I've been a fan of the long-defunct Planescape setting for D&D for a long time, ever since I played the game Planescape: Torment back in the late 90's. I've wondered for a while about creating an MTG set that uses Planescape as a setting. It is a very creative setting and provides a pretty rich pre-established lore and flavor to draw from. The idea here is not to copy over the mechanics of D&D in any way, but to adapt the setting and lore of Planescape to an MTG set. So I'm taking the plunge here and trying to conceptually develop this idea from the ground up.
Suggestions, comments, and participation in mechanic and card ideas are all welcome. There is a basic fleshing out of the concept and flavor and a mapping of certain key things (races and factions) to the color pie, a few provisional mechanic ideas, and I'll be updating things as I go. I also anticipate it to have somewhat of an emphasis on nonbasic lands and multicolor. Coming up with some new mechanics that feel like Planescape, and that represents "land matters" in a usable way, seems to be the main challenge. Some degree of knowledge of Planescape and D&D in terms of lore/setting/flavor is helpful here.
For general reference on the Planescape setting and cosmology, Sigil, and the Factions:
Concepts and Themes
- Land/Nonbasic land matters. The nature of Planescape is a cosmology of the planes, connected through portals, mostly notably with Sigil at the center connecting them all. The scope and character of traveling the planes is best represented by nonbasic lands.
- DFC/Transform. The power of belief and the transformative nature of planar travel is represented by DFC.
- Planeswalker matters. Planeswalkers and cards that care about them are naturally fitting for a setting based on traveling the planes.
- Exile matters. Traveling the planes is of a greater scope and sometimes of a more intangible in nature than normal worldly travel, representing alternate dimensions of reality.
- Legendary (subtheme). Planescape is rife with pre-established people and places to draw from that would qualify as legendary. This is meant more for flavor purposes than as something mechanically significant.
- Imagination and belief. Part of the theme of Planescape is that belief effects reality, with the planes potentially changing to adapt.
- Exoticism. Planescape is purposefully meant to break fantasy genre cliches. It contains exotic races and monsters and environments.
- Factional conflict. Planescape has a notable number of factions in its lore, both pre and post faction war (we'll be using a selection from post-faction war factions). These define core philosophical camps that intimately relate to the setting and map to the colors.
- Rule-Of-Three. The Rule-Of Three is a general principle that things tend to happen in threes, which also governs the way the planes operate.
- Unity-Of-Rings. The principle of the Unity-Of-Rings represents the fact that the planes and the forces which they represent are ultimately circular in nature and part of a whole, with the cosmology of the planes being a unity of all of the colors.
Mechanics (Provisional/Possible)
DFC/Transform
DFC represents the often changing nature of Sigil and the power of belief to change reality in the planes, including DFC lands.
Gate
Gate represents a land subttype for portals or possibly the Gate-Towns, while also being backwards-compatible with existing MTG precedent.
Portal - [Cost] (Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its portal cost.)
Portal is a DFC/Transform based mechanic found on instants and sorceries which allows players to cast them transformed into permanents from exile after they are cast, representing planar travel and the power of belief to transform and manifest reality on the planes.
Nonbasic landcycling - ([Cost], Discard this card: Search your library for a nonbasic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
Nonbasic landcycling further represents the complex, busy, and changing nature of the planes and planar travel.
Planescape Races
Races by Color
W - Human, Aasimar, Zenythri, Air Genasi
U - Nathri, Dabus, Water Genasi
B - Tiefling, Githyanki, Bladeling
R - Githzerai, Khaasta, Fire Genasi
G - Bariaur, Shad, Tuladhara, Earth Genasi
C - Modron
Race Descriptions
Aasimar - The Aasimar are humanoids with celestial blood in their veins and radiant features, with an ancestor from the upper planes.
Air Genasi - The Air Genasi are descended from Djinn and inhabitants of the Elemental Plane of Air, with lightly blue tinted features.
Bariaur - The Bariaur are nature-loving inhabitants of the upper planes, native to Ysgard, with features between a human and a ram.
Bladeling - The Bladleling are xenophobic and evil inhabitants of the plane of Acheron, mostly made of metal.
Dabus - The Dabus are floating, alien-like inhabitants of Sigil, directed by the Lady of Pain, who speak in symbols and repair the city.
Earth Genasi - The Earth Genasi are descended from Genies and the Elemental Plane of Earth, with solid bodies and rough skin.
Fire Genasi - The Fire Genasi are descended from Efreet and the Elemental Plane of Fire, with red and glowing features.
Githyanki - The Githyanki are evil descendants of ancient humans enslaved by the Illithid empire on the Astral plane, with gray skin.
Githzerai - The Githzerai are related to the Githyanki, but follow Zerthimon and value freedom above all else, with dark yellow skin.
Khaasta - The Khaasta are a chaotic race with features similar to lizardfolk, known for being opportunists and raiders.
Modron - The Modron are a race of constructs devoted to pure law from the plane of Mechanus. Rarely one goes rogue and becomes individual.
Nathri - The Nathri are a race from the Ethereal plane, with short features, wide faces and green skin.
Shad - The Shad are a lost tribe descended from the Elemental Plane of Earth, connected to plant life, with flexible bodies and large eyes.
Tiefling - The Tiefling are the descendants of humans and lower planes denizens, with fiendish traits like horns and tails.
Tuladhara - The Tuladhara are the descendents of the Rilmani, infused with the essence of neutrality, with large glowing eyes and green skin.
Water Genasi - Water Genasi are descendants of creatures from the Elemental Plane of Water, with webbed feet and scales.
Zenythri - The Zenythri are descendants of creatures from the lawful planes, with beautiful sculpted features.
Planescape Factions
WUFraternity of OrderWU
The Fraternity of Order believes that knowledge is power, especially with regard to the laws of the planes. They are well known for being involved in government and legal affairs, utilizing technology, and for being highly protective of their secrets. Their base is located on the plane of Mechanus and its gate-town Automata in the Outlands. The Fraternity of Order's ranks are mainly filled with Humans and Zenythri, and they are known to work with the Modrons. Other more powerful forces associated with the Fraternity of Order are Nagas, Angels, Archons, and Inevitables.
Archetypes: Control, Artifact matters
UBMind's EyeUB
The Mind's Eye are known as seekers and visionaries who view the planes as their personal playground. They believe in the power to reshape reality, especially themselves, and that everyone has the potential to become a god or move on to a higher state of existence. Their base is located in the Hinterlands in the Outlands. Tieflings and Nathri are often naturally drawn to The Mind's Eye. Their ranks also include Djinns, Hags, and Succubus, and they are associated with powerful creatures such as Illithids and Aboleth.
Archetypes: Cruel Control, Library/Hand matters
BRDoomguardBR
The Doomguard are proponents of embracing the power and inevitability of entropy, and they are consequently often associated with destructive tendencies. They are one of the least trusted factions in the planes because of this. Their base is located on the Negative Quasi-Elemental Plane. Githyanki, Khaasta, and Fire Genasi are often attracted to the Doomguard, and other more powerful creatures associated with the Doomguard are Demons, Devils, Efreet, and Ogres.
Archetypes: Destruction, Burn
RGRevolutionary LeagueRG
The Revolutionary League represents a loose alliance of philosophical anarchists and rebels who believe in freedom from authority above all else. They believe in the liberation of the planes from all hierarchies. Their base is located on the plane of Carceri. Githzerai and Bariaur tend to be intuitively attracted to The Revolutionary League, and they are known to command and associate with powerful creatures such as Dryads, Minotaurs, Trolls, and Chaos Beasts.
Archetypes: Aggro, Land Control
GWRing-GiversGW
The Ring-Givers are a group of ascetics who favor self-reliance and giving up on material possessions, and value charity and altruism. They believe that you get back what you give and that the planes naturally function based on a system of karma. Their base is located in the city of Sigil. The ranks of the Ring-Givers are commonly filled with Humans, Aasimar and Shad. Other powerful creatures associated with the Ring-Givers are Centaurs, Pixies, Spirits, and Treants.
Archetypes: Enchantment matters, anti-artifact
WBDustmenWB
The Dustmen believe that this life is a shadow of existence, and that everyone has already died and transitioned to this poor substitute. They see no value in life, accepting death, working to prepare themselves for True Death. Their base is located on the Negative Energy Plane, though they also still operate out of Sigil's Mortuary. The bulk of Dustmen are Humans and Tieflings, while the rest tend to be intelligent undead, such as Liches and Vampires. The Dustmen are also known for commanding undead creatures such as Zombies, Ghouls, Mummies, and Skeletons.
Archetypes: Graveyard matters, Exile matters
URFree LeagueUR
The Free League believe in freedom of thought, imagination and creativity. They think that everyone should be able to independently develop their own beliefs for themselves and value abstract experimentation and innovation. While not unified enough to have a base, they are known to be spread across the Outlands. Githzerai and Nathri are often drawn to the Free League, and they are known to accept the bold and different. They are also associated with Chimera, Mimics, Manticores, and Golems.
Archetypes: Variant Instant/Sorcery
BGFatedBG
The Fated believe in a crude philosophy of survival of the fittest and might makes right. They think that the planes are rough and exist for those who can take them, with everyone naturally pursuing their own power. Their base is located on Ysgard and its gate-town Glorium in the Outlands. Bladelings, Githyanki, Bariaur, and Earth Genasi are often attracted to the Fated. The Fated are also known to associate with and command powerful creatures such as Werewolves, Worgs, Devourers, and Dinosaurs.
Archetypes: Big Creatures, +1/+1 counters
RWHarmoniumRW
The Harmonium are a well meaning but at times militant and hard-headed group who believe in a unified organization of the planes. They tend to favor the idea of peace through strength and unity of belief, and are passionate zealots for what they believe to be the good. Their base is located on the plane of Arcadia. Zenythri and Fire Genasi are often attracted to the Harmonium, followed by Humans. The Harmonium also are associated with powerful creatures such as Giants, Titans, Azers, and Pegasus.
