That random harlot table blew my mind (what? why? the percentages!). Looks like I missed some prime crazy stuff by starting with the 2nd edition.
LOL, I want to quote that image here, it’s so great.
I just rolled https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm and got a “Wanton wench”
ugh. I got Slovenly trull…
I got a roc.
Man, those books were like porn to me when I was 12, but then I discovered porn. It’s still awful tempting to get one just for nostalgia - aside from the artwork it looks like there’s not many new ideas in there.
That also looks a lot like some of the Judges Guild supplements of the day.
Woah, I rolled a 01!
A slovenly trull? What the heck is a trull? And a slovenly?
/Checks Merrian-Webster dictionary…
Ah, all right, that’s ok.
“And you encounter . . . ‘Pox-Ridden Hobo-Yanker.’”
“Hey, wait that’s not on the table!”
“The Hobo-Yanker looks at you, rolls her eyes, and walks away, leaving behind ‘Estrous Nanny-Goat in a Tutu.’”
Thanks for the essay, Ethan!
The art in this is really extraordinary. And I’m tempted to get a copy, but . . . cripes fricking doodle, I have half a shelf of D&D books I barely looked at and I don’t have the time, energy, or friends to actually get involved in a campaign.
The “plane of Mechanus?” Lame. Looks like it must be right next to the plane of Minionus.
Apparently you missed out on the Planescape setting.
I did play Torment but dropped it partway through. I forget why, but it was something stupid and frustrating.
Sorry to hear that. Planescape: Torment was pretty awesome.
Anyway, Planescape, the setting that Planescape: Torment was based on, was fairly influential on D&D settings in general. It added detail to the D&D cosmology, and Sigil served as a jumping-off point for extra-planar travels and as a meeting place for crossovers between “conventional” campaigns, while having a distinct flavor of its own.
One of the things that the Planescape setting detailed was the plane of Mechanus. In a way, it was the Plane of Boredom, and there were often jokes about that, but there were interesting facets to it as well.
It just sounds like it came from the David Twohy School Of Naming Things.
$50?!
D&D is far from my favorite system but Planescape is my favorite of the D&D settings and Torment is definitely in my top ten favorite video games, easily my favorite from that era.
I’m trying to pick my favorite bit of the game but I really did just love almost every little bit. My memories of that game are visceral, that weird feeling like I was really in those places. Biggest complaint was probably just that you had armor slots and such that were never used b/c the engine was from Baldur’s Gate.
My favorite D&D character was a pixie I played in a Planescape campaign. I would let my companions keep all the gold as long as they let me have all the cursed items… for pranks. I was very good about engineering pranks that helped the plot instead of constantly disrupting it the way too many pixie players do. I like constructive chaos.
This edition looks so great! I haven’t been this excited about DnD in years and years. I’m going to run a campaign for my son and his friends and I can’t wait! I could stare at that art all day.
I’d guess that’s roughly what past editions of D&D sourcebooks cost, adjusted for inflation. They’ve always been expensive. Production values have improved, considerably.
God, it’s true. I’m old, and poor, and all the kids are somehow rich. If only I had some fantasy I could escape to! That I could afford…
Well the players manual and monster manual listed at 9:95, in 1978. The DMG is listed as “upcomming release” but ISTR that it was a bit more…
