Background info for Planescape: Torment?

Cafe Society
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I’ve just finished this wonderful game and I was interested in finding out more about the setting. There were many things referred to in the game which was never fully explained. Things such as all the myriad planes, many of the creatures, and various entities. I know the setting is based on sometype of pen and paper game but I know nothing about it. Can any Dopers tell me more or link me to a good site? The game managed to draw me in and I would like to learn more. For example, what exactly is the Lady of Pain? What is the Prime Plane? What’s the importance of the Blood War? It seems like it’s one of the constants holding the Planes together. Is the Nameless One a character created just for this game or is he a important figure in the pen and paper version? Also, will they ever make a sequel? Any additional background info would be great.

P.S. Would a member be so kind as to link to previous threads about Planescape: Torment. Thanks!

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The producer, Feargus Urqhardtospell, hinted at the possibility of a sequel, saying that despite common belief the game did quite well financially. Black Isle, the studio that made the game, promptly got shut down by the parent company. So don’t hold your breath for a sequel.

I’ve been told that there are some Neverwinter Nights modules set in the Planescape setting but as I don’t have NW I’ve not looked into them. Someone else will have to elaborate.

As far as the Planescape setting I can tell you that all the playable characters were created directly for the game itself, but the setting and the factions are all very fleshed out in books. That’s about as much as I know :slight_smile:

I do know that in Baldur’s Gate 2 you can buy some magical weapons from Torment, such as Vhailor’s helm and Dak’kon’s Zerth blade.

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A mystery wrapped within an enigma. Essentially, the ultimate “non-deity”.

All of material/mortal reality.

It’s a war between chaotic evil and lawful evil over which one is the better evil.

Yes.

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No one knows. She appears to be more or less supreme over Sigil, but has no power outside of it. She has killed one deity (essentially by the supreme magical version of backstabbing) that used to reside in Sigil. She hates it when people worship her or mock her. Given her actions in this game, it appears she just may have som appreciation for the Nameless One - ordinarily, you don’t get out of her Mazes, assuming she even gives you that chance.

Some theories hold that she is: Someone/thing close to being a deity, but doesn’t want to be (hence avoiding worship, which very well could make her a god); a supremely powerful spirit of Sigil itself; a dozen sqirrels with a mask, coatstand, robe, and a ring of flying (we’re pretty sure that last one is wrong…)

The phsyical world. Most DnD games revolve around this place. It a land of fantasy magic and so forth. The planes are vast but relatively unimportant. The Planes are the homes of the Gods and don’t really change much, whereas the Prime is always being fought over. Planescape turns this around and makes the Prime not very important (hence the mockery of the clueless Primes, like that guy in the Smoldering Corpse bar) while the Planes, especially Sigil, are where the action takes place.

The Baatezu and Tanar’ri hate each other. A lot. They’ve been trying to kill each other for eternity now and they aren’t backing down. One side will possibly win when the universe finally ends, or maybe neither will ever win. Or maybe one side will win and that will end the multiverse as we know it.

According to one source, Asmodeus, lord of the Baatezu, is the ultimate champion of Law and Evil, and seeks to remake the universe in the image of Baator. Maybe the Blood War is part of his plans or it may be a legend.

Sort of. Its theoretically possible for it to just end and both sides stop fighting. But that probably won’t happen. Its sort of become a fixture of the Planes.

Who knows? Sadly, Interplay basically went out and spent the last three years gutting Black Isle and screwing them over, and then finally fired nearly everyone in it. They have the Planescape rights and they will surely ifgnore it. ANd if they didn’t, they’d turn it into a Dark Alliance-type game. Black Isle was one of the last good divisions left at Interplay, and now they’ve tortured it to death. Very sad.

Not long before they got canned, Feargus made some noise about going back to do another Planescape game. Probably not the NO’s story, but in the same vein.

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Planescape is a setting for the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Ed. game that was (pre-D20 3rd Ed.)
Planescape: I am the Mimir Is one of the better sites for an overview, although it does lay the planar cant (dialect) on rather thick and the site design is bonkers. The content is good, though.

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Most of these have been answered, but I thought I’d add a little.

I always thought of her as more than a god. IIRC, there was a faction in Sigil that considered the gods to be frauds – that they weren’t really as immortal or as powerful as they claimed. She would be the next step up the food chain.

It’s where you are. The “real” universe. Where worlds revolve around suns (or vice versa, on some of D&D’s worlds), and the laws of physics generally hold (except, in D&D, where bent by magic).

By contrast, the outer planes are like ideology become landscape. They are the physical embodiments of certain moral positions. Sigil, where you spend most of your time, is dead centre of the plane of neutrality – absolute balance between good and evil, order and chaos. Thus, Sigil is sort of the Switzerland of the planes, neutrality personified.

Baator (the Nine Hells) are organized, calculating evil given shape. Tarterus (aka Carceri) is betraying, manipulative evil given shape. Mechanus is purely logical, devoid of moral position, etc.

The Blood War is a purely ideological combat. Both sides are trying to prove what is truest form of evil. The Devils (or Baatezu) represent organized evil (think Hitler and Stalin): regimented, organized, diabolically intelligent. They have strategy on their side. The Demons (or Tana’ri) represent random evil (think serial killers and people who kidnap and torture children): sudden, brutal, and unexpected. They have sheer numbers on their side.

The Nameless One was created for the game. He also has fewer limitations than characters of his time – D&D Second Edition (which was in use at that time) did not give characters points to distribute when they reached new levels, nor did it allow characters to change class so easily.

Here’s hoping.

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The ongoing story of Planescape is being translated into 3rd edition for Neverwinter Nights. The group doing this is called the City of Doors Initiative (CODI.) They have a namesake website.

Planewalker.com also has a lot of updates, background information, and deeper explanations of the philosophies of the factions of Sigil.

I have also written a 2nd edition ongoing campaign based on Sigil, and I’ve been converting it into Neverwinter Nights. If you’d like to play it, drop me a line.

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This is one of the best games I’ve played in a long while. Strange that I didn’t notice it was from Black Isle considering the similarities it has with the Fallout series. I read that they cancelled Fallout 3 so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they would cancel a sequel to Torment. Well, not surprised maybe but saddened and bitterly angry. :wink:

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Which was, in the Nameless One’s case, he already had all those levels in the various classes. He had just forgotten he had them. As he gained experience, he remembered.

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If you’re interested in reading the original Planescape sourcebooks, you can download them as PDFs from svgames.com for about US$5 apiece. They have a bunch of the other old TSR campaign settings available for download too.

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Good luck finding a Planescape site that doesn’t. They’re just following in the footsteps of just about every Planescape sourcebook TSR put out, so the latter deserves more blame/credit for that.