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| Gosh I sure do like writing game material |
Okay so a few years ago I thought I should make a formal release for legacy and cash purposes.
And the thing I thought would be easiest and most toothsome to people was the semi-coherent notes about the use of the planescape setting
So for the last 2 years (possibly more??) I have been thumping away at something. But I hate it.
To get it finished as acceptable product for sale will just take so much longer because it is chore and I have no real passion for it. More of "hey this would be cool I guess" feeling.
Working around the planar alignment setting and something so broad is horrible as a first project.
There is stuff I am way more interested in making into a presentable book than this.
Stuff that I would use myself at the earliest opportunity and is not titanic in scope.
I think that is the main thing, I don't have any urge to run a planar campaign anytime soon. I definitely have a urge to run Wide-on-for-destruction or Islands or VeryBigSpaceShip and creating material for that is creating material for myself, and it is easy to feel it is successful when, at the very least, you did a through prep job for once.
But I have a lot of stuff already wrote for it, which I don't want to "waste", and I don't want to sit on it indefinitely and I don't want to start other stuff with it unfinished.
So I am planning to polish up what is there, fill in the blanks and then release as free documents to you all because I am bounteous and so are many others .
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| The black things running from the Vale are called threads. They bridges of blackness in blackness and souls follow them and try not to get eaten by angler fish. |
This is the first part, Blazing World:
BLAZING WORLD!!!!
download it, use it , don't make money off it without my permission, as I am still formerly declaring my rights as the author and a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution license, or CC-BY-NC.
There are a couple of references to tables that will be in future documents. Vermin road Caravan and Flesh rift beasts. For the first if you can't wait until that one is out, just do a random merchant caravan but weird it up. For a Flesh rift beast use a random animal intelligence evil beast . either an existing monster (hell hound, howler, eyewing etc) or use an animal with fire legs or something.
Give me feed back on it and it will help the finishing off of the future documents. They will be realise every couple of months depending how much polishing I can be arsed with.
Since I original thought I would be dodging intellectual property laws there are a few name changes , which I guess are not so necessary now.
I will give the lexicon and main changes and additions here, a lot of these will be elaborated into the document that talks about the basics of the thing Which would of been the obvious one to release first but hey.
Working Assumptions , adhered to partially
- all places should have something to do there that is fun
- I'm not dealing with real world mythology because it's already been covered. G.ms can easily put gods everywhere if they want
- The current alignment is not and has not been a constant feature. Bits and pieces of other arrangements are still there . The Planes/realms do not have to be consistent in tone for this reason. There are border realms and locations which are nearly realms in themselves as they are soley merging or emerging from another realm.
- No way am I doing the neutral good plane and the neutral neutral good plane. The torus is roughly a 9 point axis. G.ms can easily use bits of each places to flesh out whatever planes system they are using anyhow
- I used off the cuff working titles for things and then I used them too long and that became the name. I guess that is how etymology works though.
- Each Realm would see its self as morally correct. None of them would define themselves by their opposition to another. None of them would exist to punish people. The hell is a hell because everyone there believes this is the best way to behave to become strong and free and right. Reflected that in the naming and how it all works
- The list of how spells get changed is gone. I was really tempted in some places but it opens up a can of worms with why would the realms let anything happen at all they don't want? Still half convinced that a giving each place a couple of effects that don't work , might write an appendix for it. Also makes everything about wizards. Like "how do we get the feeling of this place Oh let's change how magic works because Magic spells are the most important thing ever" Which I have mixed feelings about
- People are going to want something they can use the very first time they read it. Like people will get their players teleported somewhere and they will go "oh shit , what is there? I need a table"
- The Realms themselves are the power. The gods (if any) , demons, angry bears squat or pay rent there. It's about have a metaphysical congealment baser than religion or morality.
- The Realms do not clearly map to each other. Some will have formal occupants and manifestations. Others will have a dirty tent with a Free Beer sign, spelt wrong, hanging up upside down.
Lexicon:
Realms: Planes. Though they are less discrete than the original planes blending into each other and having bits that are nearly a plane by themselves.
The (Terminal )Torus: basically the great road /outer planes. The change is that the planes / realms are connected physically so they can be traversed without the use of portals.It's just more satisfying to me to draw and imagine. Some of the realms act as a light source or sky for others.
Vale of Tears: The prime material plane, the "real world"
Glooming: Astral plane. Kinda. The black thing souls travel through to get to the realms.
Twilight: Ethereal plane. Kinda. Immediately overlaps the Vale of Tears and it's were you are when you leave your body. Go up from here and you reach the Glooming
Souls: The thing you have inside your meat. Will have a certain amount of Salt on it, which it will exchange to become an Imago when it reaches a realm. Souls aren't forced to go anywhere. Generally. A soul with a lot of Salt will be escorted or be spruiked to by representatives. Weak willed or indecisive or less valuable souls run a risk of being eaten on the way or press ganged or conned into somewhere. Souls do not have shadows and cannot gain levels.
