Hey everybody.
I'm a DM looking to start a Planescape campaign. I think of myself as a pretty good DM (and modest too), but I just can't sem to figure out how to start a Planescape campign. Do I just throw my PC's into Sigil? That seems a little harsh. What kind of "adventure" can I start them out with? Is making them 1st level a good or bad idea? I'm pretty dang clueless, and would appreciate any advice you guys have. I don't have any experience with the 2nd edition Planescape stuff, most of my knowledge of Plaescape comes from this website and PS:T.
Overall, I just want to know what you gusy did to start your Campaigns. What do your adventures consist of, how do you introduce people to the setting etc. I know this is a pretty big question, but any and all help will be appreciated. Thanks a bunch.
Edit: You know what, I probobly should have browsed the forum a little bit more. Ther'es a lot of stuff here. Still, help would be very much appreciated.
Right...here's a couple of things you can do....(I'm assuming your players aren't familiar with the setting
1.) Start off with a "normal" campaign and then wait for a while before revealing to your players a portal to Sigil (or some other outer plane, I wouldn't reccomend inner planes). After they go through the portal, follow the instructions on "2", starting from the second sentence.
2.) Get your players to pot into their character bios that they were somehow thrown through a portal, be it intentionally, or accidentally. After that...get someone to bob them. After that...do some other mean things to them. After that...when they've stopped being so sure of themselves...start your campaign, introducing them to the setting IC as you go
3.) Have your players play planar characters, and play. Advise them of things they should know OOC.
In my opinion 1st level is too low. But then again....I never start my players at level 1. Personally, I used variant 2 in my campaign what followed went something like this: They got lured into an ambush by a "tout". Then they went and made some Anarchists mad, by helping the Hardheads. Not long after that, they were hired by a seductive tiefling (an Anarchist, posing as a Hardhead), to get rid of a githzerai with lycanthropy (the fact that the githzerai was a monk, and had his own dojo *should* have alerted all of them to the fact that something was wrong...however, only one player was canny enough to figure it out). Anyway...they went there and the minmaxing, hackanslashing, powergamers in the group got their butts kicked (not only due to the the high level monk, but poisoned potions and corroded weapons, courtesy of the Anarchist tiefling). The player who figured out that the monk wasn't really a lycanthrope waited until the barbarian (whom he didn't like all that much) was nice and tender, before beginning a diplomatic exchange with the monk.
Hope that helped. If you still don't have any ideas how to start your campaing, I'd be happy to help you out with some more specific ideas.