Has anyone done a Planescape hack for PbtA?

Has anyone done a Planescape hack for PbtA?

Has anyone done a Planescape hack for PbtA? A non-Dungeon-World one (I love DW but am not really wanting to use it for this).

I’m kinda itching to run a game that focuses on the factions in Sigil, so I imagine politics and intrigue as well as “what is the greater truth of all things”/power of belief being at the center of gameplay.

I’d love to just make one… except, I suspect I may not have a solid amount of time to do it well right now.

27 thoughts on “Has anyone done a Planescape hack for PbtA?”

  3. Megan Bennett-Burks well, Urban Shadows has the strongest faction game. maybe you could work from there? the classes probably work fairly well even, except maybe the mortal ones

  4. Michael Sands Oh, definitely something based on Urban Shadows would be pretty cool, for this. If I do make a hack of it myself, I may use that as the basis… but, def would be nice to see PS specific playbooks. Maybe someone whose done this already will come out of the woodwork…

  7. I’ve also thought before that Kill Six Billion Demons feels a lot like the kind of gonzo fantasy that Planescape oozes. Maybe tone down some of the descriptions to feel less wuxia, and I think it’s a good fit.

  16. Thanks for all the suggestions! I don’t know why I didn’t think of Blades in the Dark, seems like a pretty solid suggestion.

    Rob Donoghue, I’ll take a look at those playbooks, thanks.

  17. Look at Uncharted Worlds by Sean Gomez – it’s got a flexible character building system, a fine system for handling factions, creating assets and building a base of operations. It is a sci fi themed game, but it is flexible enough to run as a fantasy game. I think high fantasy with weird content like Planescape can benefit from a sci fi framework

  18. I’ve decided to go with Blades in the Dark, but make Playbooks on the 2e archetypes, such as Berk Without a Past, Planar Trader, Refugee from the Darkness, etc…

    Race/heritage will be more crunchy, since my group and I like that; they will have abilities that can be added to the playbooks as additional options. There will be a few other changes too, such as faith instead of (or in addition to, not sure) special armor.

    Beyond that I have a bunch of playbooks to write, and the races, I think I can largely keep Blades as is though.

    I may call my campaign Blades of Sigil.

  21. The catch: I don’t really know the rules for Blades well yet, but I like to play with them to get a feel. I’m working on the first playbook. It could not actually work right quite mechanically… I’ll find out and fix it. But, I think I am starting to get a general direction that may work.

    Here’s a concept and some sample abilities

    Berk without a Past

    You’ve led so many lives… and ran from them all. Or, were they stolen from you? In any case, they are forgotten, may as well be other incarnations now dead. You drank from the river Lethe, or maybe made a deal with some powerful being, but now you are really free of that past… or are you? Sometimes you remember things, as if memories from another person, and sometimes people recognize you, even if they aren’t sure from where or why.

    You’ve started a new life in Sigil, but, in many ways your identity is muddled, and you are uncertain of things. Still, in this place perhaps you can build a new life and your mysterious and arcane existence can be of advantage.

    Action Dots: +1 Attune, +1 Study, +1 Sway

    Grasping the Forgotten: You can spend Faith to Push Yourself while gathering information, and declare that the information you have gathered ties into your mysterious past in some way. This is permission to know something about the thing you are gathering information on, which you couldn’t possibly know any other way.

    (might tie this into working with the flashback system somehow, but not sure how).

    The Mind is a Deep Well:

    You have a constant +1 vs invasions of your mind that involve reading your thought or intent whether magically or psionically. You can also spend Faith to completely obscure your mind so much that invasion of it is nigh worthless, and you gain the benefits of having Pushed Yourself when it comes to keeping people from understanding your present emotional state, and intent. Mind readers when you are so closed off merely get a murky torrent of confused and uncertain past identities swarming in your mind.

  22. Races:

    Doing them so they grant an alternative set of Action Dots that can be taken instead of the Archetype/Playbook’s. Also working on abilities for them.

    But, here’s an example of some races with what amount’s to their action mods.

    Aasimar Action Dots: +1 to Consort, +1 to Survey, +1 Attune.

    Tiefling Action Dots: +1 Prowl, +1 Sway, +1 Finesse

    Rogue Modron Action Dots: +1 Tinker, +1 Study, +1 Attune

    and so on

  23. A few aasimar ability options possibly….

    Babel: you can spend Faith to tap into your ancestral ties to the greater truth and understanding of things. When you do, choose one language; for the remainder of the scene you are fluent in it. This language can be one you have heard of or something like “the language this book is written in”, or “the language that person over there is speaking”.

    Celestial light: when you Push Yourself and the Effect is great you may do one of the following: cause a quick flash of light which fills the area, as if a burst of sunlight. Radiate a soft light, as if a torch was lit; it lasts for the scene.

    Not quite sure if I want to stick with Faith for all these things… it’s feeling almost like I need something like Blood, Faith, and Special Armor. But, then I have 3 things, which cool, because rule of 3, but ick because it’s even more resources to track, and not sure how fun that will be.

    *I know scenes aren’t really mentioned in Blades, or at least don’t seem to be, but are a useful enough measure of time for what I want to do.

  24. It helps to know the rules you are modifying. I recommend playing with an experienced Blades GM before hacking.

    That being said, you can’t mark Special Armor until you have an ability that let’s you. And all examples of abilities that do this offer a couple, very flexible ways to use it. Some active, and some reactionary.

    Imho Faith could easily replace Warded: you can expend your special armor to resist supernatural consequences, or to push yourself to employ or contend with supernatural forces. This would cover what you describe as well as broaden it to other uses that expand what Faith means.

  25. Mark Cleveland Massengale

    Thank you for the tips on handling faith.

    As nice as it would be, the chances of me being able to have someone run the game for me are close to nil. I generally have to be the one to learn the rules (which I’ll have a good while to do in this case before I might run it anyhow) and then run a given game for a group, occasional lucky exceptions aside. So far that has worked out fine… granted, it’s fun to be able to play systems before GMing them, and does make learning them easier, but often not realistic, unfortunately.

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