Psionics Handbook

Print PDF Reading the psionics handbook for 2nd edition again.

I still like psionics. I like the range of powers. I like blowing things up with your mind and turning your hands into axes. It manages to have a different feel to magic somehow, like all the powers are "abilities" rather than "events.
Like a spell which turns your hands into axes somehow does not seem right to me, while as psionic/mutant ability it works.
It might relate to why I feel kinda cheated when monsters have spells as powers rather than their own abilities.
Can't think of what the distinction, exactly, is. Maybe a spell , to me, once began , is some what out of the hands of the caster.

The idea of casting half a fireball spell or using a fireball spell to make a wall of fire or a ball of light , is somehow not spell casting. (minor cantrips however seem fine to my mind).

Magic is too complicated to make elaborate adjustments on the fly. Like trying to improvise music. You can have prerecorded samples of any complexity but creating new music out of scratch would be limited to the use of a single instrument and a basic refrain.

While supernatural abilities are an extension of your abilities by very definition, if you can create fire  you are not limited to creating a set amount each time, no more than you are limited to walking a set distance each time you use your legs.

Anyway this all extremely fuzzy. As I am writing this I can thing of numerous exceptions and it's just going to degenerate into a bunch of hand waving and ellipsis really.

Short answer "acid secretion" = good psionic ability
 "breath of the black dragon" = terrible psionic ability (3rd edition psionics handbook ugh)

Though the reverse of this should mean I dislike spells that when used give the caster a new open ended ability.
Which , while yes some spells I dislike do this, (fabrication, I think from the rules cyclopedia) , there is more I can think of that I think are cool spells (shape change, unseen servant, pyrotechnics (pass on the name though) . Telekinesis however is a weird one. I don't like the name as spell (I would call it "Witchy Lifting"), but I do like scenes where wizards just smash people with invisible forces.
I seriously do not like "you can lift 2000 coins worth of weight" as the mechanic. That is some bullshit. That is like having a spell saying "you can fight so much better".
I'm cool with stuff being ruled on the fly and having effects being "broad strokes" , (say hide in shadows doesn't need a couple of paragraphs talking about what is plausible to hide in) , the possible implications of telekinesis seem immediately require some crunch guide lines.

Like how fast you can move something, how easy it is to hit something with telekinesis , can you just crush someone with the forces , what about just choking them, can you reach inside there body, does any of that require a to hit roll, what about slowing someone down or tripping someone up, can you snatch missiles out the air, what about gas particles / dust particles/ fluids, or running interference on someone's melee attacks?

Now I'm not saying this needs to be all carefully accounted for, but some rough guidelines definitely .

(say you can apply negative modifiers to peoples actions summing to -4, can't effect anything smaller than you can see, you need to be able to see what you are lifting , can't effect the insides of people, limit on max speed, if something is moving around precise targeting is out)

My preference would be to have the extreme possible applications of telekinesis be covered as different spells. Which is like how psionics handles it. So the ability to to throw a small thing incredible fast is "kinetic bullet", using people as puppets is "body control", and force chokes and slamming people around is weirdly not in there.

...
Now I'm arguing for a spell to like a psionic ability. Shit this was all meant to be a preamble for the thing I actually wanted to post and it going nowhere and everywhere fast. I'll try and draw it to vague conclusion and move on.

So I guess for telekinesis as a spell, I would prefer, (according to vague poorly articulated , possibly non existent , criteria ), a "clumsy invisible giant" spell that can batter people and lift objects.

Actually "Clumsy invisible giant with poor eyesight" is a pretty excellent way to explain the limitations and possibiltys of the spell.

Okay fuck it I give up. I hate open effect spells with latin names maybe.

Anyway psionics in dungeons and dragons is also terrible when they try and make it general setting with broad mythological resonance. Because there is very little mythological imagery to tap into , and it just turns up some floating crystals and head-bands.

Basically there is room for setting specific supernatural abilities that are simpler  than spells and are more like superhero powers.

MAybe that is the criteria in my head. Spells have their own reality to them (fireballs have this range and this area, light makes this thing glow for this long) while superpowers refer to the broader reality of the setting (you can make fire happen. It acts like fire.)


...

moving along.

The attack and defense modes are dumb. Their names are dumb, they use up too much time and mechanics and there is a table of modifiers and nobody likes a table of modifiers.
Because  tables of modifiers are dumb.


I have made it all better:

Hertha von Walther in Joyless Street a.k.a. Street of Sorrow (G.W. Pabst, 1925) German title: Die freudlose Gasse

There are 6 powers that are intense focused mental States.  You can use them to protect yourself, as a general aura, or to  attack a specific individual.
(I'm skipping the exact mechanics because the 2nd edition ones were kinda terrible and I'm not sure of any good commonly used substitute systems. If you need something quickly just treat them like spells of levels 1 , 2 or 3 as appropriate )

Attacking someone with a State with a State of your own means you are subject to an attack from their State. I.e attack and defense happen automatically and simultaneously.

Each State is extremely vulnerable to one other State in particular. This means that the user of vulnerable State is automatically effected by the other  dominant State who remains unaffected.

If neither State is particular vulnerable to the other, you both make saving throws as per usual to avoid the effects.

