Torment Does Planescape: Torment transcend D&D?

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Important to remember in regard to the development of Planescape: Torment is that Brian Fargo had Interplay acquire in late 1994 the license not only to the Forgotten Realms setting from TSR, after that company broke with long-time partner SSI, but also to the Planescape setting. The more pragmatic approach would have been to license only the generic, bland, safe campaign setting, in which case we still might have had a Torment-like game written by Chris Avellone, and it might very well have been more commercially successful, but it wouldn't have been half the game without Planescape.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

The Dragonlance setting received a trilogy of Gold Box games (Champions / Death Knights / Dark Queen of Krynn) which are now available from GOG.

Also, there's Dark Sun: Shattered Lands / Wake of the Ravager, Ravenloft Strahd's Possession / Stone Fortress, and even Birthright: Gorgon's Alliance has some fans. The Known World / Mystara setting never had any computer RPGs, but there were two console RPGs (Order of the Griffon and Warriors of the Eternal Sun). Planescape, of course, had Planescape: Torment, and Greyhawk finally received a CRPG with an adaptation of the classic adventure module Temple of Elemental Evil in 2003.

However, the best way to learn about these settings is to read the original source material published by TSR for AD&D/D&D.

Thanks! I played Warriors of the Eternal Sun and really enjoyed it. ToEE is great too. Will have to check the others you suggested.

 

[Silva]

Lurker47 , ir vou dont know Planescape Í recommend a look at the original books. They are easy to find in PDF. In special, look for:

1) The campaign box set. This is the main product. It explains the whole setting, though in broad strokes only (image is from big GM screen that comes in the box);

2) Factol Manifesto. It explains all factions in detail. Their philosophies, modus operandi, headquartes, leaders, etc.

3) Faces of Sigil. This is one of the most evocative RPG supplements ever. Period. It details various important personalities from Sigil and their web of relationships (including conspiracies and sinister agendas). It oozes with hooks for adventures and bizarre character concepts.

 

[hexer]

As someone who spent decades playing DnD Planescape, all I can say is that the setting stands on its own and for me PST is just a cool story set in it.

The sourcebooks have lots of interesting content although the philosophical stuff is not really that deep or complex as you would expect.

The potential for infinite adventures exists, but now we'll probably never know except for the occasional WotC trip to the Outer Planes such as the recent Baldurs Gate: Descent into Avernus.

 

[Stefmob]

When people think of D&D they think of Forgotten Realms. A great loss because FR is the worst and blandest D&D has to offer, made to appeal to the masses.

What are better cRPG D&D out there?

 

[gestalt11]

No, it's very much a Planescape campaign. The impression you got must be due to the unique setting and the many D&D/fantasy tropes that MCA consciously avoided.

Its definitely solidly in the Planescape setting to such an extent that changing that would be a herculean effort. But Planescape was a very singular settings with a very unique and distinct flavor to it. The themes of Torment transcend D&D and the setting, as all good writing should.

 

[gestalt11]

A setting having internally consistent politics in relation to its own material does not make the setting in itself political, even if the exploration of those theoretical politics within that universe would be a major focus, you utter poncetard.

Yes it does.

What is it with retards and not being able to separate between reality and fiction?

Good fiction has a relation to reality. Good fiction is truthful on some level.


I think you are all too focused on D&D as a setting when the core of the thing are mechanics.

All art, on some fundamental level, must bow to truth. If it doesn't, its not art.

 

[gestalt11]

When I play Planescape I don't feel like it's D&D at all. Planescape is such a great and unique setting that it doesn't feel like Forgotten Realms we're used to - far from it. Planescape is one of the best settings ever and it doesn't feel like a campaign, it feels like its own thing.

I'd love to see more RPGs set in Planescape setting, especially fan mods (there is a remarkable chasm in Planescape user mods, almost none exist. I found a German one with English subtitles but have yet to play it, I believe it's an NWN2 mod. I was shocked to find out there are basically no NWN Planescape modules.)

You are mixing your language, but you are doing so in a way that essentially accurately models many people's "head canon". Forgotten Realms isn't D&D per se, indeed before it ever existed there was GreyHawk. But FR became the iconic setting and people conflate FR with D&D because of it. Greyhawk was a very similar style of setting (i.e. medieval etc). These are the sort of "default" setting and so this is what people think D&D is.

But there are many settings that have bucked this; Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Ravenloft to some extent.

Its true Planescape doesn't feel like FR, or what is typically taken as default D&D, it feels very very different. So does Spelljammer. In reality though what is normally taken as "default D&D" didn't even exist for about 10 years of D&D's life. And very atypical settings have existed for a long time, certainly as far back as when I had a Dragon magazine subscription in the late 80s.

The weird thing with Planescape is that its actually on top of FR due to the nature of the planes. In a sense they are not separate settings at all ( but they are in a practical sense ). So in a sense you can sort of say Torment transcends the FR in a very real and concrete sense.

 

[Zer0wing]

Oh cool, another Planescape thread. Has anyone played 'Blood Wars' card game? Did you like the art and find it worth collecting?

 

[laclongquan]

When they say Dungeons and Dragons, they mean Faerun.
When they say Planescape Torment, they mean D&D.
So yeah, I do think PST transcend DnD.

 

[hexer]

Oh cool, another Planescape thread. Has anyone played 'Blood Wars' card game? Did you like the art and find it worth collecting?

I played it with a friend and remember having fun! I still have a few hundred cards in my collection.
Sadly WotC killed it when they bought TSR since it competed with MtG.
Lots of art is original but there is plenty of recycling from sourcebooks too.

 

[overly excitable young man]

What? It has nothing to do with your typical DnD campaign.
It hasn't anything to do with Pen and Paper campaign at all.

It's a book with weird stories that are breaking DnD cliches.
I don't even know if Avellone would be great at creating a real DnD campaign as then he would have to think about encounters and gear and such things.

 

[Ismaul]

When people think of D&D they think of Forgotten Realms. A great loss because FR is the worst and blandest D&D has to offer, made to appeal to the masses.

What are better cRPG D&D out there?

For one, PS:Torment.

But we were talking campaign settings, not cRPGs. The point being that there are many campaign settings, and almost all we're getting is FR, both in PnP and cRPGs, and it's banal shit boring. By design.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

What are better cRPG D&D out there?

Pool of Radiance, set in The Forgotten Realms, is the best D&D/AD&D CRPG ever made, but that is in spite of the setting rather than because of it (and, in any case, the game was plonked down into what had been a blank spot on the map of Ed Greenwood's setting).

The next two best D&D/AD&D CRPGs are Champions of Krynn, in the Dragonlance campaign setting, and Planescape: Torment.

However, the vast majority of the D&D/AD&D CRPGs ever made have used the Forgotten Realms setting, because it had already been established as the bland, generic replacement for Greyhawk by the time Pool of Radiance was developed, and remained as almost the only campaign setting in use after the demise of TSR, leaving only a few years (1990-1994) for SSI to create D&D/AD&D CRPGs in other settings, followed by just three oddities (Birthright: Gorgon's Alliance in 1996, Planescape:Torment in 1999, and The Temple of Elemental Evil in 2003).