If you use Spotify, this playlist is the music Planescape artist Tony DiTerlizzi used back in 1994 to get into the right mood to draw for Planescape.
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As awesome as Morrus is and momentous his posts are on things EN World is publishing we all must remember that he's still a normal dude. A gaming nerd like the rest of us. Who will occasionally find something neat to share with the rest of the class just because it's cool.It's true. WotC had blackmailed Jack Dorsey to make sure Tony DiTerlizzi wasn't allowed a Twitter account for years... until now!
Or in other news, DiTerlizzi has been tweeting stuff for years. This particular piece I found particularly interesting and shared it.
Would any kind soul be willing to explain to me why Planescape was so popular back in the day? I've looked through the books in recent years, but I wonder if because I came to the game long after it was released that I'm missing out on what seemed to make it so special and popular with people. The setting certainly seems to be very fondly remembered by those who were into the hobby when it was released.
I mean, different people like different things. There's plenty of popular things I don't like!Would any kind soul be willing to explain to me why Planescape was so popular back in the day? I've looked through the books in recent years, but I wonder if because I came to the game long after it was released that I'm missing out on what seemed to make it so special and popular with people. The setting certainly seems to be very fondly remembered by those who were into the hobby when it was released.
Just my two cents:
1. In the mid-90s White Wolf had become more popular, and explored a lot of 'darker' themes that D&D classically shied away from. In particular this was the era when the assassin and half-orc had been removed from 2e in 1989, and devils and demons were renamed baatezu and tanar'ri and greatly de-emphasized. Planescape brought a lot of those (renamed) monsters to the fore and let us visit the planes again, with a genuinely new spin--you tried to stay out of Hell previously, but now it was a place you could go with a portal key. Fun fact: the Planescape Monstrous Compendium is, as far as I know, the first appearance of the tiefling race/ancestry.
2. Planescape dealt with at least some philosophical themes with the factions--the Harmonium (Hardheads) are 'law and order at all costs', whereas the Revolutionary League are rebels for the sake of rebellion, and countless others: the Dustmen try to be undead, the Athar are atheists, the Takers basically are Ayn Randites, etc. It's a little college-bull-session-y, but that's the age a lot of us were back then.
3. DiTerlizzi's wispy, gracile art really did give it kind of a different feel than the (beautifully drawn) muscular fellows hefting swords across Caldwell and Elmore's landscapes. Like Brom with Dark Sun (who went in the opposite, hyperrealistic, bulky direction), DiTerlizzi gave Planescape a unitary feel and unique mental image.
I'd add onto this that Planescape's birth coincided with the rise of "Alternative" music's mainstream popularity. MTV's Planescape came out just two years after Alternative Nation started airing. Looking at the art, you see people with goatees, piercings, long/spikey/gravity-defying hair, spiked jewelry/armor. All stuff you'd see if you went to a club or a concert back then (minus the horns, wings, hooves, and modrons). While D&D being cool was still decades off, Planescape looked more modern and "with it" than your average Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk product.
For me it was the first time D&D really felt alien and otherworldly.Would any kind soul be willing to explain to me why Planescape was so popular back in the day? I've looked through the books in recent years, but I wonder if because I came to the game long after it was released that I'm missing out on what seemed to make it so special and popular with people. The setting certainly seems to be very fondly remembered by those who were into the hobby when it was released.
For me it was the fact that low level characters could go to the planes and survive. I loved the diagram in the back of the 1e PHB and to have that expanded as a place to explore in detail was fascinating. The philosophical element of the adventures also appealed to me. A change from the dungeon exploration style that allowed a group to consider good/evil, life/death etcWould any kind soul be willing to explain to me why Planescape was so popular back in the day? I've looked through the books in recent years, but I wonder if because I came to the game long after it was released that I'm missing out on what seemed to make it so special and popular with people. The setting certainly seems to be very fondly remembered by those who were into the hobby when it was released.
Even at this age, whilst it is definitely quite "college naughty word session", yes, that's kind of well-pitched for the level of philosophy that can work really well with D&D, not quite beer and pretzels (though not a million miles from it), but not po-faced and over-serious either. The Factions are pretty accessible, as written in 2E, conceptually, and everyone is going to find a number that either resonate with them or that they'd just enjoy roleplaying.2. Planescape dealt with at least some philosophical themes with the factions--the Harmonium (Hardheads) are 'law and order at all costs', whereas the Revolutionary League are rebels for the sake of rebellion, and countless others: the Dustmen try to be undead, the Athar are atheists, the Takers basically are Ayn Randites, etc. It's a little college-bull-session-y, but that's the age a lot of us were back then.
Yeah I think this is often overlooked. By 1994, a lot of AD&D 2E stuff felt like it was aimed at a sort of 30-something crowd who were not cool (I was 16 then, note), I mean, obviously fellow geeks/nerds, but they're this really different kind, different era. Not all the stuff, but a lot of it. It didn't really speak to me.I'd add onto this that Planescape's birth coincided with the rise of "Alternative" music's mainstream popularity. MTV's Planescape came out just two years after Alternative Nation started airing. Looking at the art, you see people with goatees, piercings, long/spikey/gravity-defying hair, spiked jewelry/armor. All stuff you'd see if you went to a club or a concert back then (minus the horns, wings, hooves, and modrons). While D&D being cool was still decades off, Planescape looked more modern and "with it" than your average Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk product.
You could travel anywhere in the multiverse to any setting. And all u needed was to discover the right portal and find the right key. And u could do it at first level. And this imho is where ad&d charisma was better because a first level person could be as good as a 20th level person at charisma reaction checks. U might fast talk a little fiend as easily as a 20th level character and negotiate with a arcanaloth for info. And it was discovering new things and explorations and learning little secrets to how the planes worked.Would any kind soul be willing to explain to me why Planescape was so popular back in the day? I've looked through the books in recent years, but I wonder if because I came to the game long after it was released that I'm missing out on what seemed to make it so special and popular with people. The setting certainly seems to be very fondly remembered by those who were into the hobby when it was released.
Yes. I loved aligning with the devils to stop demons from winning the blood war.The art. The planes could be ANYTHING. Monsters weren't just for fighting....you even cavorted with devils or demons sometimes...For me it was the art and the interwoven fiction. So much depth. You didn't use much of it in play....but still....
Love it!This all makes sense. Discovering Planescape in 2008 or so, I just had to put on my dad's Enigma CD while reading it. Everything about the setting was so... 1994 college French major... that anything else felt wrong.
It just makes you want to order a cappuccino in a for-here mug at the kind of coffee shop where there's a magazine rack full of old Wired issues and the baristas are still allowed to play their own music.