Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse

[0wca]

Thus, Sigil is going to be a "safe space" for all beings, especially those fleeing oppression from other planes.

And so, of course, they'll have to make a villain or a villainous faction that seeks to end this diversity. Maybe by shutting down portals in the city?

In the original Planescape, the Harmonium was deliberately designed to be as oppressive, narrow-minded and intolerant as possible. They're also the least racially diverse faction, so it won't take much work to make them fit modern obsessions.

(And the Mercykillers are just as bad. The only faction that's strongly lawful yet not unlikable is the Fraternity of Order.)

That's one possiblity.

Although the Lady of Pain always had the last word so they'll have to figure their way around that.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Wait, their new adventure is just a lazy ripoff of Planescape Torment? Seriously? Did they think nobody would notice? How stupid are these people?

 

[Silva]

Wait, their new adventure is just a lazy ripoff of Planescape Torment? Seriously? Did they think nobody would notice? How stupid are these people?

Frankly, after seeing the other 5E setting "remakes" I don't mind if they ape Torment. It's probably better than any idea/adventure they could come up by themselves.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Wait, their new adventure is just a lazy ripoff of Planescape Torment? Seriously? Did they think nobody would notice? How stupid are these people?

Frankly, after seeing the other 5E setting "remakes" I don't mind if they ape Torment. It's probably better than any idea/adventure they could come up by themselves.

We already have PST. It's a waste of the tabletop to copy the video game when I can just play PST. These writers are terrible and can't even pull off ripoffs either.

 

[Silva]

It's a waste only for those who played the videogame, which is a very small fraction of current TTRPG players.

Even then it's arguable. I can see the value of having the items, npcs, enemies, maps, etc. from Torment in TTRPG form. Assuming they'll even do this, it's not comfirmed yet.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

It's a waste only for those who played the videogame, which is a very small fraction of current TTRPG players.

Even then it's arguable. I can see the value of having the items, npcs, enemies, maps, etc. from Torment in TTRPG form. Assuming they'll even do this, it's not comfirmed yet.

Again, these writers can't write worth shit. It doesn't matter if they have the best source material: they fuck it up anyway.

 

[Silva]

Just realized, while reading about taoism and ying-yang, that the Transcendent Order is pure taoism. Going with the "flow of the universe" and all that. Cool.

 

[Erebus]

Just realized, while reading about taoism and ying-yang, that the Transcendent Order is pure taoism. Going with the "flow of the universe" and all that. Cool.

And the Believers of the Source and Dustmen are both inspired by Buddhism.

To be honest, I don't really like the Transcendent Order as a faction. Their concept is strong, but the fact that they don't really care about anything other than inner harmony makes them hard to use in an adventure.

 

[Saerain]

Sly Nye (to the far right, despite the fact that he apparently got a sex change) :

Just sticking to the inspirational source, very thoughtful.

 

[Silva]

12 Recruitment Posters for Sigil Factions:​

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/157...ction-recruitment-posters#recruitment-posters

Superb artwork. They seem to have tweaked the factions for better playability. Ending the (nonsensic) Xaositechs and the (stupid) Revolutionaries to give space for "Hands of Havoc" (liberate through chaos) is clever.

 

[Infinitron]

It's happening!



https://www.pcgamer.com/dandds-next...torment-videogame-will-see-all-sorts-of-nods/

D&D's next book is about Planescape, and 'fans of the Planescape: Torment videogame will see all sorts of nods'​

My journal is ready.

There's a long tradition of connections between Dungeons & Dragons and the videogames based on it. Pool of Radiance, the 1998 videogame that kicked off the Gold Box series, was also released as a pen-and-paper adventure called Ruins of Adventure in the same year. More recently, Baldur's Gate 3 incorporated parts of the adventure Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus—if you want to know more about why there are so many tiefling refugees fleeing Elturel, that book has your answer. (Wyll's dad shows up in it too.)

The next D&D supplement is Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse, and it includes at least a few things players of 1999's Planescape: Torment will recognize. For starters, one piece of official artwork shows the Smoldering Corpse Bar, which either still has Ignus the burning wizard on display or has found a replacement for him.

What's more, the supplement's adventure book, Turn of Fortune's Wheel, opens with a familiar scene. "You wake up in the mortuary," senior game designer F. Wesley Schneider said in a first look video. "I'm sorry to say that you've died. Morte, the snarky floating skull, greets you and you realize that there's a mystery. Your memories are fractured and every time that you come back from the dead, you come back a little different."

While it doesn't sound like Morte will remain your companion throughout the adventure like he did in Torment, the rest of the plot will explore similar themes. "Fans of the Planescape: Torment videogame will see all sorts of nods to that story in the circumstances of the way the adventure begins," senior game designer Justice Arman said in a deep dive, "but also through the core mechanic that is happening throughout."

Due to what they're calling a "multiversal glitch", your PCs find themselves able to return from the dead, like a certain amnesiac Nameless One. The next time a character dies in Turn of Fortune's Wheel, they have the opportunity to come back different, perhaps as another class. Death is essentially a respec, with each player having the opportunity to craft three incarnations of their character and switch between them.

Morte also shows up as the host of the bestiary, which is called Morte's Planar Parade. If it's anything like the Spelljammer bestiary, Boo's Astral Menagerie, it'll be a minor cameo, but it's nice he gets to show his face (such as it is) in the actual adventure as well. The third book in the set, and the one I'm most excited for, is a background book called Sigil and the Outlands, focused on the city at the centre of the multiverse. Here's hoping it's more detailed than the background part of the Spelljammer set, which felt a bit bare.

Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse will be out on October 17. Planescape: Torment is available in its snazzy enhanced edition on Steam and GOG.

