Help yourself to my Planescape
Character Generator
for MS-DOS.
For every war, a motive of safety or revenge,
of honor or zeal, of right or convenience, may be
readily found in the jurisprudence of conquerors.
Justice is incidental to law and order.
In some liturgies, worshippers renounce, or reaffirm their renunciation of,
"the glamour of evil." On Acheron, the glamour of evil includes
team membership, militarism,
identity-group anger, and the dark sides of "stability"
and "security".
In our own world, some people think this is what they really want.
Acheron is a group of harsh universes
where giant blocks drift together and apart. Since this is a lawful
plane, it seems unlikely that there are unexpected collisions.
These might happen on Carceri instead; maybe there is a gate
from Acheron to Carceri through which Mercykillers send their prisoners.
According to the published material, most of the blocks are tunnelled with
wormholes, where the inhabitants may live in safety, eating
nasty fungi. Again, since this is a realm of law,
it seems more likely that the blocks contain self-sustaining
communities. Some may be sustained by high technology, while
others contain unfamiliar but fully-evolved ecosystems.
Science-fiction readers may be reminded of communities
surviving for generations on gigantic
spaceships. Life in such communities is harsh and likely to
depend on strict obedience.
The sky is filled with other blocks, which
move rapidly. Between all is an atmosphere, yet though the
blocks move relative to one another, there is never any wind.
In Acheron, the living mingle with the spirits
of the dead who fought willingly in bad wars, or for
whom war became an end in itself.
The locals -- living and dead --
have forgotten whatever good causes led them to fight, and now
battle just from habit, or for glory, or out of old animosities.
Indeed, in the myth that begins the "Fiendish Codex II", on lawful evil,
evil itself has its beginning in the fact that war is always a dirty business,
and its cruelty, destruction and deceit "necessary evils".
The locals will often know about episodes in which the player characters
have organized against creatures for selfish reasons, and they'll say that
this means the adventurers are really aligned like Acheron's people.
Acheron is also
the spiritual home of those who
controlled the law to keep the common folk oppressed.
This aspect awaits development.
Anger, hate, and jealousy are widespread, but the strongest
emotions are probably team spirit and the passions that bind
warriors together. There is a certain nobility here. But
don't
expect love, kindness, or warmth from the locals. Contrary to
rumor, armies of undead, golems, and so forth are rare.
The spiritual powers
of Acheron seek to corrupt souls by making obedience to "the cause" or
"the community" (or even "the true faith") an end in itself.
This takes precedence over love, kindness, or humility. A key is
"conformity". I was a kid during
the 1950's, and I remember vividly how cruel and stupid this often was.
In place of love, there is grudging respect for
superior warriors, and an acceptance of harsh discipline. And the locals
will tell the truth, respect tradition, and expect others to do the same.
Because this is a lawful plane, there may be some very large civilizations.
The most popular motto is "Winning is
everything." Another is, "Don't think, just obey." Primitives
will find perpetual, savage warfare. Paths are teleportals from
block to block. Public portals between the layers and to remote
planes are at the centers of military installations.
For the locals, even the ordinary loves of our world -- family, friendship,
and romance -- are muted.
Perhaps evil deeds, or any use of death magic or
necromancer's spells will tend to transform the character
progressively.
Even if you do not profess good alignment, please respect
TSR's copyrights. To fight
good laws that make the world
safe for creativity is to fight for a bad cause.
Avalas
is the battleplains universe, where armies from all eras and all
planes dominate societies that are always at war. The blocks are hard metal.
The orcs
and the goblins fight eternally on one of these blocks. The
urbane rakshasas control much territory on other blocks, where
the laws are tedious. The "Mercykillers" philosophic sect, which
believes in the enforcement of absolute justice without regard to
collateral damage, has its
headquarters here. ("You broke the law, now you're gonna pay.")
Their home city is Vorkeham ("the City of Fumes"), made of
titanium with acid fountains. Check vs. constitution each day
or remain in bed with the dry heaves. Mercykillers are immune.
The Blue Cube is the home of a blue dragon who forgets everything
each morning. Land here, and you will die of the electric shock.
Avalas is the spiritual home of the most dedicated
race-supremacists, and all who wilfully forgot their good causes in
the excitement of battle. The Army of Purity has its
headquarters here. This is a common location for the
headquarters of sects devoted to vengeance and war. The most lawful
orcs and
goblins have their heavens here. Resounding Thunder is a
Chinese-style warlord's domain, a haven for vengeance-seekers.
Ruby-red pools appear at designated sites, and cannot be moved.