Archetypes: Tokens, Weenie
GUSociety of SensationGU
The Society of Sensation believes that breadth of experience equals power and enlightenment. They think that experiencing something is the only way to understand it and one must expose oneself to as many experiences as possible. Their base is located on the plane of Arborea. Bariaur and Nathri are often found within the ranks of the Society of Sensation, and they are popular with travelers from across the planes. The Society of Sensation also is associated with Sphinxes, Hydra, Hippogriffs, and Griffins.
Archetypes: Explore, Multicolor matters
Planes
Single-Color Planes:
Elysium - W
Mechanus - U
Gray Waste - B
Limbo - R
Arborea - G
Funny you should ask for this. I just finished my custom Planescape set last week and ordered 210 packs for a league I'm running with it.
I'll try to find some time in the next couple of days to post it for you. Feel free to steal whatever if you like any of it.
-- UPDATE: Info about my set below --
I thought a long time about how to do a Planescape set and in the end I decided to focus on the factions, particularly their roles in Sigil. Here is a link to my Planescape: Factions set spoiler, if you want to go straight to the source:
And below I've gathered some thoughts about my work on the set, and on your ideas so far. It's a bit of a hot mess but given that I don't know if anyone will actually ever come back to this thread and read it, I didn't want to spend too much time cleaning it up :P.
If you only read one thing from this diatribe, it should be my advice that Planescape is HUGE, and you should pick something narrow and go crazy with that thing. I picked "Factions in Sigil" and even that was too broad... could have easily been two to three sets, GNR/RNA style.
My goals were to:
Explore Planescape's wonderful world of contradiction
Showcase Sigil with a peek at the greater multiverse (10%-ish cards set outside the city)
Design groups of cards which played well together for all 15 factions
Reference classic D&D spells and creatures in a reverent way
Provide an "alternate take" on if Magic had been started with Planescape in mind (you'll see some clear nods to other Magic cards)
Environment: Booster draft and constructed, with constructed being a league environment with limitations on how often players can add cards to their pool (trading allowed)
Complexity level: Slightly above Standard, around Future Sight level, well below cube
Power level: Also slightly above Standard, such that almost all cards feel "Limited playable" relative to modern Standard-legal sets
I definitely agree that DFC is great fit for Planescape, it just wasn't something I wanted to do for production reasons.
I also think Lands matter is a great idea, and if my set weren't specifically focused on the Factions & Sigil, I would have gone this route.
Regarding your Legends subtheme: "Uncaged - Faces of Sigil" is my favorite roleplaying supplement _of all time_. The characters in it are so fascinating that I have even adopted and used them on the fly as Shadowrun characters when my players took a turn I didn't expect. They loved Kesto Brighteyes as a deep-net conspiracy theorist and Adamok Ebon as a rival Shadowrunner. As such I pulled heavily from this supplement when designing my Legends.
I think my biggest miss was that I don't have something to capture imagination and reality-shaping. For a while I had a mechanic called "Sculpt" which was just a shortcut for the Mercadian Masques Spellshaper mechanic. It felt pretty good and definitely made it feel like characters were shifting reality using spells, but I had too many ideas in the set and ended up cutting it. As I decided to focus on the factions, this was the biggest loss. I couldn't make it feel a substantial enough part of the set and have mechanics for all 15 factions.
I like your Portal mechanic, but I am not sure I like it for portals. I think with the right name you could make it a more general mechanic that could be the keystone mechanic for imagination and reality-shaping (that my set was lacking).
Worldliness: Since the planes are about a huge variety of different philosophies and environments, I wanted a payoff for "experiencing" as many of them as possible. This is a new ability word that counts the number of colors in your graveyard, and uses it either as an X or as a threshold to turn on an additional benefit. Obviously it's a great fit for the Sensates.
Madness: There are so many things in the 'verse that can drive a body insane. It goes great with Bleakers, Xaositects, Slaad, and sometimes Dustmen and Doomguard.
Portals and Portalkeys: Portals are enchantments which are sacrificed for an effect (flavored as pulling something through the portal). Portalkeys are artifacts which can be sacrified to reuse a Portal.
Treasure: I flavored this a number of different ways in tokens, but this was what I used as a multicolor-enabler in Limited.
Mummify: This is just embalm without the white color; it's obviously for the Dustmen and undead creatures.
Discard as a cost: Flavored primarily as spellcasting, I used this in all colors. Mechanically it pairs well with Madness and Worldliness.
Self-mill: Flavored as entropy, this goes great with the themes of insanity and death. Mechanically it pairs well with Mummify and Worldliness.
Flashback: Mechanically it pairs well with Self-mill, and it is just a fun mechanic.
Cycling: Mechanically it pairs well with Worldliness, and it is a great way to improve situational cards, particularly for Limited.
Obviously that's a lot, but I was targeting a set somewhere in the area of Future Sight complexity and Modern Masters power level (I think I came in under MM power level, but that's okay).
I decided a few things early on:
I did not want my creature types to be compatible with MTG's history -- I wanted them to feel like D&D.
I did not want to really tie creature types to particular colors and abilities, and so when I did, I made sure to also break the pattern somewhere else. One of my favorite things about Planescape is how it distorts expectations, so I wanted to make sure I didn't make any creature types too predictable. As such most D&D player-character race options run across the whole color wheel. I feel pretty confident this was a good decision, though I do think it means missing out on some potential tribal mechanics which players tend to like.
I wanted to use the CLASS/RACE D&D paradigm and so I would reference D&D character classes.
Some decisions as a result of these:
The one race I felt most embodied "sameness" across their species was Modrons, so they were the only one I made have consistent designs and a mechanic. I gave Modrons a "promotion mechanic" where when a Modron dies, a Modron of lower rank is promoted, in keeping with the fluff.
To handle Planetouched and Genasi, I decided Planetouched would be Celestial/Fiend + Base Race, and Genasi would be Elemental + Base Race, which would in theory give room for cards to effect Planetouched and Fullblooded races without needing to say "Target fiend or genasi"
I split evil creatures into Demon, Fiend, and Devil, for Tanar'ri, Yugoloth/neutral-evil, and Baatezu respectively, because the Blood Wars is such an important part of the setting
I did not split good creatures into Archon/Celestial/Eladrin/Guardinal, though I debated it. In the end I just went with Celestial because I couldn't really come up with cards where I would care about the discrepancy, whereas with fiends there definitely could be
I debated a long time of trying to use Lawful, Chaotic, Neutral, Good, Evil as either Creature Types or card Supertypes, but in the end I didn't like any of the ideas that came from this angle
I combined the various MTG undead creature types into the "Undead" creature type, both for use with the Mummify mechanic and for various D&D spells which affect all Undead creatures
With regard to Class Types, I went... close to second-edition D&D, though not exact.
- Artistocrat (Needed for non-adventuring, "high-class" characters)
- Artisan (Non-adventuring, "middle-class" characters; for "low-class" I generally went with Rogue)
- Soldier (Same as MTG Soldiers, and used for NPC-style Warriors who are part of an organized force)
I used the pre-Faction War guilds, and I broke down them down a little differently. I'll give my explanations here, not because I think your interpretation is wrong in any way, but just as food for thought and the explanation behind some of my designs.
I mostly stuck to the listed colors except for one-off cards where it made sense (e.g. a blue Harmonium tap-down card, The Great Green Wurm as the Mercykillers' monster).
My ten almost-color-pairs were the following, along with summaries of some my notes from early in the design process. I've also included the mechanics that ended up appearing on the cards (most of these came much later in development).
Fraternity of Order - WU - Blue motivations, white methods. The Guvners have a very blue goal of obtaining all knowledge and understanding all things, but they also view everything through a structured lens (white). As part of the judicial system they also maintain peace through order (white).
Mechanics: Counterspells, O-Ring, Card Draw
The Fated - UB - Black motivations, blue and black methods. The Takers believe that if you can't hold onto something, you don't deserve to have it, and everybody has to look out for themselves (black). Obtaining what you want is often accomplished through understanding and exploiting knowledge and loopholes of complex systems such as the tax code (blue), and other times through more nefarious techniques (black).
Mechanics: Discard, Stealing, Sacrifice, Treasure
The Revolutionary League - RB - Red motivations, black and red methods. The Anarchists believe in the abolishment of all systems so that individuals can be truly free (red) and they'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal, no matter how underhanded (black).
Mechanics: Deathtouch, Destruction, Self-sacrifice
The Xaositects - RG - Green motivations, red ideology. Ultimately the Chaosmen are about acknowledging and accepting (green) that chaos is at the core of everything (red).
Mechanics: Madness, Coin-flipping
The Bleakers - WG - Green motivations, white themes. Like the Xaositects, their motivation is to acknowledge and accept (green) that there is no purpose to life or the multiverse (colorless?). However, in doing so, they turn to healing the sick and helping the downtrodden (white).
Mechanics: Madness, Lifegain/Damage prevention, Flicker (to represent the Grim Retreat), Tapping (flavored as depression or nonsense)
Mercykillers - WB - White motivations, black methods. The Mercykillers want people to be safe (white) by striking criminals from society - or existence. However, many of them will do absolutely whatever it takes to reach this goal - interrogation, torture, murder without trial, etc. (black)
Mechanics: Kill spells, Rewards for killing
Transcendant Order - URG - Blue motivations, red themes. The Transcendants are all about perfecting themselves, mentally and physically (blue). What they believe as perfection is acting without thought (red) by being in-tune with the cadence of the multiverse (green).
Mechanics: Proaction (Precombat main phase), Prowess
Doomguard - BG - Green motivations, black methods. The Doomguard believe that everyone should accept and acknowledge that entropy is the correct/inevitable state of the multiverse (green). However, as entropy is intrinsically about destruction, many of their methods involve killing and destabilizing (black).
Mechanics: Wither, Caring about things dying and being exiled, Exiling cards from graveyards, Self-mill
Athar - RW - Red and white motivations, red methods. The Athar want everyone to think for themselves (red), and to free everyone from lies about the powers (white). The way they accomplish this tends to be through arguments, passionate speeches, and active protest (red).
