Why Isn't Planescape the Default Setting?

[Jawsh]

You'll please almost no one with that tack. Planescape fans are exceeded by few groups (possibly only Dragonlance fans) in their desire for fidelity to Planescape as established in 2E. Diverge from that even a little to make it more useful to a wider audience, and they'll bitterly complain.

I haven't interacted with that many Planescape fans, but of the ones that I have interacted with, I find they're most open with regard to what counts as Planescape's established conventions. If you find something works differently than you thought, chalk it up to planar misinformation. Any change is potentially true, because the story only needs to be believed for it to become true.

 

[GSHamster]

I adore Planescape. In my view, it was the single best product produced by TSR during the 2E days. It had style and flair and panache. And the Harmonium.

But it would be a terrible default setting.

The default setting needs be close to the "generic" fantasy setting. It needs to be like Middle-Earth, like Camelot, like the majority of our common stories. It needs to tap deep into the archetypes that make up fantasy. Someone who has never played D&D before needs to be able to understand the setting, to grok it quickly.

Maybe it should have a few twists, but not total subversion. It is a good thing for the default setting to be more vanilla, and less spice.

 

[Nivenus]

It seems to me as if Planescape is the natural core and default setting. For one thing, Planescape leads to all other settings, so if you really wanted One Setting to Rule them All, Planescape would be it.

One, very simple reason:

It's not generic enough.

Sure, it connects to all of the other settings (even post-2e, where Sigil is a part of every cosmology and is the same Sigil in all of them) and that means, in theory, you can easily incorporate all of its lore into everything. But it's also very weird and different from your average fantasy adventure. Elves, dwarves, and other traditional fantasy races are almost entirely absent and the feel of the the Cage is anything but standard medieval fantasy.

Personally, I wouldn't mind making Planescape the core: I think it's a wonderfully interesting setting and it does have the advantages you mention. However, it's just not going to happen. Too many people hate settings that don't feel like generic fantasy and more than the number of people who hate settings that are generic fantasy. They expect D&D to represent generic fantasy and to a certain extent they're right - it usually does.

Stuff like Planescape work better as options, little bits of weirdness that you can add in or leave out as you like. The core setting of D&D really has to be kind of generic and preferably low in detail (which is one of the reasons PoL works so well).

 

[Vayden]

Obv Sigil can't be the starting area for all the reasons mentioned above. But as a 4e player, I wouldn't mind scrapping the 4e planar system and bringing back the great wheel. Always felt like the wheel (annoying and dumb as it might be at times) was part of what it meant to be "D&D" instead of "Baseline Fantasy Roleplaying" - same with Owlbears and Beholders and the rest of the ridiculous stuff that doesn't make sense.

 

[Greg K]

Because away from message boards, I have only met one person that liked it. Oh wait, I am thinking of Spelljammer. Let me change that to nobody that I have met in person has ever claimed liked Planescape and several that strongly disliked it. In contrast, over the years I have met many D&D players that profess their love for Al Quadim, Darksun, Darksun Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and even Greyhawk. I have even met a fan or two of Eberron. (edit: this was supposed to not be taken serious)

My favorites are Al Quadim, Darksun, and Ravenloft and, while I would love to see them as the default and recommend them or even Eberron (which I do not like) before Planescape, I would not recommend them as default for D&D. The default needs to be closer to Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance (edit: this part is. The point being despite preferences, the default setting needs to appeal to a wide audience and be closer to what most people think of D&D fantasy- DL, FR, and Greyhawk)

 

[Nivenus]

Because away from message boards, I have only met one person that liked it. Oh wait, I am thinking of Spelljammer. Let me change that to nobody that I have met in person has ever claimed liked Planescape and several that strongly disliked it. In contrast, over the years I have met many D&D players that profess their love for Al Quadim, Darksun, Darksun Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and even Greyhawk. I have even met a fan or two of Eberron.

Anecdotal evidence of popularity or a lack thereof counts for a little, but not much. People tend to hang with the crowds that already share their tastes so if you're not a fan of Planescape, you're not going to probably have a lot of friends who are fans.

That said, I think your central conceit is true: Planescape just isn't popular enough to warrant status as a core setting and there's certainly quite a few people who don't like it or other non-generic settings.

 

[Greg K]

Anecdotal evidence of popularity or a lack thereof counts for a little, but not much. People tend to hang with the crowds that already share their tastes so if you're not a fan of Planescape, you're not going to probably have a lot of friends who are fans.

That said, I think your central conceit is true: Planescape just isn't popular enough to warrant status as a core setting and there's certainly quite a few people who don't like it or other non-generic settings.

I know I was, actually, trying to be joking in the first paragraph. The main point was that, despite personal preferences, it needs to be something that is more generic fantasy fitting of D&D's origins and will have appeal to a more broad audience.

 

[Desdichado]

It seems to me as if Planescape is the natural core and default setting.

The iconic Planescape experience, and the iconic D&D experience are actually quite different. Planescape can't be the default core setting, because it's too weird, esoteric and different from what most gamers think of when they think of D&D.

 

[The_Baldman]

I run a pretty popular campaign for Dark Sun (Ashes of Athas). I picked it because it is popular and the core books had just rolled out for it. Our first public chapter was played by thousands. The #1 request I get (other than to put out more AoA stuff faster) is to start other campaigns and the #1 requested campaign of that is Planescape. Not saying it is the most popular campaign but it is well loved. For more then that I guess you'll have to hang out at our seminar in a few weeks.

 

[Nivenus]

I run a pretty popular campaign for Dark Sun (Ashes of Athas). I picked it because it is popular and the core books had just rolled out for it. Our first public chapter was played by thousands. The #1 request I get (other than to put out more AoA stuff faster) is to start other campaigns and the #1 requested campaign of that is Planescape. Not saying it is the most popular campaign but it is well loved. For more then that I guess you'll have to hang out at our seminar in a few weeks.

Planescape's popular in the same way something like Firefly is popular: it's a cult classic. Most (post-2e) players have never heard of it and those who have don't necessarily have a strong opinion of it. If they do have an opinion, it's not necessarily good.

However, the people who know of Planescape and like it really like it and will probably buy anything with the label. So it makes sense to me that it would get some kind of support in 5e if WotC's really trying to appeal to as many people as possible. But it can't be the core setting.