MordeanGrey

Music goes a long way in setting the mood for fantasy games. Here is a list of some of my favorites. Last of the Mohicans Conan X-MEN (dark) 13th Warrior Gladiator Bram Stoker's Dracula (dark) Sleepy Hollow (dark) Dark means that the music is particularly suited for a gothic/horror themed adventure. Excellent stuff for the party's exploration of a haunted castle, etc. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but I recommend and use all of the above titles.

Here are a couple of suggestions. No matter what plot you use, it would be good to make up a quick reference handout for each player on basic stuff like an OCV vs. DCV table to see what they need to hit, a list of basic combat maneuvers, a range chart, etc. All of those things are very beneficial to new players so they don't have to get lost in the rulebook or trying to interpret their character sheets. If you plan on having a spell caster be sure to have a sheet with his basic spell descriptions and what he needs to roll, etc. HTH Mordean

In the second game setting, two of the players were members of the Mercykillers. One of them held an officer type position in an elite, special unit of the Mercykillers that dealt with a long running conflict with some of the prominent Dustmen NPCs. The party was initially tasked with recovering an item from a body the Dustmen had collected and stored at the Mortuary, their faction headquarters. Without getting into too much detail, the party found a way to sneak in to the Mortuary through underground tunnels to retrieve the item. When they finally located the item, they arrived just in time to see a rival wizard steal the item they wanted and teleport away. Through the following attempts to retrieve the item the characters were required to return to the hidden areas of the Mortuary two more times. The party became familiar with several Dustmen NPCs (all various types of independent undead--vampires, liches, etc.) who became major bad guys, and the level of conflict escalated with each encounter. This eventually ended in a major battle with the greater undead NPCs deep inside the Dustmen headquarters where the party barely escaped with a key necessary to open a gate to the rival wizard's pocket dimension. This was interesting from the Faction angle because the party leader was the officer from the Mercykillers and was recognized by some of the Dustment NPCs. (I also played up the aspect that most people in Sigil don't know that the Dustmen leaders are all greater undead. The first encounters were with the creepy human Dustmen with their eyes and mouths sewn shut. The undead came later.)

Advice? Hhmmm... I found out that the biggest problem with running a game in the Planescape setting is having TOO much to work with. The planes are a mighty big place, and I really had to concentrate on a small area to develope. I modified things quite a bit, but kept the overall feel for Sigil. The first group that used Sigil didn't have much to do with the various factions since they were working for an indepedent charcter. The second group was almost completely involved in a rivalry between the Mercykillers and the Dustmen. As far as background information, I used some of the TSR publications including the main boxed set for Planescape, the guide to Sigil, the Blood War expansion, and the personality NPC book for Sigil. I also read most of the Planescape books that were available. The quality of the books vary greatly by author, but I was mainly interested in getting the feel for the Planescape world. It is a big undertaking. I highly recommend highlighting the most important areas you want to have in your story, and then detailing them first. There are also some Web sites with Planescape information on them that are helpful. Try this one: http://mimir.net/main.shtml This site hasn't been updated for a long time, but it contains massive amounts of information. I found the players guide to the Cant (the language in Sigil) to be particularly helpful for getting the correct feel. I printed out copies of it for the players. Good luck and let me know if you have other questions.

I've had two successful FH games based on the Planescape setting. The first involved a group of "primes" who ended up in Sigil by accident. This worked very well for the players who knew nothing about Sigil. Everything was new to them. Sigil was their base as they worked with a wizard who hired them and sent them on missions. Eventually, they became a key element in foiling a plot to take over Sigil by a different "Power" in conflict with the Lady of Pain. This game lasted for nearly two years, playing 3-4 times per month. The characters started with 150 pts. and many finished with over 300 pts. The second game had many of the original players and several new members who built "planar" characters that started in Sigil. I allowed this because the players now had knowledge of how things worked in Sigil, and they wanted to try a wide open range of character races. The characters spent most of the time in this game involved with local adventures as they became involved in a hidden "guerilla" war between two of the Factions, some ultra powerful wizards, and other random participants. This game also lasted over a year. Has anyone else used Sigil as a setting for FH?