Quick question - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Quick question

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Dec 10, 2003 19:15:52 How did Planescape handle settings like Ravenloft...were they readily accessable or were they hard to get to.

Also IIRC Athas (darksun) was cutoff from spelljammers was the restriction also in place for "planewalkers"?

Just need to know.
#2
Ryltar_Swordsong
Dec 10, 2003 19:31:05 Ravenloft was accessible through the Ethereal, but if you went in you couldn't get out.

There are very few reliable portals to Athas, but there are some.

Most other settings were easily accessed.
#3
factol_rhys_dup
Dec 10, 2003 19:33:30 They were tricky, but they definitely existed. Ravenloft was a demiplane, in the ethereal of course. I don't know too much about it, personally, but it was pretty nigh impossible to get into or out of. Athas was also remote, but not nearly to the same degree. The priests there worship the elemental planes, but there are shockingly few portals onto or off of the world. I've never heard a convincing reason why. Still, it's been said many times before that if a berk could find a stable, accessible two-way portal to Athas, he could make a fortune selling metal and water to the poor sods there. There have definitely been people who have travelled to or from (and maybe both ways) Athas, but they're rare. They usually stick around the planes, though- probably because it's so hard to find a way home.
#4
zombiegleemax
Dec 10, 2003 20:54:09 Thank you both very much.
#5
zombiegleemax
Dec 10, 2003 21:12:54 Ok another question. I just finally scored a PS boxed set off ebay ( I forgot how much I loved this setting) Now,are the better suppliments I can get for it?

You know stuff like blood wars etc. I am adapting the material in the set to 3e myself using an altered MotP set up (brought more in line with the 2e planes).
#6
primemover003
Dec 10, 2003 21:21:32 Converting PS into 3E is ridiculously simple... 1/2 the work is done on Planewalker.com!!!!

No, really most of PS was flavor text and plot ideas moreso than game mechanics. The MotP has very simple rules to run each plane and the PS resources you're bound to pick up will give you direction. Highly recommended are:

For Sigil based campaigns
the Factol's Manifesto
In the Cage: a guide to Sigil
Faces of the Cage

All the Boxed sets are good to flesh out the planes beyond the tidbit given in each MotP writeups. My favorite accessories were defintely the Hellbound: the Bloodwar deluxe boxed adventure, Dead Gods and Faces of Evil: the Fiends.
#7
Shemeska_the_Marauder
Dec 10, 2003 22:56:12 Ravenloft exists and was mentioned a few times in PS, but always with an undercurrent of fear and very rightly stating that you really REALLY didn't want to go there, and thankfully were safe anywhere the Ethereal didn't touch.

Athas has had quite an understated impact on PS as well, there's even a small ethnic enclave of Athasians in Sigil located in the border area between the Lower Ward and the Hive called New Tyr. The inhabitants are said to be refugees from Athas, and perhaps there may in fact be a portal or two to Athas in Sigil that operates sporadically, if not continuously. Who's to say.

(I would have loved to have expanded more on New Tyr, but my general rule is don't mess too heavily with other folk's campaign settings even if you use references to the world and people from there. A permenant portal to Athas in Sigil, in my mind anyways, would step over the line of courtesy extended to the athas.org folks since it could have an impact on Athas most certainly.)

I actually had my players visit Athas the long way around, finding it within the Ethereal, enclosed by the Black and the Grey. However they had not a clue what it was, just that the item they carried would allow them to enter. The item was a small ebony and silver box, elaborately carved with a leering figure upon its face that resembled a fiendish infant with snarling fangs and no eyes. A small seam of silver ran around the box but it could not be opened. It seems offbalance in terms of weight distribution almost like it was filled with a liquid, and every so often the box would make sounds like it was filled with machinery or gears, or the scuttling of a carpet of insects. The box also served as a compass of sorts on the Ethereal, drawing them towards the sphere of Athas.

Therein they entered through a single white portal in the shell surrounding Athas, right through the planar gate of Dregoth the Undead Dragon / Sorcerer King. One player familiar with Dark Sun realized OOC what was going on and just about threw stuff at me. The grin on my face was blinding. :D

In the end, Dregoth took the box from them and made veiling comments about 'Tell your master I accept his gift of my own free will. Tell him I accept his price for this, and that the streets of Raam will run red in his name."

The box of course was the 'gift' of the Baernaloth Daru Ib Shamiq. And giving it, whatever it was, was the least loathsome of the three tasks he had the PC's perform. Daru in fact gloated over Dregoth's intentions to become a god, presumably with the aid of Daru himself. "He will not become a god. Not on Athas anyways...And not that he is aware of this. But regardless, he has accepted my price and it shall be paid..."