Mechanics: Artifact/enchantment hate (flavored as anti-religious relics), Land hate (flavored as anti-religion)
Sensates - UGR - Blue motivations, green and red methods. The Sensates want to reach enlightenment (blue) through experiencing everything the multiverse has to offer, which includes the natural state of all things (green) and the full range of art and emotion (red). Inversely, the Sensates are about experiencing everything, without any morality or ethics attached (all colors, minus white and black).
Mechanics: Worldliness (bonuses if you have X colors in your graveyard)
Outside the color pairs / in addition to:
Harmonium - W - White motivations, white methods. The Harmonium's end goal is peace through order. They achieve it through war when necessary, but the reason they go to war is because they view that group as an obstacle to peace.
Mechanics: Care about other Harmonium/white soldiers
Dustmen - BG - Green motivations, black themes. The Dustmen are all about embracing the natural state of life and death (green). They do so in macabre ways often associated with the undead (black).
Mechanics: Mummify (a reflavored Embalm)
Godsmen - WU - Blue motivations, white themes. The Godsmen believe in perfecting yourself (blue) so that you can step up the rungs of existence. They tend to be a supportive, though harsh, community (white).
Mechanics: Cares about Equipment and Auras (flavored as the works of The Great Foundry)
Signers - WUBRG - The signers accept just about anyone and any belief system, so long as you think you're the center of the multiverse. The reasoning of why you believe that, or what you intend to do with that power, can be just about anything (to bring peace, to obtain all knowledge, to dominate, to experience, etc).
Mechanics: Cares about having Signers
Free League - WUBRG, skewing R- Basically, anybody can be a member, but this tends to include those who have anti-authoritarian viewpoints.
Mechanics: None
Anyway, I could keep going but I think I'll stop. Have fun with your set! Planescape is awesome and I'm excited to see what you come up with.
Thanks for the input, I'll definitely take a look at your take on it. It's cool to trade thoughts with someone else who has tried this general idea - I didn't know anyone had!
At the moment in general this is still in a somewhat experimental state. I've already shuffled through a few mechanic possibilities and altered the design goals and set themes a bit (I originally had a "color matters" notion but it didn't feel right for this).
I do have dual color archetypes assigned to 10 selected post-faction war factions, but haven't necessarily decided to emphasize them so much as have the intent to use them as a notable part of the flavor and backstory of a good amount of cards.
I'm now experimenting with the idea of representing the planes and planar travel somehow, and it seems hard to do. DFC (and Legendary) Lands is sort of what I have in mind, with the 2nd side representing Planes in some cases. And I'm curious about exploring either Gate or Portal as a land type, or possibly Portal as an artifact type. Another neglected possibility is Plane cards or DFC Plane cards, though I've been a little hesitant about that because of the extra rules complexity of the Plane cardtype.
But in the lack of completely developing that so far, I feel I'm still lacking a strong "land matters" thing besides nonbasic landcycling, and while I like nonbasic landcycling, it doesn't scream "Planescape" as much as DFC-Land/Planes/Gates/Portals does.
The Portal Mechanic is sort of intended to reflect the reality-shaping and specifically give a sense of "from something intangible and abstract (instant/sorcery) to something concrete and real (creature/possibly other permanents)". It has potential to reflect things from the D&D multiverse in a flavorful way. Haven't fully developed its potential yet though, and I might still tweak it.
Another sub-thread I have going is "transform trigger" and "transform matters" cards. Since this is supposed to be DFC-intensive, and I have the Portal mechanic going, it makes sense to have some cards that experiment creatively with transform, use transform as a trigger, or directly transforms cards as part of spell effects (extending and warping the thread started by cards like Waxing Moon and Moonmist, but applied to Planescape's flavor.)
It also occurs to me that "planeswalker matters" or "loyalty counters" could be a subtheme, but I haven't explored it.
I agree with you about wanting creature types to feel like DnD and not be MTG-compatible/standard per se.
I have a general color setup for the races, though I can see a number of them could be in two colors easily, and human could be any color. There are also a lot of possible monsters from DnD and related to certain planes that I want to experiment with, and allow more to naturally fall where they feel on the color pie.
While I'd ideally love to represent all the factions, it seemed to me that distilling it down to 10 was the most straight forward/elegant way to go about it simply because it maps to the standard 10 2 color combos in a convenient way, while covering all the factions seems to inherently create some sort of assymetrical distribution among the colors.
I sort of have decided to veer away from the idea of trying to represent spells from DnD. It seems less essential and flavorful to Planescape as such, and potentially a problematic road to make feel right. I'm leaning more on the idea of spells that reflect things from Sigil and the *feel* of planes and iconic things like Dustmen Contracts and Sensory Stones, Portals, Portal Keys, Mazes, The Astral, The Ethereal, The Blood War, The Lady of Pain, etc.
Thanks for the input, I'll definitely take a look at your take on it. It's cool to trade thoughts with someone else who has tried this general idea - I didn't know anyone had!
Hopefully we can end up with a bunch of great Planescape sets
I do have dual color archetypes assigned to 10 selected post-faction war factions, but haven't necessarily decided to emphasize them so much as have the intent to use them as a notable part of the flavor and backstory of a good amount of cards.
After my experience, I think if you are going the lands- and Portals-matter route, I kind of think the factions should be even further background than this. For example, what if your ten two-color pairs were tied to Outer Planes? It sounds like you are going much more "big picture" than I did so this could let you fit in more of the weird stuff from elsewhere on the wheel.
The Portal Mechanic is sort of intended to reflect the reality-shaping and specifically give a sense of "from something intangible and abstract (instant/sorcery) to something concrete and real (creature/possibly other permanents)". It has potential to reflect things from the D&D multiverse in a flavorful way. Haven't fully developed its potential yet though, and I might still tweak it.
I dig it, excited to see what you come up with.
I have a general color setup for the races, though I can see a number of them could be in two colors easily, and human could be any color. There are also a lot of possible monsters from DnD and related to certain planes that I want to experiment with, and allow more to naturally fall where they feel on the color pie.
I struggled with this, it was tough to get a good balance of showing the "core" PC races and all the weird monsters and stuff. I do think if you tie races to colors, most of them should be in at least two. For example, I think it does a disservice to Githzerai to restrict them to red... they are very big into traditions and rituals (green), community survival in the chaos of Limbo and in the face of illithid and Githyanki threats (white), and practicing the mental discipline to maintain cities in Limbo (blue). That said, it does feel sort of anti-MTG to put races in all the colors, so it might be tough to recognize it. I do think my creature types ended up a bit too soupy.
It also occurs to me that "planeswalker matters" or "loyalty counters" could be a subtheme, but I haven't explored it.
That's gotta be really tough without bumping Planeswalkers down to rare, and doing that could have some pretty feel-bad consequences for Limited. But if you're not interested in Limited, YMMV.
While I'd ideally love to represent all the factions, it seemed to me that distilling it down to 10 was the most straight forward/elegant way to go about it simply because it maps to the standard 10 2 color combos in a convenient way, while covering all the factions seems to inherently create some sort of assymetrical distribution among the colors.
In hindsight, I do think with a little pushing there could be a way. If I took my original setup and made some tweaks, I could have ended with 10 two-color pair factions and 5 single-color factions, which would be perfectly balanced on the color pie. I'm thinking Harmonium as mono-white, Godsmen as mono-blue (they are all about that self improvement, merit-based success), Doomguard as mono-black, Free League as mono-red, and... somebody as mono-green, I guess that leaves Signers? But also in hindsight, I don't think I'd have tried to cram all 15 factions into a set, but it could be done.
I'm definitely excited to see the lands you've come up with. Those will be awesome.
After my experience, I think if you are going the lands- and Portals-matter route, I kind of think the factions should be even further background than this. For example, what if your ten two-color pairs were tied to Outer Planes? It sounds like you are going much more "big picture" than I did so this could let you fit in more of the weird stuff from elsewhere on the wheel.
There are a lot of things to juggle here for sure, but I definitely feel like I have to include the factions in some way, even if it's not mechanically significant so much as just a flavor thing that gets represented on certain cards.
I do have the notion in the back of my mind to map the colors to the outer planes in some way. I haven't fully fleshed out my major land cycles yet that would determine that. Just starting to feel out how DFC lands that represent the planes may work out, with a few provisional designs for DFC Gate Town/Plane cards, with a static ability on the 2nd side that sort of captures the feel of being in that plane, such as:
Ecstasy, Gate Town
Legendary Land - Gate (R)
Ecstasy enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add W to your mana pool. 4WW, T: Transform Ecstasy. /// Fields of Elysium
Legendary Land - Plane (R)
You and creatures you control have hexproof. T: Add W to your mana pool.
SecretInfiltrator suggested a different version of this idea that literally has a Plane card, ala Planechase, on the 2nd side, but I'm really hesitant about the rules complexity brought by Plane cards, including the dice rolling and all that. I sort of intuitively prefer to just make Plane a separate land subtype here, as a stand-alone thing, backwards-compatibility be damned.
I'm also experimenting with more casual and simple, non-DFC Gate cards utilizing nonbasic landcycling, which more represent general portals from or within Sigil, such as:
Hive Portal
Land - Gate (C)
Hive Portal enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add C to your mana pool.
Nonbasic landcycling 3
I struggled with this, it was tough to get a good balance of showing the "core" PC races and all the weird monsters and stuff. I do think if you tie races to colors, most of them should be in at least two. For example, I think it does a disservice to Githzerai to restrict them to red... they are very big into traditions and rituals (green), community survival in the chaos of Limbo and in the face of illithid and Githyanki threats (white), and practicing the mental discipline to maintain cities in Limbo (blue). That said, it does feel sort of anti-MTG to put races in all the colors, so it might be tough to recognize it. I do think my creature types ended up a bit too soupy.
