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Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

Silva

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Another thing I'd like to see in the new product is concrete support, even formal play structures, around making the adventures about factions and belief. I know the old box had some advice, but it alway felt kinda obvious and simplistic to me. Perhaps a couple ready-made & structured campaign premises would suffice. Things like:

1) The same-faction party: PCs form a faction-initiated crew executing covert operations. The more successful they are, the higher they climb in the ranks, the better access to new and powerful stuff (belief abilities, faction-exclusive artifacts & gear, stronger support NPCs, etc), and more sensitive missions in the "kriegstanz" (the covert faction war) they get. Create a crew Reputation score with their faction to facilitate it. Also, advice on how to intertwine these with other ongoing adventures & campaigns.

2) The mixed-faction party: PCs are from different factions, but work together as a crew for some city entity (the Planewalkers' Guild, the City Council, the Planar Consortium, Ravel the Hag, a local cranium rats' gestalt, etc) doing jobs/missions for it. Meanwhile, each PC is assigned an individual, secret mission from their faction to spy, hinder or harm specific elements during the operations (even other PCs!), and are rewarded accordingly by their facition "handlers", again, with a (individual in this case) Reputation score going up/down and giving access to faction's better belief abilities, exclusive artifacts, expert NPCs, etc. And again, how to mix these sorties with ongoing adventures or campaigns.

3) The no-party setup: the "every man for himself" campaign, where PCs are individual operators from different factions, each with their web of assets and allied NPCs, getting into temporary conflicts and alliances with each other as their agendas collide and converge. They can or cannot join up and become a formal party down the road (in which case see number 2 above).

The important thing is to BRING IT ON! Dont' gimme just a couple paragraphs of loose advice, give me a bazillion tables to inspire and be used on the spot, full of sample mission targets, rewards, objectives, opposition types, city entities, complications to spill on missions like political climates & planar weather & union strikes, etc. Even provide a couple starting steps for each campaign, with ready-made NPC sponsors and opposition and choices for the crew to take with suggested consequences imediate and down the road. All that to get the ball rolling as fast and easier as possible, and then pass the reins to the group. BRING IT ON.


P.S: oh, and I want a Blades in the Dark-inspired city factions chart with their types, tier, strenght, relationships, etc. in a concise and ready-to-use manner:


6033ec94-0bd2-4efc-8387-e0820f10f7bd-953-00000169e3a75d99_file.jpg
 
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Silva

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Curiously, what really grabed me in the old PS visuals was the more abstract art and covers by Dana Knutson Robh Ruppel instead of Diterlizzi's:

ps-box.jpg


ps-box-dm.jpg


ps-box-chaos.jpg


Looking at those pieces again, it just strike me how impressionist they look:

5_Famous_Impressionist_Artists_and_Their_Masterpieces.png


impressionist-header.jpg



Which is interesting as Impressionism as art movement and style was created in the early 19th century, which totally fits the Victorian atmosphere of the setting. Don't know if it was intended or not (probably yes), but it's something I would love to see in the new product too.
 

Silva

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Not bad.

new-planescape-5e-cover-art.png


"Wizards of the Coast follows up last year's introduction of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space with the second in the line reviving classic D&D campaign settings: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse. The new collection returns players to Planescape, the critically-acclaimed and fan beloved setting initially released in 1994, and perhaps best known for the 1999 video game Planescape Torment.

The campaign collection is sold as a box set containing three hardcover books: Sigil and the Outlands, a 96-page guide describing the setting and its central city Sigil, home to portals connecting to every corner of the multiverse; Morte's Planar Parade, a 64-page bestiary of "impossible beings" and "nonstop weird" monsters; and Turn of Fortune's Wheel, a 96-page adventure that takes players across the Outlands to discover "a plot to undermine the rules of reality."

Adventures in the Multiverse and all its components will be available on October 16. The box set comes with a two-sided poster map and a DM screen; a limited edition version with box art by original Planescape artist Tony DiTerlizzi will be available through local game stores."

Source: https://themessenger.com/entertainment/these-are-dungeons-dragons-new-products-for-2023
 
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Caim

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Yeah, that's a good place to start if you're doing Planescape.

Gotta wonder how they're going to mess up the Outlands themselves though.
 

PapaPetro

Guest
Yeah, that's a good place to start if you're doing Planescape.

Gotta wonder how they're going to mess up the Outlands themselves though.
Ah man, I loved the Outlands and the Gatetown concept. Hoping they'd add more verisimilitude to it rather than subtract from it in this update.
Faction War was
decline.png
 

Caim

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Yeah, that's a good place to start if you're doing Planescape.

Gotta wonder how they're going to mess up the Outlands themselves though.
Ah man, I loved the Outlands and the Gatetown concept. Hoping they'd add more verisimilitude to it rather than subtract from it in this update.
Faction War was
decline.png
I have a nagging feeling that this is going to make us long for the days of Faction War.
 

