Planar Handbook: Buying?
- Thread starter Krug
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Shemeska
Adventurer
Aaron L said:
*eyebrow* When I see this reaction to Planescape I have to wonder where you found that version of Planescape, because it's certainly not the one I've played and run. Sigil was Sigil, outside on the planes at large you did have those battlegrounds of angels and demons, and more frequently fiends butchering fiends on a truly massive scale.
Aaron L
Hero
Shemeska said:
Unfortunately, it was the Planescape boxed set, back when it came out. It just left a bad tase in my mouth, what with all the berks and everything. And it really upset me. I was soooooooo excited about Planescape when all of the previews started showing up in Dragon! Exploring the outer planes and travelling across the multiverse!
Then I got the box, and I had to dig through a pseudo Victorian city in the center of the outer planes with a "mysterious" bondage goddess ruling it, and read about bars run by yugoloth and city's full of normal people on the edges of Hell, all the while wincing at every limey and guv'nah.
I was so dissappointed I never read another Planescape book.
Last edited:
GlassJaw
Hero
I flipped through the crunchy portions of the book and wasn't overly-impressed. I didn't like the PrC's at all. The substitution levels seemed like an interesting concept but I'm not running a planar campaign so they are of little use to me. I really liked some of the races though, especially the mephlings! I so want to play a mephling sorc now but I tend to like small/faerie-type races anyway.
On a side note, I checked out Serpent Kingdoms too. Now there's a great book. Every page, crunchy or fluffy, I looked at was chock full of goodness. That on the top of my list right now.
On a side note, I checked out Serpent Kingdoms too. Now there's a great book. Every page, crunchy or fluffy, I looked at was chock full of goodness. That on the top of my list right now.
CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
I bought it, and it's a fine book. I was disappointed in the Planescape references (too many), but it does a fine job with the planes. It doesn't reprint too much material, either, and that's a plus.
Shemeska
Adventurer
No such thing as too many PS references. That's where most of the development of the planes came from anyways, it's hard to avoid referencing Planescape almost like how it's hard to avoid thinking of Paris when you think of large cities in France, only more so.
However, whereas Planescape treated the planes with depth and concern for large scale conflicts between law and chaos and good and evil, belief versus substance, etc, the Planar Handbook doesn't go back to that. Instead, it treats the planes as gigantic dungeons in another dimension to go kill things in.
For instance, the Planar Touchstone sites, all 32 pages worth. Most of the space is not the descriptions of the places themselves, but the encounter and monsters you have to defeat at each place to gain the listed powers from that site.
For instance, there's one in Sigil that you go to and defeat or otherwise avoid the monsters that you roll up on the random encounter table given for the site. This 'establishes' your PCs in the area and gives you less chance of an encounter when you visit the site. This is patently stupid. It's in the middle of a freaking city, what the heck is this all about 'establishing' yourself at the site by beating the monsters you meet there. No, it's likely to gain you being marched in front of the city courts for a trial is what it's likely to do.
Each one of the sites is similar in that respect. You go there, you beat up the monsters that inhabit the site and gain a power. You visit it in the next year to recharge the power and potentially fight more monsters. It's like a freaking respawn site in a hack and slash MUD.
Most of the sites are really cool, but the coolness ends there. The way it's all implimented is an excercise in idiocy. It's insulting to roleplay and insulting to any campaign that exists outside of the shallows of a monster killin' dungeon crawl. Go visit the planes and meet strange and exciting people so you can kill them and take their stuff is what it seems to push.
However, whereas Planescape treated the planes with depth and concern for large scale conflicts between law and chaos and good and evil, belief versus substance, etc, the Planar Handbook doesn't go back to that. Instead, it treats the planes as gigantic dungeons in another dimension to go kill things in.
For instance, the Planar Touchstone sites, all 32 pages worth. Most of the space is not the descriptions of the places themselves, but the encounter and monsters you have to defeat at each place to gain the listed powers from that site.
For instance, there's one in Sigil that you go to and defeat or otherwise avoid the monsters that you roll up on the random encounter table given for the site. This 'establishes' your PCs in the area and gives you less chance of an encounter when you visit the site. This is patently stupid. It's in the middle of a freaking city, what the heck is this all about 'establishing' yourself at the site by beating the monsters you meet there. No, it's likely to gain you being marched in front of the city courts for a trial is what it's likely to do.
Each one of the sites is similar in that respect. You go there, you beat up the monsters that inhabit the site and gain a power. You visit it in the next year to recharge the power and potentially fight more monsters. It's like a freaking respawn site in a hack and slash MUD.
Most of the sites are really cool, but the coolness ends there. The way it's all implimented is an excercise in idiocy. It's insulting to roleplay and insulting to any campaign that exists outside of the shallows of a monster killin' dungeon crawl. Go visit the planes and meet strange and exciting people so you can kill them and take their stuff is what it seems to push.
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