The States:

The Crawling
you let out every horrible thought and memory from the depths of your own psyche. You wear them , unafraid , like verminous armor, and they call out to the minds of others, stirring all that is unwanted in them.

effects: as an aura, sense known weaknesses and fears in others.
as an attack inflicts Catatonic despair.

 Howling crumples before the The Crawling. The animal instincts turn on themselves in blind tearing panic, the enemy perceive to be impossibly from within.

Howling
you turn off all that chatter in your head and submerge into bright red instinct and adrenaline overloads, take everything down to a raw animal level.

effects: as an aura, increase a physical stat by one, no use of language skills or higher reasoning.
as an attack: target's survival responses become unreasonably extreme: anger turns to berserk rage, caution becomes panic

Thanatos crumples before Howling. The animal has always faced death.


Thanatos
You focus entirely on absolute certainty of your own destruction and when you accept this, there is nothing to fear

effects: as an aura: immune to fear or other attempts to change emotional state, reflects attempts to intimidate back on the initiator
as an attack: paralyzation
Solipsism crumples before Thanatos. The belief that only you are real means that now you are staring at the absolute end of everything.

Solipsism
It's all just a manifestations of you. You can do anything , because you are everything.

effects: as an aura: unlikely coincidences and luck start coming your way. D.m rolls twice on any random table and takes the one most favorable to you.
(if this seems too much "believe shaping reality" for your tastes, only have it effect tables that could be effected by the characters confidence and audacity )
As an attack: existential self doubt causes any attack or roll to fumble on 1, 2, or 3

Dissolution crumples before Solipsism. Dissolving your identity before someone who is utterly sure of their identity is just doing exactly as they want

Dissolution
The concept of a continuous absolute self is a bad illusion. You dissolve into a myriad.

effects: as an aura: invisibility to mind reading abilities and magics in groups of 3 or more. Near invisibility in crowds, just not noticeable enough to be noticed.
as an attack: confusion as the spell.

Mind Worm crumples before Dissolution. It's just more noise.

Mind Worm
A catchy mantra , phrase , song or loop is repeated over and over and over. It gets into others heads and drives them to distraction.

effects: as an aura, anyone concentrating their attentions on you finds it difficult to concentrate. You get a free reroll on any attempts to bluff, hustle, distract or confuse someone.
as an attack: target once effected needs to make a successful saving throw to under take any action require concentration

The Crawling crumples before Mind Worm. Its inanity derails the introspective spiral driving the Crawling

Rogue Die

Print PDF I have been having trouble thinking about how to do rogue skills.
Like you have a system for them to sneak, and the question is how do you resolve people other than the rogue sneaking? Then oh noes skills can sneak it in and they can be a pain.

Anyway I like how Lamentations of the Flame Princess and 52 pages rules do it, BUT decided not to do it that way. Kinda of.

Skills are done with a stat check. If you do not have a skill it will be a half stat check.
 Rogues additionally will have a rogue die for each skill. This is a d6. There rogue die is rolled at the same time as a stat check. If it gets the value or under you have in it  , you get either a reroll (you must take the new result however ) or a bonus. So if you have a value of 2 in your stealth you would get a reroll or bonus if you rolled a 1 or a 2 on the die.
Rogues start with 6 points to spend at level 1. The skills are Stealth, Sleight of Hand,  Deceit (a mixture of disguise , bullshiting , and charm) , Climb, Acrobatics, Tampering (find/remove/modify traps).
Spending a point firstly gets you the skill (not having a skill means the stat check required for successful use of the skill is done with the stat halved. Some things cannot be attempted without the required skill) , and additional points are the value that you need to roll on the rogue die.
So a first level rogue could have all the skills without a rogue die in them, or have 3 of the skills with a rogue die of 1 , or one skill with a rogue die of 6.

Examples of bonuses : Flamboyantly (affects the morale of npc), Undetectably , Quickly (takes only a moment to perform), Thoroughly (nothing left behind),  etc.

Each time you gain a level you get +1 to either purchase a new skill or increase a rogue die by one.  
A point spend on a rogue die after it reaches 6, starts a new die. So the skill has an automatic bonus or reroll, and you are now rolling the rogue die to see if you have an additionally reroll or bonus. 

I'm still undecided on how to do skills for the other classes. I think it will be something like 3+int modifier and you can choose them in play  ("wait does your guy know how to swim? Umm sure..") if at all.
 There is some good "background" systems floating around which replace skills. Basically you count as having training in something if your background would cover it. I was playing around with making big tables that had your background how much money and equipment you had and what skills. They were not so good.
Although having the background table weighted by if you belonged to the "right sort of people" or not was kinda cool.

The mulplicity of being in planescape

Print PDF Being rejiggering the character creation stuff.  Here is the race stuff.
Tried to make each race feel unique , and sheered off as "much +1 to a thing" abilities as I could. Also tried to keep each races abilities strictly to the core of the race and not worry too much about if dwarves are better or worse than halflings at picking locks etc.

