Planescape: Torment - a story that deserves a novelization

B

Bond

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I just finished watching the movie Memento and was struck with the impression that I would have been even more impressed if I hadn't been familiar with story of the computer game Planescape: Torment. That reminded me of how good the story of Planescape: Torment was. It was a very well done dark fantasy story that I think deserves discussion on a forum such as this. Problem is, as far as I know, it isn't in print form. Thus this topic.

It is unfortunate that many fantasy lovers out there are not familiar with the story in Planescape: Torment just because it is a game. Its story is superior to lots of the franchise books out there that I'm familiar with. Of course it may well be that its story is borrowed from other sources but without a discussion how will I ever know?

Anyone care to comment?

If the moderators don't think this subject deserves to be in this forum, I can understand but it will be a disappointment, because it is the story I'd like to focus on and not the gameplay. If you're still unsure, I'd like to say I took this liberty because the title of this forum is "Fantasy" and not "Fantasy Books". There was a reason for that wasn't there? ;)
 
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1) How the hell do you connect the film Memento with the game Planescape?

(FitzFlagg adjusts his Pedantic hat)
2) Yes this is the Fantasy forum but it is under the heading of
Literature, books, authors

3) And yes there is a reason for that, so we can discuss Fantasy Literature, authors and books. :)

That being said, I'd keep this in this forum despite your misguided liberties.
 
I believe WOTC did publish a novel based on the game. And there 4 other books based on the Planescape gameworld.
 
1. I thought the similarity with Memento would be obvious. The main characters both have gaps in their memories and try to rediscover what they did in their "past lives" and without the benefit of knowing the motivations of the people they are in contact with.

2. Well...it must have had an author right? :D No matter it seems DarthV is correct. There is already a simplified novelization of the game called Torment although I guess it isn't good. Most of the reviews on amazon.com were panning the book in comparison with the game. Oh well, maybe the other version floating around on the net is better.

3. Since we're supposed to discuss it, for starters would anyone know of other stories that are similar? Or other characters like the Nameless One?
 
Sorry for the shouting Bond. :) I never played the game so... (but loved the movie).

I'm sure jbcohen could help with some info on the Planescape games.
 
I've played the game...

...and I've read the novelization, also.

The game is one of the best I've played thus far. It is one of those CRPGs you play and exclaim "Wow! It HAS a plot!" It is very good, I can tell you. ;)

The novel, thought, is one of those cheap novelizations of WotC, and, to tell the truth, it plainly sucks in everyway. Same... for they COULD have made a pretty decent book out of THIS game.
 
Sure I can help a lot on this matter and I am going to rescue this topic a bit.

The game was simply an adaption of the books that preceded the game. The game was initiated by TRS as a means to sell the novels. The trouble is that there are and was only three planescape novels. The project was absorbed into the Magic: The Gathering (MTG)novels (please see my other thread on this issue). The MTG world bares a lot of similarities to the Planescape world but is also a bit different then it. You will also be interested to know that there is an MTG novel by the name that you gave.

Planescape did not last very long, I do not know why but it just is. There are three other sagas of novels that were written to absorb readers from the Planescape saga. These are the Dragon Lance, Forgotten Realms and the MTG saga.

My recommendation is for you to pick one of the three sagas that I mentioned before and go read that saga. Which one you pick up depends on what type of book you like: if you prefer books that detail and develop a very rich world and paint just about everything there is to know about it then read Dragon Lance. If you prefer your novels to be a bit more focused then try Forgotten Realms. If you prefer a world similar to the Plaescape world then try MTG.
 
As I remember, there were four books set in Planescape, not including the Troment novelization: a trilogy, and a stand-alone. I read the trilogy (composed of Blood Hostages, Abyssal Warriors, and Planar Powers), and although the first book was pretty ordinary, the other two were really good, despite the rather stupid titles. I recommend them pretty highly. The plot has no relation to Torment. The stand alone was called Pages of Pain or something like that. I never read it.
 
