Planescape Planescape Artist Tony DiTerlizzi Shares Planescape Playlist

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.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I spent so much time in my youth dancing to The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove in goth clubs.

 

[Steampunkette]

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.

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.

Yeah, he's got more of an inside track than the rest of us on WotC and other publishers and developers... but he's still just a guy! Puts on his socks one foot at a time.

 

[TheBanjoNerd]

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.

 

[Blue Orange]

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.

 

[briggart]

Fascinating. I definitely wouldn't have associated some of these to Planescape.

 

[Morrus]

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!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

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.

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.

 

[Blue Orange]

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.

Excellent point. I think I missed that because I never went to either.

 

[CM]

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 first time D&D really felt alien and otherworldly.

• That Lady of Pain logo and her backstory.
• Sigil being built on the inside of a horizontal wheel
• The thought of walking around this huge Dickensian city and running into fiendish, angelic, or elemental creatures
• The endless variety of species all jumbled together
• The "cant" slang
• Sigil's factions - Before Planescape I don't recall any easily-accessible player factions in an official setting.
• The numerous in-character quotes sprinkled throughout the books (which are commonplace in 5e now) I think first showed up in D&D in this setting, or at least this was the first time I encountered them.
• Tony D's art was a big part - I got some signed prints from him at Gen Con when it was still in Milwaukee.
• The art layout in the books was gorgeous and groundbreaking for D&D, with text frequently wrapping around the partial-page or two-page background art pieces. Before this art was typically either a full page, or boxed off in a rectangular frame with clear borders.
• Exocet.ttf

A couple of my favorite artwork examples from the MC1:

 

[Lieslo]

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 etc