Class notes in next post. I'm still in the air about how to treat thief skills.
Ratatosk are giant squirrels from Yggdrasil.  Muggin are crows with arms and wings.
Ghuls are half dead people and ragdolls are fabric people with human organs. That should explain everything.

character creation for planescape/redlands version 3.2324

3d6 assign as you go.
modifiers as 3rd ,

2-3 (-4)
4-5 (-3),
6-7 (-2)
8-9(-1)
10-11(0)
12-13(+1)
14-15(+2)
16-17(+3)
18-19(+4)

Stat modifiers are applied mostly the same:

Strength adds to hit and damage for melee weapons and some thrown weapons
Dexterity adds to armour class, and to hit with deft weapons (both thrown and melee)
Constitution adds to hit points
Wisdom adds to hit rolls with projectile weapons and sorcerer spells known and quota.
Intelligence adds to spells known and quota for wizards and is added to the 3d6 you roll (before multiplying by 10) to determine starting gold (along with your charisma modifier)
Charisma add the modifier to the 3d6 you roll (before multiplying by 10) (along with the intelligence modifier) to determine starting gold. For clerics its added to your spells quota
Spells Known:
For wizards they will have their intelligence modifer (minimum of one) written in their spell books +2 randomly selected. To successfully understand a spell they have copied in their spell book requires an intelligence check modifed by the spells level. They can try once per spell per level.
Sorcerers will have 1+wisdom modifer (if this is zero or negative they get one randomly choosen spell instead) known to them.
Clerics will have available to them all the cleric spells of two of their god's domains.

Spells quota:
Means how many spells you can cast before needing a recharge. You recharge your quota as you would hitpoints, ie with a short rest.  Wizards also need to spend a minute per level of spell memorizing each spell. Sorcerers pick their spells as they cast them
Start with: 1+relevant stat modifier 1st level. If this would give less than zero or less you get one spell but have to roll to get it to work.
Roll an exploding d6 subtract the level and apply the stat modifer
If it's postive the spell works.
If it's zero it comes out mutated.
If less than zero nothing happens, the spell is not wasted you can try again..
(Spell Failure  from 52 page rule book (Link)
1: Spell has no effect and is used up
2: Spell target chosen at random from possible targets (if cast at place, random direction and distance from caster)
3:Spell cast, caster stunned a number of rounds= spell level
4:Different spell known by caster cast (even if already cast)
5:Random spell of same level not known by caster is cast
6:GM adds or changes 1 word in spell effects (or rolls on a different spell mishap table)

CHOOSING YOUR KIND:
(index)
Concentrating means while as such you can attack,or do full move instead of attack and move. Out of combat any stat checks fumble on 18,19,20.
Bulk: adds on to strength and con where size and weight would matter (including carrying capcity). Adds directly onto damage. For every 2 points you get 1 point of damage resistence. Every 1 is about one half as big as the last. (human  (0)-> bug bear(1) -> ogre (2)-> something bigger than ogre but smaller than an elephant(3), elephant (4).
If you have bulk 1 you take up as much space as 2 people on the battle field for getting in each others way purposes( only one of you could fight comfatable in a 5 foot tunnel for example)
Sturdy is like bulk, but does not give damage resistence , but does add on strength and con for saving throws and opposed checks.
Gangly is like bulk but only for the purpose of taking up room.
Small: adds to armour class, subtracts from damage.
Reroll <stat>: means reroll that stat and choose either result.
Advantage/Disadvantage: I was using the mechanic from D&D next without realizing it, now that I do , I'm just going to use the name of it to. Basically means roll twice pick best (or worst in the case of disadvantage)
Choose race:

Aasimar: Celestial (count as such for spells and effects), Unforgettable (for better or worse people always remember your face), Armoured in Life (reroll one save per session) Idealistic (if you are trying to disguise your motives you do not receive your Drive exp). Reroll charisma or con

Bariaur: Natural weapons (head butt as club), canter (move is 16 rather than 12), gangly (bulk 1 for when it's inconvenient for you), orneriness (if you turn down a challenge you do not receive your Drive exp)

Elf: sylvan : low light vision (as a cat), feral (one free reroll per session in the environment of your upbringing, roll must somehow relate to environment, includes combat), passions! (Choose from anger, empathy, joy, curiosity. If an opportunity comes up to follow your passion and you do not take it, you do not get your drive exp) , Rustic (you have Disadvantage when it comes to technical or city stuff) reroll dex or wis

     high : Low light vision, passions! (Choose from anger, empathy, joy, curiosity. If an opportunity comes up to follow your passion and you do not take it, you do not get your drive exp), reroll dex or int

     drow: infravision (120 feet) , wyrdling (pick three 0 level spells you can naturally cast. You have a quota of 3), photosensitivity (disadvantage to all rolls in bright light), paranoid (you cannot rest around anyone you don't truely trust or have complete power over) reroll dex or int

     outlander: Feral,  Stride (move is 14 instead of 12), fuck head, (disadvantage any rolls to do with getting trusting or making a good impression) reroll dex or con

Dwarf: generic: Sturdy (bulk 1 for resisting stuff and carrying stuff), infravision (60 feet), stoneken (advantage with any rolls to do with understanding stone or stonework), slow (move is 10 rather than 12), swim like a rock (you can't swim and sink like you are made from rock),vertigo (you have disadvantage around heights (above ground) reroll str or con

         derro: infravision (120 feet), wyrdling(pick three 0 level spells you can naturally cast. You have a quota of 3), batshit (You have advantage against mental effects including social . if you a 1 on any stat check resisting a mental effect the intiator is effected by it instead), photosensitivity (disadvantage to all rolls in bright light) reroll , con or int

         duergar: infravision (120 feet), black lung (advantage against smoke or air born toxins) , photosensitivity (disadvantage to all rolls in bright light),  Sturdy (bulk 1 for resisting stuff and carrying stuff), , bitter hearts (advantage against any emotion effects) reroll con or str

         clay: inorganic (but still eats and and breathes), heavy, cold/heat resistance (2), natural armour (4), numb (disadvantage in sense based tasks) reroll con or str. Reroll dex and take the new roll if worse.

