Planescape General and Q&A
Discuss Planescape and the Great Wheel here, whether the original AD&D 2e version, the 3.X version, the 4e version (yes, it exists in 4e, down to the baernaloths, the yugoloths, the Heart of Darkness, Maeldur et Kavurik, Tenebrous, Pelion, and the Last Word all being canon as of Dragon #417), the 5e version, or your own original blend.
I am exceedingly well-lanned on Planescape canon under a holistic blend of 2e, 3.X, and sometimes even 4e lore. If you have any questions at all about the setting's lore, feel free to ask, and I will give you direct quotes and citations from as many primary sources as I can, unlike afroakuma. I will note when something is open to GM interpretation, and explicitly note whenever I give merely my own personal interpretation.
>Basic setting summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape
>Comprehensive Planescape reference index: http://www.rilmani.org/psIndex.txt
>Planewalker.com planar encyclopedia: http://mimir.planewalker.com/encyclopedia/plane
>Canonfire.com planar encyclopedia: http://canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Outer_Planes
>Rilmani.org planar encyclopedia (contains unmarked fanon, so beware): http://www.rilmani.org/timaresh/Outer_Planes
>List of all the multiverse's gods (contains all gods mentioned in D&D products, but also has plenty of speculation and fanon for mythological deities and for powers with few details on them): http://mimir.planewalker.com/forum/list-dead-gods#comment-58090
Old threads with previous questions and comprehensive answers:
https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/text/%22comprehensive%20planescape%22/
I think I recall 2e having a time travel magic expansion book, which allowed travel to the future of oerth.
Did futuristic stuff like that ever cross over into planescape back then or since?
>>44344983
You are referring to AD&D 2e Chronomancer, which is quasi-officially acknowledged in page 50 of the 2e Guide to the Ethereal Plane, under the Demiplane of Time section, which also acknowledges all of the contradictions surrounding Temporal Time.
D&D has always had its share of futuristic tech bleeding over into its various fantasy worlds, most notably the very old "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" and its spiritual successor adventures "City of the Gods" and "Tale of the Comet."
However, TSR tried to keep this futuristic bleedover mostly divorced from both Spelljammer and Planescape, possibly to maintain a more consistent "pure fantasy" feel to those meta-settings. That is why Spelljammer is full of bizarre magical devices but no true sci-fi tech, and why Planescape likewise uses magical devices even when a piece of sci-fi tech would be more appropriate (e.g. the magical "ICBM" and the magical "fighter jet" in page 31 and 34 of the "Doors to the Unknown" Planescape adventure).
That said, "Doors to the Unknown" breaks away from this divorce somewhat by presenting a Prime Material world of legitimate sci-fi technology rather than magic, and indeed, most magic does not function there. It is called Logicus Prime, and you can read about it in pages 49-53 of "Doors to the Unknown."
In short, yes, there is a very small degree of legitimately sci-fi, futuristic tech acknowledged in Planescape, although said technology has always been around in D&D (and simply never acknowledged in Planescape).
>>44344358
Given that there's no 5e material yet, besides those minimal footnotes in the player's handbook, what are some potential changes that could be made to accomodate it? I'm mostly working on templates for now but since I'm rather new to 5e's changes, I'm wondering if there mght be anything major I might be missing. Perhaps related to tieflings?
Also because of balancing, but I feel this is mostly getting used to it.I'm not GM'ing, but we're all working together and seeing things we agree on because doing this all from scratch would be tiring for him.
>>44348027
The 5e Dungeon Master's Guide has an entire section on the planes. It is actually a reasonably Planescape-faithful reinterpretation of the Great Wheel, albeit with some 4e features to it (such as the Feywild, the Shadowfell, and the Elemental Chaos).
A bit hard to have a general when there's an FAQ of already answered topic. Just as a little tip.
>>44348646
Better than repeated questions.
>>44349389
yeah, but what is there to discuss when there's a list of answers? I mean I understand it's not really meant to be a forum thread, more like a specific Q&A, but I personally have trouble thinking of discussion topics that could lead somewhere.
I guess I could go with "I wonder if cook's two sequels to Faction War were ever actually completed or even worked on far enough that we could see them someday?"
>>44348646
I see no FAQ in the opening post, other than links to previous threads containing not-so-frequently-asked questions.
>I wonder if cook's two sequels to Faction War were ever actually completed or even worked on far enough that we could see them someday?
To my knowledge, we have no information whatsoever on what was written for them, and it is deeply unlikely for those two adventures to ever see the light of day.
>>44349939
I guess he never said anything in an interview or something? There's a lot of unfinished Monte stuff according to rumors, but who knows in what state it is. I mean for all we know it might just be outlines.
I'm just intensely curious about what Faction War was building up to. Cook stated that disbanding the Factions was just a stepping stone and that it would lead to a new status quo in Sigil. So some sort of Faction reformation maybe? Something else? I dunno.
>>44350008
I could also see it as a way for the Planescape team to have revised Sigil's faction roster. It certainly is not out of the question for the team to have grown dissatisfied with the factions as they currently stood (some of them struggle for a real "identity" and role in the setting, such as the Bleak Cabal, the Sign of One, and the Transcendent Order), and for them to have decided to revise the factions through in-universe methods.
Of course, such an idea does not quite hold up when one considers that the factions that *did* have a solid identity (e.g. Athar, Doomguard, Fraternity of Order, Harmonium, Mercykillers) were forced out as well.
