I'm getting ready to run a BESM Planescape game and I was wondering if anyone, in the course of their Planescape gaming, had messed around with the technology levels in the setting. Surely somewhere on the Prime Material there must be some guys with guns, right? And surely they'd have them in Sigil, right? If there's any fantasy setting I enjoy that cries out for the steampunk touch, it's Planescape, I'd say. Anyone try this? Did it screw game balance?
Originally posted by Daniel Coffin I'm getting ready to run a BESM Planescape game and I was wondering if anyone, in the course of their Planescape gaming, had messed around with the technology levels in the setting. Surely somewhere on the Prime Material there must be some guys with guns, right? And surely they'd have them in Sigil, right? If there's any fantasy setting I enjoy that cries out for the steampunk touch, it's Planescape, I'd say. Anyone try this? Did it screw game balance?
One of the original Planescape rulebooks (Sigil and Beyond) had the following bit of advice:
"Sure, this is a weird place, but it ain't science-fiction. Don't stick in stuff that isn't medieval in flavor. It's pretty obvious that space-ports wouldn't belong, but a DM's got to resist the urge for things like blasters as neat weapons, magical devices that feel a lot like computer networks, intra-city teleportation chambers, and crystal ball phone systems."
That advice is pretty much worthless in my opinion. I can grasp that the designers have their own particular take on the setting, but if they honestly believe that Sigil is, at all, "medieval in flavor", they need several remedial courses in history.
So, yeah, I've ended up tinkering with the tech levels in my Planescape games, and have added quite a bit of steampunk-esque elements.
It's been a long time since I've actually ran anything in the setting, but I never found that the addition of some magic-as-technology elements, some early firearms, or even steam technology itself did anything to affect game balance. But, bear in mind that I'm not a person that thinks too much about the concept of "game balance" in the first place, so YMMV.
And I highly recommend checking out China Mieville's Perdido Street Station novel. Not only is it a wonderful book, but it would be a great place for inspiration for the changes that you're looking to make to Planescape.
Originally posted by Daniel Coffin I'm getting ready to run a BESM Planescape game and I was wondering if anyone, in the course of their Planescape gaming, had messed around with the technology levels in the setting. Surely somewhere on the Prime Material there must be some guys with guns, right? And surely they'd have them in Sigil, right? If there's any fantasy setting I enjoy that cries out for the steampunk touch, it's Planescape, I'd say. Anyone try this? Did it screw game balance?
Daniel
Really if you are using BESM guns are just another item of power that do a certain amount of damage and then cannot be used until they are rempowered..
Before the game fell through (sigh) we were on our way to running steampunk Planescape.
Basically, due to a number of campaign factors (including manipulation from the DM, who wanted to run steampunk 8-]), the Xaosisects were broken down as a faction, and a group of technical-types were elected by the other factions to replace them. That particular session was quite fun (one of the other players had recently been elected to Factol of the Free League (don't ask), and had to go to the Factols' meeting, where the rest of us spent the entire session playing 30th-level Factol monstrosities), although we didn't get that far.
The techno-league were going to move into some of Sigil's abandoned buildings and the like, installing factories and providing local employment for the hive. We never got beyond the interesting factories, NPCs with primitive firearms, and the prospect of Tinker Gnome-style spelljamming later on in the campaign, but the whole concept sounded fun, although I would have liked to play more vanilla Planescape first.
Anyway, YMMV.
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David Mowatt
El Presidente & General Dogsbody
Liverpool University Role-Playing Society ducklingsmith@yahoo.co.uk
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Planescape's Victorian feel definitely lends itself well to steampunkish technology, especially looking at Mechanus. Though I'd retch if I was playing in a campaign where the DM brought in real-world 20th century tech, or non-steampunk sci-fi gadgets.
black powder weaponry fits in fine with Planescape. I think there may even be a few pictures of characters with blunderbusses and such in Planescape . I'm not 100% on that.
I did have a dwarven airship captain with a hand-cannon in my Planescape campaign three years ago.
We tried it!
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