Gensai:
Earth: may have 3 faces like weird stone idols or some other earth type creature thing. Heavy builds, and or grey skin. Protruding angular bones. damage resistance against physical attacks 1 , +2 per die damage from falls.
Fire: Veins appear to burn underneath skin or  appear like ash or coal with beards or hair like (or in some cases actually) thick smoke that bursts into flame when they are angry or excited fire resistance 5, use up twice the amount of oxygen a human of their size would. Means can only hold breathe   for half as long
Water: Marbled eel skin, rows and rows of evil fish teeth, fish or octopus eyes, frills, gills, body seems to ripple and flow. Can breathe underwater, must drink 3 times as much as a human of their size, and suffering deprivation damage accordingly.
Air: hair moves slowly as if in wind, small sylph   wings, clouds are seen in eyes weight a tenth of what they should, take fall damage only after 100 feet Feeble (you count as having 3 strength for the purpose of encumbrence)
Salt: Skin cracked like a river bed in a long drought, eyes shriveled up to little sullen raisins , hair    bleached white or very pale. inherent: any liquids ingested or injected (helpful or harmful) are half as effective                                
Ash: Grey skin, sunken in look , mouth cavity always pitch black, teeth like coal, any deprivation damage is halved (round down, minimum of one), you have no sense of taste (food/drink wise) or smell.
Dust:Skin like sandstone, raspy voices, sweat dust, hair falls out all the time, grows back and breaks down real fast.  When anyone with 20 feet of you rolls a 1 on a d20 you get to choose a mundane object that breaks (within 20 feet). If you roll a 1 , in addition to the normal results of a fumble, something on your person breaks (randomly determined)       
                      
Vacuum: cracks in skin lets show a void that seems to suck at the light. Eyes pour out darkness. Always seem quieter around them. All rolls to do with hearing things within 10 feet are at a Disadvantage.

Ooze: Always looks wet and sick. Eyes leak weird fluids, weird rubbery boneless movements. If you are effected by a poison,gas, spore or slime, you heal 1d4 hitpoints. If you fail the save the effects last twice as long but anyone you touch must safe or be effect as per the original effect

Ice: Look like you froze to death. d.r 5 vs cold. If you take damage from fire or heat you must make a con sav or be confused for one round per point that you failed the save.

Smoke: Burnt black lips, glowing eyes, dark or grey hair that moves slowly like smoke Not effected by gas or smokes. Take twice as much deprivation damage.

Magma: Flowing movements, no outlines of bones, light shines out of mouth and eyes.  4 fire resistance, but suffering 5 or more points of cold damage , or suffering stat damage from exposure acts like a slow spell on you until the damage is healed.

Mineral: Hair like spun silver or gold, eyes like gemstones, quartz shimmers in skin .lucky, can reroll one dice each day, but 1d6X100 g.p worth of precious metals and gems can be retrieved from your corpse, and this is widely known.

Steam: skin seethes and ripples, little vents open up releasing little puffs of steam. Always wet look. Can make an Obscuring Mist effect once before needing recovery, drink twice as much as regular human, any metal on your person rusts steadly unless constant oiled and polished.

Lightning: Eyes crackle with lightning, sparks play along skin. HAir stands up like near a telsa coil 5 damage resistance vs lightning, but any electrical attack coming within 10 feet of you has 1 in 3 chance of arcing into you instead of its original target. If you are the target for an electrical attack there is a 1 in 3 chance it will arc to someone else randomly within its normal range, and effect them as well as you.
Radiance: Coloured light pulse from under skin depending on mood. Its like light has been jammed under your skin. YOur   hair is freaking rainbow. Always producing light, like that of a light spell.

                                  
Goblinoid: goblin (small 1), scavenger (you advantage on any rolls to do with scavenging), fuckhead (disadvantage any rolls to do with getting trusting or making a good impression) infravision 60 feet reroll dex

                orc: garbage guts (advantage on resisting poison or disease from ingested materials, fuckhead (disadvantage any rolls to do with getting trusting or making a good impression), infravision 60 feet , reroll str or con

               bugbear:  big  (bulk 1) , fuckhead (disadvantage any rolls to do with getting trusting or making a good impression), infravision 60 feet,  reroll str or con

Githzerai: opportunities other face( you have advantage the next time you make a roll you just fumbled on), must change drive every session , reroll dex or wis

Ghul: semidead (undead for purposes of magic healing hurts you, undead effecting effects, but live because you still need to eat (rotten food only) , sleep and breath, plastic form (if you have access to fresh corpse and half an hour per point, you can modify any physical stat, your move, or armour class. You must lower another stat(s) by a totally of  2 for the first point, 4 for the 2nd , 8 for the 3rd. 3 points is the limit.)


