Actually, re 'beliefs define reality', Planescape seemed to handle this a lot better than 3e's take on 9-sided Alignment, which manages to contradict itself several times in the PHB alone. It doesn't help that 1e Gygaxian lapsed-Midwest-Catholic morality is incompatible with 3e WoTC-Seattle-liberal morality. I've now given up on it and have reduced Alignment back to just Law-Neutral-Chaos, with early-Moorcockian definitions (similar to OD&D) so that eg the Nazis are Chaotic, not Lawful.
Why do most groups avoid planar games?
- Thread starter philreed
- Start date
Wild Gazebo
Explorer
Yep...kinda Chaotic of ya>
helium3
First Post
philreed said:So a planar SWAT game, during which the players are given a magic item that has the ability to completely destroy a planar touchstone and are tasked with the job of getting in and planting the device, would be acceptable?Planar touchstone go boom.
I wonder if it has something to do with planar campaigns being so different from something like Lord of the Rings. Maybe most players just prefer elves and dwarves to diving through gates and exploring strange planes of existence.
Planar games usually occur at higher levels, and most GM's (or is DM still acceptable?) aren't up to the challenge. It's more difficult to describe a planar landscape in less words, so the exposition tends towards the long winded. I think the idea that most people are turned off by very surreal soundings is true. Surreal is good, but only in low dosages. Your players need to connect with the game setting, and that's hard to do when you can't really imagine what the setting is like.
If anything, planar games should be easier to run, considering the types of nasties encountered. It's pretty easy to justify why a demon or devil needs to be killed. Planar settings are also inherently magical, and people dig the magic.
ThirdWizard
First Post
reanjr said:
Which is the reason I wholeheartedly don't want WotC to produce any true Planescape Setting material. I shudder to think what they would do with it.
reanjr
First Post
Well, I'm pretty sure the factions would basically consist of 5 level prestige classes with new [faction] feats that you could only take if you belonged to a faction. Then each one would be associated with a planar touchstone. Then there would be faction specific magic items and spells. They might have a paragraph explaining what the factions views are, but I doubt it.
Throw in a 10 level prestige class whose 10th level ability is to open any portal without the key.
Somewhere would be an "out" for how they can add new Baatezu into the hierarchy while keeping them rigidly hierarchical. Like demiplanes that existed in Baator and contained specialized devils.
They would probably continue to deny the existence of modrons.
They would hunt for any creature there used to be less than five different varieties of and fill in the reaminder (xeg-yi et al, for example; along with the slaad and abishai). Oh, and they would create a planar dragon template.
The Lady of Pain would be fully statted out as a CR 32 creature. There may exists a demiplane in Sigil that contained more of her race, though.
I am done being cynical, if honest.
Throw in a 10 level prestige class whose 10th level ability is to open any portal without the key.
Somewhere would be an "out" for how they can add new Baatezu into the hierarchy while keeping them rigidly hierarchical. Like demiplanes that existed in Baator and contained specialized devils.
They would probably continue to deny the existence of modrons.
They would hunt for any creature there used to be less than five different varieties of and fill in the reaminder (xeg-yi et al, for example; along with the slaad and abishai). Oh, and they would create a planar dragon template.
The Lady of Pain would be fully statted out as a CR 32 creature. There may exists a demiplane in Sigil that contained more of her race, though.
I am done being cynical, if honest.
ThirdWizard
First Post
reanjr said:
*twitch *twitch* Far too honest.
Ulp... I just realized I've been playing PS for over a decade now... I fear I'm getting old.
Psion
Adventurer
primemover003 said:
Y'know, I loved the Planescape setting, but the cant bugged me too. If it had merely been limited to character quotes and flavor snippets, it would have been appropriate and fine. But what killed me is that mechanics text that only the DM was going to read was in the cant... which got real tiresome real quick. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
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