PSCS: Advice for the New Planescape DM

For my response(s), see the PS mailing list. Thanks.

Cross-posted from the Planescape mailing list:
(http://oracle.wizards.com/archives/planescape-l.html)

Bastlynn wrote:
> Do you (that's you plural!) have suggestions on spells, techniques, or
> social techniques that lower level parties (levels 1 to maybe 5) can use

> to make it around through some of the more dangerous areas?

Some suggestions on how to get around the planes (for players and GMs)...

- Plan Ahead

Right cutter, so you're looking to become a planewalker and all you need
is a portal to hop through? Well, you could take that approach but it's
your neck you'll be risking. Smart cutters plan ahead and research the
destination that they're going to as well the places that they plan to
travel through. If you have the time and jinks, you may even like to
consider planning several routes to get to your destination. You never
know when your carefully planned route falls apart and you're left
stranded somewhere out there on the Great Ring without a gate-key or a
clue.

There's plenty of information about portals, gates and planar paths that
you can gather for free or for a reasonable fee. Bloods who've travelled
the planes are a good source of information as they often have first-hand
experience. Then again their opinions are going to be coloured by their
personal viewpoints and even the scholarly treaties on various realms,
layers and planes that can be found in a variety of libraries will have
some measure of bias and opinion. Never the less, the more first-hand the
information the better it is.

There are also cutters who make a career out of collecting information
about portals and getting around the planes. Some do it in order to earn a
living or even trying to control access to portals etc. Whilst others do
it for the thrill of finding out information about portals. Ask around in
the Cage and bloods will point you in the direction of Lissandra the
Gate-seeker, there's others like her in Sigil and other locations. If you
can get in to these bloods good books (by being friendly, dropping some
garnish or coming to an agreement by other means), then you've already got
quite a leg-up in terms of getting top-notch information that will help in
planning planar expeditions.

- Portal Diaries

Having mentioned others who keep diaries of portals and where they lead
to, it's a good habit to get in to keeping this information recorded
somewhere yourself. You never know when knowing about a particular portal
will come in handy. Even if you can't make use of the portal in a
particular situation, that knowledge may be useful to another (since
knowledge is power) and it can make a useful bargaining chip.

If you know of a number of portals, it pays to keep some portal keys lying
around. It's recommended that you don't carry them around all the time, as
this means that if you do happen to pass through them (without intending
to use them) then you'll trigger the portal in any case. If you need to
use a portal in a hurry and the key takes awhile to get a hold off, keep a
spare for emergencies as you'll never know when you need to make a sharp
exit.

- Travel with Others

The planes can be a dangerous place to travel, that's pretty much common
sense and anyone not going out with at least some preparation is simply
asking for trouble. There's a fair number of cutters that travel the
planes regularly, whether it is transporting goods for trade, passing
messages or travelling for other reasons (best not to ask in some
instances). Whilst hiring on as a caravan guard on a Prime world may not
seem very glamorous, out on the planes it can mean the difference between
reaching your destination and not getting there at all.

Travelling in numbers in certain circumstances makes a lot of sense, but
it varies on each instance. In the instance where you're looking to travel
in a smaller group and you're going somewhere new (i.e. that you've not
travelled before) - it pays to hire a guide. The main things to consider
with a guide are: what is their reputation like? What kind of payment are
they expecting?

The plane that you travel on is a pretty big clue on the kind of guide
that you're likely to encounter. Having to spend a great deal of time on a
particular plane is going to influence a guide no matter what their
original character and outlook may have been. For example, it takes a
particularly strong individual not to be affected by the apathy of the
Gray Waste. If you happen to find a rather cheerful guide on the Gray
Waste it's recommended that you be peery in the extreme of their
motivation and intentions. Like so much of the advice contained herein -
use your common sense, it's one of a planewalker's greatest assets.

- The Longer/Shorter Route vs. the Shorter/Longer Route

When it comes to planning a route what often happens is that possible ways
to travel are available, some will get you there faster than others.
However, whilst some routes may seem shorter and quicker when first
encountered, in actual fact they will take much longer or even have such a
degree of danger in them as to make them worthless.

This phenomenon is referred to as the Longer/Shorter route and
Shorter/Longer route. The phrase is pretty self-explanatory, but it's not
uncommon to find cutters choosing the latter and then learning from
experience that the former is the better of the two. In places where the
route is not so much a journey that involves walking, sailing etc. but
rather a journey of self-discovery (such as the Paths on Mount Celestia)
it pays to keep this lesson in mind. Some routes that look easy early on
can lead to rough going later on and vice versa.

Whilst on the subject of Paths, not all roads are ones that you can simply
walk down from point to another in order to reach your destination. Some
roads, paths, what ever you want to call them have a specific nature that
is affected by the choices and actions of those who travel along them. For
example, in Elysium if you help a cutter out or perform good actions
you'll find your journey goes a lot faster. Fail to help another out or
perform a malevolent action and you'll soon find yourself going nowhere.
Unfortunately some of the paths in the Lower planes work the same way,
except that the choices and actions are reversed.

- Have a Back-up Plan

So what happens when things go wrong? Well, Murphy one of the unluckiest
Guvners of all time, discovered that it pays to plan for things going
wrong. Because if they can go wrong - they will. In any case, having a
back-up plan never hurts and even if your journey goes without a hitch in
one direction you may find that you can't return along the same route for
whatever reason.

