If there is another thread that discusses this which anyone knows of, I'd be grateful for a link.
There are a lot of treasured past tense D&D campaign worlds that are being (as far as I am able to see) ignored by WotC. They have come out with several other settings, Ravnica, Wildermont, Theros, and even updated others (Eberron) but the settings we remember and love atrophy. Certainly we can take the 2e lore and import it into the 5e ruleset, but wouldn't it be wonderful to have 5e material in these universes? I thought that perhaps someone in the community here might have an inside view, or just a generally more educated understanding on these old settings (Planescape, Hollow World, Darksun, Spelljammer, Greyhawk, etc) and the plans for them in WotC, if any? Why invent new settings when the old ones are so beloved and playable if updated?
I titled the thread Planescape only because it was my favorite next to FR.
I used to DM Planescape a lot when I ran 2e, had a 3-4 year long Planescape campaign, read
Pages of Pain, was a contributor to some articles on Mimir.net and Planewalker.com (like the
Bytopia Planar Renovation Project &
Gehenna Planar Renovation Project), played
Planescape: Torment probably too much, and started a
Planescape 5e conversion thread here on ENWorld. Love the setting.
However, it wasn't without problems. One of the big ones was that there was a lot of high concept stuff that sounded good on paper, but it turned out to be paper-thin when it came to game-able details. Another was that the adventures often involved a significant amount of railroading. Basically, the setting was great about being vague and evocative, promising great ideas (shifting gatetowns to new planes? angels and fiends rubbing shoulders? cool!), but really falling short on following through on those when it came to specifics a DM could use at his or her table.
When I read through the Avernus chapters of
Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, when you got beyond the Mad Max vehicle stuff, much of the locations and NPCs felt inspired by Planescape themes. That encounter with Jandar Sunstar (sp?) felt like a parallel to the Pillar of Skulls in
Planescape: Torment. The art & concept of the hag Mad Maggie (?) and her minions felt torn from Diterlizzi's head. And the multiple endings, including the possibility of redeeming the main villain, was pure Planescape. Once you're beyond the rather linear Dead Three dungeon and leaving aside the Mad Max influences, Avernus as it's depicted in that new hardcover adventure really feels like a homage to Planescape to me.
Don't get me wrong – I'd love to see a full-blown Planescape setting done for 5e – but I think the designers were very astute in recognizing some of the flaws in how Planescape was originally presented, and instead designing an adventure with imminently useful stuff based in the design ethos of Planescape.