What do you like about Planescape?

[Odhanan]

I see Planescape scoring very well in several polls about settings on ENWorld (which ones are preferred, which ones should be supported by 4E...).

For those who regularly vote for Planescape, what, exactly, do you like about Planescape? What makes it more fun to play than other settings, to you? How do you use it?

Thanks!

 

[Sunderstone]

Sigil.
The Factions.
The philosophies and purposes behind the factions.

The setting had a flavor all it's own that made instant converts to my group that originally didnt want any part of it. All I did was show them Sigil and run "The Eternal Boundary". They never wanted to leave the Planes after that.

 

[Psion]

Lots of folks say Sigil. While Sigil is cool, it didn't seem that cool to me until Uncaged came out... then it was cool, because it established movers and shakers, their relationships and goals, which I find a great tool for me as a GM.

But the primary feature of Planescape to me is that the way the campaign setting is structured, it simultaneously provides you with loads of source material, and at the same time leaves you with pretty much infinite flexibility about where you want to go. It's hard to achieve that in a typical campaign setting.

Finally, of major settings, it seems the most purely fantastic to me. Everything has the potential to be so exotic, so larger than life. I find that gives me a freedom I don't often feel with most faux-medieval fantasy campaign settings.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

One of the fascinating thing about Planescape is that it gave some actual meaning to the alignment system. It took something that many table thought was a little clunky and interfering and made it something that one could build adventures and campaigns around. Alignment has physical (and political) properties in Planescape. It allows DMs to create a whole new set of moral dilemmas for PCs to deal with.

And, of course, playing in the Outer Planes is just cool. Planescape made the Outer Planes playable.

I always wanted to run a short adventure in the lower planes where, for the local population, the PCs are the wandering monsters.

 

[DarkKestral]

I like it because it's a great mix of the mundane and the fantastic as well as the public and the esoteric. Player challenges can range from obtaining rent money (something which can remain a factor even at higher levels, depending on where your PCs wish to live) to meddling in the fairs of Powers. Not only that, but the game can change moods easily without affecting the feel of the game. A quest to find Caesar Slaad makes as much sense as Asmodeus trying to unseat Bel and put in a puppet to control Bel's realm as a plot hook.

Plus, it makes Alignment interesting. I hate alignment, but I like it in Planescape.

 

[Oryan77]

The environment is what got me hooked. I saw the cover to the Planes of Chaos boxset and it made my imagination go wild...it looked cool.

I love the idea of being able to travel to whatever environment I feel like adventuring in no matter how crazy it is. It's also easy for me to get players from one environment to another as quickly or slowly as I want.

I like how I can run any type of creature I want to throw into the game. I even get to use creatures from any other campaign setting if I wanted to.

I like how I can also run material from other campaign settings if I want to. If I got an itching to run an adventure in the Underdark and encounter Jarlaxle from the FR setting, I can easily do it.

The weirdness of the planes is great. I like how a PC can change for better or worse just depending on his alignment or other factors. For some reason I find it fun making PCs adjust their adventuring gear to better suit them for their environment...or change their spell list to help them adjust

The official NPCs from the Planescape setting are very interesting....Uncaged: Faces of Sigil is a great sourcebook.

The factions help spice things up a lot. They help give more character to PCs and they are great tools for building plotlines.

When I imagine the PS setting in my head, the visuals are also another reason I love the setting. Thanks to the artwork in the books, its helped add a flavor to a world that is a lot different than what we normally see. If the right person made a movie based in the PS setting and used the same artistic style as the movie setting, it would be very cool to watch.
I really like the more grimey atmosphere.

 

[ivocaliban]

The factions and their philosophies are the things I love about Planescape. The art was also delicious and entirely different from anything else related to D&D at the time.

Unfortunately, I don't care for Sigil or the planes/planar travel in general, so that presents a problem. *heh*

 

[smootrk]

The artwork really set a great mood. Fantasy with a slightly odd skew to it... I love it.

 

[DMH]

The work on the Inner Planes. I am not a fan of the wheel, but the MC III does the elemental planes such a great service.

 

[jasin]

I feel Planescape is very inspired and deeply flawed.

The concept of the Outer Planes combined with DiTerlizzi's illustrations made for an awesome sense of wonder. You could ride with the Valkyries, climb Mount Olympus, sail down the Styx, all in DiTerlizzi's quirky browns and greys!

OTOH, the cynicism and the self-conscious humor that was one of the trademarks of Planescape in general and Sigil in particular ran directly counter to this. Sometimes it felt as if the designers were trying preempt criticism by saying "... but we're just kiddin', see."