In the same way, quite a lot of games try to emulate films, PT would make an excellent book in it's own right,
 
Oh - planescape's an AD&D setting/world developed by TSR sometime ago (like forgotten realms, greyhawk, dragonlance, raveloft , spelljammer, and dark sun were)- if i can remember back about 10 yrs to my roleplaying days.

The books are based on the universe, and are totally separate from the game.
 
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Originally posted by jbcohen
You are correct the books are a trilogy but you have one of the book names wrong. Planescape novels are - Abyssal Warrior, Blood Hostages and Pages of Pain.
http://www.wizards.com/catalog/index.asp?s=sub_cat,planescape
Click to expand...
Er, no. I have the books on the shelf right in front of me. The titles and order are correct. Pages of Pain is not part of the series, which is why the page you linked does not say it is. The third book is not on that page for some reason, but hte information that is there agrees with what I said.
 
*sigh*

Was reading the thread about RA Salvatore and I remembered how much I enjoyed the Drizzt books when I was in my early, and how much I enjoyed the Baldur's Gate series, and Icewind Dale, and...

God, Planescape Torment. Totally epic. Someone needs to pick up the Planescape universe and make something awesome out of it. China Miéville, yes, he could do this. He could.
 
The only game I've ever played where reading a bunch of text in it gave me chills... more than once to boot.
 
I know it was eight years ago, but Jbcohen's ideas were a bit odd. Planescape: Torment came into existence because Interplay picked up the Planescape license as part of a job lot from TSR just before Wizards of the Coast picked them up and they decided they wanted to do something with it at the same time they'd asked BioWare to do Baldur's Gate. Black Isle, who were assisting on BG, were a natural fit to do the darker, grittier and more ambitious Planescape setting proud (their previous games had been the first two Fallout titles, which were similarly morally dubious and ambiguous).

And that was it, really. By the time Torment came out in mid-December 1999 (if it had come out two weeks later it would have been the greatest single computer game release in the 2000s, of any genre or format, and instead has to remain in the more competitive 1990s), the Planescape setting was dead and gone. TSR/WotC had released the last Planescape pen-and-paper game materials and novels some years previously, and the Torment novelization remains the final novel in that setting, churned out to make a quick buck. The retcons in 3rd and 4th Editions have in fact ensured that no proper sequel to Torment can ever be made, as the D&D multiverse now works in a somewhat different manner. More info on the Planescape setting here.

In addition, Planescape had no relation to Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance beyond all three being D&D campaign worlds. Planescape was in fact just the codification-as-a-campaign-setting of the pre-existing D&D multiverse that had been created back in the late 1970s as part of the Advanced D&D 1st Edition game, and the planes in the setting long predate Dragonlance or the Realms.

I agree with the above point that Planescape and China Mieville would have made a brilliant fit. In fact, I'd go further and say that Planescape is the New Weird, appearing five years before Mieville made it fashionable. I must admit that when the clockwork robots showed up in Perdido Street Station I did start thinking, "Modrons?", and the bit with the city having diplomatic relations with Hell seemed very Planescape-esque (where the evil and demonic denizens of Baator nevertheless follow strict rules and laws and maintain trade and diplomatic relations with other planes of reality).

A note of interest: the game - which is basically computer gaming's answer to The Book of the New Sun - has just been reissued in the UK and I believe a US rerelease is forthcoming, and is well worth picking up. I also have to disagree with the idea that the game would make a great book. You could base a good book on the narrative (exactly what the novelization failed to do) but you couldn't condense the game into a novel. One of the reasons the game is so hugely important is that it is one of a handful of games which really makes use of the medium's peculiar narrative quirks to deliver a medium-specific effect which couldn't be wholly replicated as a novel. Considering the size of the gaming industry it is quite surprising there aren't more games like this, but there's only a handful that could only deliver their storytelling impact in that medium (the Half-Life series is another; books based on those games would be hackneyed tosh despite the games' brilliance) and of those titles Planescape: Torment is the zenith of them.
 
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