Project 1: Modern Sigil

Some sort of arcane generator, I'd presume. I mean, it cant be that difficult to create a spell that summons lightning. Just have some aspiring mage mage a version of shocking grasp that doesn't fry the electrical systems it powers.

Actually... I'm not sure how the shock damage/voltage thing goes. It may be that a high level shocking grasp could power a home, or just a laptop, I don't know. But we have an elemental plane of lighting, a period of rapid change, and magic. I'm sure we can work something out.

unsteady sources of electricity can be converted to a stable flow by use of capaciters, resistors and inductors if it is not too much of a fluctuation. Large fluxes can be calmed down by use of a complex circut of capacitors and resistors to chop off high energy peaks and charge a battery, then use the battery's output for nice stable electricity.

Unions and working organizations are really the same thing - just a different name. (What, you thought guilds in the past were all about 'quality of work'? Heck no - economic monopoly at it's best.)

But yeah - migrant work is a good call. Not just primes would do it either. Though if Cirily is still around (she is a celestial after all), I'm sure it has her just *frothing* at the mouth. I'd say by now though she's turned fully evil not just riding the line as she has been.

so even sigil would have mexicans waiting around outside homeDepot and Lows...

Okay, another crazy idea: Sigil has no wires.

Instead, it has big electrical towers, and electricity is thrown between them in big arcs of lightning. Smaller protrusions from each tower disseminate electricity to nearby buildings. This is (usually) kept above the heads of people walking the streets.

I think the one ward that probably would change the absolute least is the Lady's Ward - rich folks like their stability and a good number of the rich folks and the buildings there aren't going to be moving out anytime soon.

Re: The Jester's Palace - so far my write up is looking a little bit like Winchester Mansion, with the implication that there really *is* something spooky and very very old going on in some of these corridors and basements.

How about the "moving around sigil" part?

There could be taxi drivers who know every possible street except the hive.

Also, a subway which is cheaper and faster, but you have to find your own way through them and watch that you don't end up in a lower plane while changing trains.

Center part of the Lady's ward could have a "no-car" zone where you would walk or hire a replica of an ancient coach pulled by an endemic arcadian pony

I think the Market Ward should be renamed and made into an enormous mall.

The mall would be so enormous that there would be an "Undermall", where the jewelery, electronic, and clothing stores become arms dealers, drug pushers, and cheap brothels.

There are a few doors in the Undermall which lead to the "Darkmall", a dungeon. Here, all the stores are boarded up and strange monsters lurk under failing neon lights. Only a few retailers exist here, but their wares are so exotic that some are willing to brave it's depths.

Besides, I hear there's a Pit Fiend attorney that wants to speak with you about your plan

Now that is a lawyer ya can really hate.

In addition to the portal-supplied power sources, what if a clan of enterprising gnomes have invented a device they call a "generator". A strange sort of reverse engine that can supply plenty of electricity (or some other type of energy) provided you feed it enough pixies (or some other suitable material). I would suspect Her Serenity would allow for a little healthy competition in these modern economy-based times.

Also, since I live in a city (San Francisco) there are two major city-related issues that I think should be addressed: Animals and Dead People

Animals
Prime City Animals - Modern Sigil Equivalent

Cockroaches - Ether Scarabs (MM2)
Since the Sigil doesn't have an ethereal plane connected to it, the ether scarab is useless for anything but food.

Rats - Cranium Rats (duh)
If real rats are smart enough to figure out how to open my pigeon-proof bird feeder I'd hate to see what a few cranium rats can accomplish in modern Sigil.

Pigeons - Lim Lim
Not sure if the Lim Lim is cannon but it was in Planescape: Torment and reminded me of those nasty, disease-ridden gutterbirds.

Hawks (imported by the city to hunt pigeons) - Vargouilles (MM)
Vargouilles have migrated out of Undersigil and now reside in the various nooks and crannies of modern Sigil's skyscrapers. They occasionally swoop down to nab an ether scarab, cranium rat or lim lim, if the food supply is ever low, packs of vargouilles have been known to carry off halflings.

Dogs (stray or pet) - Aoskian Hounds
While most people just fling their hound's poop onto a lower level, there are enough that simply leave it lying for an unsuspecting berk to step in. If it wasn't for the fact that both the dabus and Lady of Pain float there would have been a lot of flayed hound owners by now.

Dead People
If modern Sigil is anything like the average big city there will be people flinging themselves off skyscrapers every once in a while (chancellor of Santa Cruz University went off a 44-story building here just last Sunday).

Now the question is, if you jump off the top of a skyscraper in Sigil are you far enough from the ring that you'll end up falling down the Spire instead of toward the "ground"? I think the answer is yes, so people visiting the base of the Spire should be warned of falling people.

Aside from the jumpers, since the population of Sigil will be so much greater, death from exposure, drug overdose and violent crimes will also be much greater.

If anyone likes these ideas I'll be happy to submit more, I just need to go for a stroll outside to get some new ideas.

-420

Ah good point (pun intended). Also, I took a look at the picture of Sigil on page 145 of the Planar Handbook, the 1/4 Section view really helps for people that need a good visual aid. You can step off any skyslicer and technically still not be "over the edge" of the ring.

However, from the picture it also appears entirely plausible that you could build a skyslicer that reached from the "upper portion" to the "lower portion" as seen in the lower left illustration "Sigil (oblique view)". Those buildings would have to change their gravitational orientation half-way up (or down) their height.

-420

well, about this skyscraper gravity issue, there's a problem. did you ever noticed that sigil is slightly different in the d20 material? i mean, sigil was a open ring in the adnd stuff (the city, in this case, is build on the ring's inner side), but in the planar handbook it appears as a donut, and the city is on the donut's inside.

in the case of thinking sigil like it was on adnd, i think there was something about being hurled over a random plane when falling off the ring, and this really could happen if the skyscraper lies close to the ring's edge and if the sob who's trying to kill himself jumps in it's direction. in the d20 perspective, this problem doesn't exist.

i really liked the idea of sigil expanding, but the overlapping skyscrapers idea is good, too. there's one extra idea that i had, although it might not be easy to explain. skyscrapers could overlap, but that doesn't mean that they would be connected. they are just at different places on a multidimensional space. to a viewer that can perceive only three dimension, they would look like they're coalescing, but entering one building doesn't take you to the other simply because they're not really on the same place. that's just an illusion created by the limits of our senses. i hope someone DOES understand this.

and i think that lighting arcs are just too science fiction for sigil. i see the visual part of this project as something more cyberpunk-like than anything else.