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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6399711" data-attributes="member: 42582">The stalemate I see. It's the "powder keg + matches" that (for me) is novel.Prior to 4e, I've used them for maps, proper names and historical backstory. The content of play I've injected from elsewhere. With one exception to the above: the last time I GMed Keep on the Borderlands, which is a long time ago now, I used the chaos priest in the Keep to drive the situation forward. So that was a case of using a setting element thematically rather than just for backstory.4e for me is quite different and I've discussed in this thread, plus numerous others incuding my actual play threads, why I thinks so and how I have used it.4e doesn't have anything like Tolkien-esque timelines. It has a mythic history involving a Dawn War and the rise and fall of half-a-dozen or so named empires.I've explained mutliple times why I think 4e has a dynamism that I haven't seen in Planescape, including via explicity comparison to Glorantha: the 4e world is in motion, from creation to a possible Ragnarok (the Dusk War), and the PCs come onto the scene on the eve of impending doom.Viking Bastard has articulated a quite different set-up for Planescape, and his posts are the first I recall reading (with apologies to [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] if I should be remembering some of his) that explain the Planescape set-up in terms of the potential for dynamic change by subverting a delicately-poised stalemate.To me, it is obvious how the changes that Viking Bastard describes occurring are different from the return of a demon lord, or the changing of the layers of Arcadia (I can't remember now if it was adding or subtracting), which were the focus of a discussion upthread involving [MENTION=5142]Aldarc[/MENTION].For my part, what you say here is correct: I don't like metaplot, and pointing to published metaplot changes for a setting is going to turn me off it, if anything. For me, a setting should be ripe to explode in play. As you did in the campaign you described.For the record, Planewalkers' Handbook is not a module. It's a setting guide.And you may see themes, hooks, etc for dynamic play in Planescape, but you haven't given any examples. Viking Bastard and Quickleaf have, and I've responded to those in some recent posts upthread, including explaining what I think they have seen that I haven't, and also what I might be inclined to handle differently from what they have described.</blockquote>

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