I've had some ideas of running a Dark Sun campaign, but not in the conceivable future. Planescape is a harsh mistress, and it eats my time and creative spark. Not that I complain. I honestly couldn't run another campaign for another year at the least till the plot of my current PS game reaches a conclusion.

But I'm rambling. So yeah, Athas and Ravenloft, even 'closed' as they are, are still usable if you play with them right. Easy to get into, obscene or impossible to get out of.
#8
bob_the_efreet
Dec 10, 2003 23:10:56 Ravenloft - Dreadfully easy to get into (unless you're on the outer planes), nearly impossible to leave. Fortunately the Mists don't seem to be on too much of a hunt, or all kinds of ethereal travellers would be waylaid into the demiplane.
#9
zombiegleemax
Dec 10, 2003 23:23:31 Though the Mists can intercept portals, noncanonically. The entry for the CotN: Demons entry Quist talks about the Mists subverting one of Zaebos' portals and taking Quist into the Domains of Dread rather than where the portal was intended.
#10
zombiegleemax
Dec 11, 2003 0:45:09
Now,are the better suppliments I can get for it?

Faces of Evil one of my favorite accesories.
#11
zombiegleemax
Dec 11, 2003 18:50:59 Shemeska, you wouldn't happen to live in missouri would you...or maybe be planning to relocate there.:D

Thanks again guys I definately have food for thought now. Anymore comments are welcome.
#12
Shemeska_the_Marauder
Dec 11, 2003 19:38:35
Originally posted by Plunderer_of_the_planes
Shemeska, you wouldn't happen to live in missouri would you...or maybe be planning to relocate there.:D

*blush*

NC actually, sorry
#13
zombiegleemax
Dec 11, 2003 20:15:59 Damn
#14
zombiegleemax
Dec 11, 2003 20:19:54 You know, we all feel that way at some time or another, Plunderer. That is, most of us. Clueless doesn't... neither does Skalliska. Bastards, getting to play with Shemeska... I want a Shemeska doll too!

::Secundus brings a Shemeska doll almost instantly::

Sweet.
#15
Shemeska_the_Marauder
Dec 11, 2003 21:43:32 Very good, you've all gotten your quota of fawning done for the day. ;)

(Actually I've got a third player somewhere here on the boards, but she rarely if ever posts. And a fourth player lurking not here, but over on the Enworld board I think. This of course restricts what I can say here since I dare not spill the beans on plots a year in the making though I'd love to share some of it ;))

