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(+) What would you want for 5e Planescape?
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8323961" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>I always felt that Planescape offered these allusions to a certain type of adventure which really captivated me, but then the actual execution in the published adventures felt too conservative and disappointing. For example, one of the premises of Planescape was that "belief could literally move mountains" and there were politics around gate-towns shifting from the Outlands into the neighboring planes. How did that occur? DM fiat. What did it look like when that happened? The books were silent.</p><p></p><p>And figuring out how to translate Planescape themes about belief into your own games required wading through lots of text that was very much of the "tell, don't show" variety. In other words, it wasn't readily game-able information. I would often visit websites like The Mimir or Li Po's Guide to Multiverse, or read books like Calvino's Invisible Cities to try and wrap my head around what a certain planar site would feel like from an adventurer's eye view.</p><p></p><p>Whereas if you compare any of the published Planescape adventures like <em>Something Wild </em>or<em> Great Modron March </em>to<em> Planescape: Torment, </em>you see a stark difference. Torment had you talking dream beings out of existence, restoring the fallen gate-town of Curst by inspiring the public to trust one another again, and all kinds of crazy awesome adventure hooks.</p><p></p><p>Flipping through Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft I felt the "domains of dread" were just a little too spartan and leaned a little too much on random tables that were so-so. Good for creating your own stories and decently average inspiration, but less so for running a clearly defined location.</p><p></p><p>However, maybe a riff on that approach for Planescape would work really well, where there is a table of adventure hooks for each of the vast planes of existence. Many GMs that I've spoken with who ran Planescape would say something to the effect of "there's no good adventures in Elyisum or Bytopia" (typically it was one of those), and I think that really showcases the conservative...or <em>limited... </em>approach to adventure design during the AD&D run of Planescape.</p><p></p><p>Blowing it open with more creative risk-taking and more immediately game-able adventure hooks/info would be the best move for the setting, in my view. Leave the DMG's coverage on the planes to be vague & evocative. With a Planescape book, show how you implement those high concepts. Make it specific & game-able.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 8323961, member: 20323"] I always felt that Planescape offered these allusions to a certain type of adventure which really captivated me, but then the actual execution in the published adventures felt too conservative and disappointing. For example, one of the premises of Planescape was that "belief could literally move mountains" and there were politics around gate-towns shifting from the Outlands into the neighboring planes. How did that occur? DM fiat. What did it look like when that happened? The books were silent. And figuring out how to translate Planescape themes about belief into your own games required wading through lots of text that was very much of the "tell, don't show" variety. In other words, it wasn't readily game-able information. I would often visit websites like The Mimir or Li Po's Guide to Multiverse, or read books like Calvino's Invisible Cities to try and wrap my head around what a certain planar site would feel like from an adventurer's eye view. Whereas if you compare any of the published Planescape adventures like [I]Something Wild [/I]or[I] Great Modron March [/I]to[I] Planescape: Torment, [/I]you see a stark difference. Torment had you talking dream beings out of existence, restoring the fallen gate-town of Curst by inspiring the public to trust one another again, and all kinds of crazy awesome adventure hooks. Flipping through Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft I felt the "domains of dread" were just a little too spartan and leaned a little too much on random tables that were so-so. Good for creating your own stories and decently average inspiration, but less so for running a clearly defined location. However, maybe a riff on that approach for Planescape would work really well, where there is a table of adventure hooks for each of the vast planes of existence. Many GMs that I've spoken with who ran Planescape would say something to the effect of "there's no good adventures in Elyisum or Bytopia" (typically it was one of those), and I think that really showcases the conservative...or [I]limited... [/I]approach to adventure design during the AD&D run of Planescape. Blowing it open with more creative risk-taking and more immediately game-able adventure hooks/info would be the best move for the setting, in my view. Leave the DMG's coverage on the planes to be vague & evocative. With a Planescape book, show how you implement those high concepts. Make it specific & game-able. [/QUOTE]
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