 

[Sacibengala]

"'fans of the Planescape: Torment videogame will see all sorts of nods" God help us.

 

[Alienman]

Gay and lame.

 

[Caim]

The overlap between people who enjoyed PS:T and who play 5e is much smaller than they think it is.

 

[0wca]

12 Recruitment Posters for Sigil Factions:​

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/157...ction-recruitment-posters#recruitment-posters

Superb artwork. They seem to have tweaked the factions for better playability. Ending the (nonsensic) Xaositechs and the (stupid) Revolutionaries to give space for "Hands of Havoc" (liberate through chaos) is clever.

That design looks like another generic fantasy armor.

The transition is painful.

 

[Silva]

The transition is painful.

Indeed. The newer mercykiller is clearly better and something I could actually see my character as. Instead of Mr. chubby & Mr. carnival above.


And a preview of the gate-town Torch (notice the portal to Gehena, a ruby floating above the vulcan). It seems they're giving the gate-towns more attention this time.

 

[Silva]

Sigil streets.

 

[Gyor]

Okay got the bundle so I got the product early. Another shitty product. The monsters are very basic and uninspired mostly. The Planar Traits are mostly ribbon abilities, but enough aren't that it's very unbalanced. There is just enough player options for them to lie to people about this being a product for players. They kind of removed important real world religious stuff, except its so baked into the setting that it looks completely stupid when they do so, like as a pagan it feels insulting instead of respectful. It also makes it bland as fuck. Tons of missed setting opportunities. Third book should have been a manual of the Planes or at least the Outer Planes instead of an adventure. Planescape factions still fucking suck, some actually got worse. Oh and it even contradicts some of 5e's own lore.

They need to contract out these products to other studios and freelancers from now on, because folks like Jeremy Crawford are insanely shitty at it.

I mean I gave them second chance after second chance, I'm done.

 

[Erebus]

They kind of removed important real world religious stuff, except its so baked into the setting that it looks completely stupid when they do so, like as a pagan it feels insulting instead of respectful. It also makes it bland as fuck. Tons of missed setting opportunities. Third book should have been a manual of the Planes or at least the Outer Planes instead of an adventure.

How developed are the Outer Planes ? And the Gate-Towns ? Is the importance of the power of belief sufficiently explained ?

 

[ind33d]

The overlap between people who enjoyed PS:T and who play 5e is much smaller than they think it is.

And anyone who likes Planescape but not 5e is just playing Numenera. Who is this for?

 

[Silva]

They kind of removed important real world religious stuff, except its so baked into the setting that it looks completely stupid when they do so, like as a pagan it feels insulting instead of respectful. It also makes it bland as fuck. Tons of missed setting opportunities. Third book should have been a manual of the Planes or at least the Outer Planes instead of an adventure.

How developed are the Outer Planes ? And the Gate-Towns ? Is the importance of the power of belief sufficiently explained ?

Gate towns seem well developed, together with Outlands and Sigil. Outer planes zilch (isn't that covered in the DM book though?). Power of belief I don't know. If they didn't cover it it's a shot in the foot.

 

[Gyor]

They kind of removed important real world religious stuff, except its so baked into the setting that it looks completely stupid when they do so, like as a pagan it feels insulting instead of respectful. It also makes it bland as fuck. Tons of missed setting opportunities. Third book should have been a manual of the Planes or at least the Outer Planes instead of an adventure.

How developed are the Outer Planes ? And the Gate-Towns ? Is the importance of the power of belief sufficiently explained ?

Outer (except Outlands), Inner, and Transitive Planes get dick all directly. Some of the monsters and traits, like Petitioners can be useful for other Outer Planes. Plenty of details on Gatetowns, but very hit or miss, I found it unsatisfying, but other easier to please say this product is a solid C to B. It's functional, unlike Spelljammer, which is largely the best I can say for it. Some of the Gate town lore in buried in the adventure however. The Adventure seems at least interesting, some similarities to Torment, at least in key conceit, but way more use of the Outlands, especially the Gatetowns, then Planescape ever got.

 

[Silva]

They kind of removed important real world religious stuff, except its so baked into the setting that it looks completely stupid when they do so, like as a pagan it feels insulting instead of respectful. It also makes it bland as fuck. Tons of missed setting opportunities. Third book should have been a manual of the Planes or at least the Outer Planes instead of an adventure.

How developed are the Outer Planes ? And the Gate-Towns ? Is the importance of the power of belief sufficiently explained ?

Outer (except Outlands), Inner, and Transitive Planes get dick all directly. Some of the monsters and traits, like Petitioners can be useful for other Outer Planes. Plenty of details on Gatetowns, but very hit or miss, I found it unsatisfying, but other easier to please say this product is a solid C to B. It's functional, unlike Spelljammer, which is largely the best I can say for it. Some of the Gate town lore in buried in the adventure however. The Adventure seems at least interesting, some similarities to Torment, at least in key conceit, but way more use of the Outlands, especially the Gatetowns, then Planescape ever got.

How about the factions (belief) powers and abilities of the old edition? Like, Doomguard entropy blades, Dustmen undead compact, etc?

 

[Fedora Master]

12 Recruitment Posters for Sigil Factions:​

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/157...ction-recruitment-posters#recruitment-posters

Superb artwork. They seem to have tweaked the factions for better playability. Ending the (nonsensic) Xaositechs and the (stupid) Revolutionaries to give space for "Hands of Havoc" (liberate through chaos) is clever.

Absolute fucking shit

 

[Zeriel]

"Allison"

Nice of Becky to self-insert, but seriously?

The overlap between people who enjoyed PS:T and who play 5e is much smaller than they think it is.

Additionally, the overlap between people who enjoyed PS:T and want it normified and modernized is exactly 0 people.

This is the gaming equivelant of gentrification.