r/planescapesetting

Hey all! I am trying to develop my planescape campaign, and I just had an idea for a campaign quest for the abyss, more specifically, Driller’s Hives, the 2nd layer of the abyss.

This probably has been done before, and if it has, please let me know. I was thinking that the party could observe insect plagues pop up all over Sigil without a discernible source. Over \[timeframe\] the party observes abyssal influence, which could be something the Doomguard could be involved with, specifically concerning Tharzax’s influence. Perhaps these could disrupt their alliance with the xaositects, such that a good-aligned subset might choose instead to align themselves with the revolutionary league, or some other good-aligned anarchist faction in Sigil.

Maybe these plagues can happen on and off throughout the course of a campaign, and the party needs to sort of “put out the fires” and exterminate pests of increasing deadliness.

I think the abyss has so much cool and unique content, that I can’t just choose one layer to add to the campaign. Orcus is a great villain too, so I think adding him would be a great finale to a campaign. Please let me know what you think!

TL;DR- how do I run the xaositects, and a conflict between the xaositects and [lawful faction] in a way that engages my players and isn’t a lore dump?

Hi all! I suppose this is somewhat of an update as to how I’m building my setting. Also I am using 5e’s mechanics because it’s more convenient for me and potential players. I mention this because the xaositects merged with other factions to form the hands of havoc, which I, and I assume some number of planescape DMs, dislike or disagree with. I am just using planescape’s 2e lore and settings with 5e mechanics.

I have decided that one of the factions is the xaositects, as you have likely figured out. I think they are very intriguing, and I think they have potential for some wild and funny interactions with a party that would make for some very memorable sessions at the table. I have not decided which other faction would be fighting with them. I am torn between the harmonium, the fraternity of order, and the mercykillers.

I will give a little bit of a disclaimer, and that is that I am not a Moral Philosopher, or an experienced DM. If what I am saying is not correct or does not make sense in some way, I am willing to learn from you all. I think in a lot of cases the “evil” option has more impact than a “good” action, making it difficult for me to determine what “neutral” is. At least this is how I “meta-interpret” people and the law at large. A lot of times “amoral” essentially means “without qualms for doing evil.” Many times this could be openly having a conflict of interest. I think I want to run the xaositects as an organization that does not commit egregiously good or evil acts, but more like “sour patch kids” level “kind and mean” acts, at least in Sigil. This would be how I personally view a neutral alignment, but I am open to new ideas and changing accordingly. As I’m reading this I am getting some second thoughts but this is how I feel, at least in the moment. Honestly it could be that I just really want to make this work and I’m just using motivated reasoning to try and make it work.

One more thing: how do I run a conflict between factions that isn’t just a lore dump? How can I run the xaositects in a sympathetic way? I think that there is actually something to work with here, as individuality and individual expression is important to those who don’t align with broader society, and change is actually important to keep culture alive and fresh, at least to me. Obviously this is just a game, and I understand the need for some stability, but I think that my group will resonate with the themes of self expression and individuality. Please let me know what you think!

Hi everyone!

I'm gearing up to start running a level 11+ campaign, and it's going to be involving the planes. I've been reading old 2E Planescape stuff, as well as all the planar 3E, 4E, and 5E books I have. One of the players is a fey pact warlock, and Titania specifically is her patron, so I'm definitely going to be involving the seelie courts. I am using Forgotten Realms as my base setting, with 2E planescape approach to the outer planes, but with 5E Dawn War and First World history.

I've long struggled with differentiating the Feywild and Arborea. It seems D&D struggles with it too, since they've been moving the Eladrin around a ton. I want to stick with a more 2E approach, with Eladrin being the exemplar celestials of Arborea, but I keep running into issues. Arborea has its own fey, and the Seelie Court spends time there. By using the Feywild, the Seelie Court will be on the Feywild, but they're said to be allies of the Seldarine.

If elves descended from fey, then why are the elven gods Gods and not Archfey? Why is Arborea described so similarly to the Feywild? Would it be simpler to remove the Feywild and just have it be Arvandor/Olympus? (Similarly, the Shadowfell could just be part of Hades).

The solution I'm entertaining is that the Archfey are the remnants of the Primordials (I do like the notion of Primordials and the Dawn War from 4E and 5E). The way I see it, when the gods waged war against the primordials, they did so to protect mortals from the primordials destroying their material worlds. The Archfey were Primordials that sided with the gods, wanting the preservation of the world. They could even be the neutral party that pushed the celestials and fiends out of the material world when the divine started warring against itself.

But, part of me keeps thinking that fey as chaotic outsiders would be interesting, and that it would help set Eladrin apart from their celestial cohorts. The seelie Court being in the CG planes and the unseelie court being in Pandemonium fits.

How do you, or would you, reconcile the Feywild with Planescape?

After the recent Ravenloft release I feel like, for better or for worse, WOTC will definitely be updating setting books they released for 5th edition. I’m currently running a Planescape campaign using the material from the 3 book 5E box set and it is going amazing. 5/5.5E is the only edition I’ve ever played but I’ve done enough research to know that the 5E version was definitely missing a lot. The material we did get was way better than what they did for Spelljammer but we just didn’t get enough of it in my opinion. That being said, what do you think they need to add if they update it for 5.5?