The planes are a place in flux, moulded by belief and infinite in size -
the more options that you have for getting from one point to the next the
better off you are (in general that is). There's a big debate within the
Planewalkers community as to how many routes a cutter should plan when
getting around. The favoured number is three, although this could just be
a nod to the Rule of Three than for any more specific reason.

The main thing to bear in mind is: be adaptable. All the best laid plans
can fall apart at the drop of a hat. In fact, should you ever have the
misfortune of visiting the demi-plane of hats; you'll soon see how any
plan can be dashed asunder. Improvisation, some knowledge and a
willingness to go about things in an unorthodox manner are all useful for
surviving out on the planes. At this point there should be an inclusion of
interesting and pithy quotes from various planewalkers, but budget cuts
have prevented any from being included.

- What You Know and Who You Know

So you've planned several routes, got the portal keys, arranged for
reliable guides and feel ready to head off. Having followed all the advice
above it would seem likely that you and your companions reach the
destination in one piece. But the one thing that we've not considered so
far is the various personalities that you?re likely to encounter along the
way.

The planes and places that you'll be travelling through give some hint as
to the character of the individuals that you might meet along the way.
However, only a leatherhead would presume that all berks in Carceri are
treacherous and that all berks on Mount Celestia are paragons of good.
Bear in mind that most berks you?ll meet along the way are individuals,
which means that they each have their own histories, their own motivations
and long-term goals.

Of course I'm not including such creatures as Hordlings and other critters
that can't or do not wish to use their sentience for specific purposes and
goals. But you can bet your Bigby's Thumb of Hitchhiking that even the
tiny Chad on the Plane of Earth can help or hinder a cutter along on their
travels. One part open-mindedness, one part peeriness and one part
expecting the unexpected is a recipe that the (late) noted scholar and
planewalker Rolla Cello put forward in his last treaty entitled 'Rough
Guide to Pandemonium'.

So why all this advice on not making assumptions about cutters living on
the planes etc. you may ask? Well, sometimes it's not so much what you
know as who you know. A word in the right ear can change the fate of
kingdoms and more. With so much relying on word of mouth and reputation, a
cutter's fortunes can rise or fall with a single word. It pays to keep in
the good books of those you cross regularly or are likely to have a run-in
with. If you plan to visit Elysium and a Guardinal scholar asks you for an
interview before-hand to learn more about a Prime world that you've
visited - well, an hour of your time answering questions can go a long way
towards getting a friendlier reactions from other Guardinals that you're
likely to encounter.

- Giving Berks the Laugh

Every so often a plan falls apart or you have a run-in with some cutters
that intend you harm and you find yourself on the run. It's time to give
those berks the laugh or you'll find yourself dancing on the leaf-less
tree. If you've followed the advice above and have several routes planned
- then you should find that you have other options for getting away that
are immediately available. If you've taken onboard the message to
improvise and be adaptable, then when opportunities come along you'll be
all geared up to take best advantage of them.

But what happens in the instance where you have no other routes and
improvisation is not really an option? Well, in that case you'd better
hope that your will and testament is up to date. If you're lucky you may
have a good friend try to bring you back from the dead book. If not, well
you can always take the viewpoint that you might get another spin of the
wheel. Death is one of a number of possible outcomes to any venture; the
chant written above is simply a means to try to reduce the probability of
that outcome.

- The Five People You Meet in Heaven

There's a book written about the 'Five People You Meeting in Heaven'. It's
not a bad book and has some interesting things contained therein. One of
the messages that can be lanned from this book is that every action has an
effect, has a consequence and even if it's not immediately visible then at
some level a change has taken place. Bear this in mind with every step
that you take on the Great Road, your actions have consequences.

The same can be said for any berk living on the Prime and in fact even
sitting at home doing nothing causes a change on some level. The thing
that makes this different to planewalking is that the movers and shakers
that can be affected by your actions are a magnitude different. When you
make a list of natives to the Outer Planes (or Inner and Transitive
planes) you can see some on the list that you really don't want paying you
too much attention and others that you wouldn't mind if they took an
interest**.

If you could see the inter-connections between yourself and those you have
affected... well, then you?re probably a Power and really not in need of
any of this advice. If you're not a Power then don't drive yourself up the
Spire trying to figure out the inter-connectedness of everything, but at
least keep it in the back of your mind that you don't live in a vacuum and
actions have consequences. The exception to this rule is of course if you
happen to live on the Plane of Vacuum, but even then it's debatable
whether your existence has resonance that causes change or not.

- Lost in the Infinite

If you happen to get lost in the gear infiniteness of the planes and
things start to lose their meaning, then just remember that there is
always a place for you in the Gatehouse in Sigil. Travelling the planes is
going to change you, that's guaranteed. Bear that in mind the next time
you plan a quick jaunt to the Abyss, thinking that you'll come away the
same is never a good idea.

> I agree that
> the planes aren't and shouldn't be restricted in levels, and I know my
> gaming group certainly wouldn't be restricted. In fact, our best run
> happened on the 4th level of Acheron - which has earned it's reputation.

There are some places that it's only possible to survive for an average
cutter with some help. I've not really paid much attention to those
locales in the article written above. Others will be able to provide more
information for surviving in these places.

It's a meme that is probably as old as humanity.

Perhaps the Ethereal Plane should come with a traveller's general health warning: Beware of Memes on the Misty Shore, they eat unwary travellers.