Feedback: Chapters 8 and 9

Seeing that chapter 9 is a lot shorter than chapter 8, I'll see what I can do... I'm not sure what kind of feedback you're looking for. Are you looking for editors? I must confess I'm a bit unclear on the process to follow, here. For now I'll just post. I'm reading this from the point of view of a Planescape DM wannabe who has but skimmed a few PDF files and is in the process of buying the boxed sets on eBay.

"favorite victi—ahem—players" – meh
"chapter of the PSCS" → "chapter"

Preparing the Game – I liked the advice given, but I think it could be trimmed a bit more. Only the aspects that are truly Planescape specific should remain.

Examples of things to trim or condense:

Last three sentences of the last paragraph of "Will this be a single plane or multi-plane campaign?" can be trimmed.

Last paragraph of "What tone will your game have?" can be trimmed.

"What are the players’ ultimate goals for the campaign?" should be condensed to a list of example goals that are Planescape specific. I liked "meeting a power or becoming a golden Lord of Sigil. Your player may wish to become immortal, or rule their own demiplane." More?

Last paragraph of "Who are your main characters?" can be trimmed.

First paragraph of "Key Elements" can be trimmed down to a sentence.

"Adventures such as Faction War" – the name of the adventure should be italic?

I liked "So what is a Planescape campaign?" but was stumped by the theme examples. I see no way of applying that to my game. Some more examples for newbie DMs?

I really liked "Key Elements".

No PDF bookmarks – will these be added at the end?

"Character Motivations" is too general and can be trimmed.

I really liked "Scale and Scope".

"Keeping it Organized" could be trimmed but the idea of shifting all answers to in character answers is excellent and must remain. I also liked the four examples of how to handle complexity.

"Introducing Players" – it's hard to understand what the imperative "go with Sigil" means. Perhaps merge the two paragraphs as follows: "and other p-words, start with a party of prime characters. That way the players will go through the same journey of discovery as their characters."

"Min-Maxers in Planescape" could be trimmed; it is very generic advice. The only important part seems to be "Min-maxers can‘t do a lot to wriggle out of a political situation and not every situation can be resolved by killing the bad guy behind the plot." Just use this sentence and a few examples?

I liked "Supply and Demand" and "Suggested Levels" – in fact I liked all the following sections!

"There‘s always Sigil available," → "There’s always Sigil,"

"a mortal‘s freewill." → "a mortal’s free will."

"forces everyone within it be good" → "forces everyone within it to be good"

"Unfunny Modrons" can be trimmed. Not having played a game with a funny roguish Modron I can't tell how important this advice it. But I'm sure it can be made shorter.

"Fiendish Contracts" can be made shorter. I'd love to see an in-game examples of how to handle the making of a contract.

"Faction War" can be condensed. Then again, as a newbie Planescape DM, perhaps I don't get the "game-altering bombshell". The advice given seems sound. So all it needs is a little trimming.

I loved "Module Reviews".

"Parting Words" is to generic. Trim? Or rewrite to expand on "build entire campaigns around an intellectual concept" – I'd love to see two or three examples. Same problem as with the themes introduced at the beginning: It's hard to picture as a beginning Planescape DM. Perhaps repeating the advice from "Keeping it Organized".

You can blame that on me. I tried to maintain the style, but obviously didn't quite grasp the pattern. I'll be happy to work on it some more for the next version.

There are some typos and some paragraphs that appear twice in the same text etc, but it's a first draft, hey!

I really dig the shadowlie! Greeeeaaaaat work! All the other things are helpful too. Especially the tips for DMs. I read some of the tips on shortcuts through rules to my wife and she said:" hey, that's what you do on good days. Stop leafing through the books altogether during play!"
Even to long-time DMs chapter 9 should be helpful. And if its just confirming what they do all the time, all the better for DM egos, so cheers!

What I didn't like so much was the infinite staircase. I always imagined that it was a silver spiral at the base but then branched into many staircases from landings great and small (sometimes inhabited) which differed in outlook depending on where the doors went to and in which mood the DM was. But: I must confess that I don't own Tales from the Infinite Staircase so my opinion might not be canonic...(my impression was formed from web sources like voila and the old FR adventure For Duty and Deity and - of course - my imagination)

Altogether these two chapters were long expected and I give these two a thumbs up and congratulate all the contributors and - of course- the editors and the project manager on the splendid result! Terrrrrrrific!

P.S.: I agree: Cut the miles from the Outlands description. They might make the Outlands more managable fora noob DM, but for oldtimers it robs the magic from an infinite plane when you are told the diameter of infinite is some x-thousand miles....Oh, wait, this IS magic, making the infinite finite

I agree that I'd love to see some examples of how fiendish contracts get handled in a game. I know my players are too sensible to let their characters get talked into something as slimy as one of those Faustian nightmares, and my plots never seem to put me in a position to give 'em a "lesser-of-two-evils" situation. Right now, the chapter mostly gives you a lot of reasons to avoid them. Maybe a greater DM than I could use the suggestions here to craft something really nasty for his PCs, but I'd love to see a couple of ideas for getting your PCs in bed with the devil(s/demons/daemons).

I just finished reading the Outer Planes section (and only the Energy Planes for the Inner Planes) and I think that it is quite well done. There were a few things that I missed, though. Are the madness stages caused by Pandemonium's winds the same? Do players make will saves to resist them and, if so, at what DC? Also, what are the mechanics of the ares that drain light sources, such ad Karasuthra, Negative Energy, and so forth? Otherwise, I think that this is excellent and I appreciate the hard work of all of the contributors to bring this to the PS fans out here.

P.S. In the Positive Energy Planar Traits, you listed the encounters of Negative Energy.

Ok, on Karasuthra: non-magical light is extinguished immediately. Magical light has it's duration and power halved.

On Negative Energy, all light (even magical) is extinguished immediately. Creatures must rely on darkvision, echolocation, or other ways to see in the dark. Additionally, the senses of hearing and touch are halved in sensitivity.

Hey, I havent yet read the outer planes, but i've read all the inner planes and onward upto the ordial plane. And I thought everything was great. EXCEPT the ordial plane. One of the things i was most looking forward to was a good description of the Ordial plane and stats for it. However, there were none! Why go through all the trouble of saying theres an Ordial plane if your not going to put up the stats for it.

I can't help but feel there should be more 2ed-style impeded magic on the various outer planes. By removing these elements it makes it seem as if the planes are just another place to go and beat stuff up. By having the various impeded magics it makes for a more interesting time for everyone involved as the players try and work with what resources they have.

For example,

In my current campaign, the party are currently on Mechanus. Most of the party are fine except for the Xaositect in the party who's a wild mage. Now he's having to work out how to do things without relying on his magic since, by the rules given in Planes of Law, wild magic doesn't function on the plane.