Planescape General

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>>52296354

Ah, okay according to the good end of the "Planes of Conflict" boxset the Player's Guide has full information on the sects.

I'd have to crack open my box and see. Packed up ATM since moving

>>52298872

Okay more digging, the "Player's Guid" mentioned is apparently part of the boxset, and there's a fold out or something because the PDF has apparently ordered the pages diagonally or something, but I'll list them off here in alphabetical order:

The Anarch's Guild (Chaos Masters, Groundsmen):
Focused on teaching Chaos-Shaping to Anarchs in Limbo, rarely seen outside Limbo because that skill isn't useful anywhere else.

Converts (Chameleons, Turncoats):
Basically former Faction members who've joined a faction, left, joined another, left, and so on, seeking "the truth" or whatever drives them from faction to faction. Show up most often as any sort of "group" on Limbo.

The Dispossessed (Exiles, Chippers):
Basically if you've been cast out into the planes by someone or something, and this gives you a chip on the shoulder, you might be a dispossesed, love to pick fights and often band together on Pandemonium and Carceri where there's a greater than usual concentration of such people.

The Guardians (The Caretakers, Protectors):
Basically neutral good paladin society, based mainly off of Elysium and emluating Guardinals society - smites evil, defends the defenceless etc...

Merkhants (misers, goldhounds):
Money is power, basically business types who want to be richer than anyone else, mainly focused on the outlands - curiously it cites Planescape Monstrous Compendium II for more details rather than say "Guide to the Outlands".

The Mathematicians (TOO NERDY TO HAVE NICKNAMES, NEEEEERDS):
Nerds obsessed with the gears of mechanus and math, So close to the guvners I don't get their purpose as a sect really.

The Order of the Planes-Militant (the Brethren, The Faithful):
Paladins of Law, love to seek out evil and smite it for smite's sake, especially in Mechanus and Acheron. Hang out a lot in Bytopia and Mount Celestia, bring ove a lot of land from the outlands into celestia to expand their bases.

1/2

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>>52299348
Politely waiting for this Anon to finish his 2/2 but it's been 20 min now...
I'll finish his list but abbreviated in case he does end up posting something.

Incantifiers:
You literally change into a different creature made of magic (But still human shapes), and eat magic to live. Also all your Sect mates are your enemies.

Opposers:
An elemental based Sect. You oppose all things for everything thing there is it's opposite.

Prolongers:
You wish to live forever and extend your life through any means necessary.

Brother Hood of Glory (Ragers):
There is a universal pecking order and everyone falls into somewhere. You can move up in rank in this order by GLORIOUS BATTLE.

Ring-Givers: (Givers, Owers, Bargainers) (Pic)
Everything about this Sect, and how often it pops up in the planescape materials really hints that this Sect is just shy of being a full blown guild. Whenever you give a favour, the universe enforces that person return that favour.

Primals:
Another elemental based group. Basically you are an evil cultist worshiping secret elemental things.

Verdant Guild (More commonly known as the "Wylders" to everyone.)
You get a cool animal mask as a sign of membership, very druid orientated group that works with the magics and creatures of the beastlands.

>>52299348
2/2

The Ragers (Brotherhood of Glory, Glory-Seekers):
Love to fight, greatest thing ever, proving oneself in combat etc... Hang out a lot in the Outlands, Limbo and Ysgard, but also love to wander the planes looking for a fight.

The Ring-Givers (Bargainers, Beggers):
Basically a negative image Fated, believe that wanting to own stuff lets the universe control you, so they give their stuff away to get back more in return and only possess stuff they need which they have been given as a gift or from begging. Which because Ysgard is a thing happens to work out on the planes surprisingly well, to the point where they're spreading from ysgard, through Limbo, and into Pandemonium and the Abyss (abyssal ring-givers believe the universe owes them big time for giving away their stuff) - basically agressive jainists with clubs and I get the impression they'd be a full faction if AD&D mechanics didn't make Asceticism kind of sub-optimal for game play purposes.