Erebus

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Messages
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and Turn of Fortune's Wheel, a 96-page adventure that takes players across the Outlands to discover "a plot to undermine the rules of reality."

The fact that the adventure is set on an Outer Plane is encouraging. It's far from being the most exciting Outer Plane, but it's flexible and gate-towns are pretty cool.
 

PapaPetro

Guest
and Turn of Fortune's Wheel, a 96-page adventure that takes players across the Outlands to discover "a plot to undermine the rules of reality."

The fact that the adventure is set on an Outer Plane is encouraging. It's far from being the most exciting Outer Plane, but it's flexible and gate-towns are pretty cool.
That's good. I'll definitely give it a look when I get back from vacation.
 

Silva

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and Turn of Fortune's Wheel, a 96-page adventure that takes players across the Outlands to discover "a plot to undermine the rules of reality."

The fact that the adventure is set on an Outer Plane is encouraging. It's far from being the most exciting Outer Plane, but it's flexible and gate-towns are pretty cool.
It says outlands, not outer planes, no?

I'm more curious about wha they'll do with the Factions. The safest route is resetting it to the originals. But there's an old gossip about the old authors wanting to revise the original factions setup and using the faction war at the time to reset it (it would be followed by a book laying down the new setup, which never hapenned). I would like to see this new setup, as I always found the original factions had some problems (like, some are not even based on beliefs, like the Revolutionaries for eg).
 
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Erebus

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It says outlands, not outer planes, no?

The Outlands are one of the Outer Planes (the TN plane, to be precise).

I would like to see this new setup, as I always found the original factions had some problems (like, some are not even based on beliefs, like the Revolutionaries for eg).

Yeah, some of the original factions were good (the Believers of the Source, the Society of Sensation, the Fraternity of Order...), but several others need to be seriously improved or even scratched entirely.

The Xaositects are one the most obvious examples : their "philosophy" is pure lol!random Chaotic Stupidity. The Harmonium and the Mercykillers are narrow-minded fanatics that seem to have been designed to be as unlikable as possible. The Athar's beliefs are valid, but they're religious rather than philosophical, and aren't going to play a role very often. The Dustmen can be good NPCs, but their beliefs are so narrow that they're not believable as one of the main philosophies in the multiverse. Etc.
 

Silva

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The Xaositects are one the most obvious examples : their "philosophy" is pure lol!random Chaotic Stupidity. The Harmonium and the Mercykillers are narrow-minded fanatics that seem to have been designed to be as unlikable as possible. The Athar's beliefs are valid, but they're religious rather than philosophical, and aren't going to play a role very often. The Dustmen can be good NPCs, but their beliefs are so narrow that they're not believable as one of the main philosophies in the multiverse. Etc.
Good examples. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Overall, the number of factions could be reduced a little, with the remaining ones revised for playability and meaningful beliefs.

I've read somewhere there's already a Sigil based faction cited in some 5E product called "Fixers". They are supposedly based on "cosmic balance" and have as current goal the manipulation of the Blood War through covert ops to guarantee an eternal stalemate between Baatezu and Tanaari. That seems a great writeup, because it provides A) an actual belief and B) an immediately playable and exciting stchick that's fucking up the demons. (don't know if they will be one of the official factions in the upcoming book though, maybe they're just some loose group based off the city)

Edit: just checked, the Fixers were presented in the "Keys from the Golden Vault" adventure.
 
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ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
> Get Tony DiTerlizzi back on board to draw Planescape art again.
> Codex hates this "new shit".

:lol::lol::lol:

It's not surprising that his art style has changed during the past 25 years.

Has it changed for the better ? According to him :

Improving as an artist is incremental. It has taken years for me to realize my technical skills have advanced. One exercise that helped me is to revisit older pieces.

One of the older pieces in question is this eladrin from 1995 :

Ftmqg03XoAEbl2v


And the newer version from 2020 :

FtmqiGSXoAAsa62



The 1995 eladrin is one of my 4-5 favorite Planescape drawings. But the newer one is very good too (well, except for her eyes).

Expecting the art to be exactly the same as in the 90s is a sure road to disappointment.
Man this sucks. DiTerlizzi probably knows better then anyone whether or not they've improved mechanically as an artist, but the new artwork for Planescape is just terrible. Not because of poor line-work, or strange proportions, or any other skill/mechanic that relates to the actual act of drawing, but because they are so damn generic and lacking in any form of styilization. I have a hard time distinguishing his new illustrations from any other cartoon-shit that has become so popular.

Sadly, normies gonna normie, and I doubt this is the popular opinion.
 

PapaPetro

Guest
> Get Tony DiTerlizzi back on board to draw Planescape art again.
> Codex hates this "new shit".

:lol::lol::lol:

It's not surprising that his art style has changed during the past 25 years.

Has it changed for the better ? According to him :

Improving as an artist is incremental. It has taken years for me to realize my technical skills have advanced. One exercise that helped me is to revisit older pieces.

