Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

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Jenx's picture
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Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

Ok, let me try to put this into any semblance of order.

I love Planescape. That's why I'm here. I also really like Magic: The Gathering. I think the result of these two statements are obvious - Magic: The Gathering Planescape cards!

Now, the thing is, I didn't want to just make up single random cards, any of which probably being absurdly unbalanced compared to anything else. As such, I decided to actually make this a proper Magic Set - 200+ cards and everything.

The plan was to make this concentrated on the factions. Each faction will have 12 cards with it's symbol, along with 1 factol (or another legendary creature, if they don't have a factol like the Indeps and Anarchists) and one rare legendary land. 14 for each faction makes a total of 210 cards. Add to this a bunch of non-faction cards and I have my set!

There's a slight problem to all of this though - I can't really do it alone. I've got a good chunk of cards done already, but I'm starting to run out of ideas. Some of the factions elude me as to how I could represent them in cards, so this is where you guys come in.

If you are familiar with Magic, I would love to get some help on this matter. If you're not, you could probably still help with finding art for the cards.

The final plan is to be able to actually play with these cards in the end, in at least a Limited format (No way am I going to try and balance these against all other Magic sets!)

Now that the introduction is out of the way, please look for the second post for specific information on the set and how you could help.

Jenx's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

Ok, here's how this works. The 15 factions are divided in groups of 3 amongst the 5 colors of mana in Magic. Each faction is also given a secondary color. I've tried to pick these to make as much sense with the philosophies of the factions as I could. Meshing those with the Color Pie philosophies of the 5 colors in magic is hard work, let me tell you. This is how I ended up dividing them:

Factions
As stated before - Each faction gets 12 cards +1 Factol and +1 Land. The Ration between the number of Main and Secondary colored cards is 7:5. Cards with choice in their mana cost always count as the secondary color.

White (White was easy and obvious. Not so much with making cards for it though)
The Fraternaty of Order - Secondary color: Blue
The Mercykillers - Secondary color: Black
The Harmonium - Secondary Color: Red

Black (Black was quite easy as well. The Dustmen should be mono-black, really, but I guess Blue with it's emphasis on cold intellect and shunning emotions would work too)
The Bleak Cabal - Secondary color: White
The Dustmen - Secondary color: Blue
The Doomguard - Secondary color: Red

Green (Green gave me the most trouble, since Green's most prominent aspect is just nature, and none of the factions really give a rat's ass about nature. SO I instead decided to look at Green's less pronounced theme of survivalism and self-sufficiency. The Athar are kind of a stretch, but I guess their philosophy can be interpreted to assume going towards a more "natural" way instead of sticking to "un-natural" worship of gods who are not gods...Look I'm doing my best here, ok?)

The Free League - Secondary color: Red
The Fated: Secondary color: Black
The Athar: Secondary color: White

Red (Red was easy too. It's the color of chaos, individualism and emotion. The choices are obvious, sort of. Green doesn't really fit the Chaosmen, but I couldn't think of another color to use)
The Revolutionary League - Secondary color: Black
The Xaositects - Secondary color: Green
The Society of Sensation - Secondary color: Blue

Blue (Blue was kind of..hard to figure out. I put these guys here since I couldn't really figure out where else they might fit. It doesn't help that of all the Magic colors Blue is the most broad, encompasing both dreams and illusions along with machines, cold intellect and the goal of transcendence and omniscience. The Cipers are also green because of Green's insistence of natural instinct over thought.)
Believers of the Source - Secondary color: White
Sign of One - Secondary color: Black
The Transcendant Order - Secondary color: Green

Now that we've got the main colors out of the way, here's where it gets hard. I need people to think up cards for me.

THIS here is link to all the cards I have currently made: http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Rodwell/Planescape%20MTG/. Just so we don't get repeating ideas.

How to suggest cards
If you're still reading and are interested in helping with the cards, here's a form to fill when you suggest a card.

