Planescape PbP

I'd still love to run or play in a Dungeon World/Dark Heart of a Dreamer game, though I'd be willing to play in a 2e game.

Appearances can be deceiving. Dungeon World is an Apocalypse World hack, which means it's closer to something like Fate or even Fiasco-- indie story games, basically-- than a retroclone. It's hacked to resemble D&D, vaguely, mostly in terms of the standard six ability scores, polyhedral damage dice, and Vancian magic. Those don't inform the system as much as one might think.

I won't only play DW, by any means, but there are things I'd like to suggest taking from it regardless of system, such as awarding XP for roleplaying (for hewing closely to your alignment, faction, whatever) and not on a per-monster basis.

I've played D&D 3e and 4e, Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades, Savage Worlds once, Fate, White Wolf/Storyteller, and various others.

One of the guys on the Google+ group has been doing a blog about using Fate for Planescape, and it sound pretty interesting, so I'd be happy to give that a shot. Not very familiar with the system, though. Using an alternate experience or advancement system would be fine by me; a fair number of people doing Pathfinder have actually stopped using experience points altogether, and just let characters level up when it's appropriate to their game.

4e is... well, it's a pretty big departure from 3.5. They pretty much rebuilt the whole game from the ground up, and a *lot* of people hated it. Pathfinder probably wouldn't exist if they hadn't changed so much in 4e, or if the changes hadn't triggered such a negative reaction. I actually like both games, though, and have no problem with running Pathfinder if that appeals to people.

I really only brought it up because I'm playing in a 4e game right now for the first time in years, and I find I like a lot of things about their take on hit points. It's never been very clear what, exactly HP are supposed to represent (resistance to fatigue? meat density? some kind of plot armor?), and while 4e doesn't clarify the matter a whole lot, it generally treats them as a combination of endurance and morale.

As a result, you can regain hit points fairly quickly between encounters (though there's still a limit to how much punishment you can take each day), and "healing" doesn't have to be magical. The Warlord class is basically built around giving inspiring speeches (or just barking orders) to keep the party going when the going gets tough, thus replenishing their HP.

For Planescape, I think a "hit points as morale" system like that would work better than the traditional take on them, since a lot of the Factions have ideological problems with receiving healing magic. The Athar, Doomguard, Dustmen, and possibly even the Fated become pretty unattractive choices for PCs in a system where positive energy channeled from the powers is often the only thing keeping the party alive.

I'd still be interested in 2e, just because I've never actually played it. But I don't think I'd enjoy playing Planescape with all of 3e's restrictions. And I'd still like to throw my hag in the ring to run either Fate or Dungeon World.

Edit: But I'd still *consider* Pathfinder, depending on what the game was about. What kind of stuff have you been working on for Pathfinder, CatDoom?

Maybe you should run this game, then. No better practice than a little trial by fire, and you don't always have to have the whole adventure prepared straight off the bat. Even if it you didn't run the whole campaign, one-shots are actually good for PbP games.

Or you could put your knowledge to use and play a githzerai. That works too.

So all talk of systems aside, what kind of game would people be interested in running? Dark, light? Hardened planars or green primes? In Sigil or out of it? Pre-Faction War or post? These questions will eventually need to be asked. Personally, the weirder the better. Characters you can't get away with in any other D&D campaign are one of the reasons I so enjoy Planescape.

Since others have mentioned Fate, I wouldn't mind it either. It'd be nice to have a PS game using a game not too burdened by strict numbers.

I see. Thank you for those links.
I don't know if I'd ever get the opportunity, but I'd just discovered Fate a little while ago when attempting to start a PS game and someone recommended it (unfortunately, the other players voted on 3.5/Pathfinder and from there it turned into a rather... un-Planescape-ish munchkincluster.

But still, my dream of GMing "Unlimited Skies: A Planescape/Spelljammer Advenure" lives on in my heart, like... oh, insert whatever dead deity/archfiend you like here. Orcus? Let's go with Orcus. Like Orcus, waiting to be reinstated to his rightful place, so shall my campaign see its fruition!

I always hated playing Planescape and all its subtleties and possibilities while burdened with D&D mechanics.

I say put the word out if you think there's anyone you know who'd be interested in this kind of thing, but we can get started on hashing out what we want the party to be and do at the very least, and start playing whenever we finish with that.

If we're leaning heavily toward Fate as the system, then we might start off with what the Dresden Files RPG called your High Concept and your Trouble-- who you are and what your biggest problem is in life-- and then move on to how we know each other, if we know each other. It's suggested, and it's good advice, that we create the party having decided how we know at least one other person in the group.