Yes, I agree that some of them, such as the Githzerai, can easily go in other colors. What I would say is that I'm going to try to use that Race thing more as a loose guideline for what feels like the "primary" color association (due to the plane they come from), but not inherent per se. I associated the Gith with red because Limbo is a strong chaos plane, and because the Gith have something of a philosophy of freedom and anti-slavery due to their experiences with the illithids. Also, in some cases, certain legendary creature ideas inherent are based on a creature and theme that doesn't fit the "primary" color mapping of the race associated with the creature by cannon. For example, Dhaall is listed in canon as a Githzerai, so I went with:
Dhaall, the ScrivenerWB
Legendary Creature - Gith Scribe (R)
When Dhall, the Scrivener enters the battlefield, exile all creature cards from all graveyards.
If a creature card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Players can't play spells with the same name as cards exiled this way.
2/2
The extra feel and flavor here is supposed to sort of be that Dhaall is scribing everyone's "True Death".
That's gotta be really tough without bumping Planeswalkers down to rare, and doing that could have some pretty feel-bad consequences for Limited. But if you're not interested in Limited, YMMV.
Well, to clarify what I mostly mean by "planeswalker matters", so far in practice, I have mainly used this in the form of cards that have a "creature or planeswalker" as part of them, though a lot of it is actually leaning anti-planeswalker. Such as these designs:
Astral Void4W
Sorcery (C)
Exile target creature or planeswalker.
Ethereal JauntU
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU(Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its Portal cost.) /// Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C) U: Return Ethereal Marauder to its owner's hand.
3/3
The main thing to me is simply that planescape, as a setting about traveling the planes, inherently jibes with the flavor of planeswalkers, so I feel inclined to make it matter in some way.
Otherwise, I would say I actually am into constructed more than anything else, and ideally would want this set to be playable in Modern and Standard.
Otherwise, I would say I actually am into limited more than anything else, and ideally would want this set to be playable in Modern and Standard.
That was actually the first question i was going to ask. I think it doesn't get asked enough when posting custom sets, but 'where do you want this set to sit in the grand scheme of magic?' should be the questions everyone starts with. I get a sense that most people posting are trying to get their sets to fit into rotation limited,standard,modern,legacy,cube,commander,et all. But that doesn't mean your set has to satisfy all those requirements. The nice thing about doing this on your own, is that you only have to satisfy the requirements you want it to. If you want this to be a limited only set, then design for that alone. It will unburden you from having to worry about how your cards designs impact formats the set isn't playing to. Power level can be low, if you want it to be for new players, or complex and deep if you want it to be played by the enfranchised player.
I actually find it sad that Wizards hasn't figured this out yet. the game is 25 years old, and they haven't' figured out how to make expansion sets that don't impact their constructed formats and don't have to be "wacky" sets. They could easily make silver bordered limited sets that are more powerful than any ultimate masters set, and because of using silver borders, will never be standard,modern,legacy,vintage legal, but perfectly suited for sealed,draft,commander,and cube. If they are never going to produce a product line call 'Limited Cube', then i will be more than happy to lead that crusade.
Anyways, I will address i know absolutely nothing about planescape, so i will just set aside any comments on the flavor and focus on the questions of mechanical identity you are working with. You listed a great many aspects you feel are important, including establishing a full 10 two color combinations to feature with multi-color. As the adage goes, Less is More, i would definitely caution doing some distilling down to what you feel are the top three most important mechanical identities and working from there. Consider that with Ravnica it takes at least two large sets to drill down the two color combinations enough to make them feel relevant. You will likely need to do some splitting up of mechanical across a couple of sets. If you choose to do Planescape 1 through 3, it will give you good focus on individual aspects of the nature of the world and give your mechanics room to breath.
Personally i think there is a world of design space that can be explored with the exile zone. Of course every mechanic that requires special circumstances and non-battlefield zone relevance requires enablers, so if cards are going to care about being in exile, other cards are going to be required to support sending things to exile. Exile matters can easily be combined with other important aspects, such as the rule of three. For instance, you could have a creature with a trigger that at the beginning of combat checks to see if it's in exile with at least three other creatures, and for a cost, can be placed on the battlefield tapped and attacking for a turn, then exiled again. something similar to obzedat. there's a lot of possibility with zone based triggers, and that was just one lousy example.
For lands that represent the movement of planes, maybe look at the planes of this world, more like the planes of existence in Theros (the underworld, overworld, and Nyx), than disparate different worlds that planeswalkers visit. You could adapt the original designs of sagas where there is a list of abilities that cycles, but put them on the non-basic lands, to capture a mechanical identity of moving across planes within this world. It would require establishing some new ground to keep track which point on the progress you are on. When they were first making DFC's they toyed with a day/night tracker, you would need to adapt something similar to those two things to make it work. But if all non-basic lands had three or four abilities that synced up and mechanically felt like there were on the same plane, it could work. Food for though.
it's still a couple months out, but i wonder if War of the Spark will have a planeswalker matters sub theme? for a card type that only appears at mythic rarity, they will either have to lower the rarity of planeswalkers, or make it so that non-planeswalker cards have some kind of planewalkery ability. If they go that route, just wait a month and see what wizards does with it. If they don't, you can try and be the first! The problem with loyalty abilities, is they are basically activated abilities on any other card type, so they are not very special on non-planeswalkers. If you go with the planes within planescape can be walked by regular beings, you could make a hybrid of level up, that requires moving between zones in order to level up. Would get wordy in hurry on a card, so it would likely need to be managed well, but maybe vanilla creatures get activated abilities by changing zones from exile to the battlefield?
I think you posed some fun mechanical questions out there, and i love approaching these things from the bottom up, even though its meant to be a top down set, sometimes when you don't know where to start, the best place is somewhere right in the middle. Hope these suggestions get the wheels spinning for you!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
____________________________________________
Otherwise, I would say I actually am into limited more than anything else, and ideally would want this set to be playable in Modern and Standard.
That was actually the first question i was going to ask. I think it doesn't get asked enough when posting custom sets, but 'where do you want this set to sit in the grand scheme of magic?' should be the questions everyone starts with. I get a sense that most people posting are trying to get their sets to fit into rotation limited,standard,modern,legacy,cube,commander,et all. But that doesn't mean your set has to satisfy all those requirements. The nice thing about doing this on your own, is that you only have to satisfy the requirements you want it to. If you want this to be a limited only set, then design for that alone. It will unburden you from having to worry about how your cards designs impact formats the set isn't playing to. Power level can be low, if you want it to be for new players, or complex and deep if you want it to be played by the enfranchised player.
I actually find it sad that Wizards hasn't figured this out yet. the game is 25 years old, and they haven't' figured out how to make expansion sets that don't impact their constructed formats and don't have to be "wacky" sets. They could easily make silver bordered limited sets that are more powerful than any ultimate masters set, and because of using silver borders, will never be standard,modern,legacy,vintage legal, but perfectly suited for sealed,draft,commander,and cube. If they are never going to produce a product line call 'Limited Cube', then i will be more than happy to lead that crusade.
Anyways, I will address i know absolutely nothing about planescape, so i will just set aside any comments on the flavor and focus on the questions of mechanical identity you are working with. You listed a great many aspects you feel are important, including establishing a full 10 two color combinations to feature with multi-color. As the adage goes, Less is More, i would definitely caution doing some distilling down to what you feel are the top three most important mechanical identities and working from there. Consider that with Ravnica it takes at least two large sets to drill down the two color combinations enough to make them feel relevant. You will likely need to do some splitting up of mechanical across a couple of sets. If you choose to do Planescape 1 through 3, it will give you good focus on individual aspects of the nature of the world and give your mechanics room to breath.
Personally i think there is a world of design space that can be explored with the exile zone. Of course every mechanic that requires special circumstances and non-battlefield zone relevance requires enablers, so if cards are going to care about being in exile, other cards are going to be required to support sending things to exile. Exile matters can easily be combined with other important aspects, such as the rule of three. For instance, you could have a creature with a trigger that at the beginning of combat checks to see if it's in exile with at least three other creatures, and for a cost, can be placed on the battlefield tapped and attacking for a turn, then exiled again. something similar to obzedat. there's a lot of possibility with zone based triggers, and that was just one lousy example.
For lands that represent the movement of planes, maybe look at the planes of this world, more like the planes of existence in Theros (the underworld, overworld, and Nyx), than disparate different worlds that planeswalkers visit. You could adapt the original designs of sagas where there is a list of abilities that cycles, but put them on the non-basic lands, to capture a mechanical identity of moving across planes within this world. It would require establishing some new ground to keep track which point on the progress you are on. When they were first making DFC's they toyed with a day/night tracker, you would need to adapt something similar to those two things to make it work. But if all non-basic lands had three or four abilities that synced up and mechanically felt like there were on the same plane, it could work. Food for though.
it's still a couple months out, but i wonder if War of the Spark will have a planeswalker matters sub theme? for a card type that only appears at mythic rarity, they will either have to lower the rarity of planeswalkers, or make it so that non-planeswalker cards have some kind of planewalkery ability. If they go that route, just wait a month and see what wizards does with it. If they don't, you can try and be the first! The problem with loyalty abilities, is they are basically activated abilities on any other card type, so they are not very special on non-planeswalkers. If you go with the planes within planescape can be walked by regular beings, you could make a hybrid of level up, that requires moving between zones in order to level up. Would get wordy in hurry on a card, so it would likely need to be managed well, but maybe vanilla creatures get activated abilities by changing zones from exile to the battlefield?
I think you posed some fun mechanical questions out there, and i love approaching these things from the bottom up, even though its meant to be a top down set, sometimes when you don't know where to start, the best place is somewhere right in the middle. Hope these suggestions get the wheels spinning for you!
Thanks for your thoughts! I actually misspoke by using the term "limited". For the most part, my angle as a player is in favor of competitive constructed formats (I don't like the randomness of draft, and I don't like how it's basically design around the *gambling* aspect of buying packs, when I've known for a long time that buying packs instead of singles and boxes is a losing proposition for MTG from both from a collector's angle and from the angle of wanting to build competitive decks), with a slight nostalgic bent toward Modern and Legacy because I originally played MTG from about 1994-2001.
