, meaning the gods don't "depart" a second time, the Dragon Overlords never come to Krynn and destroy/terraform half of Ansalon, Paladine doesn't give up his godhood and become mortal, and Takhisis doesn't die.

With that said, I'm not saying changes to settings should never be made, but keep them small, this kingdom goes to war with its neighbor, this new group (which is detailed in the next supplement) rises to power and does this, etc, (a good example of this would be the attempted Tuigan Horde invasion that fought the Cormyrian Crusade, or how the Zhentarim just kept growing and expanding its power base over the years). Don't give me 100 year time jumps, massive destruction of nations/areas, wild magic surges sweeping the continent and killing thousands, deities leaving or killing each other like its a divine portfolio swap meet, etc.

 

[Hussar]

Let me ask you a question that may help you understand. Do you have a favorite, or at least a highly favored, flavor of jam, or ice cream, brand of coffee, or *any* food preference?

I'm going to guess that you do - it is so common a thing in human experience that I'd be rather surprised if you could honestly claim to have *no* such preferences. Let us, for sake of argument, label one of your flavor preferences, "Strawberry".

When you order Strawberry, do you think it is "Strawberry for the sake of Strawberry"? Or do you think it is "Strawberry because you *like* Strawberry"?

True, I like strawberry.

But, I also don't run around telling every single restaurant that the MUST serve strawberry, and that that strawberry MUST be from a specific company, made from strawberries from a specific place.

Or...

Part of the problem, from what I understand of Hussar's perspective, is that you can like Strawberry all you like and you can order it all you want, but it becomes a problem when you demand that Strawberry flavor should pervade every other flavor of ice cream that he or others may order.

this.

You can have the best strawberry ice cream on the planet. But, at no time am I going to tell everyone else in the world that they MUST have strawberry ice cream.