Portals to the Outlands, Mechanus or Baator are often the rims of the gravity
wells that the blocks orbit. The unholy River Styx has a source
here, on the block called Wreychtmirk, and every visitor sees it
differently. The cube's six sides each contain a gate to a
different lower plane, and its life forms mirror the destination.
The only town on Wreychtmirk is Mesk, in a rusting valley. The
thousand-or-so inhabitants fish the Styx for metal-scaled fishes.
All crimes are punished by death, and the mayor's decisions are
final. Thuldanin is the universal junkyard of battle, where
all the garbage of war finds its way and turns to stone. Each
block is hollow, a shell a few miles thick. Inside is junk.
There is a small chance (one in a thousand per day) of finding a
useful item, and it may be repaired using "stone to flesh"
followed by "restoration". Hideously powerful monsters abound
here, and will attack visitors on sight. Check vs. constitution
daily or turn to stone, and there is also a 1% chance per day for
each carried item to turn to useless stone. Rumor has it that
the spirits of dead warmongers
are transformed into stones, too, yet
remain conscious and aware of their helplessness. The mines of
Marsellin are the richest source of treasure, and they are
guarded by a huge rust dragon who has joined the Mercykillers.
The gray dwarves ("duergar") have a heaven here, the realm of
Hammergrim, and are immune to petrification. Tintibulus is a
universe of basalt hexagons, with no life except visiting
magic-users. This is an excellent place to do magical research.
One gains a point of intelligence daily, and loses a point from
every other ability, the usual penalty resulting when any drops to zero. On
leaving, intelligence drops immediately to the original level,
and the other points are regained by rest at the rate of one
point in one ability every day. Ocanthus is a universe of
flying razors (damage 8d8/round if unprotected). Here is
Zoronor, the City of Shadows, where the Bladelings live. It is
surrounded by a spherical wooden shell, filled with shards. The
Bladelings impale people on shards of black ice, trying to create
more of their kind. Perhaps "clockwork horrors" were designed
on Acheron, although they are not outsiders.
Spell alterations in
Acheron: For every spell, an opposite effect
flies off in the form of a crystal. Except for deaths, the
effects can be reversed by the touch of this crystal. The
crystal lasts one hour per level of the spell, then discharges.
Conjured and summoned creatures must obey the letter of any
command, but cannot disobey, and a hostage person must be
provided in exchange to trade places. The hostage is entitled to
a saving throw to avoid the effect, and if this succeeds, the
caster must save or become the hostage. If both save, the spell
fails. Divination cannot spy on an enemy army. A bad omen, if
obtained, will extend the bad luck to the questioner's entire
group or army. Spell keys might be able to avoid this.
Necromancy used against a stronger target
rebounds, and drains two points per spell level from the caster.
A spell key might prevent this.
Wild mages lose two levels, and no surge is possible. Earth
magic cannot affect the iron bricks, fire heats them, and water
rusts them.
Wizardly spell keys are
rigidly-defined but otherwise
meaningless words, motions, and substances. Power keys for
clergy are rare.
Third edition "Manual of the Planes" focuses primarily on simplifying
and encouraging individual campaign creativity. Ideas include:
I respectfully suggest that Acheron be regarded as evil-tending
and thoroughly lawful. These effects are additive
The Fourth Edition, the classic Acheron survives as Chernoggar,
the iron fortress world of ongoing war. Those who enter the red-orange
veil find a barren, war-torn wasteland. Bane, patron of cruel war and now of
goblinkind,
maintains "rigorous order". Their enemies, the cruel, destructive, and organized orcish
pantheon dwell here as well.
Perhaps visitors would get bonuses or penalties
to intelligence, wisdom, and charisma-based skill checks
depending on how much their behavior has been in keeping with the ideals
of the locals.
In keeping with the flexibility of the third and fourth editions and the
backgrounds of many players, perhaps Acheron is essentially a world
where like-minded spirits meet. It looks and works like our own world,
except that it is on a permanent war footing with identity-group politics
even nastier than in our world.
NPC attitudes are typically "unfriendly" unless the visitors are likely
recruits or allies.
If there is a spiritual race native to Acheron, it is devoted to promoting the community's
ideals
among the living by encouragement and subtlety, rather than by force.
The dead find communities matching their own ideals and interests,
and continue to live much as they did on earth, though no longer able to visit the
Prime Plane. Instead of the "gods" of polytheism, each living lawful, evil-tending divine spellcaster is
sponsored (and monitored)
by a prayer fellowship with similar interests based on Acheron.