Finally, The Verdant Guild (Wylders):
Basically your Neutral Good Elven Druid/Ranger types, believe in protecting the wild from things that would destroy them, but not to the extent of being anti-civilisation, while a balance between nature and civilisation can be struck, don't fuck with nature or they'll shiv you. Wear animal masks as a badge of membership.

Of these Sects, Only the Merkhants, Ring-Bearers and maybe the Converts really justify being seperate from say the Planeswalker Guild or something like that - they're the ones with with any sort of central core philosophy, even if in the case of the converts that philosophy is as obtuse as "the truth is found in the next faction I want to join".
And sure, the others do have some sort of ethos, but they're ethos' that don't conflict that hard with some of the factions, or work better as communities on specific planes.

More specific information for these can be found in the various Planes of Law/Chaos boxsets, with the exception of the Merkhants.

>>52299745
>>52299737

Incantifiers, Opposers, Prolongers, Primals aren't mentioned on the foldout I'm looking at - two additional ones are mentioned offhandedly as deliberally not added: The Children of the Vine, and The Vile Hunt.

Vile Hunt don't get a mention because villainous group from a specific adventure found in "Guide to the Outlands".

Brotherhood of the Vine don't get mentioned because they are just drunks or something - dedicated NPC drinking sect.

>>52299745
Ah damn, sorry Anon!

More exotic Sects/factions

The Zactars:
A full blown revived Faction in Sigil PRE-faction way. Maybe the lady of pain puts up with the sixteenth Faction because there are so few members.
Anyway the Zactars are a long-forgotten Faction that teach that everything in the Multiverse was created for the benefit of an entity they call the One True Being. They believe this being will take the form of a half-fiendish female.

Mindeye (Seekers)
A full blown fully fleshed out additional faction that came about POST faction war. A mix of the Godsmen and Signers.

Communals
A destroyed faction which everyone believed everything should be shared.

Expansionists
A (sorta) destoryed faction which people belief might makes right, and the Strong should rule. Some really nuanced stuff to also make them not sounds as complete meat heads. Their leader is/was a pretty tricky guy...

Planarists
Racist Planar races. Sigil is for Planars, Material Planes are for Primes.

Vile Hunt (Known as "Hunters" to themselves)
Opposite of the Wylders, They hunt down and destroy abominations in order to keep nature at it's purest. This is down be destroy any Human/Animal creatures or any other funky mix of two animals (owlbears)

>>52299858
>Incantifiers, Opposers, Prolongers, Primals aren't mentioned on the foldout I'm looking at -
They are found under monster entries in the Monster manuals. They are not as fleshed out as the others and the Incantifiers are O.P.

>>52299869
>>52299348
Lastly more obscuria, these last two have no statistics behind them:

Non-Named group: "Dream Hunters"
A sect of Bast / Sharess priestesses, that hunt down Nightmares (which in planescape can be wandering entities, see Ethereal Planes), calm troubled minds, and delivery prophecies. Possibly going through some unmentioned turmoil since their goddess has been missing since 2ed.
(From that one adventure that with Signpost in it.)

Knights of Tacharim
Not mentioned as a Sect or faction, but they are a rather large and far reaching villainous group that caused trouble during the unscheduled Modorn Marche. Have their own HQ, and setups around Sigil. Best known for being jerks and grafting half-modorn half-people.

Amazing how much material from this setting inspires nearly 25 years after it came out. This and Mage at the same time made the mid 90's a pretty interesting time to be rpging.

>>52299869
>>52300063

One more: The Eschaton (Doom-Sayers), who were an apocalyptic faction that coincidentally sprung up just before the faction war declaring that the end was nigh, pretended to know the dark of what was going on during the faction war to the end of gaining a lot of followers and then proceeded to lose them all when it turned out they didn't, and also that everyone in sigil was probably going to suffocate to death at the end of the faction war when the lady had closed all the portals, so what was the point in a doomsday cult when the doom has already happened?