Halfling: short (small 1), low light vision, lucky(one free reroll each session), slow (10 rather than 12) reroll dex or cha

Human:Unattuned (you have to concentrate to not resist desired magic effects. IF you do not concentrate you have to make a save as you would hostile magics. Once under the effects of a spell you do not have to keep concentrating), reroll two stats.

Muggin (crow): flight (you can fly if unencumbered for 2 rounds per point of con), feeble( you have 3 strength for the purposes of encumbrance) , scavenger (you have advantage when it comes to rolls to do with scavenging )

Modron(rogue): orthodox (you neither crit nor fumble), heavy, numb(disadvantage when it comes to sense based rolls), inorganic (need no breath, or eat), hardpoints (lower dex by 2 and spent exp = half the item original cost to build something directly onto you. If it require ammunition before you now generate 30 of it per day depend) , natural armour (4)

Ratatosk: rustic (disadvantage when it comes to anything technical or city related), feral (one free reroll per session in the environment of your upbringing, roll must somehow relate to environment, includes combat)), bat shit climbing (you move your full move when climbing), small (1), reroll dex, pretty much broke (start with one mundane item and one basic weapon and no gold)

Ragdoll: boneless (you may count as small 3 for attempting to fit in somewhere), feeble (your strength is 3 for the purposes of encumbrance), strange healing (must have access to needle and thread +fabric to heal) reroll dex

Tiefling: tainted (roll 3 mutation pick 2), fiendish, wyrdling(pick three 0 level spells you can naturally cast. You have a quota of 3), moody (you must Concentrate if you are angry or feeling spiteful and wish to not act upon it)

Thri Kreen: Rustic, natural armour (2), natural weapons , Gangly (bulk 1 for the purpose of getting in the way of stuff), Bug mind (disadvantage on all rolls to do with understanding other people) reroll dex or strength, Broke (start with one basic weapon and that's it)

Lizard folk: natural weapons (claws and teeth as dagger), armour(2), rustic (disadvantage when it comes to anything technical or city related) , aquatic, slow metabolism (you are at disadvantage to all rolls an hour after you wake), bulk (1), pretty much broke (start with basic weapon and one mundane item) reroll strength

\

planescape, scrawling on the classics

Print PDF I have been thinking about planescape with my 6 orbiting brains.

I think planescape is " top shelf " and has some fine fine fine art and generally awesomeness.
But! I thought it was a liiiiitttle under done. Or maybe I got greedy with its cool bits and wanted more.

Any way here's me scribbling all over the classics:
spell keys? weapon bonuses that got weaker the further you went from the plane in which the weapon was made? Random spell modifiers depending on what planes you were on that  were just  like -2 to illusion type spells?
Did anyone remember that they were there? Did anyone use them?
These were some rules that were put to give some kind of flavour or something, but if you can't remember a flavour rule after reading it once it's no good.
By flavour rule maybe "tone" is a better phrase, you know any rule thrown in to keep characters reminded of a on going environmental/metaphysical/psychological factor.
Anyway some sharper than I could prob do a break down on what makes good mechanics and what does not . Planescape's spell key, plane modifers definitely fails. Bland, bean counting, and abstract.
Maybe if it was more like to use healing spells in Baator you have to kill something that day, but even then seems like dead weight. The fact that you are walking on a lake of frozen souls being chased by gelugons should be taking up enough presence of mind that some rules farting around making your spells more difficult, are just slowing things down.
I think there might of been some more rules like this , but I really can't remember them, and so they must of been even more naff.
anyway..
So in no particular order here's some thunks about this:
(note: this is actually going to have to be an ongoing series, I have notes I wanna share on ysgard, sigil, the upper planes, gehena, pandemonia, limbo as well, but this post feels like it's taking too long to do already, more over the next few days)
Gods
Planescape was making something new out of all this metaphysical detritus that various d&d products had left, but the weird thing (for me anyway) was even how this was the selling point , it was all the new stuff (the sigil dirty victorian , factions, and the like) that was really strong.
And I feel that a lot of the planar locations were pretty bland and got used as dumping ground for various pantheons . Which was meant to be a cool selling point, but I found it annoying having Greek gods, Chinese gods, Celtic gods and the like.
It's great to loot cultures shamelessly for campaign dressing, but having just pasting them all over the place without even filing the serial numbers off felt cluttered.
I mean I'm not too fond of gods full stop in campaign worlds, like its always feels wonky trying to get their power levels and involvement in the world right. Maybe having gods only being at the power of a demon lord and not having a immaterial form, just their avatar would work for me.
So basically having them be SuperKings. And while they would claim credit for making worlds and races, that shit just happens due to deeper blind forces.
I just don't like all powerfully invisible sky beards that can sculpt the world and what not and have all this interest in mortals but cannot directly intervene because of some blah blah blah.