For the fourth edition, I suggest no penalties for divine spellcasters from elsewhere. For earlier editions, I respectfully suggest that the only penalty for such a cleric
on a differently-aligned outer plane is the loss of one spell
of the highest available level for each plane removed, with the Outlands two planes from Mechanus, Elysium, Limbo, and the Gray Waste. When one level
is depleted, spells of the next highest level are lost. Thus a cleric
sponsored from Acheron would lose one spell on Mechanus or Baator,
six spells on the Beastlands or Ysgard, and seven spells on Arborea. Moving to the Outlands loses three spells.
A world of eternal, efficient, disciplined warfare would be as
dangerous and grim
as any rules-intensive world ever visited by adventurers.
Referees might not want players to realize that they have
entered Acheron. Depending on the site of arrival,
visitors might simply recognize a harsh police state, a
grim military camp, or a theocracy that sees "hating all infidels"
as an essential of spirituality.
Look for entries to Acheron:
On Acheron, expect to find more of the same. Escape may be difficult.
Perhaps good sportsmanship -- in victory or defeat -- is the gate key.
While on Acheron, you can talk with the locals, and with
other members of your group, about any of the following:
In 1975, I talked with a fellow medical student. He told me
about how important his religion was in his life.
"The hardest thing about being a _____", he told me, "is keeping
track of the ritual law. There are many things you cannot do at all,
and other things you cannot do at certain times."
I said, "The hardest thing about being a _____ is loving your
enemies and returning good for evil."
He answered, "That is something that no _____ could ever say. From
the time we are very little, we are told exactly who our enemies are,
and that we must always hate them, and that we must never forgive them."
I didn't have much else to say, but my own experience tells me
that the vast majority of _____s are
not like that. What's even stranger is that my colleague was a generally
decent guy. And of course I was (and still am) glad
to be who I am. It's surprising how often it is possible
to return good for evil, and have things work out well for everyone.
The
Mines of Acheron -- AD&D site
Ancient Sparta
was a society in which an austere race of full-time warriors dominated
the
free artisans (who had no voice in government)
and a much larger pool of slave labor.
For all this, the town was extremely lawful and well-behaved, and much admired;
the society endured for centuries.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, from
a PBS commentator who is not ashamed to state the obvious. For me as well,
the documents speak for themselves.
They prevent an all-too-familiar picture of a cult where concerns with "purity"
have replaced common sense and even ordinary love. It was even cooties
for a senior member to be touched by a junior member -- the senior member would
have to take a bath.
Unity of the Rings -- comic book art
Gamers for Christ --
news group
Does anyone know the source of this
nice metal-plates background?
In the AD&D universe, Acheron is the realm where Law is
predominant and there is a tendency to Evil. -- Edward Gibbon
He who lives must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world
where permanent struggle is the law of life has not the right to exist.
-- J. Edgar Hoover
-- Hitler
-1 on all charimsa checks for all good creatures
-1 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all non-lawful, non-chaotic creatures
-2 on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma checks for all chaotic creatures
Good-based spells (non-chaotic) require a Spellcraft check (DC 15) for success.
Evil-based spells (non-chaotic) work as if caster were 2 levels higher.
Law-based spells work as if caster were 4 levels higher.
Chaos-based spells simply fail.
How can you role-play a non-good cleric?
The
Plane of Hell --
full of abusive egomaniacs. "With a feeling of sick familiarity,
I recognized here my own thinking."
Near Death
Experiences -- including accounts of hell.
Hell's Dominion -- a near-death experience
Acheron -- Lawful, Evil Tendencies
Arborea -- Chaotic Good
Arcadia -- Lawful, Good Tendencies
Baator -- Lawful Evil
The Beastlands -- Good, Chaotic Tendencies
Bytopia -- Good, Lawful Tendencies
Carceri -- Evil, Chaotic Tendencies
Elysium -- Neutral Good
Gehenna -- Evil, Lawful Tendencies
The Gray Waste -- Neutral Evil
Limbo -- Chaotic Neutral
Mechanus -- Lawful Neutral
Mount Celestia -- Lawful Good
The Outlands -- True Neutral
Pandemonium -- Chaotic, Evil Tendencies
Ysgard -- Chaotic, Good Tendencies
The Inner Planes
What "Planescape" could be
AD&D and the Religious Right
Li Po's Hermitage (character generators, more)
Ed's character generators:
Less good
Less extreme
More good
Fourth Edition
Third edition: DD3.5, d20 Modern, Dragonlance, Eberron, Forgotten Realms, lots more.
AD&D2 Generic Character Generator for MS-DOS.
AD&D2 for very limited machines for MS-DOS.
Alternity Science Fiction Character Generator for MS-DOS.
Birthright Character Generator for MS-DOS.
Dark Sun 2 Character Generator and
documentation for MS-DOS.
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Planescape Character Generator for MS-DOS.
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Skills & Powers Character Generator for MS-DOS.
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