Why Planescape?

[Pants]

This wasn't Planescape - this was D&D lore long before Planescape. And Planescape touched on the Primes so rarely, you could ignore it if you wanted. That said, I actually like it. [/b]

Well, then just put me down on the list of 'I'm glad that 3e got rid of this' list.

Fiends are sooooo much cooler when you take into account their motives, feelings, ambitions, ect. "Fiends as people" is, IMO, one of the coolest things about PS.

I don't mind them having motives per say, but I think it really ruins the Fiends when it seems you could be walking down the street and a Pit Fiend walks out of a store with a bottle of milk and a pack of Hot Dogs in his hand. Personally, it almost seems as if PS portrays the fiends almost 'comically' at times.

The Lady of Pain was basically a plot device to make sure the PCs didn't conquer Sigil. If a DM had her killing PCs all willy-nilly, he was running her wrong. Remember, the Lady of Pain tolerates a lot of stuff. Theft, battery, murder, even mass murder was left to the "mundane" authorities. As long as you didn't destabilize the entire city, you were OK.

I think that, to me, the Lady of Pain falls into what I like to call the 'Chosen of Mystra' syndrome.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The uniqueness and personality to the cold distant universe has already been touched on, as has the artwork, and the belief system...

So I'll touch on something new: Races.

No where else but PS could I feel justified in allowing a PC to play a gelatinous cube cleric of the Great Unknown, and actually grab a significant wad of evocative role playing for it.

And: Alignment Justification.
For all the variety, there was a universal coherence. For all the difference of tiefling and aasimar, they both were touched by the planes. For all the difference of Law and Chaos, they both depended on each other to exist. For all the wars of Good vs. Evil, the line between the two was vague at best. Planescape did wonders for my acceptance and DMing of the alignment system, not as a rigid system of do nots, but as a description for motive and action.

People still have problems with this today.

I mean, sure, yugoloths are wicked to their very core, in more perverse ways than you could ever fathom...but that doesn't mean they don't drink tea. It just means that the way they drink tea is wicked to it's very core, and infused with ideals of base corruption the likes of which would make your stomach churn.

And then there's the jaded sensibility that I found particularly motivating....and the idea that even 1st level mooks can interact with these high-level beings...

 

[Squire James]

Since the Lady of Pain was never given stats, who can say she was "uber-munchkin"? She could simply be a 5th level wizard with a unique ability or two and a lot of chutzpah (e.g. like Gandalf)! You never know...

 

[Olive]

I like planar advenyures, and I like detailed planar locations, ergo I like stuff that gives that to me, like planescape suplements.

I don't like cant, and I tend to agree that the campaign should at least begin on the Prime, but I can ignore that if I want to can't I!

 

[FireLance]

I will chime in on the "philosophies, belief and roleplaying" reason, the "infinite possibilites" reason, the "great NPCs" reason (Faces of Sigil was one of my favourite books too) and add one more: Planescape is great for modular DMing.

When I played Planescape, it was in a group of players with three DMs (including myself) who shared the responsibility for running games. In another world, the involvement of essentially the same group of heroes in three separate plotlines may have strained credibility at some point - why are these three BBEGs ignoring each other, for example? The infinite scope of Planescape made it possible, even likely, that they were not even aware of each other.

Also, for "experimental" DMs, it was a great way of playing with rule changes without damaging the central storyline - just shunt the group off to some place where the physical laws are different (like the time that I sent them to a world where only Evocation magic worked).

 

[Pseudonym]

When Planescape first came out, folks in my gaming group pimped it like it was the greatest thing to happen to RPGs, but I could never get past that damn annoying faux-Cockney accent everyone in Sigil and the rest of the planes used.

Admittedly this game requires a huge amount of suspension of disbelief and whatnot when your pretending to be an elf wizard travelling to a magic city in the center of the universe, but when some imp NPC starts in with "berk" this and "cutter" that like some cheap imitation of Fagan from Oliver Twist, verisimilitude goes completely out the window.

 

[Mista Collins]

There is such a simple answer to the main question.

Planescape is sexy!

All the reasons it is sexy have been mentioned above.

 

[Ashy]

I guess it would be a shame if I did not chime in on this, aye?

Well, much of what I feel has already been said - most of them by the old school PS'ers - Midget, Carny, Eric, Hardhead - they've all got it down and right.

If I had to sum up why I liked Planescape in a single word or two it would have to be: limitless potential.

If I had to tell you *ALL* the reasons why, Morrus would need ALOT more disk space.

Oh yea, I also loved Tony's art and I also am an old school fan of Eric's PS stuff.... Ah, those were the days....

 

[ThirdWizard]

If i had to sum up my main reason for loving Planescape, it would be that it is the perfect published setting for a homebrew campaign. The freedom it affords is outstanding, the possibilities are infinite. I've run many many Planescape games and none of them have been the same, even those with Sigil as the main setting.

I ran a game where the PCs were plane hoppers who used Sigil as their home base. Explorers, traveling to strange places.

Another was with the PCs living in Ysgard, a barbarian land, where clans lived and adventurers were made under the shadows of their gods mountains.

In another, the PCs strove to free themselves from the clutches of Carceri, the prison plane.

I'm currently in an Epic game where the PCs have risen to be guardians and overseers of the Gate Town to Mount Celestia. There's fiend fighting, sure, but there's so much depth to the story, with opposing factions, guarding against insurrections, making sure the Gate doesn't fail (which entails making sure the inhabitants believe in the teachings of Good and Law), and much more.

I'm running a Sigil game where the PCs are roguish types, they got involved with some mafia type people, they do random jobs for people, and they are trying to solve the mystery behind a group of Temples located throughout every plane of existance.


In the first game I DMed in Planescape, the (Prime) wizard came across a bar in Pandemonium and saw a Raksasha sitting and drinking. He prepared to fight for his life, but she just went back to her cup. He was stunned. Some people might not like the idea of this, but I find endless roleplaying potential in such situtaions.

It's not a setting of "you can't"s. It's a setting of "how will you?"

 

[Shemeska]

When Planescape first came out, folks in my gaming group pimped it like it was the greatest thing to happen to RPGs

And good for them because that about sums up my opinion naturally so. Everyone repeat after me, Planescape is the be all and end all of gaming settings. Thank you.

And what Ashy said. Limitless potential. I've had more enjoyment creating material for my Planescape campaign in the past year than for any other setting or game ever, hands down. I've got literally several hundred pages of work sitting on my hard drive relating to the setting I've written and used. *fawns over the setting*

*daintily drinks some of that evil tea like all proper Arcanaloths do*