Why do most groups avoid planar games?

[DMH]

I like the idea of the 18 elemental planes* from the 1st ed MoP, but when I look at them as locations for adventures, I ask myself-

I have whole planets to work with, why should I have a party go off into the etheral plane when I can just add the parts I want to the planet I have? I like very alien fantasy (which is why I love Oathbound and add tons of more alien stuff to it), but planar travel doesn't add anything for me.

*4 elemental, 4 paraelemental, 8 quasielemental, 2 power planes. I don't like the wheel.

 

[Umbran]

For my group, I think it is mostly the disconnect from reality, and lack of depth to the presentation.

Planar games generally focus on plane-hopping, using many different locations and cultures in fairly quick succession. That puts a limit on how deep the campaign development on any given point will go. It's rather like a campaign in which each session takes place in an eintirely different city - the characters wind up disconnected from the society around them. They move through the world, but are not part of it. I, and most of my players, find that sort of thing dissatisfying.

The draw for planar games seems to be the weirdness and difference from the norm you can get. Being weird and different for the sake of being weird and different can be refreshing for the short term, but not the long term. If you're weird and different every session, it becomes the norm - or the PCs get the sense that there is no norm, and thus the contrast loses it's punch. Planes, for my tastes, are like spices that one should use sparingly and with forethought.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

My theory is that without a good reason to go to another plane, most PCs are busy enough with the current one. Another plane has a number of unknowns to it. One highly significant one (JoeG alluded to this) is the environment. Many planes popular with DMs are hostile. Or potentially so. You need to expend magic to survive. You are out of your depth.

Having run a number of plane hopping adventures over the years, the ones most palatable to my players turned to be alternate PMPs where they could fit in relatively easily and feel effective, not lost.

That said, with the right group a planehop campaign can be awesome. I think setting it up from day one to be that type of game puts players in an accepting frame of mind.

 

[Psion]

I believe that the planes of existance should be extremely powerful places that mortals should tread carefully,

Planar games tend to be of a higher level

See what I mean?

Speaking of which, did you get to grab my "Six Living Planar Gates" and, if so, what did you think?

Some very flavorful ways to allow access to the planes to low level characters.

(I'm not sure but Princess Quadira may be a little TOO wierd. One things for sure, if I end up using her in a game, the players are sure not to forget it anytime soon.)

 

[Psion]

Planar games tend to be of a higher level and most have certain survivability requirements if going to certainp places like the Plane of Fire.

I'm not sure what you are saying here in the second half of your statement. Most planes are not like the plane of fire when it comes to survivability requirements. (And even that doesn't exactly take high level magic to negotiate.)

 

[Ruined]

From the people I talk to in my area, they aren't against it. A lot of them love Planescape, and would be eager to play in campaigns I'd run. Shemeska's group is also local, so maybe it's just some kind of hotspot here. Truth be told though, I don't see a lot of people jumping to run planar games, PS or otherwise. It can be far different from your standard setting, and I imagine if you're hesitant about your skill at properly conveying ancient cities and looming forests, you may not want to tackle the infinite layers of the Abyss, etc.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

One of the problems with Planar Adventures is that their ARE no set planar worlds.

Planescape was an attempt to come up with a single, unified conception of the planes that any DM or Player could easily relate to & play. Me, I loved Planescape & was sad to see it die, it had one of the best (and unique) presentations of all the D&D settings. But, it filled a niche market in a niche market, thus it died.

You have bascially 2 groups of DM's: those that want the planes as mysterious, intangible things of awe, myth and mystery, that only the highest level priest & wizards know a thing about (and that ain't much).

The other group wants the Planes to be like Africa. A distant, remote place, yet reasonable easy to get too, and pretty easy to find information about.

Plus, a lot of people had problems with the go from FR to Greyhawk, to Mystara that Planescape implied.

As for me, I use a combination approach that varies from game to game (I also mix it up within games).

1. Multiverse: (See Moorcock)

2. Things man was not meant to know (see Lovecraft).

3. Vacation time! (See Planescape).

4. You want us to go WHERE? (See 1001 ways to kill a PC).

But, that's just how I do it.

 

[der_kluge]

I have fond memories of the Planescape campaign I ran during the 2nd edition days. I love Planescape. It's one of my favorite settings.

That said, I've never ran a "planar" game that wasn't set in Planescape, and if I ran one today, I'm certain that Planescape would heavily influence it in some way.

And we didn't run it as a high level game. It was just like any other game, though we did tend to take the idea of weird locations and surreal environments to the extreme. I enjoyed letting my imagination run wild.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

I'd agree with ByronD: while I like, from a creative standpoint, a lot of the plane material out there, it feels a little too..."Star Wars" is a good way of putting it. Planescape and Sigil (for example), while cool in many respects, also felt like there was everything plus the kitchen sink thrown in. Not necessarily a bad thing, but as a DM, running a plane hoping campaign just doesn't interest me much - heck, I can spend years developing and running adventures in one world before even thinking about a trip to another!

I also tend to run campaigns that ignore the standard religions of D&D (more home brew than Greyhawk/FR) and feature a lot of "local" politics/adventures/problems for the party to deal with, so it's much harder to work in trips to other realities and have the players care about them. I've done it a few times in my current campaign, but the plane trips have all been to "quaans" (term borrowed from The Banewarrens), which have been pockets of reality (a swamp, a city, etc.) shifted into their own finite space rather than genuine planes in the traditional sense and generally smaller parts of larger adventures.

 

[Shemeska]

Oh whisper my name and I'll come calling...

It intimidates some people. Either from the 1st edition 'the planes are where gods are and any attempt to detail them or go there ruins a mystery that is so mysterious that we can't talk about it'. Obviously they've never read the Planescape material in depth.

And then there's the mindset of 'it's only for high level people. We'll get killed! Waaah! Let's go play something safer like Tomb of Horrors!'

I think both of them are misguided personally, but for the 1st one it's more a differing philosophy in how you treat the planes. Obviously I'm a firm adherent of all things Planescapish and I feel that planar campaigns don't water down the mystique of the planes, but if done properly they increase that mystique and give you a firm appreciation for it.

Millions of Tanar'ri and Baatezu swarming like red and black ants across the ashen, bleak landscape of Oinos, living and dying under the shadow of the Wasting Tower of Khin-Oin, a 22 mile high citadel carved from the spine of a god. Shapeless, formless entities locked within the ice of Cania or swimming unseen beneath the bottomless mire of Minauros. A fiend redeemed through a single spark and imperfection of good, finally after millennia escaping imprisonment by his fellows and making his way to Elysium where when he steps through the gate and the sunlight touches him, his former form melts away in the sunlight to leave him in the form a lesser guardinal; redeemed in every way possible, and he weeps in happiness.

Does that lessen mystery or does that leave you wanting more? A properly run planar game should evoke grandeur, mystery and the manifest extremes of alignments and philosophies. The planes aren't just big extraplanar dungeons to go kill higher level monsters for more kewl loot and gain mad XP. If they are, please get off my internet, now.

The planes are the planes, and I don't treat a planar game as hopping between prime worlds that many folks seem to dislike. The planes are the planes, and you've got more than enough going on there to treat them in a campaign unto themselves.

Check out my storyhour(s) if you want an example of my approach to this all.