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Dec 10, 2003 19:15:52	How did Planescape handle settings like Ravenloft...were they readily accessable or were they hard to get to. Also IIRC Athas (darksun) was cutoff from spelljammers was the restriction also in place for "planewalkers"? Just need to know.
#2 Ryltar_Swordsong Dec 10, 2003 19:31:05	Ravenloft was accessible through the Ethereal, but if you went in you couldn't get out. There are very few reliable portals to Athas, but there are some. Most other settings were easily accessed.
#3 factol_rhys_dup Dec 10, 2003 19:33:30	They were tricky, but they definitely existed. Ravenloft was a demiplane, in the ethereal of course. I don't know too much about it, personally, but it was pretty nigh impossible to get into or out of. Athas was also remote, but not nearly to the same degree. The priests there worship the elemental planes, but there are shockingly few portals onto or off of the world. I've never heard a convincing reason why. Still, it's been said many times before that if a berk could find a stable, accessible two-way portal to Athas, he could make a fortune selling metal and water to the poor sods there. There have definitely been people who have travelled to or from (and maybe both ways) Athas, but they're rare. They usually stick around the planes, though- probably because it's so hard to find a way home.
#4 zombiegleemax Dec 10, 2003 20:54:09	Thank you both very much.
#5 zombiegleemax Dec 10, 2003 21:12:54	Ok another question. I just finally scored a PS boxed set off ebay ( I forgot how much I loved this setting) Now,are the better suppliments I can get for it? You know stuff like blood wars etc. I am adapting the material in the set to 3e myself using an altered MotP set up (brought more in line with the 2e planes).
#6 primemover003 Dec 10, 2003 21:21:32	Converting PS into 3E is ridiculously simple... 1/2 the work is done on Planewalker.com!!!! No, really most of PS was flavor text and plot ideas moreso than game mechanics. The MotP has very simple rules to run each plane and the PS resources you're bound to pick up will give you direction. Highly recommended are: For Sigil based campaigns the Factol's Manifesto In the Cage: a guide to Sigil Faces of the Cage All the Boxed sets are good to flesh out the planes beyond the tidbit given in each MotP writeups. My favorite accessories were defintely the Hellbound: the Bloodwar deluxe boxed adventure, Dead Gods and Faces of Evil: the Fiends.
#7 Shemeska_the_Marauder Dec 10, 2003 22:56:12	Ravenloft exists and was mentioned a few times in PS, but always with an undercurrent of fear and very rightly stating that you really REALLY didn't want to go there, and thankfully were safe anywhere the Ethereal didn't touch. Athas has had quite an understated impact on PS as well, there's even a small ethnic enclave of Athasians in Sigil located in the border area between the Lower Ward and the Hive called New Tyr. The inhabitants are said to be refugees from Athas, and perhaps there may in fact be a portal or two to Athas in Sigil that operates sporadically, if not continuously. Who's to say. (I would have loved to have expanded more on New Tyr, but my general rule is don't mess too heavily with other folk's campaign settings even if you use references to the world and people from there. A permenant portal to Athas in Sigil, in my mind anyways, would step over the line of courtesy extended to the athas.org folks since it could have an impact on Athas most certainly.) I actually had my players visit Athas the long way around, finding it within the Ethereal, enclosed by the Black and the Grey. However they had not a clue what it was, just that the item they carried would allow them to enter. The item was a small ebony and silver box, elaborately carved with a leering figure upon its face that resembled a fiendish infant with snarling fangs and no eyes. A small seam of silver ran around the box but it could not be opened. It seems offbalance in terms of weight distribution almost like it was filled with a liquid, and every so often the box would make sounds like it was filled with machinery or gears, or the scuttling of a carpet of insects. The box also served as a compass of sorts on the Ethereal, drawing them towards the sphere of Athas. Therein they entered through a single white portal in the shell surrounding Athas, right through the planar gate of Dregoth the Undead Dragon / Sorcerer King. One player familiar with Dark Sun realized OOC what was going on and just about threw stuff at me. The grin on my face was blinding. :D In the end, Dregoth took the box from them and made veiling comments about 'Tell your master I accept his gift of my own free will. Tell him I accept his price for this, and that the streets of Raam will run red in his name." The box of course was the 'gift' of the Baernaloth Daru Ib Shamiq. And giving it, whatever it was, was the least loathsome of the three tasks he had the PC's perform. Daru in fact gloated over Dregoth's intentions to become a god, presumably with the aid of Daru himself. "He will not become a god. Not on Athas anyways...And not that he is aware of this. But regardless, he has accepted my price and it shall be paid..." I've had some ideas of running a Dark Sun campaign, but not in the conceivable future. Planescape is a harsh mistress, and it eats my time and creative spark. Not that I complain. I honestly couldn't run another campaign for another year at the least till the plot of my current PS game reaches a conclusion. But I'm rambling. So yeah, Athas and Ravenloft, even 'closed' as they are, are still usable if you play with them right. Easy to get into, obscene or impossible to get out of.
#8 bob_the_efreet Dec 10, 2003 23:10:56	Ravenloft - Dreadfully easy to get into (unless you're on the outer planes), nearly impossible to leave. Fortunately the Mists don't seem to be on too much of a hunt, or all kinds of ethereal travellers would be waylaid into the demiplane.
#9 zombiegleemax Dec 10, 2003 23:23:31	Though the Mists can intercept portals, noncanonically. The entry for the CotN: Demons entry Quist talks about the Mists subverting one of Zaebos' portals and taking Quist into the Domains of Dread rather than where the portal was intended.
#10 zombiegleemax Dec 11, 2003 0:45:09	Now,are the better suppliments I can get for it? Faces of Evil one of my favorite accesories.
#11 zombiegleemax Dec 11, 2003 18:50:59	Shemeska, you wouldn't happen to live in missouri would you...or maybe be planning to relocate there.:D Thanks again guys I definately have food for thought now. Anymore comments are welcome.
#12 Shemeska_the_Marauder Dec 11, 2003 19:38:35	Originally posted by Plunderer_of_the_planes Shemeska, you wouldn't happen to live in missouri would you...or maybe be planning to relocate there.:D blush NC actually, sorry
#13 zombiegleemax Dec 11, 2003 20:15:59	Damn
#14 zombiegleemax Dec 11, 2003 20:19:54	You know, we all feel that way at some time or another, Plunderer. That is, most of us. Clueless doesn't... neither does Skalliska. Bastards, getting to play with Shemeska... I want a Shemeska doll too! ::Secundus brings a Shemeska doll almost instantly:: Sweet.
#15 Shemeska_the_Marauder Dec 11, 2003 21:43:32	Very good, you've all gotten your quota of fawning done for the day. ;) (Actually I've got a third player somewhere here on the boards, but she rarely if ever posts. And a fourth player lurking not here, but over on the Enworld board I think. This of course restricts what I can say here since I dare not spill the beans on plots a year in the making though I'd love to share some of it ;))