Planescape (+) What would you want for 5e Planescape?

[RealAlHazred]

I loved the 2E Planescape campaign. What do I want out of a 5E Planescape thing?

I want a box set. Like the Starter Set or Essentials Set. It could contain a few things:

• I want it to have a booklet of Player options. A few new races (not everything needs a subrace, darn it). Maybe a few class options but not too many -- there are scads of class options in other books and pdfs that are appropriate for some area in the Planescape setting. New spells are a must, to cover some of the necessities of planar travel.
• I want it to have a DM's Guide. Faction details, a la Ravnica. A section on how to make Planescape come alive for the players, how to make it stand out versus other settings, some guidance on the kinds of adventures you could have there. The Ravnica book could be a guideline for that, too. Prior to reading it, I wasn't sure how exactly I'd run a Ravnica game, but after reading it you come away with tons of ideas.
• I want a Monsters booklet. Standards of the Planescape setting should be in there, of course, reimagined or updated like the ones in the MM; I generally liked what the did to lore.
• I want a guide to the town of Sigil and the Outlands. They can use the old 3.5E Sharn: City of Towers as a guideline, with shorts bits on important districts giving the DM info on how each place should feel, and maybe a more detailed look at a particular section (say, the Hive) where they do it up like the one district in the Ravnica book.
• I want color maps, and a DM screen. If you're going to do a box set, these are absolute draws for people who might otherwise balk at the expense. And the DM screens for campaigns sold pretty well at my local store.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I'd be tempted to say that the factions shouldn't actually be part of the government. Faction members can be in the government, of course, but the factions shouldn't actually control Sigil in that way. As it stands, the factions have to play nice with each other or the entire city risks collapsing. If the actual government were more neutral (or "neutral"), then at the least there'd be more conflict between the factions.

Technically, none of the factions in 2E Planescape were any part of the government. The government of Sigil is one woman, the Lady of Pain. Everybody else who says they run anything is just a monkey claiming power that they haven't been given, and hoping they don't do anything that displeases her. She doesn't exactly make pronouncements or proclamations; people just try to interpret what got the last guy mazed, and promulgate this information in their favored way: make a "law" and send your bully-boys to enforce it, usually, or share the knowledge through magical means, or whatever. I've always loved that part of it. Like, nobody told anybody that they had to leave the dabuses alone; but everybody who's interfered with them got mazed shortly afterwards and now they know to keep their distance.

Factions have the advantage that they're organizations, so if I decide the Lady of Pain wants slavery to end, and my Faction members agree, then we can try to enforce that law. And if everybody else would go along, it would all be fine since the Lady probably doesn't care much one way or another what those silly mortals are doing. But the nature of Sigil being what it is, there is always somebody who disagrees. With everything. And, in some corner of the multiverse, everybody is correct, even the people who are wrong. So Factions fight about stuff, and eventually each Faction figures out the hill it will die on and focuses on that. For some factions, it's quasigovernmental stuff.

 

[Faolyn]

Technically, none of the factions in 2E Planescape were any part of the government.

Records, law enforcement, the courthouse, the jail, and every major civic function (except for general maintenance and repairs) was run by one of the factions. So they may not be the government technically, but in every practical sense, they were the government.

 

[Malmuria]

Records, law enforcement, the courthouse, the jail, and every major civic function (except for general maintenance and repairs) was run by one of the factions. So they may not be the government technically, but in every practical sense, they were the government.

that part was actually brilliant and fun, because the PCs can take a stance towards the authorities that leads them to creating certain faction allegiances and enemies

 

[SkidAce]

They finally explain this in 5e, the Corporeal parts of Outer Planes are finite, it's the incorporeal parts of the planes that are infinite.

I missed that and it sounds interesting, could you point me towards the reference?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I missed that and it sounds interesting, could you point me towards the reference?

PHB or DMG somewhere.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Records, law enforcement, the courthouse, the jail, and every major civic function (except for general maintenance and repairs) was run by one of the factions. So they may not be the government technically, but in every practical sense, they were the government.

Again, it's Planescape. Belief defines reality. The Factions believe they are functioning as a government, even if the actual ruler, the Lady of Pain, believes differently. Of course, she's more capable of enforcing her beliefs than the mortals in the factions.

Currently. Until a consensus can be reached at which point the beliefs cause a physical shift. Which gives you the reason why she's always upsetting the Factions and keeping them from getting too settled.

 

[Faolyn]

Again, it's Planescape. Belief defines reality. The Factions believe they are functioning as a government, even if the actual ruler, the Lady of Pain, believes differently. Of course, she's more capable of enforcing her beliefs than the mortals in the factions.

Currently. Until a consensus can be reached at which point the beliefs cause a physical shift. Which gives you the reason why she's always upsetting the Factions and keeping them from getting too settled.

Belief defines reality on the planes. Sigil is apart from the planes. Or possibly the Lady of Pain's beliefs beat everyone else's.

 

[Eltab]

I never got into Planescape much during original release. But there are some cool concepts I would like to drag-and-drop into another campaign.

Ex 1: Powerful wizard wants some hirelings to 'go on safari' to another plane and bring back a trophy beast (because bile of frumious bandersnatch is important ingredient for ink in Scroll of 8th-Level Spell).

Ex 2: Go to the City of Brass and buy / negotiate for something you cannot find around here but is known to be available elsewhere.

Ex 3: You have to interact with an Alignment-based Being. How do they act / react to things? Find out beforehand so you don't unknowingly tick it off.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

One of the amusing concepts in Planescape though I'm sure it'll be different now, as they probably don't want to have too much mechanical differences between being a Planar or a Prime character, was that the PCs if they were Planar characters could get snatched by Summoning spells.

Yes some adventures could have started because some spellcaster accidentally summoned the party with a spell.