At the moment I have sort of let this set sit in limbo for the past month or so, because I've bumped into some internal mechanical issues and realized I have to whittle down my design pillars more in general. I have too much going on, and it's looking to me like the multi-color factions may just be too much for this set. At best, I might stretch this idea out into 2 or 3 sets, with the expansions featuring the factions instead. The bigger design space I seem to be creating here so far has more to do with representing the planes themselves and the "land matters" thing, and experimenting with DFC. So, basically, you nailed it - my ideas here are too broad for one set, it really is best suited for a 3 set block.
Mechnically, the big issue that stopped me in my tracks is that the 2nd side of cards with the Portal mechanic are simply outright exiled by blink/flicker effects, while at the same time, I actually have a whole bunch of blink/flicker cards! That's an internal inconsistency that either calls the Portal mechanic into question or means I'll need to remove blink/flicker as a theme. More likely I'll have to either completely redesign or replace the Portal mechanic.
While I do want to focus on creating interesting mechanics and abilities here, in a sense, the very nature of this project is based on a flavor consideration - the flavor of Planescape, which is a very specific nostalgic setting for Dungeons and Dragons. The challenge is to simultaneously match that flavor to MTG in a compelling way and representing them well in the mechanics. And ideally, I would want people to be able to at least make reasonable block-constructed decks out of it, and for it to potentially be cross-compatible enough that it could theoretically work for Standard or Modern, for practical purposes.
Mechnically, the big issue that stopped me in my tracks is that the 2nd side of cards with the Portal mechanic are simply outright exiled by blink/flicker effects, while at the same time, I actually have a whole bunch of blink/flicker cards! That's an internal inconsistency that either calls the Portal mechanic into question or means I'll need to remove blink/flicker as a theme. More likely I'll have to either completely redesign or replace the Portal mechanic.
I thought about this for a little bit, and i looked over the design for Ethereal Jaunt, and i see what you mean. You want to be able to portal spells into permanents using DFC tech. Of course based on the rules, if you blink/flicker a transformed permanent it resets to its front face. There aren't a lot of good solutions mechanically speaking. My though process went to the idea of establishing a rules rider inside of the Portal mechanic that creates a delayed replacement effect along the lines of "If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand". similar to the rider used to keep spells from being abused by exiling them from the stack. While you couldn't blink portal cards in the traditional sense, it would allow portal cards to be recast, and still have added value. Balancing activation costs would ensure that it's not too format warping like buyback, since you will almost always get portal cards back in your hand.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its Portal cost.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Return Ethereal Marauder to its owner's hand.
3/3
this would adjust the design along the lines of:
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (You may cast this spell for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Ethereal Marauder gains hexproof until end of turn.
3/3
The combination of hexproof and the adjusted function of portal would allow this card to be very similar functionally to what you wanted it to be in most game play scenarios, with it's blinking effect.
Based on your wording for Portal, which of the two costs is being used to cast it the first time, and which cost is from exile cost the second time? it's worded a little confusing unfortunately.I see that you like the idea of it being a flashback variant, with the cast twice design, but don't forget a lot of fun the game comes from creating decision points with spells, do i cast the small effect now, or save up for the big effect later. If that's not what you're looking to do, you can still word it in a way to work as per your initial design. Just remove the exile clause from Portal, and add it as hard text on the actual spells.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Exile this spell as it resolves.
Portal 3UU (You may cast this spell from exile for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
Hopefully this helps you on your way to solving your mechanics puzzles
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Easy Dude. You're being very un-Dude.
____________________________________________
Mechnically, the big issue that stopped me in my tracks is that the 2nd side of cards with the Portal mechanic are simply outright exiled by blink/flicker effects, while at the same time, I actually have a whole bunch of blink/flicker cards! That's an internal inconsistency that either calls the Portal mechanic into question or means I'll need to remove blink/flicker as a theme. More likely I'll have to either completely redesign or replace the Portal mechanic.
I thought about this for a little bit, and i looked over the design for Ethereal Jaunt, and i see what you mean. You want to be able to portal spells into permanents using DFC tech. Of course based on the rules, if you blink/flicker a transformed permanent it resets to its front face. There aren't a lot of good solutions mechanically speaking. My though process went to the idea of establishing a rules rider inside of the Portal mechanic that creates a delayed replacement effect along the lines of "If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand". similar to the rider used to keep spells from being abused by exiling them from the stack. While you couldn't blink portal cards in the traditional sense, it would allow portal cards to be recast, and still have added value. Balancing activation costs would ensure that it's not too format warping like buyback, since you will almost always get portal cards back in your hand.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its Portal cost.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Return Ethereal Marauder to its owner's hand.
3/3
this would adjust the design along the lines of:
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (You may cast this spell for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Ethereal Marauder gains hexproof until end of turn.
3/3
The combination of hexproof and the adjusted function of portal would allow this card to be very similar functionally to what you wanted it to be in most game play scenarios, with it's blinking effect.
Based on your wording for Portal, which of the two costs is being used to cast it the first time, and which cost is from exile cost the second time? it's worded a little confusing unfortunately.I see that you like the idea of it being a flashback variant, with the cast twice design, but don't forget a lot of fun the game comes from creating decision points with spells, do i cast the small effect now, or save up for the big effect later. If that's not what you're looking to do, you can still word it in a way to work as per your initial design. Just remove the exile clause from Portal, and add it as hard text on the actual spells.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Exile this spell as it resolves.
Portal 3UU (You may cast this spell from exile for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
Hopefully this helps you on your way to solving your mechanics puzzles
Thanks for the solution suggestions. I definitely prefer the flexibility of the 2nd version over the 3rd. I definitely want Portal to at least partly be used in the way you describe, where the player feels an incentive between small and big effects as well as a matter of kind (instant/sorcery vs. permanent).
Unless I'm reading "leave the battlefield" too broadly (this would include a creature dieing in general, right?), I have some hesitancy about all Portal creatures automatically returning to hand on death, which could be seen as replacing a former hindrance (being exiled by flicker) with a pretty significant boon since it infinitely bounces the spell back into your hand, so I may have to be careful with that.
Another thought is that I had intended Portal to sometimes be used with enchantments and possibly other permanent types on the 2nd side. The rider about returning to hand seems something to be even more careful about on an enchantment to me. I could be over-thinking that though.
Nonetheless I may well consider changing Portal to your first suggestion:
(You may cast this spell for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
It's more wordy than the original but certainly patches up any issues with flicker. I think it makes the design space slightly more complex to work with and makes the mechanic a little pushed to design for at common in all colors, but I'd be willing to experiment and see where it goes.
My main concern is that it's in-built self-bounce now. The opposite rider perhaps would be "If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead", or if I were to restrict the mechanic to creatures on the 2nd side, "If it would die, exile it". That's the opposite route, it gets rid of the flicker problem by simply having the creature exile on death all around. I don't know. But then it's an in-built drawback at that point.
Another thought here, re: the Portal issue, is that if what we're really going for is a "this *or* that" choice between an instant/sorcery and a creature/permanent, the whole thing is better encapsulated simply as split cards, and thus no new or special mechanic is necessary at all. The only issue there is that split cards leave less space for text and therefore it'd be hard to have too complex or wordy card ideas with it. But as long as things don't require a super long paragraph, it could be worked with fairly reasonably.
On the other hand, if "this *and* that" is what we are going for, then it makes sense for there to be either a kicker-like mechanic or an alternative cost mechanic that transforms the card on top of its primary effect. The version of Portal above is a bit vague as to if you're paying for both effects. Assuming so, it could be interpreted as the equivalent of:
Kicker (Cost)
If (Cardname) was kicked, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.
I'm honestly not sure if that's all that great. Just going for split cards to represent a choice between a non-permanent and a permanent seems a lot more simple and viable, while cutting out the need for a new wordy mechanic or lots of conditional text on a card. That isn't particularly innovative, but it is true that Wizards has not experimented at all with different card types that includes permanents on split cards and while split cards is formally described as only being for instants and sorceries, that is not actually written into the rules itself.
Part of the point here is really a flavor thing as well - to represent the flavor feel of certain planes with both a non-permanent and a permanent on the same card. Portal overall seems like a clunky attempt to encapsulate that kind of thing, so it's tempting to gut it in favor of split cards with variant card types in general. Which opens up space for other new mechanics to be developed instead.
Suggestions, comments, and participation in mechanic and card ideas are all welcome. There is a basic fleshing out of the concept and flavor and a mapping of certain key things (races and factions) to the color pie, a few provisional mechanic ideas, and I'll be updating things as I go. I also anticipate it to have somewhat of an emphasis on nonbasic lands and multicolor. Coming up with some new mechanics that feel like Planescape, and that represents "land matters" in a usable way, seems to be the main challenge. Some degree of knowledge of Planescape and D&D in terms of lore/setting/flavor is helpful here.
For general reference on the Planescape setting and cosmology, Sigil, and the Factions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planescape
http://www.planewalker.com/
http://to-chance-with-hell-planescape.obsidianportal.com/
http://www.rilmani.org/timaresh/Main_Page
Here's what I have so far, subject to possible changes:
http://www.magicmultiverse.net/cardsets/2736/details_pages/2113
- Land/Nonbasic land matters. The nature of Planescape is a cosmology of the planes, connected through portals, mostly notably with Sigil at the center connecting them all. The scope and character of traveling the planes is best represented by nonbasic lands.
- DFC/Transform. The power of belief and the transformative nature of planar travel is represented by DFC.
- Planeswalker matters. Planeswalkers and cards that care about them are naturally fitting for a setting based on traveling the planes.
- Exile matters. Traveling the planes is of a greater scope and sometimes of a more intangible in nature than normal worldly travel, representing alternate dimensions of reality.
- Legendary (subtheme). Planescape is rife with pre-established people and places to draw from that would qualify as legendary. This is meant more for flavor purposes than as something mechanically significant.
- Imagination and belief. Part of the theme of Planescape is that belief effects reality, with the planes potentially changing to adapt.
- Exoticism. Planescape is purposefully meant to break fantasy genre cliches. It contains exotic races and monsters and environments.
- Factional conflict. Planescape has a notable number of factions in its lore, both pre and post faction war (we'll be using a selection from post-faction war factions). These define core philosophical camps that intimately relate to the setting and map to the colors.