On top of the usual motley adventuring party, we could play rival captains of merchant spelljammers, Blood War mercenaries on furlough, sparring faction demagogues, members of a street gang or a band of Collectors, or people who just happen to frequent the same bar-- a group of exemplars on the outs with their respective species, perhaps. We could play Golden Lords, meeting up for tea, intrigue, and our weekly game of bridge, or hard-luck immortals, living in ramshackle garrets and reminiscing on days of empire and glory.

You could always cooperate in broad strokes on a story (still keeping any big reveals to yourself) and then take turns actually GMing the game.

I am somewhat partial to the idea of the party being sponsored by one of the Golden Lords, maybe Zadara or a new creation, possibly even one of the player characters, who spurs the group to acts of apparent Good for her own mysterious ends. Thoughts?

Heh. That's usually the kind of plotline I do.
That storyline also perfectly fits the interests of a character I have in mind.

If you're open to suggestions, I have a lot of planescape NPC ideas that could make for good major or minor characters.

A few character ideas:

-A mild-mannered, dapperly dressed rare books dealer who happens to be a rather visible representative of a little-known race of winged, batlike, scarred planar nomads-- storytellers, musicians, puppeteers, and fortunetellers, who celebrate death and embrace pain as an essential part of a life fully experienced. A tribe of them has recently moved into Sigil. Naturally they fit in rather well with the Sensates, although their ecstatic dances frequently draw blood, which has led to more than one 'misunderstanding' with the Harmonium. Their beliefs about death are also almost completely opposite to the Dustmen, and their presence in the Hive has led to a certain friction.

-A veteran planewalker, a man without a shadow who has lived an unnaturally long time, and who up until recently was the captain of a merchant spelljammer. He was unceremoniously stripped of his commission after his ship was boarded by a githyanki raiding party; he repelled the pirates but scuttled the ship, and saved much of the crew at the expense of the ship's cargo. Some would call him a hero, but they don't know all the sordid details of his long, eventful life.

-A jaded Psychomachia agent who's a twelve-foot-tall fallen archon. A neurotic beholder dockworker who, appearances aside, is just an ordinary Indep and tries to keep his head down (but of course, he's all head). A completely insufferable lantern archon with special dispensation to serve in the Harmonium (Measure Two). A shapechanging silver dragon beggar who lives in the sewers with his hoard of wooden nickels, clipped coppers, and old newspapers.

-A snakeblooded, passionately ideological but naive young journalist with aspirations of being a great poet, from a prime-world city ruled by intellectual trolls and yuan-ti purebloods, the only survivors of a plague which the yuan-ti might have actually engineered. A city of intense economic and spiritual corruption, made wealthy its anything-goes flesh-and-organ markets, and by sheltering extraplanar fugitives with the wealth to build their mansions and fortresses in the city. The world's only semblance of a conscience comes in the form of a newspaper with Anarchist ties, whose enemies tend to suffer grotesque accidents, and who are the sole employer of the aforementioned young journalist.

Here's a couple of my Planescape NPCs

Here's some of my Planescape characters:

Count Cauchemar: A Rakshasa of Wealth and Taste. He has a monumental fortune, but he's less interested these days in gains, putting only as much effort into his investments as is required to maintain his income. He's gone philosophical lately, and is more interested in obtaining Things Of Interest (book, artifacts, and so forth). He really doesn't like other lower planar creatures because he thinks they are "boring", and although he is still evil and still has plans for world domination, he's pretty laid-back and eccentric. Philosophically has most in line with the Guvners, though not quite as stodgy as the stereotype, mostly as a matter of having a scientific mindset. He isn't just a collector, though, but also a creator. He's a talented artist and inventor and his magical abilities lean towards crafting magical items.

The two PC ideas I'm debating right now are
1) An Opposer who rips off the Transcendent Order. Where they are "action without thought" he is "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".
2) A Sensate (though a bit eclectic) who is basically a bard, but uses all five senses to inspire people instead of just music.

Rubrik and Codec: Modrocops. Rubrik is a hardass Mercykiller, though he is affiliated with the faction in name only due to his refusal to follow orders (he sees everyone else's action as not be up to code and that only he understands proper procedure, hence his inability to take orders from anyone). Would probably wear a trenchcoat and have permanent stubble if he was a human. Codec has an official designation of belonging to the Fraternity of Order, although he recognizes Rubrik as his sole superior. He has been shrunk down to miniature size and has functional wings. He serves as an encyclopedia and translator for Rubrik and his the only being he will take advice from.

