Planar Discourse OOC

Hi everyone!

I originally wanted to post something similar to "player looking for game" or "DM looking for players" but I reconsidered and thought about what really draws me to Planescape: the focus on and power of belief, manifest particularly in the factions (though that does not mean I will not want to join/create a game later on!).

Thus I am starting a new series of forum posts named "Planar Discourse" where I start a topic (eg. Planar Discourse: Philosophy of The Transcendent Order), and we discuss the facts and try to come up with our own analysis on the topic - particularly (though not limited to) analysis that focuses on belief. What I want to do is foster a deeper understanding of planar beliefs/philosophies and faction motivations. I also want to foster debate, seeing as how most people will agree as well as disagree with aspects of the majority of planar philosophies. I want to get a sense of where people's boundaries are, and how much (or little) of a particular planar philosophy they buy into, and where they draw the line (eg. I think it is charming, and even romantic that Xaositects are unconstrained and act on whims, but actually modeling your life around chaos and speaking randomly is just... crazy. Also, there seems to be some kind of contradiction/oxymoron in constantly trying to be unpredictable). I am not quite sure if the IC section of the PW forums is the right place to do this, but I am hoping that most people respond from an in-character point of view, where their persona is a representation of their actual beliefs. One last thing to keep in mind is that faction philosophies represent the extreme ideal/goal of the faction, and the majority of faction members, just like you and me, are not at this extreme, though they may be striving towards it (eg. many ciphers have thoughts, or many chaosmen have lawful aspects).

So let's actually see what the real people of the Cage think and practice aspects of the faction philosophies, and let's have some fun!

Before I start a thread, do you guys have any inclination of which faction/ belief system to start with? I was thinking the Transcendent Order - I personally find them very, very interesting, particularly after the Faction War, though many (well, at least according to canon) feel neutral towards them. Does anyone have suggestions for other factions/topics that I should start with instead?