- Rule-Of-Three. The Rule-Of Three is a general principle that things tend to happen in threes, which also governs the way the planes operate.
- Unity-Of-Rings. The principle of the Unity-Of-Rings represents the fact that the planes and the forces which they represent are ultimately circular in nature and part of a whole, with the cosmology of the planes being a unity of all of the colors.
DFC/Transform
DFC represents the often changing nature of Sigil and the power of belief to change reality in the planes, including DFC lands.
Gate
Gate represents a land subttype for portals or possibly the Gate-Towns, while also being backwards-compatible with existing MTG precedent.
Portal - [Cost] (Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its portal cost.)
Portal is a DFC/Transform based mechanic found on instants and sorceries which allows players to cast them transformed into permanents from exile after they are cast, representing planar travel and the power of belief to transform and manifest reality on the planes.
Nonbasic landcycling - ([Cost], Discard this card: Search your library for a nonbasic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
Nonbasic landcycling further represents the complex, busy, and changing nature of the planes and planar travel.
Races by Color
W - Human, Aasimar, Zenythri, Air Genasi
U - Nathri, Dabus, Water Genasi
B - Tiefling, Githyanki, Bladeling
R - Githzerai, Khaasta, Fire Genasi
G - Bariaur, Shad, Tuladhara, Earth Genasi
C - Modron
Race Descriptions
Aasimar - The Aasimar are humanoids with celestial blood in their veins and radiant features, with an ancestor from the upper planes.
Air Genasi - The Air Genasi are descended from Djinn and inhabitants of the Elemental Plane of Air, with lightly blue tinted features.
Bariaur - The Bariaur are nature-loving inhabitants of the upper planes, native to Ysgard, with features between a human and a ram.
Bladeling - The Bladleling are xenophobic and evil inhabitants of the plane of Acheron, mostly made of metal.
Dabus - The Dabus are floating, alien-like inhabitants of Sigil, directed by the Lady of Pain, who speak in symbols and repair the city.
Earth Genasi - The Earth Genasi are descended from Genies and the Elemental Plane of Earth, with solid bodies and rough skin.
Fire Genasi - The Fire Genasi are descended from Efreet and the Elemental Plane of Fire, with red and glowing features.
Githyanki - The Githyanki are evil descendants of ancient humans enslaved by the Illithid empire on the Astral plane, with gray skin.
Githzerai - The Githzerai are related to the Githyanki, but follow Zerthimon and value freedom above all else, with dark yellow skin.
Khaasta - The Khaasta are a chaotic race with features similar to lizardfolk, known for being opportunists and raiders.
Modron - The Modron are a race of constructs devoted to pure law from the plane of Mechanus. Rarely one goes rogue and becomes individual.
Nathri - The Nathri are a race from the Ethereal plane, with short features, wide faces and green skin.
Shad - The Shad are a lost tribe descended from the Elemental Plane of Earth, connected to plant life, with flexible bodies and large eyes.
Tiefling - The Tiefling are the descendants of humans and lower planes denizens, with fiendish traits like horns and tails.
Tuladhara - The Tuladhara are the descendents of the Rilmani, infused with the essence of neutrality, with large glowing eyes and green skin.
Water Genasi - Water Genasi are descendants of creatures from the Elemental Plane of Water, with webbed feet and scales.
Zenythri - The Zenythri are descendants of creatures from the lawful planes, with beautiful sculpted features.
WU Fraternity of Order WU
The Fraternity of Order believes that knowledge is power, especially with regard to the laws of the planes. They are well known for being involved in government and legal affairs, utilizing technology, and for being highly protective of their secrets. Their base is located on the plane of Mechanus and its gate-town Automata in the Outlands. The Fraternity of Order's ranks are mainly filled with Humans and Zenythri, and they are known to work with the Modrons. Other more powerful forces associated with the Fraternity of Order are Nagas, Angels, Archons, and Inevitables.
Archetypes: Control, Artifact matters
UB Mind's Eye UB
The Mind's Eye are known as seekers and visionaries who view the planes as their personal playground. They believe in the power to reshape reality, especially themselves, and that everyone has the potential to become a god or move on to a higher state of existence. Their base is located in the Hinterlands in the Outlands. Tieflings and Nathri are often naturally drawn to The Mind's Eye. Their ranks also include Djinns, Hags, and Succubus, and they are associated with powerful creatures such as Illithids and Aboleth.
Archetypes: Cruel Control, Library/Hand matters
BR Doomguard BR
The Doomguard are proponents of embracing the power and inevitability of entropy, and they are consequently often associated with destructive tendencies. They are one of the least trusted factions in the planes because of this. Their base is located on the Negative Quasi-Elemental Plane. Githyanki, Khaasta, and Fire Genasi are often attracted to the Doomguard, and other more powerful creatures associated with the Doomguard are Demons, Devils, Efreet, and Ogres.
Archetypes: Destruction, Burn
RG Revolutionary League RG
The Revolutionary League represents a loose alliance of philosophical anarchists and rebels who believe in freedom from authority above all else. They believe in the liberation of the planes from all hierarchies. Their base is located on the plane of Carceri. Githzerai and Bariaur tend to be intuitively attracted to The Revolutionary League, and they are known to command and associate with powerful creatures such as Dryads, Minotaurs, Trolls, and Chaos Beasts.
Archetypes: Aggro, Land Control
GW Ring-Givers GW
The Ring-Givers are a group of ascetics who favor self-reliance and giving up on material possessions, and value charity and altruism. They believe that you get back what you give and that the planes naturally function based on a system of karma. Their base is located in the city of Sigil. The ranks of the Ring-Givers are commonly filled with Humans, Aasimar and Shad. Other powerful creatures associated with the Ring-Givers are Centaurs, Pixies, Spirits, and Treants.
Archetypes: Enchantment matters, anti-artifact
WB Dustmen WB
The Dustmen believe that this life is a shadow of existence, and that everyone has already died and transitioned to this poor substitute. They see no value in life, accepting death, working to prepare themselves for True Death. Their base is located on the Negative Energy Plane, though they also still operate out of Sigil's Mortuary. The bulk of Dustmen are Humans and Tieflings, while the rest tend to be intelligent undead, such as Liches and Vampires. The Dustmen are also known for commanding undead creatures such as Zombies, Ghouls, Mummies, and Skeletons.
Archetypes: Graveyard matters, Exile matters
UR Free League UR
The Free League believe in freedom of thought, imagination and creativity. They think that everyone should be able to independently develop their own beliefs for themselves and value abstract experimentation and innovation. While not unified enough to have a base, they are known to be spread across the Outlands. Githzerai and Nathri are often drawn to the Free League, and they are known to accept the bold and different. They are also associated with Chimera, Mimics, Manticores, and Golems.
Archetypes: Variant Instant/Sorcery
BG Fated BG
The Fated believe in a crude philosophy of survival of the fittest and might makes right. They think that the planes are rough and exist for those who can take them, with everyone naturally pursuing their own power. Their base is located on Ysgard and its gate-town Glorium in the Outlands. Bladelings, Githyanki, Bariaur, and Earth Genasi are often attracted to the Fated. The Fated are also known to associate with and command powerful creatures such as Werewolves, Worgs, Devourers, and Dinosaurs.
Archetypes: Big Creatures, +1/+1 counters
RW Harmonium RW
The Harmonium are a well meaning but at times militant and hard-headed group who believe in a unified organization of the planes. They tend to favor the idea of peace through strength and unity of belief, and are passionate zealots for what they believe to be the good. Their base is located on the plane of Arcadia. Zenythri and Fire Genasi are often attracted to the Harmonium, followed by Humans. The Harmonium also are associated with powerful creatures such as Giants, Titans, Azers, and Pegasus.
Archetypes: Tokens, Weenie
GU Society of Sensation GU
The Society of Sensation believes that breadth of experience equals power and enlightenment. They think that experiencing something is the only way to understand it and one must expose oneself to as many experiences as possible. Their base is located on the plane of Arborea. Bariaur and Nathri are often found within the ranks of the Society of Sensation, and they are popular with travelers from across the planes. The Society of Sensation also is associated with Sphinxes, Hydra, Hippogriffs, and Griffins.
Archetypes: Explore, Multicolor matters
Single-Color Planes:
Elysium - W
Mechanus - U
Gray Waste - B
Limbo - R
Arborea - G
Dual-Color Planes:
Celestia - WU
Baator - UB
Abyss - BR
Ysgard - RG
Beastlands - GU
Acheron - WB
Pandemonium - UR
Carceri - BG
Arcadia - RW
Bytopia - WG
I'll try to find some time in the next couple of days to post it for you. Feel free to steal whatever if you like any of it.
-- UPDATE: Info about my set below --
I thought a long time about how to do a Planescape set and in the end I decided to focus on the factions, particularly their roles in Sigil. Here is a link to my Planescape: Factions set spoiler, if you want to go straight to the source:
http://www.planesculptors.net/set/planescape-factions/version-3#cards
And below I've gathered some thoughts about my work on the set, and on your ideas so far. It's a bit of a hot mess but given that I don't know if anyone will actually ever come back to this thread and read it, I didn't want to spend too much time cleaning it up :P.
If you only read one thing from this diatribe, it should be my advice that Planescape is HUGE, and you should pick something narrow and go crazy with that thing. I picked "Factions in Sigil" and even that was too broad... could have easily been two to three sets, GNR/RNA style.
Obviously that's a lot, but I was targeting a set somewhere in the area of Future Sight complexity and Modern Masters power level (I think I came in under MM power level, but that's okay).
Some decisions as a result of these:
With regard to Class Types, I went... close to second-edition D&D, though not exact.
Non-D&D class types:
I mostly stuck to the listed colors except for one-off cards where it made sense (e.g. a blue Harmonium tap-down card, The Great Green Wurm as the Mercykillers' monster).
My ten almost-color-pairs were the following, along with summaries of some my notes from early in the design process. I've also included the mechanics that ended up appearing on the cards (most of these came much later in development).