Yeah, he's Golden Lord levels. He was created largely as a patron type NPC. I imagine that he actually derives most of his resources through scheming on the Prime Material plane, though, so he doesn't actually interact that much on the business side of things on the planes.

I imagine his "base" in Sigil is actually just a random doorway without an attached building, that's a portal to his villa on a Prime world somewhere (or perhaps a demiplane).

Though, it might be interesting to play him without his wealth as a factor. If he's based from the Prime and has come to the planes to go on "safari" and hence is disconnected from his wealth for the duration of the adventure. Gosh, now I have an image of a rakshasa dressed like a stereotypical British adventurer, pith helmet and everything.

Modrocops were also NPC ideas. They would tend to be played either as comical but competent antagonists or perhaps as guest allies on a quest, depending on where PCs are along the law/chaos axis.

Note that he doesn't specifically set out to counter the Ciphers. He just uses their methods to facilitate Opposition philosophy. So he doesn't seek them out to fight, it's just that he happens to be the perfect counter to one since as soon as they are attacking, he's already blocking. He was originally invented as a nemesis for a Cipher character I was writing a fic about.
His real goal is actually world peace, because he decided he will fight against conflict itself, hence his focus on defense and reacting to and subsequently neutralizing threats, rather than actively picking fights.

The Sensate runs off the same schtick as bardic music. So, it's the same sort of effects, with some thematical variance. But for instance, she could create perfumes that have the same effect as, say, inspire courage, or cook a meal that tastes so great it gives the effects of Heroes Feast. Using dance movements to hypnotize someone.
So basically, the same way bards use music to channel effects, she would use color, scent, and so on to do similar feats.
She might not be *quite* so versatile in this game, but that's the gist.

@Githyankee- I honestly think that playing Count Cauchemar with Resources as an apex Skill would be fascinating. Your two other ideas both seem like projects he might actually be working on, or people he's been acting as a patron for.

@Modric- I like the tiefling idea. What power does he want to serve, and what makes him so sure that it's his calling? Maybe he carries a drop of celestial blood as well as fiendish? He must be meeting some resistance from some of the god's other followers. How does the power in question feel about the idea?

Well, first we have to decide whether or not we want to use spell memorization in the game, because it's one of those things that doesn't translate into Fate very well. There's a few options for how to do it, but unless someone wants to play a spellcaster, then we might just want to leave the question open for now.

So this is built on some Fate 3.0+ assumptions, which I can change if we do end up using Fate 2.0, but here's the gist of the character I think I want to play.

Pross iya Thathen
Pross is an immaculately dressed, graceful man with fine manners and a gentle way about him. He’s also Achenari, a band of flying, winged, bat-like humanoids. He dresses in specially tailored Sigilian finery, and prefers dark vests and billowing sleeves held to his membranous wings by iron torcs around his upper arms and loops of thread around his fingers. Pross’s skin is bluish-black, covered in a tracery of white scars, thin and thick. His eyes are large and entirely black. His brown fur is kempt and well-coifed.

The Achenari have wandered gypsy-like across the planes for centuries, ever since they abandoned their world in the aftermath of one of the Blood War’s extended eruptions on the Prime. They have recently taken refuge in Sigil, where their reputation as dancers, storytellers, and troublemakers precedes them. The Achenari celebrate death and pain as experiences to be transcended rather than feared. Such things are not to be forced on anyone, but they are meant to be sought out, as evidenced by each Achenar’s collection of scars. Achenar blood dances, a combination of friendly brawl and ceremonial bloodletting, are often so frenetic that outsiders often assume the participants are out to murder each other.

Aspects
Dealer in Rare Books and Planar Histories
Achenar Gypsy (he’s not ashamed of his heritage, but Clueless are frightened by his appearance and planars often look down on him because of his race)
Far Traveller (his work has taken him all across the planes)
Pain Doesn’t Hurt (like most Achenar, Pross is inured to pain)
Nimble Flyer (because those wings aren’t just for show)

Skills
Great +4: Notice
Good +3: Investigation, Lore
Fair +2: Athletics, Brawling, Contacts, Rapport, Resources
Average +1: Burglary, Crafts, Empathy, Physique, Stealth, Will

Hope this didn't suddenly lose interest.

Absolutely, and I wouldn't want to exclude him. But there's things we could be doing in Sigil before the campaign proper even starts. I don't actually know what those things are, but I'm eager to find out.