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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trickstergod" data-source="post: 1253183" data-attributes="member: 10825">I'll agree; some of the aspects of Planescape were just silly or irritating. I like Planescape, but think that the idea of Sigil being the closest thing to the center of the universe over the Prime Material Plane was a bit...meh. And yes, I realize the books state otherwise at times, but the fact is, mechanically, Sigil was the closest thing to the center of reality as anything could be, between the ways Weapon plusses, magic, and all that other stuff worked on the Planes. So that's a strike against Planescape. Then I never much liked the idea of people regularly traipsing around with the dead, leastaways, those who ascended to one of the more heavenly after lives. Where was it that band of elves settled? Bytopia? It was so nice, they decided they'd just stay there? Egh. Bleah. The idea of petitioners never much sat well with me, either. They toiled all their lives and now...more of that? I figured, at least in the Good aligned Planes, the dead should be sancrosanct, and angels and their ilk weren't going to let squatters set up shop in their home. You want to go to the Seven Heavens, you earn it after a lifetime of good deeds, even if you are good now. So that never sat well with me. The constant repeated theme of the gods being nothing more than Powers, and not really creator figures, also never sat well with me. While I don't necessarily believe that this idea should have been nonexistent, the way Planescape was written, it came fairly close to saying that 1) Gods did not create the universe, and 2) There are figures greater than gods out there. Which to me, means they're not much of any kind of god at all. Then again, that idea's not necessarily unique to Planescape. But, for those little quirks and irks, Planescape still had a number of other things going for it. "Philosopher's with clubs," about sums it up, and my opinion as well. It integrated thought, role-playing, belief, faith and so much more along with fantasy, magic and beating the beejesus out of monsters. While this isn't necessarily absent from other settings, it is the main theme of Planescape. As much as any D&D setting draws upon the writings of Aristotle and Neil Gaiman, Planescape does so the most so. It is quite possibly the most unique setting out there without going too far beyond the bounds of fantasy (Whereas Spelljammer and Iron Kingdoms both traipse into the area of Sci-Fi). It's a game where monsters often aren't just monsters, but characters and NPC's worthy of interaction and much more than combat. Where sometimes, combat is simply just not an option. And let's not forget the computer game Torment, which is what kicked off my interest in Planescape to begin with. I'm honestly not sure there's a better way to introduce someone to the setting than that game. It's the bees knees.</blockquote>

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