Ortho: Ortho in a Planescape Campaign

Just a few thoughts on different ways that Ortho might appear in individual campaigns for Planescape. All of this is based on the belief, of course, that we're providing foundation with the Ortho project, and leaving interpretation and presentation up to individual DMs - one of the strengths of Planescape...

The world of Ortho is a sizeable and important place, to be sure - but set against the entirety of the Planescape multiverse, it's fairly small and insignificant. Why should a bunch of planewalking adventurers ever come to Ortho, and how does the world best fit into a Planescape campaign? Three different views of Ortho are presented below, each of which interprets the world somewhat differently and is best suited to a different style of campaign.

* Ortho as Paradise

In this setup, Ortho really is the established, unshakeable bastion of law that the Harmonium claims it to be. The entirety of the citizenry is happy with their lot, prospering under the Harmonium's rule and the wisdom of the Lords of Law, and only the incorrigible and the insane rebel against the established order. Friends of the Harmonium who come to Ortho can expect a warm welcome, while enemies will be hounded by all they encounter and will have to rely on cunning, deception and a very large helping of raw luck in order to survive.

This view of Ortho is probably best suited for a campaign in which the PCs are inclined to oppose the Harmonium, belonging to enemy factions or readily accepting missions that damage the Harmonium's interests. A mission against the Harmonium that takes the PCs to Ortho becomes the ultimate challenge - the PCs' work will be hindered not only by special guardsmen but by the common citizenry themselves, and any misstep sets an entire planet against them. What's more, spreading around too much collateral damage simply creates martyrs for the cause, as well as encouraging the top leaders of Ortho to make common cause with the planar Harmonium to bring the interlopers to justice.

* Ortho as Battleground

This version of Ortho is somewhat different. While the original source material remains mainly intact as the way that the Harmonium and most of the citizenry view the world, things are much less settled behind the scenes. Powerful forces from the Outer Planes - an Abyssal Lord, an eladrin court, a githyanki legion, a plot by Xaositects, Anarchists or a similar faction, or some other player entirely - have begun serious efforts to infiltrate and attack Ortho.

Detailing such an aggressor, its methods and resources, plan of attack, initial targets and timetable is up to individual DMs, as suits the needs of the campaign. The campaign may be obvious, with outsider warriors establishing a beach head on Ortho and subjugating/liberating Harmonium citizens, or subtle, with spies, assassins and demagogues acting as the enemy's primary agents. Whatever the plan, though, such an attack should strongly impact the PCs during their time in Ortho - either putting them on the front lines, and possibly allying with Harmonium heroes to fight off the enemy, or else stranding them elsewhere in Ortho as a vital ally or resource is sent away from them and into the war zone.

Making Ortho a battleground works well for any group of PCs, but especially so for characters who are allied with or sympathetic to the Harmonium. Such characters are more likely to see the preservation of Ortho as important and more likely to join in a battle to defend it. While the Harmonium of Ortho is powerful, its experience with extraplanar threats is limited, and the help of planewalking adventurers may be invaluable - assuming, of course, that our heroes don't rub a prideful high-up the wrong way...

* Ortho as Dystopia

The final view of Ortho is possibly the most likely - a place where the Harmonium has achieved its goal, but very imperfectly. Absolute law has not led to absolute justice - far from it. Peonage, debt slavery, and outright slavery are common, all made possible by abuse of too-vague laws or misinterpretation of overly complex and incomprehensible ones. Similar problems lead to inefficiencies in farming, in crafts, and in trade, as people waste time and effort following pointless regulations or refuse to innovate for fear of violating some cryptic prohibition. Those on top use the law as a weapon to keep their positions - establishing broad trade monopolies, creating new laws to punish rivals and potential competitors, and insuring that all power is concentrated in the hands of a select few.

The dystopian Ortho is a trap, plain and simple. Many residents are unaware that life could be better given a different system; those who are aware of the possibility of change see no way such a thing could be accomplished. Inequality of wealth and authority is common and extreme; decadence, autocracy, and police states are not unknown. Whether such a system can be reformed into something healthier, is due to collapse under its own weight, or will expand outwards and swallow up other Prime worlds if unchecked is up to the DM.

A dystopian Ortho can work in any campaign, but is perhaps especially effective with a PC group that doesn't have any strong inclination either for or against the Harmonium's goals, or has a philosophical split on the question within the party itself. Such a group visiting Ortho will be faced with a difficult moral challenge. Should they try and fix the system, even though one wrong move could throw the planet into chaos and possible civil war? Or do they leave the current setup in place, knowing that an entire planet is suffering and they've done nothing to stop it?