So I would shift the focus of the outer planes away from all this pantheon bullshit.
I will repeat myself here how dull it is having Sigil and tieflings and factions and trees made of snakes and madness mazes and all this effort to make a unique tone and then having the party run around ancient Greece.
Maybe someone is thinking here "oh but that's the appeal, like the adventure starts in ancient Greece , but then they go to Valhalla, and then the kingdom of the elves" and I'm thinking wow, this is "Where in mythology is Carmen Santiago?"
Also a sizeable chunk of tolkien and western mythology has already been strip mined for the roots of d&d and there's not a lot left there that's of any interest.
Still bits and pieces of pure gold, but yah gotta dig further than togas and talking trees here.

Planes
Firstly all the planes should have some possible low level adventure nonsense . 
secondly  the planes need more fleshing up than just this cultural garage sale nonsense.
I'm a fan of symmetry , like if one plane has murderous hats tied to their plane, I like thinking of other planar equivalents of these murderous hats.
So I been doing about of this "murder hats of the alignment compass" as creative exercise.
Examples of fine murder hats include Baator, with the baatezu.
(oh an aside here, I liked that demons and devils got their own name for themselves, it was part of that throwing away of human-centricness that planescape had going for it , that I really liked. Demons don't exist to lure you to evil, and  don't just represent a force to oppose and strive against. They are not fallen angels , seething in bitterness, envious of the light. No, demons have existed for longer than your whole planet, your downfall is mere sandwich choosing, and they are a force for evil and destruction because to them, that's how things work, and anyone who is not out for carnage and power is weak, deluded, or a fool. Not that people aren't having hella  fun with the medival styles of demons, I just love the idealogically cluster fuck approach.)
The abyss with Tanar'ri, limbo with Slaadi (but you know, like how I do slaadi) and the githzerai apparently but I never got a handle on them, Mechanus with modrons etc.
But there are some gaps. Like there's no distinctive denizens for Gehenna , Ysgard, Acheron etc
Acheron could have ,damn I want to use archons , but that word is already in use for angels, so lets use um..
oh thanks wiki , Nephilim

"Nephilim" (נְפִילִים) probably derives from the Hebrew root npl (נָפַל), "to fall" which also includes "to cause to fall" and "to kill, to ruin". The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon gives the meaning as "giants"^[1] Robert Baker Girdlestone^[2] argued the word comes from the Hiphil causative stem. Adam Clarke took it as passive, "fallen", "apostates". Ronald Hendel states that it is a passive form "ones who have fallen", equivalent grammatically to paqid "one who is appointed" (i.e. overseer), asir, "one who is bound", (i.e. prisoner) etc.^[3][4]

So the Nephilim are these (i still wanted to used Archon because grant morrison's invisibles has them being such great dirty shits from beyond) tarnished grey steel lords of war and strategy, ranked like chess pieces.
Nephilim pawns not is not working um.. okay lets make the celestial archons called nephilim and then
archons live in acheron.

Lets start again:
Acheron:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheron_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29
acheron is great. Big steel cubes floating a void with endless battles on their surfaces, some the size of mountains some the size of a house. Battleground discarded bodys and weapons gradually turn to metal and become part of the plane. Some of the cubes have little tunnels riddling them. There are great junkyards where rust dragons feed. There are other layers of the this plane that have great floating discs that are thin enough to cut a eyelid cleanly in 2. All of this is great.
Archons of Acheron:
The Archons are looming figures of pitted steel, corroded and dirty grey by the dirt and war of Acheron.
War and conflict to them are a pure fundamental things. They believe in order, strategy, logic and above all war. Unlike the fiends however, the Archons find concepts such a cruelty, corruption and destruction for destructions sake, utterly irrelevant. Archon can be found throughout the planes hired as mercanarys or strategic advisers. While safer to deal with than fiends, it is not with out precedence for Archons to subtly escalate or aggravate conflicts. Archons organize themselves in churchs named after the king of the church.
for example the "Church of Reprise Preceding Retribution " with Reprise Preceding Retribution being the Church king. Typical churchs normally have around 100 pawns, 5 castles, 10 knights,5 Bishops, 1 queen and
1 king. Churchs have extremely complicated greater allegiances to each other that, grouping them into OverChurchs ( about 20 churchs) and above that a (about 20 OverChurchs) Supremacy. When not united under/in a OverChurch or a Supremacy (generally towards an outside threat), Churchs of the Archons are in perpetually conflict with each other.
Archon care only for territory or wealth or power as means of winning conflicts. If no worthy conflicts are to be had , these trappings are quickly neglected or used as chips in the wars that immediately and formally start between Churches if no greater challenge  is present.

Archon Pawn
Standing about at about 2 metres tall, Pawns are gaunt figures of armour wielding long seemingly flimsy spear axes. They have no real insight or initiative of their own and more or less exist to follow orders. Under the armour there is nothing but black oil supersaturated with rust.
They do not talk, but any higher ranking archon of the same church can know anything a pawn knows if the pawn is close by and they spend a moment or 2 regarding the Pawn.

Archon  Knight
Knights are are joined with their steeds , a compact metal horse thing. Also one arm which can swivel along the chest to access either side with no hindrance. They have long curved horns on the helmets to designate their rank, and dozens of spears and tattered banners emerging from their backs , trophys of countless conflicts. While more comfortable taking orders, Knights are quite capable leading small squads of pawns, or other troops, and if under the service of particularly weak leader or summoner will attempt to replace them.
Unlike Pawns , Knights can talk, but do so only in the bare minimum to function efficiently as a military unit. They have limited powers beyond great speed and prowess with halberd, but can blink every 3rd round or so.

