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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6407540" data-attributes="member: 2067">Yeah, it's not simple. But I think the rub is this: what do people functionally mean in play by a &quot;sense of wonder and majesty of the planes&quot;? I mean, what mechanics or events in play convey that sense of wonder and majesty? When I think about that, I think about things like, say, the fact that the PC's can go explore the husks of dead gods. There's majesty (DEAD. FRICKIN. GODS.), there's wonder (they leave bodies just drifting around?! What is?!), it's not something that is easily possible in other settings. But exploring a dead god is also irreverent and jaded at the same time. You are trodding on the corpse of some once-valued divinity with your soiled boots, you are adventuring on the physical embodiment of the fact that hopes and dreams can die, abandoned and forgotten. So I think Imaro's got something of the right of it with his character/audience distinction. The audience is just like &quot;woah, I get to go visit dead gods!&quot;, and the characters are all, &quot;Gods die. It happens. Move on with your life.&quot; The Clueless character indeed plays the most direct role of first-time audience member, all starry-eyed, but part of the appeal is also in playing characters that treat this sort of thing as everyday, as an element of awe, as in, &quot;wow, dead gods don't even phase my planewalker, she's seen it all!&quot; Y'know, not EVERYONE is Luke Skywalker, Moisture Farmer from a tiny little podunk village who is in awe at Mos Eisley. Han Solo isn't in awe at the alien life around him. That's part of what makes him a competent bad-ass in his first appearance -- the audience is in awe and wonder, and Han is just like &quot;Pssh, Greedo owes me some change, I ain't here to stare at Hammerhead Bartender all day.&quot; PS characters as largely planar natives are more Han Solos, but there's a role to be played for our Lukes as well, and in both cases, the player can still be like &quot;Woah.&quot; Another element of that majesty and awe is that PS characters shift planes with their beliefs. Being able to redefine reality is a &quot;woah&quot; moment, but it is an expected and well-known thing on the planes, so your characters are generally characters who are aware of and use this to their advantage. They're not by and large Alice in wonderland, inquisitive and curious (though a Clueless could be!), they're more like the Queen in Through the Looking-Glass, imagining six impossible things before breakfast.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6407540, member: 2067"] Yeah, it's not simple. But I think the rub is this: what do people functionally mean in play by a "sense of wonder and majesty of the planes"? I mean, what mechanics or events in play convey that sense of wonder and majesty? When I think about that, I think about things like, say, the fact that the PC's can go explore the husks of dead gods. There's majesty (DEAD. FRICKIN. GODS.), there's wonder (they leave bodies just drifting around?! What is?!), it's not something that is easily possible in other settings. But exploring a dead god is also irreverent and jaded at the same time. You are trodding on the corpse of some once-valued divinity with your soiled boots, you are adventuring on the physical embodiment of the fact that hopes and dreams can die, abandoned and forgotten. So I think Imaro's got something of the right of it with his character/audience distinction. The [I]audience[/I] is just like "woah, I get to go visit dead gods!", and the [I]characters[/I] are all, "Gods die. It happens. Move on with your life." The Clueless character indeed plays the most direct role of first-time audience member, all starry-eyed, but part of the appeal is also in playing characters that treat this sort of thing as everyday, as an element of awe, as in, "wow, dead gods don't even phase my planewalker, she's seen it all!" Y'know, not EVERYONE is Luke Skywalker, Moisture Farmer from a tiny little podunk village who is in awe at Mos Eisley. Han Solo isn't in awe at the alien life around him. That's part of what makes him a competent bad-ass in his first appearance -- the audience is in awe and wonder, and Han is just like "Pssh, Greedo owes me some change, I ain't here to stare at Hammerhead Bartender all day." PS characters as largely planar natives are more Han Solos, but there's a role to be played for our Lukes as well, and in both cases, the player can still be like "Woah." Another element of that majesty and awe is that PS characters shift planes with their beliefs. Being able to redefine reality is a "woah" moment, but it is an expected and well-known thing on the planes, so your characters are generally characters who are aware of and use this to their advantage. They're not by and large Alice in wonderland, inquisitive and curious (though a Clueless could be!), they're more like the Queen in Through the Looking-Glass, imagining six impossible things before breakfast. [/QUOTE]

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