Me personally, I feel they missed a big opportunity to add more unique player races to the game. Bariaurs, Guardinals, and Modrons would have been awesome additions and I still would love to see them added. Both Gith races have yet to have an official 5.5E release and I feel like a Planescape book would be a perfect place to add them. Literally anything is better than the nothing we got

The Factions were covered somewhat in 5E but there was no real information on how to join one and what benefits you would receive. I was hoping for something similar to what they did with the guilds in the Ravnica book but even if we didn’t get something like that, I want way more than what we got in the last books. They used the renown system for factions in the Forgotten Realm release last year and I think that would work perfectly for a player trying to join the Doomguard or Mercykillers.

Besides races and factions I really think the individual Planes need explored more in the future. I love Sigil and the Outlands but there hasn’t been anything substantial released on planar travel and the different effects the Planes would have on player characters in 5th edition. It’s something I think Is desperately needed for higher level adventures. With all that being said, I know a lot of older fans aren’t happy with WOTC, but I do think they have improved a lot with some of the more recent releases and would love for them to give Planescape another shot.

Pretty much what the title says. I want to make a playlist to listen to while I'm doing the planning and be able to get into the right mindset.

TL;DR- How do I start/run a planehopping campaign starting from Sigil, and where do I put the portals?

Hi all! I am new to DM-ing and I want to design a planescape adventure that makes sense and not just sightseeing. Although I see nothing wrong with a little bit of that. I am somewhat overthinking this and I’m somewhat confused on what I need to do to prepare. I want to make portals as rare/common and as lore-friendly as possible. How specifically do you prepare this and run this in a campaign? I know there are books that talk about this but the source material is somewhat vague to me as to how I should run this at the table. How do you run travel when the party is traveling through the city? The map is very complicated. Are the portals essentially “just over there,” or are there highly specific places where portals are that I need the party to go to?

Part of my idea is that I want to start in Sigil and allow my players to go to all the outer planes. I think level 5 would be a good starting level but if someone has a good reason to start at a different level I’ll keep that in mind. I want to give them adventure hooks for all the planes by level so I’m prepared a little bit more. How do you convince your players to travel to a different plane and write a story that connects 2 characters in different planes in a way that makes sense?

I think there should be a BBEG, most likely Orcus. I think he is a great villain; you can find many YouTube videos discussing how he is the most evil creature in D&D. I want to slowly introduce his influence and make a sort of crescendo as the party levels up and adventures. I want to give them freedom to travel anywhere they want to but the end of the campaign will obviously be in the abyss. How do you write overarching villains in your campaigns?

I am confused on what I should do in limbo. I think it’s a very interesting plane with tons of potential for surrealist adventures, intrigue and fun. I just don’t know what to do once the party ends up there or chooses to travel there. I kind of don’t know what I don’t know when it comes to actually running the adventure, word by word, at the table in the moment. I can say “you are in the middle of this brumous conflagration of constantly transmuting chaos matter…” but when it comes to actually traveling there do I just improvise “you see a colossal monastery- you recall from your historical knowledge the Githzerai settlement Shra’kt’lor” or “just ahead you see pink petals floating downward in the chaos soup. Venturing further you see a giant mountain” (Mount Fujiyama, the interplanar mountain much akin to Mount Olympus in Arborea). I think if the party concentrates they have the ability to make a walkable path, which prevents them from just floating forever. If you have run limbo, how do you handle moving around and piloting characters in the plane on the level of writing the prompts of what the characters see and how they move and whatnot.

hi everyone. i want to dive into DMing a planescape game with an experienced group of players, but i’m a bit confused on how to prep.

when helping players create their characters, i’m not sure how to explain the glitch mechanic (in turn of fortune’s wheel) without straight up detailing what it is and how it will impact the game.

do i just tell them to create a character with three different builds? should i ask them to come up alt reality versions of themself? i’d rather be prepared with having glitch characters ready to start using as soon as a pc dies, aka not just not telling them that the mechanic even exsist.

i don’t know. i could be majorly overthinking it but this aspect specficially has been bugging me and i didn’t find a post getting that close to what o’m looking for. thanks for your help :)

Hi I'm planning to DM Turn of Fortune's wheel and I'm thinking of starting my players at level 17.
Heavy spoilers ahead.

In the module, the players wake up in Sigil at level 3 with their memories erased. They find out at the end of the campaign that Shemeshka captured them and their new forms are a due to a universal glitch.

I think it'd be fun to have that showdown happen in the campaign as Prelude. That way they can make connections in Sigil first and during that time I can figure out a good reason for the glitch. The module, as written, is pretty weak on Shemeshka's motivation and the reason for the glitch. Also, why is she making them seek out the modron? Doesn't make much sense. I'm hoping to fill in all that information with some level 17 adventures in Sigil.

Any advice on this? Is that a good idea? Should I just wing it in Sigil adventures or is there a high level adventure that you would recommend that would eventually link well into Turn of Fortune's wheel?

In the 5e Planescape campaign, the Dump in Curst is managed by a green hag named Dolores. Is there any 2e information that gives more details about her? I'm preparing additional encounters for my Turn of Fortune's Wheel campaign, and I want to place Dolores in the Dump.