Archon Castle
Castles loom at 15 metres, but bigger ones have been reported. The appear as tower with a great cleft in its middle like a baleful eye, and they advance on a tripod of great  stone legs. They are faster than they look, and relentlessly trample opposing forces underfoot. They also have powers of gravity manipulation and can use this power once a hour to do one of the following:; flight on themselves and twice their weight in nearby units, a wall of force effect, or a "murder ball" where they create a spot of strong gravity, causing anything with in 60 feet of it to fall towards in the first round, and rounds thereafter the gravity effect no longer pulls anything towards it, but still traps whatever did on the first round. This murder ball maybe rolled around at 30 feet per round by telepathic command of the Castle, crushing and mangling anything too slow to get out of the way.
Castles have deeply resonate voices that can easily be heard even over the cacophony of battle and also can communicate silently with any other castle within a 100 mile radius. While they out rank Knights, they will take orders from them on the battle field.
If under the command of a non-Archon and not employed actively enough  they will attempt to over throw their commander or set off a war.

Bishop Archon
 standing at about 2 metres, and are hunched cloaked figure with a visage like the business end of a particular elaborate executioners axe. They use a perforated metal ball on a chain, to dispense a variety of killing, mind effecting, and morale boosting gas. They have access to cleric spells. They will always be in a command position if a Queen or King is not present.

Archon Queen
A terrible stilted wasp thing with a floating barbed ring for a face, Archon Queens are rare, and when not serving as a commander , rapidly fly around the battle field wielding a variety of battle magics, both cleric and wizard,and impaling with theri ovipositor. This ovipositor  is also used to turn stolen partitioners into pawns and worthy pawns into knights, knights into castles and castles into bishops.

Archon King
A twisted stunted thing atop a limbed  throne, while tough to destroy, the King is not particularly ferocious in combat, and will rely on summoning other archons, or cleric spells. They are of course master tacticians.

Further notes on Acheron
every plane should have some quick low level adventure areas, and battle ground scavenging on the floating metal cubes of acheron is a good one. Either the party could be after a particular item, or just generally greed. Tension can be mounted by having a time limit before the cube collides with another one, or the battle shifts and the spot the adventures are in becomes right in the middle of a conflict between 2 forces. Remember how the discards have a certain amount of time before becoming useless? Meaning the best lootings are from fresh battle fields, scouts might have to keep carefully watch for returning forces.  Escape could be through tunnels winding through the cube, allowing for a 3 dimensional (well more so than usual) dungeon crawl.
Also looting junkyards, especially a dungeonesque pile of old fused war machines, the gaps and spaces forming rooms and passage ways. Or having something like a battleship sticking straight up out of the ground like a tower, and the exploration would be vertical both below and above.


Carcerian Choir Slugs
I was thinking up something for carceri before I realized Demondands are hanging out there. But hey , here's choir slugs, foul congealed masses of evil squeezing themselves through the shells of the inclosed spheres that make up carceri.
They find partitioners of a particular brand and strength of evil and assimilate them , growing a new head and gaining power. They can only get a new head if the new soul is more evil than the last. 5 heads seems to be the natural, but not theoretical limit.
In the rare event they leave carceri they will attempt to corrupt or foster evil of the type they need to grow. Before they get their first head they are the size of a dog, and each additional head makes them double in size
Their are 3 types of Choir slugs:
Marauders feed off bullys, thugs, vandals, and then despoilers and warlords. Their slug like mass is composed of thick congealed blood, sweat and black mud. They can sing blasphemous words causing confusion, fear and enraging. Their heads flail and tear at flesh with their teeth and are venomous, the venom either causing weakness, or blind rage.
Like all choir slugs they can envelop and suffocate as well.
Torturers bodys are formed from tears , semen and pus and their heads chosen from the cruel; spousal abusers, animal molesters, torturers and sadists. They can gibber unclean words causing wounds to re-open, agonys to flower , and creation of visions of half forgotten terrors. They do not bite, but lick with razor rasp tongues, with the saliva lingering to either burn like acid, prevent healing, or cause horrible infections at a later date. They can also heal with these licks as well, to prolong the agonys of a victim.
Oppressor slug's sick mass is a festering clump of fat, oil and rotten half digested food. They source their heads from overbearing teachers, bosses, horrible kings and popes.
They attack not with direct physical attacks but by spitting up to 60 feet. The spit can burn, charm, blind, dominate or paralyse. 
They know words that cause fear, domination of the weak, and summoning.