>>52299858
>Brotherhood of the Vine don't get mentioned because they are just drunks or something - dedicated NPC drinking sect.
Yeah is strange that this is listed under Sects as it's a sort of kind of Sub-group of the Sensates. It's basically where non-true Sensates are dropped off and the Faction can forget about them (Mentioned in the Factor's Handbook? I think)

Some Sub groups that are part of the normal 15 factions but like to differentiate themselves are the:

Mentioned above: Brotherhood of the Vine (Sensates)
Mentioned above: The Mathematicians (Guvners)
The Way of One (Signers)
The Will of One (Signers)
Rosebringers (Signers)
Sodkillers (Mercykillers)
Sons of Mercy (Mercykillers)
Speakers of Xaos (Xaositect)
Dissension of law (Xaositect)

Honorable runner up: The previously mentioned Prolongers. Because the Fated`s Factol is also a member of that group.

>Planar Trade Consortium
Forgot to mention this one earlier. They aren't described as a Faction or Sect, but they make an appearance in 1/3 of all planescape products. That's higher than some factions. No really difference from the Merkhants thou.

Thanks, anons. So, all of these are found in the various "Planes of" boxsets? There's nowhere you can specify looking for the Communals, Expansionists or Planarists? I found the Vile Hunt mentioned as part of the Verdant Guild in Planes of Conflict.

Anons? Simple query:

Planescape is often thought as the most gonzo D&D setting of them all, even moreso than Spelljammer, because Sigil's connection to infinite Prime worlds AND the expanses of the multiverse.

But... are there any character concepts that are too bizarre to work even in a Planescape game?

For example, would an aquatic-adapted Warforged from an art deco-styled aquatropolis (essentially a Bioshock Big Daddy as a PC) be out of place in Planescape?

>>52301308
Check this: http://www.rilmani.org/psIndex.txt

What I remember:

Expansionists were mentioned in the Well of Worlds adventure book and some later Dragon magazine articles.

Vile Hunt was expanded upon in the Something Wild adventure.

>>52302887
It wouldn't. I'd add some stuff to tie it in into existing PS material, but that's just me.

>>52304786
Yes on of the best sites for scaping.

Ctrl f for
[FAC] = Faction
[SCT] = Sect

And give [ORG] a quick breeze, it's a really mixed bag thou, some of the names are merely written on a map somewhere, while others have one or two pages describing them.
[ORG] = Organization/Society

If you stick to the factions and Sects, you'll be good there is MORE than enough material.

>Expansionists were mentioned in the Well of Worlds adventure book and some later Dragon magazine articles.
In 3rd yes, In the planescape products there is a whole adventure where you go into the lady's mazes looking for the Faction leader's super magical sword. Not to mention the countless times they are just off handily mentioned.

>>52302887
>>52304807
Thing about doing wacky stuff is it's not really supported by the rules, nor do most of the preexisting planes support doing "anything" you want.

That said the writers were MORE than willing to throw ANY crazy thing in Planescape. How about a world with no ground and floating geometric shapes or building sized circuit boards? All the inhabitants are linked to a cyberpunk hive mind?! Oh, and how about possess ray gun level technology!
That's in an official adventure.

While the outer planes are rather set, when Zeb Cook wanted to do something crazy he wiped up a new Prime Material, made whatever the fuck he wanted, and went wild with it.

Most planescape direhards don't subscribe to this line of thinking because it's the Factions that really sold the setting to them.

>>52301308
>>52304786

Expansionists get additional mentions in the Sigil books - cager's guide, but also the Faction War book (which has a really comprehensive run down of sigil in it and also is the only book with The Eschaton and Mind's Eye in it). Their deal is that they believe that the secret to the universe is power, specifically getting people to follow them - they're expansionists in the sense that each one wishes to be a factol of a seperate faction dedicated entirely to themselves, basically demogogues for the sake of demogoguery.

Communals are I think mentioned only offhandedly in the core planescape setting book - basically exist as a "no communism, pls" thing.

There was also another pre-great upheaval faction that beleived that magic was the key to understanding the unvierse, but they and the wizard tower they had in Sigil mysteriously vanished (chant is they were mazed) before the great upheaval, taking the faction with them. (cannot remember which book they're mentioned in, or their name, might have been arcanists or something like that though)