Two Questions for Experienced Planescape Players

dockaboomski

YO
I'm excited and not offline.
Two questions, especially for those who have already played the game (so, spoilers!):
1. Has anyone played or run a P&P Planescape campaign? I'm wrapping up DMing my second now.
2. What game, if any has come close or even surpassed PsT in quality generally, but narrative quality specifically? Do the other Infinity Engine games live up to it, or pale in comparison?

To answer the second question without much text, I'd say Silent Hill 2&4 hit near-Planescape quality in story and atmosphere, as well as Off (if you're unfamiliar with it, Off is the French surrealist game that, among other things, inspired Undertale) in terms of narrative.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

dockaboomski

@typo_tilly There's so many cool things spread out over it. The outlandishness of some of the settings, especially the elemental planes, make the setting really shine. It's fascinating. One thing the campaign supplements talk about a lot is the huge emphasis on scale. You're planning out a game with 20+ infinite areas to use, so it's cool to figure out how to utilize them nicely. It's also fun to keep in mind the uniqueness of the setting, and try to make character decisions feel really important. The rulebooks really try and point out how much ideas and ideology affect the planes in a literal sense; it places a significant value on roleplaying. I don't think I do it justice, honestly.

I really need to get Grim Fandango soon.

Xeroshi

I've never done a full planescape campaign​ but I have sent my players to sigil every once in a while.

In narrative quality I (from my experience) would have to say really only Silent Hill 2

Aquadrizzt

This might seem like some odd choices but I think that, in terms of story quality, Life is Strange and Bioshock: Burial At Sea both reached Planescape: Torment levels of storytelling at their peaks.

The former because of its excellent "your choices matter" way and the latter in the "this is how you tie an entire franchise together" ending.

I've played only a bit of Numenera

and I've heard the ending is underwhelming

but I thus far have been very impressed with the writing and storytelling. Then again, the point that it has writing on par with PS:T's is intentional, but still a great game.

Kamigoroshi

The Longest Journey and its two sequels shares more than just a handful of themes with the Planescape setting. One could say there are many similarities between a Planewalker and a Dreamer after all. Since both travel between different planes of existence. Even its narrative and graphics comes pretty darn close to Planescape: Torment as seen in the trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTt6Tu-4KDk

dockaboomski

@Xeroshi 4 gets such a bad rep, lol
@Aquadrizzt I just finished Numenara! I think one of the issues is that they held back from being as weird as Planescape to make the game more accessible, honestly, particularly with companions. I don't think any of the companions compare to Morte or Ignus or Vhailor in uniqueness. Definitely by the end of the game you can see some faults.
Life is Strange is great! I think it kind of fell off by the ending as well, but I still really enjoyed playing it.
@Kamigoroshi I'm digging the '90s animation aesthetics, I'll check it out.

teenparty

Mask of the Betrayer, KOTOR2 and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines have a lot of thematic similarities to Torment.

Ammar

teenparty said:

Mask of the Betrayer, KOTOR2 and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines have a lot of thematic similarities to Torment.

Excellent answer, though I feel Bloodlines is the odd man out here.

Maybe also Morrowind if you dig into the lore. Also Serpent Isle.

karl_maulder

If we limit ourselves to RPGs exclusively, i think Bloodlines and Fallout is as good as any RPG can get. However, if we include all genres, then Deus Ex, and Beyond good and evil, are terrific fun games. I also find some Final Fantasy games to be really great, if JRPGs is your cup of tea that is.

rede9

2) Someone says Lost Odyssey but I've to verify it by myself.
I like also Vampire the masquerade redemption because the italian dubbing is good (Vampire Bloodlines is unplayable because the italian translation works only with a vanilla).

@Kamigoroshi I never thought about comparing PsT e TLJ. Impressive.