Salt: the amount a soul has sweated, strived, suffered and cried in their life. It's what keeps the realms solid. A Realm lacking salt will break up and be absorbed by other Realms. It can actually be dug out of some Realms or stolen from in transit souls and since it is useful as a drug, a empowery for Denizens , and an additive to make food actually have nutritional value for people who are not dead but living here, it's the currency, and an entire black market called Vermin Road exists because of it.
A Denizen (like a demon or deva) that has been exiled or excommunicated will need regular Salt or they will be at greatly reduced strength
Vermin Road: not quite a specific place in the same way the "Underground" or the "Black Market" is not a place though it has places and locations associated with it. Both a trading route, a network of trading posts and the economy that exists between the cracks of the Realms and gods agents and representatives. It is made up of exiles, refugees, traitors, squatters, remnants from past mythos, low and high level denizens trying to run something on the side, and of course fucking adventures. The currency is in Salt, but a great deal of other things are traded too , with some of seemingly opposed Realms having more economic ties they the would like to admit.
Denizens: So souls that exchange over their salt to a realm become an imago. An imago can then become (eventually) a Denizen. Denizens are big noise like demons and angels and they like. IF they are killed off Realm they reform in the Realm, with varying amount of time and loss of status and power. If killed in the Realm , they are dis-incorporated ie destroyed
Imago: A soul that has become aligned to a Realm.. From there they might become a denizen or merge with the realm. Will reform if killed in the Realm but be destroyed off Realm. Will need constant Salt if they attempt to stay off Realm. Which can happen when an Imago decides one day that the Realm that seemed the coolest is Bullshit and it's taking too long to become a Denizen and also they might of pissed someone off powerful.
Dweller: Someone/thing that has lived (generally generationally though some being might be long lived enough) long enough on a Realm to be changed by it and more importantly can survive there without needing Salt. Some Dwellers have been on a Realm so long everyone assumes they must be Denizens or Congelates, the Slaadi being the most obvious. The Slaadi however just moved in a long time ago and act like they own the place. A Dweller will not be able survive without Salt on the Vale of Tears. A child born in a Realm is automatically a Dweller. Can be killed on or off realm. If killed on the Realm they have been aligned with , their soul will be absorbed immediately by the Realm without becoming an Imago. Dweller souls have no Salt.
Congelate: A some what coherent being directly made by the Realm itself. Will be permanently destroyed if destroyed off realm. but eventually regenerate if destroyed on Realm . Extremely rare to go off Realm, will need Salt to survive off Realm
Incarnate: Like Congelate but is an abstract force of the Realm. The classic unseen possessing demon of horror movies or the burning wheel 6 winged angel is an example of Incarnate. Personifies the Realm to instinct that means they are extremely unpredictable, unfathomable, and dangerous.
Pinnacle of Virtue , The rifts of All Flesh, Heart of it All and the Plains of Relevation are all known to have Incarnates. The other Realms are presumably y capable , but undocumented at this time. It's possible that out breaks of madness, weird arcane blights or unnatural fads have been Incarnates unrecognized
Tourist: anyone in torus that is not "from there" . Presumably a bad pun, "torus-ist" , made long ago. Sometimes used as insult by Dwellers to people that are also Dwellers but haven't been part of the place for an arbitrary amount of time or generations
Food: Some Realms generate food that can sustain Tourists as well as Dwellers, Solitary for one (but its bland and gross) and Blazing World is another (but there is no regularity about anything here ever).
If a tiny amount of Salt is added to Realm food it will subsist a Tourist. Dwellers living in the Vale have the same problem, unable to draw substance from the food without Salt.
Realm Equivalents :
Limbo , -> Seether
Arborea, . BeastLands -> Blazing World
Elysium-> Starry Night/Desert of Leavings
Mount Celestia-> Pinnacle of Virtue
Mechanius-> Encyclopedia of All Machines
Acheron-> Grind
Baator-> The Heart Of It All
Grey Wastes-> Plains of Revelation
The Abyss, Gehenna-> The Flesh Rifts aka Canyons of All Flesh
Pandemonium -> (Mt) Solitary
No real equivalent but usable material for could be found in
Ysgard-> Seether, Blazing World
Carceri-> Solitary, The plains of Revelation
Bytopia-> Blazing World, Desert of Leavings, Pinnacle of Virtue, Infinite Library
Arcadia-> Pinnacle of Virtue, Heart of it All, Infinite Library, Encyclopedia of All Machines
Astral, Ethereal -> Starry Night, Seether, Glooming, The Blood Clouds