Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Mythic + Planescape - Session 0

I've always loved Planescape, but the entire setting has been in limbo since TSR discontinued the line. WotC used some of its aspects but threw away the most. Whoever wants to play in Sigil now needs to scout multiple sourcebooks, unofficial conversions, and blog posts. It's far from being comfortable.

Besides, I always thought that D&D isn't a particularly great system for PS, which is ironic because of some of the most iconic elements of the setting result from dealing with AD&D alignments. It's great when you want to delve into a dungeon, disarm some traps, beat up a dragon, and take its treasures. When it comes to stuff such as social interactions, it needs a lot of tweaking to not feel restrictive.

Recently, I got Mythic on a sale and really wanted to test it. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to return to Sigil once again. I'm going to recycle some characters from my old forum sessions. Gorrister was a concept I wish I could explore more, but the game died out quickly. Now he'll get a second chance!

I'll be using a lot of planar cant, which may be impenetrable for those who don't know the setting. But don't worry: there's a handy glossary here.

Our character

Gorrister Peldvale's my name. Well, one of my many names. See, the Cage is a pretty tolerant place, but some berks consider doppelgangers untrustworthy. Wouldn't want to make my customers peery, right? So I invented a more trustworthy persona for myself, which works fine for those who don't have true seeing. Some fiends and celestials see me for what I am, but the latter tend not to use my services, and the former don't mind.

What do I do? Most doppelgangers try to find a group of people, put some important sod in a dead-book, pose as them and live a life of luxury. Well, for some time. Then someone inevitably finds out and puts them in the dead-book. Some manage to give their pursuers a laugh, only to end up destitute and looking for another cony. This doppelganger thinks it's stupid.

Instead, I work. I have a tiny office in the Guildhall Ward, not so far from the Great Gymnasium. I employ many agents, who coincidentally are also me, so I don't need to pay them. They join factions and guilds, perk up their ears, listen to the chant. Then I sell it for cold, hard jink. Am I not a hard-working, respectable citizen?

Of course, every respectable citizen needs to belong to a faction. As I wanted to break with my old life, I decided to join the Doomguards. Yeah, they are a barmy bunch, especially since Pentar took over... but it beats getting depressed every second day and handing out soup somewhere in the Hive as a Bleaker. When it comes to finding weak points, whether in people or organizations, only the Anarchists are better than them. Thanks to their lessons, I can even touch something broken and learn what happened to it, which sometimes gets useful.

Despite being a hopeless fighter, I adjusted well to a bunch of shiv-toting maniacs. They tend to hire me a lot. Sometimes they want to know what the Hardheads are doing, sometimes they want to give some group a push and need some scrape. This doesn't mean I trust them enough to spill my little secret. How could I bill them for my agents' work if they knew there were never any agents?


**

Gorrister Peldvale

Attributes

Strength: Average
Agility: Average
Reflex: Average
IQ: High
Intuition: Exceptional
Willpower: Above Average
Toughness: Above Average

Abilities

Disguise: Incredible
Dagger: Weak
Doomguards Rank: Average
Hiding and Sneaking: Weak
Planar Knowledge: Average
Social Skills: Above Average

Strengths and Weaknesses

Turns stag (weakness): Everyone knows him as a professional cheat (-1 RS to convince anyone to trust him as Gorrister)
Doppelganger (weakness): Disguise straight out fails if viewed by a being with true seeing.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Bartender (Mythic + Planescape - Session 3)

It's been some time since I updated it! During the last session, Gorrister discovered that Forken Tallan, the criminal he's looking ...