Planar/Planescape Campaign

Hammerhead

Explorer
A friend of mine wishes to run a game set in the planes, possibly using the old Planescape campaign setting, which we own. He also has the Manual of the Planes. Any suggestions/ideas for adventures or campaign ideas? Different types of characters and why they work together? How to make it different from other, "normal," D&D games? Other stuff? Thank you.

*Note: I've already searched for the Planescape adventures Dead Gods and Tales of the Infinite Staircase; for each product, the price discouraged me from buying them.
 

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Hammerhead said:


*Note: I've already searched for the Planescape adventures Dead Gods and Tales of the Infinite Staircase; for each product, the price discouraged me from buying them.

Tales from the Infinite Staircase is available for only $5 as an ESD.
http://www.svgames.com/tsr2632esd.html

I'm sure Dead Gods will eventually be released as an ESD.

There are lots of other Planescape ESDs available, with several others currently scheduled for release by the end of the year.
http://www.svgames.com/downloads-wotc-adndplane.html
 
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A few things as someone who's kinda high-up on Ps3e.

1) Don't disallow anything. Part of the flavor of PS is that you can find the wierdest and most exotic exceptions to every rule that every existed. Unless you're doing some massive overhaul of the system (like reducing the magic level, upping the technology level, etc), you should probably allow anything from red-necked Minotaurs to Halfling Paladin/Barbarians.

2) Check out www.planewalker.com and www.ps3e.com

3) About the only thing that isn't extremely well spelt-out in the Manual of the Planes is the flavor of Sigil and the place of the Factions. Take a look at In the Cage for a good take on how Sigil works as a nexus of the planes. In theory, you could ignore it, but I tend to enjoy the idea of a sort of city of babylon. :)

4) Check out www.planewalker.com and www.ps3e.com

5) About the Factions: If you go to the above websites' message boards, and ask about this, you'll get a TON of information. Mostly, there's no obvious way to introduce them into the game. I personally favor spending a feat to gain access to a faction power (from the boxed set, or more to gain upgrades from the Factol's Manifesto), and the more powerful faction powers being the purview of Prestige Classes, of which there could be many per faction.

6) Check out www.planewalker.com and www.ps3e.com

7) Oh, and if you're interested in the above way to do factions, take a look at Philosophies and Falsehoods soon from Silicon Phoenix Games. I use that system to grant powers. Other methods include making each faction a domain (forcing you to take a cleric level to gain power from your belief), spending XP or GP for faction powers (a-la Four Colors to Fantasy and some other systems), or simply granting the faction powers as a template with an ECL +1 (probably the most true to the 2e version).

8) Check out www.planewalker.com and www.ps3e.com

9) The plots of your DM should, if possible, revolve around the power and potency of what people *think*. This is a key flavor to PS, even more so than the Cant or the Lady of Pain. Anything that can enforce the idea that ideas, knowledge, and belief are the most important things in existence is a good thing. Because of this, PS plots tend to be a bit more cerebral than simple dungeon crawls. If you want, you can take a look at my award-winning adventure Eyes of a Child on www.planewalker.com

And I'll leave it at nine, in honor of the Rule of Threes. But also, if possible, check out PS:Torment. This is quite a well done game, from what I've heard. But, alas, I've never played. :(
 


Planescape vs. Planar

Keep in mind that your average 'planar' campaign is going to be fairly different from your average Planescape campaign. I tend to view the former as Prime Material characters venturing out into unknown, mysterious realms, populated mostly by outsiders, where they take a part in missions of cosmic importance--delving deep into the Abyss to rescue a deva with vital knowledge, preventing a cadre of aboleths from opening a permanent gateway between the Prime planes and the Plane of Water, etc.
Planescape, on the other hand, tends to be a lot...smaller. One of the important thematic aspects of Planescape is that there's -always- someone bigger, more powerful, and more important than you. The planes are crowded with mortal-types. And as Kamikaze Midget mentioned, belief controls everything. Not that there isn't room for cosmic missions--but the mood is going to be very different. In some ways, it boils down to (again, for me) 'planar' being high, epic fantasy, whereas Planescape is low fantasy in a high-magic world.
Me, I enjoy both, but Planescape's one of my favorite settings of all time, so I'm slightly prejudiced.
 


I've run three planescape campaigns and they were some of the best of my life. At my website (below in my sig) you'll find adventure logs, 2E adventures with maps, characters, stuff like that.
 


And since Mr. Blackbyrd forgot it, I will tell you that if you can read Spanish you should check the site at my signature... ;)
 

My group had a terrific Planescape campaign running fro a LONG time.

If I were to pick some of the more fun ideas?

"escape from Carceri" is fun, especially if the DM announces that he's tired of running planescape, and is switching the campaign over to Carceri as a new setting." :-)

Our Chaotosec ran a massive counterfiting operation in Sigil Coins from all over the multiverse, hard to know whats fake!

We got Mazed for that... Being mazed is another fun idea. But getting out of a maze was a breeze for a party that escaped from Carceri!!! Only took us about 30 sessions :-)



River
 

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