Fraternity of Order - WU - Blue motivations, white methods. The Guvners have a very blue goal of obtaining all knowledge and understanding all things, but they also view everything through a structured lens (white). As part of the judicial system they also maintain peace through order (white).
Mechanics: Counterspells, O-Ring, Card Draw
The Fated - UB - Black motivations, blue and black methods. The Takers believe that if you can't hold onto something, you don't deserve to have it, and everybody has to look out for themselves (black). Obtaining what you want is often accomplished through understanding and exploiting knowledge and loopholes of complex systems such as the tax code (blue), and other times through more nefarious techniques (black).
Mechanics: Discard, Stealing, Sacrifice, Treasure
The Revolutionary League - RB - Red motivations, black and red methods. The Anarchists believe in the abolishment of all systems so that individuals can be truly free (red) and they'll do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal, no matter how underhanded (black).
Mechanics: Deathtouch, Destruction, Self-sacrifice
The Xaositects - RG - Green motivations, red ideology. Ultimately the Chaosmen are about acknowledging and accepting (green) that chaos is at the core of everything (red).
Mechanics: Madness, Coin-flipping
The Bleakers - WG - Green motivations, white themes. Like the Xaositects, their motivation is to acknowledge and accept (green) that there is no purpose to life or the multiverse (colorless?). However, in doing so, they turn to healing the sick and helping the downtrodden (white).
Mechanics: Madness, Lifegain/Damage prevention, Flicker (to represent the Grim Retreat), Tapping (flavored as depression or nonsense)
Mercykillers - WB - White motivations, black methods. The Mercykillers want people to be safe (white) by striking criminals from society - or existence. However, many of them will do absolutely whatever it takes to reach this goal - interrogation, torture, murder without trial, etc. (black)
Mechanics: Kill spells, Rewards for killing
Transcendant Order - URG - Blue motivations, red themes. The Transcendants are all about perfecting themselves, mentally and physically (blue). What they believe as perfection is acting without thought (red) by being in-tune with the cadence of the multiverse (green).
Mechanics: Proaction (Precombat main phase), Prowess
Doomguard - BG - Green motivations, black methods. The Doomguard believe that everyone should accept and acknowledge that entropy is the correct/inevitable state of the multiverse (green). However, as entropy is intrinsically about destruction, many of their methods involve killing and destabilizing (black).
Mechanics: Wither, Caring about things dying and being exiled, Exiling cards from graveyards, Self-mill
Athar - RW - Red and white motivations, red methods. The Athar want everyone to think for themselves (red), and to free everyone from lies about the powers (white). The way they accomplish this tends to be through arguments, passionate speeches, and active protest (red).
Mechanics: Artifact/enchantment hate (flavored as anti-religious relics), Land hate (flavored as anti-religion)
Sensates - UGR - Blue motivations, green and red methods. The Sensates want to reach enlightenment (blue) through experiencing everything the multiverse has to offer, which includes the natural state of all things (green) and the full range of art and emotion (red). Inversely, the Sensates are about experiencing everything, without any morality or ethics attached (all colors, minus white and black).
Mechanics: Worldliness (bonuses if you have X colors in your graveyard)
Outside the color pairs / in addition to:
Harmonium - W - White motivations, white methods. The Harmonium's end goal is peace through order. They achieve it through war when necessary, but the reason they go to war is because they view that group as an obstacle to peace.
Mechanics: Care about other Harmonium/white soldiers
Dustmen - BG - Green motivations, black themes. The Dustmen are all about embracing the natural state of life and death (green). They do so in macabre ways often associated with the undead (black).
Mechanics: Mummify (a reflavored Embalm)
Godsmen - WU - Blue motivations, white themes. The Godsmen believe in perfecting yourself (blue) so that you can step up the rungs of existence. They tend to be a supportive, though harsh, community (white).
Mechanics: Cares about Equipment and Auras (flavored as the works of The Great Foundry)
Signers - WUBRG - The signers accept just about anyone and any belief system, so long as you think you're the center of the multiverse. The reasoning of why you believe that, or what you intend to do with that power, can be just about anything (to bring peace, to obtain all knowledge, to dominate, to experience, etc).
Mechanics: Cares about having Signers
Free League - WUBRG, skewing R- Basically, anybody can be a member, but this tends to include those who have anti-authoritarian viewpoints.
Mechanics: None
Anyway, I could keep going but I think I'll stop. Have fun with your set! Planescape is awesome and I'm excited to see what you come up with.
At the moment in general this is still in a somewhat experimental state. I've already shuffled through a few mechanic possibilities and altered the design goals and set themes a bit (I originally had a "color matters" notion but it didn't feel right for this).
I do have dual color archetypes assigned to 10 selected post-faction war factions, but haven't necessarily decided to emphasize them so much as have the intent to use them as a notable part of the flavor and backstory of a good amount of cards.
I'm now experimenting with the idea of representing the planes and planar travel somehow, and it seems hard to do. DFC (and Legendary) Lands is sort of what I have in mind, with the 2nd side representing Planes in some cases. And I'm curious about exploring either Gate or Portal as a land type, or possibly Portal as an artifact type. Another neglected possibility is Plane cards or DFC Plane cards, though I've been a little hesitant about that because of the extra rules complexity of the Plane cardtype.
But in the lack of completely developing that so far, I feel I'm still lacking a strong "land matters" thing besides nonbasic landcycling, and while I like nonbasic landcycling, it doesn't scream "Planescape" as much as DFC-Land/Planes/Gates/Portals does.
The Portal Mechanic is sort of intended to reflect the reality-shaping and specifically give a sense of "from something intangible and abstract (instant/sorcery) to something concrete and real (creature/possibly other permanents)". It has potential to reflect things from the D&D multiverse in a flavorful way. Haven't fully developed its potential yet though, and I might still tweak it.
Another sub-thread I have going is "transform trigger" and "transform matters" cards. Since this is supposed to be DFC-intensive, and I have the Portal mechanic going, it makes sense to have some cards that experiment creatively with transform, use transform as a trigger, or directly transforms cards as part of spell effects (extending and warping the thread started by cards like Waxing Moon and Moonmist, but applied to Planescape's flavor.)
It also occurs to me that "planeswalker matters" or "loyalty counters" could be a subtheme, but I haven't explored it.
I agree with you about wanting creature types to feel like DnD and not be MTG-compatible/standard per se.
I have a general color setup for the races, though I can see a number of them could be in two colors easily, and human could be any color. There are also a lot of possible monsters from DnD and related to certain planes that I want to experiment with, and allow more to naturally fall where they feel on the color pie.
While I'd ideally love to represent all the factions, it seemed to me that distilling it down to 10 was the most straight forward/elegant way to go about it simply because it maps to the standard 10 2 color combos in a convenient way, while covering all the factions seems to inherently create some sort of assymetrical distribution among the colors.
I sort of have decided to veer away from the idea of trying to represent spells from DnD. It seems less essential and flavorful to Planescape as such, and potentially a problematic road to make feel right. I'm leaning more on the idea of spells that reflect things from Sigil and the *feel* of planes and iconic things like Dustmen Contracts and Sensory Stones, Portals, Portal Keys, Mazes, The Astral, The Ethereal, The Blood War, The Lady of Pain, etc.
Hopefully we can end up with a bunch of great Planescape sets
After my experience, I think if you are going the lands- and Portals-matter route, I kind of think the factions should be even further background than this. For example, what if your ten two-color pairs were tied to Outer Planes? It sounds like you are going much more "big picture" than I did so this could let you fit in more of the weird stuff from elsewhere on the wheel.
I dig it, excited to see what you come up with.
I struggled with this, it was tough to get a good balance of showing the "core" PC races and all the weird monsters and stuff. I do think if you tie races to colors, most of them should be in at least two. For example, I think it does a disservice to Githzerai to restrict them to red... they are very big into traditions and rituals (green), community survival in the chaos of Limbo and in the face of illithid and Githyanki threats (white), and practicing the mental discipline to maintain cities in Limbo (blue). That said, it does feel sort of anti-MTG to put races in all the colors, so it might be tough to recognize it. I do think my creature types ended up a bit too soupy.
That's gotta be really tough without bumping Planeswalkers down to rare, and doing that could have some pretty feel-bad consequences for Limited. But if you're not interested in Limited, YMMV.
In hindsight, I do think with a little pushing there could be a way. If I took my original setup and made some tweaks, I could have ended with 10 two-color pair factions and 5 single-color factions, which would be perfectly balanced on the color pie. I'm thinking Harmonium as mono-white, Godsmen as mono-blue (they are all about that self improvement, merit-based success), Doomguard as mono-black, Free League as mono-red, and... somebody as mono-green, I guess that leaves Signers? But also in hindsight, I don't think I'd have tried to cram all 15 factions into a set, but it could be done.
I'm definitely excited to see the lands you've come up with. Those will be awesome.
There are a lot of things to juggle here for sure, but I definitely feel like I have to include the factions in some way, even if it's not mechanically significant so much as just a flavor thing that gets represented on certain cards.
I do have the notion in the back of my mind to map the colors to the outer planes in some way. I haven't fully fleshed out my major land cycles yet that would determine that. Just starting to feel out how DFC lands that represent the planes may work out, with a few provisional designs for DFC Gate Town/Plane cards, with a static ability on the 2nd side that sort of captures the feel of being in that plane, such as:
Ecstasy, Gate Town
Legendary Land - Gate (R)
Ecstasy enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
4WW, T: Transform Ecstasy.
///
Fields of Elysium
Legendary Land - Plane (R)
You and creatures you control have hexproof.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
SecretInfiltrator suggested a different version of this idea that literally has a Plane card, ala Planechase, on the 2nd side, but I'm really hesitant about the rules complexity brought by Plane cards, including the dice rolling and all that. I sort of intuitively prefer to just make Plane a separate land subtype here, as a stand-alone thing, backwards-compatibility be damned.
I'm also experimenting with more casual and simple, non-DFC Gate cards utilizing nonbasic landcycling, which more represent general portals from or within Sigil, such as:
Hive Portal
Land - Gate (C)
Hive Portal enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add C to your mana pool.