One of the older pieces in question is this eladrin from 1995 :

Ftmqg03XoAEbl2v


And the newer version from 2020 :

FtmqiGSXoAAsa62



The 1995 eladrin is one of my 4-5 favorite Planescape drawings. But the newer one is very good too (well, except for her eyes).

Expecting the art to be exactly the same as in the 90s is a sure road to disappointment.
Man this sucks. DiTerlizzi probably knows better then anyone whether or not they've improved mechanically as an artist, but the new artwork for Planescape is just terrible. Not because of poor line-work, or strange proportions, or any other skill/mechanic that relates to the actual act of drawing, but because they are so damn generic and lacking in any form of styilization. I have a hard time distinguishing his new illustrations from any other cartoon-shit that has become so popular.

Sadly, normies gonna normie, and I doubt this is the popular opinion.
He's definitely been infected with that soft cartoony CalArts aesthetic that's been so popular lately (Think Cartoon Network style art).
I guess that's where the money is at these days: inoffensiveness.

Maybe he just pissed off his Muse or something?
 

Silva

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So, Morte will be the narrator for the monster book. Very interesting. Between this and making the book about Sigil and the Outlands (rather than Outer Planes) they seem to be having the right ideas.

I'm cautiously optimistic.
 

PapaPetro

Guest
So, Morte will be the narrator for the monster book. Very interesting. Between this and making the book about Sigil and the Outlands (rather than Outer Planes) they seem to be having the right ideas.

I'm cautiously optimistic.
Well I hope they give Morte a script consistent with his established character. "Woke Morte" would be truly annoying and kill the verisimilitude/believability.
It would suck if he could no longer hit on planar chicks (felt like Avellone wrote a lot of himself in him
rating_lulz.gif
rating_mca.gif
).
 

Fedora Master

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And the newer version from 2020 :

FtmqiGSXoAAsa62



The 1995 eladrin is one of my 4-5 favorite Planescape drawings. But the newer one is very good too (well, except for her eyes).

Expecting the art to be exactly the same as in the 90s is a sure road to disappointment.
Give her a red nose and you got Generic Tumblr OC Art.
 

luj1

You're all shills
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The downgraded art style will complement the downgraded quality of the setting and worldbuilding nicely. :balance:



FsUY5cHWwAEig5A


ye this crappy kids style is all over the internet

big decline from the giants of the 20th century

AFightingManofMars.jpg


no one seems to know how to draw anything mature anymore
 

PapaPetro

Guest
ye this crappy kids style is all over the internet

big decline from the giants of the 20th century

AFightingManofMars.jpg


no one seems to know how to draw anything mature anymore
What I'd would do to see an alt-reality where Frazetta was lead artist on Planescape...
(No offense 90s DiTerlizzi but this is Frank we're talking about here)
 

Caim

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planescape setting will be perfect for the inclusion of gays, drag queens, refugees and black people
It already has Shemeshka the Marauder, an Arcanoloth (a Yugoloth, who are all hermaphrodites) who presents herself as a woman and calls herself the King of the Crosstrade (ie: criminal enterprise).

If you ask about this discrepancy she takes a piece of her razorvine crown and whips you to death with it.
 

PapaPetro

Guest
If you ask about this discrepancy she takes a piece of her razorvine crown and whips you to death with it.
I'd just obliterate her/him/whatever for that insolence.
Maybe life as soul larvae would teach that creature respect for the pecking order of things.
 

Erebus

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planescape setting will be perfect for the inclusion of gays, drag queens, refugees and black people
It already has Shemeshka the Marauder, an Arcanoloth (a Yugoloth, who are all hermaphrodites) who presents herself as a woman and calls herself the King of the Crosstrade (ie: criminal enterprise).

There's also Farrow, an elf who broke his own mind and, as a result, regularly undergoes changes in personality and appearance. One day "he" is a female CN tiefling from the Society of Sensation, another day he's a male LG human from the Harmonium, etc.

(Faces of Sigil was one of the best Planescape books. Everyone interested in the setting should read it.)
 

Gyor

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https://www.ign.com/articles/everyt...cape-adventures-in-the-multiverse-sourcebooks

Alittle bit of info on it.

Also from the WPN page:


Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse contains everything a Dungeon Master needs to run adventures and campaigns set in Sigil and the Outlands, as well as new options for players who want to create characters prepared to explore the planes.

Players enter a portal to Sigil, the City of Doors—an incredible metropolis where portals connect to every corner of the multiverse. From there, venture to the Outlands, the hub of the Outer Planes, and discover wonders beyond imagination, as well as the secrets of celestials, fiends, gods, and the dead.

https://wpn.wizards.com/en/news/retailer-overview-of-2023-dungeons-and-dragons-releases

Extra bonus the deck of many things has been designed to function as an Oracle Deck with instructions so this is WotC's second foray into the actual occult, the first being the D&D tarot deck.

Oh and according to Polygon the adventure for Planescape had a massive level jump in the middle of the campaign, so expect high level play.
 

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