Carceri

carceri seems to be lazy paste job of dante's inferno with some gods littering up the place.
It come across like a second rate baator or Abyss. The one thing it has going for it; is the name, and the greek titans stuff.
Evil giants in togas? I hear you yawn. That goya picture is awesome though. Okay lets make the titans more monstrous, like ones with a hundred arms or masses of snakes for legs or a neck that continually eats its head, and maybe carceri to be an all purpose dumping ground for conquered enemy monsters.
And make it really built into the landscape. Like huge angry half drowned faces the size of small mountains emerging from the muds of  Othrys. Mostly have these grotesques frozen and unmoving, but just when the party starts to think of them as set dressing, have , say, a giant face jutting from a cliff face they are traversing below, suddenly start screaming and screaming and screaming. Bonus points if you do this as the gm.  Basically have chunks of half dead and fully dead and dying or just plain nailed to something giants and monster everywhere. Big cages, and chains that would crush a city lying worryingly empty in the deserts of Minethys . Porphatys the mountainous volcanic one needs like cracks from which come angry, pleading voices, alternatively promising and threatening for release. The cracks however are very long and deep and the voices have travelled a way to the depths of the mountain were nightmares are trapped.
Low level adventures could be entirely inside giant bodys, maybe a whole dungeon of the empty veins, the party trying to find the heart to take a sample for some paying npc.
 Or trudging through the upper layers trying capturing the last of some abandoned species , that was relocated on mass to carceri because something needed its homeland. Basically a wilderness hex crawl with horrible monster parts the size of hills to mess with.
That swamp of depair with apathetic crazy but hella wise turtle from the never ending story should be found here as well. Holy balls was that some harsh horse murder for a kids movie. Speaking of which, I read animal farm as a kid, thinking it was kids book about some wacky animals running a farm. And then the second half happens and the pigs go corrupt and the draft horse / spirit of the Russian working class works himself to death and gets made into glue. The end. Ah well , built character I'm sure.

Okay that's the post. Will try and get the rest of the thunks I thunk up here soon.
Finally here's some early sketchs of the archons and a page of catalogue from the exhibition:

Ditto and what is up with the princess in castle town

Print PDF Yeah I got's  a umberhulk nearly done , and another flail snail dice bag nearly done, and am getting a tad busy for Goo fest in weekend, which is a Dunedin DIY arts/music/whatevs festival, and is mostly unrelated to other meanings of goo fest I have found on the net.
I'm running a couple of workshops at it. One one knot tying, the other on punching people in the throat with a tube of mascara and running away self defense.
Also showing some of the creatures I been making, playing some music and properly some other stuff I have forgotten. Oh yep making more patches for goo fest and some for me to sell at the art market that's also part of it. ANd there's an exhibition at the house/gallery
Oh and I got a tooth removed! It was awesome! I recommend it to everyone! The local anesthetic did not even hurt much, and the dentist had to really rip that fucker out, I could feel it grinding against the jaw bone and stuff, and he was straining and twisting away. Next time I want a mirror on the ceiling so I can see what's going on!
Here's the posters. I drew them and other people did the text bits

The first game of flux engine got played, Jez Gordon played, John White played (of mestar) and Christine , a german tourist staying at the house, who had never played before and was vague on what the hell roleplaying actually was. Chrissy picked it up like a champion though, and I was impressed to see as a rogue in her first game she was already hording stuff she found and not telling other party members what she found. Excellent!
It was hella interesting seeing what the homebrew system played like; actually it did not matter much because I found myself only loosely using it, and more just making up shit on the fly.
It's funny have spend a fair chuck of time thinking about how stuff is going to work, and finding in actually play that I just roll a d6 and 1-3 yes the elephant does not stay around to finish you off.
Also? Writing up a whole island to discover 2 random encounters , character generation and diving for treasure use up a hella lot of time.
Nearly had one player death due to a pygmy stilt elephant, an encounter I thought was going to be just a bit of colour. THe player I thought least likely to kill everything he saw promptly charged it and started wailing on it. Everyone preceded to roll rubbish, the elephant used the elephancidal player as shield inbetween stabbing him with tusks but Jez (playing a mutant Hunter s thompson based on a duran duran song) dragged his ass away and the elephant ran away.
Other thoughts, I can now see why Zak loves just roll under stat checks rather than vs d.c's. Well no wait I can see why I love it and can presume he has his own more sinister reasons  .
My reasons are : even if you have a good roll of thumb d.c list (d.c 5 is trivial, d.c 20 is bastard hard d.c10 is a passenger aircraft) it's annoying to think of the number, rather than just go, yeah roll stat check. I'm not even considering a detailed table of modifiers ala pathfinder.
And.. something with trying to keep track of what the increasing numbers of skills actually relate to in real world effect is kinda wonky.
MAy be there's a D&d with porn stars post that explains it.
Anyway I got 2 other variant home brew systems which I'm now keen to test out, The Blue rose enhanced for max fun overloaded system  , which uses roll under stat checks with an exploding d6 and has stat numbers a lot closer linked to the punching people numbers than Flux Engine which is has these kinda arbitrary set numbers to attack with, eg attacking someone with a sword is your brawl which for a starting rogue is 12 plus the dice roll, and blah blah I'll go into some other time when I convinced myself it's deeply fascinating. The   80s princess mayhem: Pretty fight down system has pretty much feng shui system with all the dumb filed off.
It's actually really insightful having 3 homebrew systems running side by side. Like grey hounds with master segrees in economics and spraycans for feet.

So other peeps are doing hey this art rules its what I like roleplay head feed with make merry time hallelujah hallelujah Johnny bottle of rum bottle of rum.
POST PADDING ! GO!

  okay lots was screen grabs look art there too