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Planescape: Torment pitch document (1997) [pdf]

by podiki on 6/16/23, 4:31 AM with 106 comments

  • by gilbetron on 6/17/23, 1:40 PM

    My gaming group had a big ole Planescape campaign in 1995/1996, and the DM, myself and my then-girlfriend, now wife, went to Gencon. We met the creators, and did some fun little Planescape sessions they had set up. In our campaign, my wife was playing a red-headed tiefling with a devil's tail named Lilah. Being nerds, we of course told the Planescape devs all about our campaign. My wife even has a sketch of Lilah from Tony D in the (then, just released) Planewalker's Handbook.

    In 1997, Planescape Torment came out, and we loved it. However, it was a bit shocking to find they had an NPC named Annah, that was a red-headed tiefling with a devil's tail. We still think Annah was heavily drawn from Lilah!

  • by v-erne on 6/17/23, 12:00 PM

    >> Tons of Total Babes: This game will have lots of babes that make the player go “wow.” >> There will be fiendish babes, human babes, angelic babes, asian babes, and even undead babes.

    Well, I did not expected this level of honesty about what target audience really want.

    It almost like finding "and its also addictive, in most profitable kind of way" in Marlboro brand pitch deck.

    Its kinda refrshing.

  • by j1elo on 6/17/23, 11:29 AM

    What were the chances? I installed Planescape Torment last night, to play around a bit with it. It's been sitting in my "to-try" list for at least 15 years!

    I'm however not very fond of having to sit down on my desk to play games with keyboard and mouse, though... I already spend enough of my life sitting in the exact same position for work. That alone discourages me from playing several old games I own (and not so old, like the newer X-Com) and even the newer Monkey Island game (which of course is sitting in the same list for some years now too)

  • by corysama on 6/17/23, 2:10 PM

    I’ll just leave this here ;)

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/466300/Planescape_Torment...

    BTW: 4K resolution support.

  • by sametmax on 6/17/23, 12:19 PM

    I often wish they make this game a TV show or even a series of movies, because the scenario, beyond the fact it's amazingly good, has potential for a lot of new arcs, thanks to the very concept of the game.

    Characters scream for a bigger screen, with colorful personalities and back stories, plus they got a design made to scale to awesomeness.

    And with the world building, you got a solid base plus endless possibilities.

    I enjoyed the game very much, but let's face it, it's too old for most new gamers to appreciate.

  • by NelsonMinar on 6/17/23, 2:14 PM

    Not mentioned: "over 800,000 words of dialogue, our game will be remembered as the best eight D&D visual novels ever written". It's interesting how much of this pitch focusses on the gameplay when it's the extensive writing that ends up being memorable.

  • by podiki on 6/16/23, 4:33 AM

  • by anthk on 6/17/23, 12:20 PM

    I remind you all that GemRB runs BG 1/2 and Planescape Torment under GNU/Linux, OSX, Windows, Mac, Android... with ease.

  • by sn41 on 6/17/23, 5:10 PM

    I played Planescape back around 2015 or so, for the first time. I felt an uncanny similarity to the movie "Memento" by Christopher Nolan, which, coincidentally, was filmed around the same time, developing on themes from the earlier movie "Following" (that came out in 1998).

    Then I came to know that this was actually a major point of discussion, with various theories swirling around it.

  • by sedatk on 6/17/23, 4:32 PM

    The document contains spoilers for anyone who’s willing to play it today.

  • by ricardobayes on 6/17/23, 12:44 PM

    Wow this reads so fresh, it's written beautifully. Even if you just skim it you get the point, and subjectively, it's very funny. I love the self-deprecating humor.

  • by ineedasername on 6/17/23, 2:27 PM

    Technical limitations made it difficult to deliver on every single aspect of the pitch, but I’d say it filled the spirit of the game intended by this doc.

    It goes a long way towards explaining how it so significantly differentiated itself from the more sterile (but battle focused— which was fun too) Icewinf Dale games or the Baldur’s Gate games that had a bit more guardrails build into them.

    All of those stand out as exceptional classics, but Planescape was unique among them.

  • by klipklop on 6/17/23, 6:17 PM

    Like others have said, the final game is different. One of the best games ever made with one of the most creative settings.

    Really loved the NPC companions. They were so deep and some of them you could make more powerful just by having a conversation with them. It’s a rare D&D property where wisdom is a more important stat than strength.

  • by t0bia_s on 6/18/23, 9:49 PM

    I finished PS:T about year ago. It was so refreshing experience and story telling compared to nowadays game production.

    I'm still hoping for finished translation of Disco Elysium to my native language to have similar experience. My EN is not good enough to completely enjoy chatty RPG.

  • by GartzenDeHaes on 6/17/23, 2:23 PM

    > 1 security vendor flagged this URL as malicious (Phishing)

    https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/9ed70fc608cd35117a0079556...