Locations: Sigil

Alright, time to get pumped for my first planescape session!

And what better way to do it than to describe some of the AWESOME things I have in store for my players? I think I will regulary try to post a few bits and pieces on the locations and people I plan to have in my campaign. I kind of hope that this will give me a better feel for the locations that my players will be visiting.

So, first up:

Sigil

Sigil is one of the older cities in the dungeons and dragons setting, first popping up in second edition. Several chapters and books alone were devoted to it's affairs and people. Then came third edition, reducing the once glorious campaign city to a measily paragraph in the manual of the planes. But now, in fourth edition, WotC decided to once again focus on the City of Doors. It even got a whole chapter in the DMG2! (I guess they just needed filler.)

But here is my own view on the city, and why it is perfect to start my campaign in:

First, let's start with a musical theme.

Why did I choose this theme? I really don't know, it just sets the right mystical mood for the city. You can almost hear the cavernous nature of a city which is basically a big donut in the sky.

But what is the city like?

The smell of a light drizzle enters your nostrils as your feet touch the muddy street. When you look around, you can see that you are no longer in the kind of city that you knew. The brown, dirty streets are filled with strange creatures; halflings, orcs, elves, humans and things you don't even know about. You can even see the celestial light of an angel reflecting from a dirty window across you. The buildings here are strange, there is no coherent style; Some of them would fit your hometown nicely, while their neighbours seem gothic, elven or even more outlandish. And then you look up; the city doesn't seem to end, instead of the blue sky, you see a mild fog, rain and the roofs of this very same city. The city loops in on itself, filling the entire horizonless sky.

As you first set foot in the City of Doors, you will feel clueless. Which is fitting, because that is the nickname that the inhabitants of Sigil have for newcomers; Clueless. You are unsoiled, but also unknowing of the nature of the planes and of the city itself.

Personally, I see the city as the perfect starting point of a planescape campaign because of its very nature. You can see that the game designers had a city in mind from where the players could get to the planes without having to fear nasty things all the time. The Lady of Pain herself is especially a nice plot device, because she keeps out the gods, adds flavor and makes the players feel a bit more humble, even if they hit their mid 10's. Further, the city itself is WEIRD. Its shape, its mood, its people; they all have a feel to them that you won't find in your average DnD setting. I also believe that they seem a bit more detailed, this might be due to the large amount of fluff that was written on the city, but I also believe it is because planescape as a setting, requires you to think more about things. You cannot just have a town with a lousy king/duke/whatever person in charge. They would get pwned by basically whatever is out there. Which makes for a fine plotline, but you don't want this happening to the main city of the setting. At least not straight away...

But what purpose will Sigil have in my campaign? I plan to use it less as a safe-haven, and more as a point of attachment. The players will be traveling a lot, and as such, won't have many people that would normally stick around. But thanks to the many portals that lead to and from Sigil, it becomes easier to bring back old faces, and give them something to grow attached to. Or at least I hope they will grow attached to it.