An introduction
Being an induction to infinity
So you've made it to the planes have you berk? Welcome.
Introduction One wrong word and you're dragonmeat. The last sod who
came this way forced me to decide betwen selling her to
campaign slaadi artists as water-soluable paint and cursing her to serve
a tinker gnome of Krynn designing a lighter-than air ship.
Characters I'll leave you to imagine which was the worse fate. While
you ponder this and other important questions regarding
neverwell the meaning of life, allow me to rattle my bone-box about a
few ideas that could very well keep you out of the Dead
DM techniques Book...at least for a little while.
The Palace First things first. This is a game. Sure some leatherheads
out there take it all seriously, but bottom line:
storyboard It is only a game.
Given that, Planescape is a very special type of game, a
New monsters role-playing game. More specifically, it is a campaign
setting for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-
Links playing game, one of the greatest things ever made, along
with Ra creating man from his tears and Prometheus
giving man fire. While the cutters at TSR aren't gods, they
certainly deserve credit. There just aren't many games on
the shelves that are accused of being satanic and childish
at the same time.
What's a role-playing game? Hey, you lazy unindustrious
excuse for a mephit, I can't reveal all the secrets to you!
While it ain't the purview of this site to explain the wide
world of role-playing, I'll give you this definition:
Role-play verb, transitive. To play with oneself and others
while assuming the position of an imaginary character in
an exotic fantasy filled with fairies and magic wands.
Sure it is fantasy, but if you hope to stay among the living
for a little longer, you'd better start bailing all those pre-
conceptions out of your brain-boat. Planescape is fantasy
taken to the edge. Out here on the planes what matters
ain't how many goblins you can skewer with one stroke of
your sword. Though it's a useful skill to have, there's
always something bigger around the bend, after all, the
planes are the home to the gods, and us mortals are like
falling leaves, sometimes our light side is seen and at others
our dark side, but really we're no more than dust in the
wind. Given that the average basher can't hope to change
The Way Things Are, what matters in the grand scheme?
Belief. Pure and simple. Faith moves mountains, and can
even change the planar boundaries. See, the planes are
beliefs made tangible. Here a berk such as yourself can
learn just what the rewards for being good or evil are.
There they are, the planes unveiled before your eyes.
Enter the multiverse, the collection of all the planes of
existence where petitioners, dead souls, mingle with
bizarre creatures such as the fiendish baatezu, logical
modrons, scheming yugoloths, righteous devas, and
six foot tall invisible rabbits named Harvey. Anything
goes. When mortals are just another face in the crowd,
how do you count your enemies from your friends?
Philosophers with common ground have banded together
to answer "What is the meaning of the multiverse?"
In answering why, the face of the planes themselves will
be determined. To this end, the factions are each out
out there striving to promote the way they see things.
The final piece in understanding the puzzle of the planes
is Sigil, City of Doors, where the factions extend their
fingers across the multiverse. Believe it or not, Sigil is
unlike any other city anywhere, precisely because it is
a burg riddled with portals, gateways that link the magical
lands that planewalkers explore. By controling these
portals, the factions would gain immense power to spread
their doctrines to everyone. Of course, first they'd have
to find a way past the Lady of Pain, and she's a tough
one to unravel. Most sods who cross her end up in the
Mazes if not impaled on her blades outright. She's the one
who Sigil looks to for protection from the greedy hands of
the gods, for the Powers would love to have such a gem.
Don't anger her, don't pity her, and never worship her.
Are you ready to face the extremes, meet efreeti in the City
of Brass, negotiate your way through the fields of the Blood
War, taste the nectars of Evergold, tred the corpses of dead
gods in the Astral, and learn the price of living philosophy?
Step through that bright portal to infinity, cutter. Just
pray you can survive what's on the other side...