PLANESCAPE Novels: Are they any good?

[Keefe the Thief]

All the books except Torment are good reads, but most of them are more "i heard something about the setting and was inspired by that" novels than "i got the setting and followed canon." Which is actually pretty cool. I´d love to have a campaing in the setting interpretation of Planescape the trilogy describes. But if canon is an issue for you, you shoud stay with the boxed sets.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The Torment novel is the only one I read, and there was quite a lot of differences between it and the actual game itself.

I heard it was based on an earlier version of the game as well.

 

[Thanael]

The official novelization of the game Torment is TERRIBLE. If you've never played the computer game, you will be completely lost and unable to follow the weakly written story that has little to do with the *awesome* story in the game. Instead, download the unofficial novelization of the game that uses the actual game dialogue available here:

http://http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

Fixed that link for you: http://www.wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html

...very interesting. I´ll have to read that some time soon.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

Surprised no-one's mentioned it, but there's also "Fire and Dust." (It's not "official" per-se, but it surpasses [IMO] the published stuff.)

THoughts from the author here.
And the novel is here.

 

[Graf]

Avoid the Torment book like the plague. Can't say I know anything about the others, though.

If you really want an awesome Planescape experience, I would actually advise playing through Torment.

This... is the best advice ever.

If you haven't played Torment you've missed out on something that everyone should experience.

 

[Orius]

Only read the first two books in the Blood Wars trilogy and I didn't care for it, particularly the second one. The first one was ok, but after that the story turned into a huge train wreck.

 

[dead]

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

I guess I'm after the books for resource material rather than a good read.

From the evidence here, it looks like maybe I should avoid them unless I find them dirt cheap.

I have another question:

Are there any references to the events that take place in these novels in any of the official gaming supplements?

Thank you!

 

[Shemeska]

Are there any references to the events that take place in these novels in any of the official gaming supplements?

None whatsoever for the Blood War trilogy and Pages of Pain.

The Torment novelization (or Torment itself really) has been referenced. Specifically in that one of its central figures, the night hag Ravel Puzzlewell, was discussed in Dragon magazine. By extension, the events of Torment can be assumed to have taken place in some form or fashion within the mainline campaign setting.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

I guess I'm after the books for resource material rather than a good read.

From the evidence here, it looks like maybe I should avoid them unless I find them dirt cheap.

Thank you!

See, both Pages of Pain and the trilogy are clearly novels written after someone read some Planescape and the cool stuff in there made his brain go *brzzzzt*. You know, like an electric discharge. That makes them pretty cool, BUT you cannot be sure that the *brzzzt* that happens when you read Planescape has anything to do with their *brzzzt*.

 

[Orius]

None whatsoever for the Blood War trilogy and Pages of Pain.

Not entirely. A Guide to the Astral Plane does quote a line from one of the Blood War books, IIRC, but it's just for flavor. There are no rules that are inspired by anything that happened in the books. Of course, that's not surprising given that the uncle or whatever kind of broke the rules of the setting the way it was (I think he built portals or something, where the PS setting pretty much says that's impossible).

The Torment novelization (or Torment itself really) has been referenced. Specifically in that one of its central figures, the night hag Ravel Puzzlewell, was discussed in Dragon magazine. By extension, the events of Torment can be assumed to have taken place in some form or fashion within the mainline campaign setting.

There was a Rogue's Gallery in a 1998 or 1999 issue that had several of the Torment NPCs. That's probably what you're talking about unless there were later articles that also mined Torment for material.