I was thinking...

Planescape has always been the setting that probably intrigues me the most. Don't get me wrong, I love FR and all, but when playing in Planescape I actually get a feeling of being a part of something different for a change, not just something that has been ripped off from Tolkien's world. The setting has enormous potential, not just for players, but also for novels. So by normal logic, there should be dozens of good novels set in the multiverse.

But guess what? There are like 5 (five) novels set in Planescape, compared to virtually hundreds set in the FR. What's the deal? Is it because Planescape never was nearly as popular as FR and therefor no one bothered to write books for it because they wouldn't sell? Was it because it's a much more complicated setting and the author would have to know much more about what (s)he's writing about?

Your thoughts on this, if you will.

I'd love to read some Planescape books, but its popularity was never enough to justify novels. They just don't think there is profit in it. :(

yeah, I loved the planescape books. Except for Pages of Pain, which I thought was merely OK. The Blood Wars trilogy was great. Except it was out of print when I tried to acquire it, so I haven't found the third novel. People just didn't buy them. So they didn't print them. Same thing that happened to Birthright

I've managed to obtain the whole Blood War series, I enjoyed when I read it, but it seems to be rather contradictory to some of what I had learned about Planescape from Web sources and Torment. (I thought they elaborated too much on the Lady of Pain, for example) However, the part of the books where the characters became aware of the reader was quite memorable. :)

I can't figure out why there are not many Planescape novels myself, either. Given the proper licensing, you could follow characters to Abier-Toreil(the Realms), Krynn, and even Athas(which brings up my gripe with a lack of DarkSun novels, too). That makes even the most cataclysmic encounters in other settings bland(Bah, a great adventure that never even leaves the boring old Prime Material? Bah, stupid clueless.)

I think the reason no Planescape novels are written is that there isn't a large enough fan base. I think Forgotten Realms has by far the most novels of the D&D world and they're the most popular, just by gauging general opinion here and at various bookstores.

It's sad too because Planescape could be by far the most interesting reading experience but no one cares enough to try something new. <insert sigh here>

It's a DAMN shame. There should not exist anything such as a "stereo-typic fantasy world". I always thought "fantasy" meant "use your imagination." But no.
But that's not the worst. The worst is all those crappy stereo-typic characthers.
The "young person with powerful magic powers" or " annoying kender" (everyones the same, and thats a damn shame because its a really original race. Hey that rimes!)
or " Young woman that tries to prove herself just as good as any man" and of course the young man knight that believes her. (and seems to be only non-chauvunist in the world.) And the dwarf figther of course.
And all the heroes seem to able to slaugther thousands of poor goblins and zhentarim without suffering casulties. I know thats how the game works, but it would be crappy to play a game where you roll up a new characther every adventure. ( I remember trying a "realistic game" where this was not uncommon)

[Divine Shadow - I've seen this too many times to ignore: There's no "th" in the word "character"... :) BTA]

[This message has been edited by Blackthorne TA (edited July 17, 2001).]

Well to start with there is only one game in the Plane Scape. If it was a booming success I'm sure that everyone would write books, but as you can see it wasn't. We can only hope that Black Isle will make another planescape game which will be more popular. I hate stereotypes and that's why I don't read FR all that much...


edit> Can someone please define to me the phrase "original novel"?

[This message has been edited by Vicsun (edited July 18, 2001).]