Card Name: Self-explanatory, I think.
Mana Cost: Also self-explanatory. If, by chance, you are not familiar with the way of writing mana costs - 1,2,3..etc = Colourless mana. W=White, B=Black, R=Red, G=Green and U=Blue. So for example Factol Rhys is 2GUU
Card Type: Self-explanatory as well.
Card Artwork: Now this is where it gets tricky kids. If possible, the only artwork I'd like to use is DiTerlizzi's along with any other artwork from official Planescape books. As you'll notice a few cards, mostly Modrons feature art from other artists. If possible, I'd like to keep this to a minimum. When offering artwork for the card, either link to the pic uploaded somewhere, or tell me in which book on which page it's found. I've downloaded basically all Planescape books in pdf form for this whole endeavor, so I can find the art and put it on the card. You could of course suggest cards with no specific artwork in mind, or suggest artwork for a specific card that already exists, but I'd prefer if cards come with an idea on what to put in the little box there.
Card Effect: Also self-explanatory. What does the card do? Please keep in mind all the other cards that exist. This thing has to be playable, so no obviously broken cards (I'm not happy about the Lady of Pain as she already is, but it'd be a sin not to include Her) Familiarity with Magic mechanics is mandatory for this.
Creature Power/Toughness: If the card is a Creature, please add it's Power and Toughness values here, in this order.
Faction Affiliation: Factions are indicated by the watermark in the card's description. This is important, since you can see there are cards which care which faction a card belongs to. As such, put here the name of the faction the card you're suggesting belongs to, or Put N/A if it's a neutral card.
Flavor Text: This one is optional, but good flavor text can really make a card. Try to keep it short and precise (As you notice, the little flavor text I have written does not follow this rule. I really suck at this)

Note to people who don't know Magic but still want to help! If none of this makes any sense to you, but it sounds interesting and you want to help regardless then the best you could do is look for and suggest artwork for cards. That's one of my main problems, really.

IMPORTANT!!! CARDS OF IMMEDIATE IMPORTANCE GO HERE
Check this part for which cards are on the top of the list in need of work)

Card: The Grand Bazaar
Needs: Artwork and special effect like the other faction lands.

Card: Action Trance
Needs: Artwork

Card: Master of the Heart
Needs: Artwork

Card: Transcendant Order Trainee
Needs: New artwork. Used it's for Master of the Mind

Card: Dead Truce
Needs: Another artwork. This doesn't really fit. DiTerlizzi really didn't draw a lot of undead, did he?

Card: Share the Pain
Needs: Artwork

Card: Strength of the Forge
Needs: Artwork

Card: Cycles of Reincarnation
Needs: Artwork

Card: Bomb Rigged
Needs: Artwork and a better name.

In general - Fated, Athar, Mercykiller and Sensates cards.

sciborg2's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

This is really cool - sadly I don't know much about Magic:TG, but if I can find images that are appropriate I'll let you know!

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Jenx's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

Well for starters, I really really need something for the Great Bazaar in Sigil. At this point I've given up trying to find an actual DiTerlizzi illustration of it, but anything that might fill the part will be nice. Drawings only though, no photos.

Jenx's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

....what the bloody hells just happen here?

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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

White
The Fraternaty of Order - Secondary color: Blue
The Mercykillers - Secondary color: Black
The Harmonium - Secondary Color: Red

Black
The Bleak Cabal - Secondary color: White
The Dustmen - Secondary color: Blue
The Doomguard - Secondary color: Red

Green
The Society of Sensation - Secondary color: red
Believers of the Source - Secondary color: blue
The Transcendant Order - Secondary color: white

Red
The Revolutionary League - Secondary color: Black
The Xaositects - Secondary color: Green
The Athar: Secondary color: blue

Blue
Sign of One - Secondary color: white
The Free League - Secondary color: green
The Fated: Secondary color: red

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Kay Lin's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

Wow, that's a cool idea! I also love both, MTG and Planescape.

(Together with my husband I have a NWN1-Server, called Terra Equilibrium. Our persistent world is based upon the Planescape Setting, of course. Eye-wink It's a german server, one of the last german NWN1-Servers. And we have also integrated the Magic Worlds of Mirrodin, Ravnica and Kamigawa, interpreting them as single, prime material worlds.)

For the Sensates I could imagine a card with a lillend. Perhaps something with music counters, because of the lillendis love for music and arts. Sadly, I'm really bad in drawing, so I can't help here, only with some ideas perhaps. (Bur for a lillend, there is already a beautiful illustration, for example.)

The cards you have designed already are very cool, by the way!

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Jenx's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

Thanks, though this project has gone trough several major overhauls and is, currently, in Limbo, and I don't mean the Plane either.

I, to put it bluntly, don't have time for this anymore, which is sad since I have quite a few cards done, though it's really hard doing this alone, since at some point I just tend to run out of ideas. If I ever get this thing going again, I'll be sure to post more stuff.

Kay Lin's picture
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Re: Magic: The Gathering - Planescape Set

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. It's really a great idea and the cards you have done so far are very cool. But I know the situation, not having time any more for a project or the ideas or the drive. I've got some of those slumbering projects, too. (I don't yet want to call them dead ...)

Nonetheless thanks for giving an insight in this exciting project. Smiling

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