Nonbasic landcycling 3
Yes, I agree that some of them, such as the Githzerai, can easily go in other colors. What I would say is that I'm going to try to use that Race thing more as a loose guideline for what feels like the "primary" color association (due to the plane they come from), but not inherent per se. I associated the Gith with red because Limbo is a strong chaos plane, and because the Gith have something of a philosophy of freedom and anti-slavery due to their experiences with the illithids. Also, in some cases, certain legendary creature ideas inherent are based on a creature and theme that doesn't fit the "primary" color mapping of the race associated with the creature by cannon. For example, Dhaall is listed in canon as a Githzerai, so I went with:
Dhaall, the Scrivener WB
Legendary Creature - Gith Scribe (R)
When Dhall, the Scrivener enters the battlefield, exile all creature cards from all graveyards.
If a creature card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
Players can't play spells with the same name as cards exiled this way.
2/2
The extra feel and flavor here is supposed to sort of be that Dhaall is scribing everyone's "True Death".
Well, to clarify what I mostly mean by "planeswalker matters", so far in practice, I have mainly used this in the form of cards that have a "creature or planeswalker" as part of them, though a lot of it is actually leaning anti-planeswalker. Such as these designs:
Astral Void 4W
Sorcery (C)
Exile target creature or planeswalker.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its Portal cost.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Return Ethereal Marauder to its owner's hand.
3/3
The main thing to me is simply that planescape, as a setting about traveling the planes, inherently jibes with the flavor of planeswalkers, so I feel inclined to make it matter in some way.
Otherwise, I would say I actually am into constructed more than anything else, and ideally would want this set to be playable in Modern and Standard.
That was actually the first question i was going to ask. I think it doesn't get asked enough when posting custom sets, but 'where do you want this set to sit in the grand scheme of magic?' should be the questions everyone starts with. I get a sense that most people posting are trying to get their sets to fit into rotation limited,standard,modern,legacy,cube,commander,et all. But that doesn't mean your set has to satisfy all those requirements. The nice thing about doing this on your own, is that you only have to satisfy the requirements you want it to. If you want this to be a limited only set, then design for that alone. It will unburden you from having to worry about how your cards designs impact formats the set isn't playing to. Power level can be low, if you want it to be for new players, or complex and deep if you want it to be played by the enfranchised player.
I actually find it sad that Wizards hasn't figured this out yet. the game is 25 years old, and they haven't' figured out how to make expansion sets that don't impact their constructed formats and don't have to be "wacky" sets. They could easily make silver bordered limited sets that are more powerful than any ultimate masters set, and because of using silver borders, will never be standard,modern,legacy,vintage legal, but perfectly suited for sealed,draft,commander,and cube. If they are never going to produce a product line call 'Limited Cube', then i will be more than happy to lead that crusade.
Anyways, I will address i know absolutely nothing about planescape, so i will just set aside any comments on the flavor and focus on the questions of mechanical identity you are working with. You listed a great many aspects you feel are important, including establishing a full 10 two color combinations to feature with multi-color. As the adage goes, Less is More, i would definitely caution doing some distilling down to what you feel are the top three most important mechanical identities and working from there. Consider that with Ravnica it takes at least two large sets to drill down the two color combinations enough to make them feel relevant. You will likely need to do some splitting up of mechanical across a couple of sets. If you choose to do Planescape 1 through 3, it will give you good focus on individual aspects of the nature of the world and give your mechanics room to breath.
Personally i think there is a world of design space that can be explored with the exile zone. Of course every mechanic that requires special circumstances and non-battlefield zone relevance requires enablers, so if cards are going to care about being in exile, other cards are going to be required to support sending things to exile. Exile matters can easily be combined with other important aspects, such as the rule of three. For instance, you could have a creature with a trigger that at the beginning of combat checks to see if it's in exile with at least three other creatures, and for a cost, can be placed on the battlefield tapped and attacking for a turn, then exiled again. something similar to obzedat. there's a lot of possibility with zone based triggers, and that was just one lousy example.
For lands that represent the movement of planes, maybe look at the planes of this world, more like the planes of existence in Theros (the underworld, overworld, and Nyx), than disparate different worlds that planeswalkers visit. You could adapt the original designs of sagas where there is a list of abilities that cycles, but put them on the non-basic lands, to capture a mechanical identity of moving across planes within this world. It would require establishing some new ground to keep track which point on the progress you are on. When they were first making DFC's they toyed with a day/night tracker, you would need to adapt something similar to those two things to make it work. But if all non-basic lands had three or four abilities that synced up and mechanically felt like there were on the same plane, it could work. Food for though.
it's still a couple months out, but i wonder if War of the Spark will have a planeswalker matters sub theme? for a card type that only appears at mythic rarity, they will either have to lower the rarity of planeswalkers, or make it so that non-planeswalker cards have some kind of planewalkery ability. If they go that route, just wait a month and see what wizards does with it. If they don't, you can try and be the first! The problem with loyalty abilities, is they are basically activated abilities on any other card type, so they are not very special on non-planeswalkers. If you go with the planes within planescape can be walked by regular beings, you could make a hybrid of level up, that requires moving between zones in order to level up. Would get wordy in hurry on a card, so it would likely need to be managed well, but maybe vanilla creatures get activated abilities by changing zones from exile to the battlefield?
I think you posed some fun mechanical questions out there, and i love approaching these things from the bottom up, even though its meant to be a top down set, sometimes when you don't know where to start, the best place is somewhere right in the middle. Hope these suggestions get the wheels spinning for you!
____________________________________________
Thanks for your thoughts! I actually misspoke by using the term "limited". For the most part, my angle as a player is in favor of competitive constructed formats (I don't like the randomness of draft, and I don't like how it's basically design around the *gambling* aspect of buying packs, when I've known for a long time that buying packs instead of singles and boxes is a losing proposition for MTG from both from a collector's angle and from the angle of wanting to build competitive decks), with a slight nostalgic bent toward Modern and Legacy because I originally played MTG from about 1994-2001.
At the moment I have sort of let this set sit in limbo for the past month or so, because I've bumped into some internal mechanical issues and realized I have to whittle down my design pillars more in general. I have too much going on, and it's looking to me like the multi-color factions may just be too much for this set. At best, I might stretch this idea out into 2 or 3 sets, with the expansions featuring the factions instead. The bigger design space I seem to be creating here so far has more to do with representing the planes themselves and the "land matters" thing, and experimenting with DFC. So, basically, you nailed it - my ideas here are too broad for one set, it really is best suited for a 3 set block.
Mechnically, the big issue that stopped me in my tracks is that the 2nd side of cards with the Portal mechanic are simply outright exiled by blink/flicker effects, while at the same time, I actually have a whole bunch of blink/flicker cards! That's an internal inconsistency that either calls the Portal mechanic into question or means I'll need to remove blink/flicker as a theme. More likely I'll have to either completely redesign or replace the Portal mechanic.
While I do want to focus on creating interesting mechanics and abilities here, in a sense, the very nature of this project is based on a flavor consideration - the flavor of Planescape, which is a very specific nostalgic setting for Dungeons and Dragons. The challenge is to simultaneously match that flavor to MTG in a compelling way and representing them well in the mechanics. And ideally, I would want people to be able to at least make reasonable block-constructed decks out of it, and for it to potentially be cross-compatible enough that it could theoretically work for Standard or Modern, for practical purposes.
I thought about this for a little bit, and i looked over the design for Ethereal Jaunt, and i see what you mean. You want to be able to portal spells into permanents using DFC tech. Of course based on the rules, if you blink/flicker a transformed permanent it resets to its front face. There aren't a lot of good solutions mechanically speaking. My though process went to the idea of establishing a rules rider inside of the Portal mechanic that creates a delayed replacement effect along the lines of "If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand". similar to the rider used to keep spells from being abused by exiling them from the stack. While you couldn't blink portal cards in the traditional sense, it would allow portal cards to be recast, and still have added value. Balancing activation costs would ensure that it's not too format warping like buyback, since you will almost always get portal cards back in your hand.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (Exile this spell as it resolves. You may cast it transformed from exile for its Portal cost.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Return Ethereal Marauder to its owner's hand.
3/3
this would adjust the design along the lines of:
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Portal 3UU (You may cast this spell for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
///
Ethereal Marauder
Creature - Beast (C)
U: Ethereal Marauder gains hexproof until end of turn.
3/3
The combination of hexproof and the adjusted function of portal would allow this card to be very similar functionally to what you wanted it to be in most game play scenarios, with it's blinking effect.
Based on your wording for Portal, which of the two costs is being used to cast it the first time, and which cost is from exile cost the second time? it's worded a little confusing unfortunately.I see that you like the idea of it being a flashback variant, with the cast twice design, but don't forget a lot of fun the game comes from creating decision points with spells, do i cast the small effect now, or save up for the big effect later. If that's not what you're looking to do, you can still word it in a way to work as per your initial design. Just remove the exile clause from Portal, and add it as hard text on the actual spells.
Ethereal Jaunt U
Instant (C)
Return target creature or planeswalker to its owner's hand.
Exile this spell as it resolves.
Portal 3UU (You may cast this spell from exile for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
Hopefully this helps you on your way to solving your mechanics puzzles
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Thanks for the solution suggestions. I definitely prefer the flexibility of the 2nd version over the 3rd. I definitely want Portal to at least partly be used in the way you describe, where the player feels an incentive between small and big effects as well as a matter of kind (instant/sorcery vs. permanent).
Unless I'm reading "leave the battlefield" too broadly (this would include a creature dieing in general, right?), I have some hesitancy about all Portal creatures automatically returning to hand on death, which could be seen as replacing a former hindrance (being exiled by flicker) with a pretty significant boon since it infinitely bounces the spell back into your hand, so I may have to be careful with that.
Another thought is that I had intended Portal to sometimes be used with enchantments and possibly other permanent types on the 2nd side. The rider about returning to hand seems something to be even more careful about on an enchantment to me. I could be over-thinking that though.
Nonetheless I may well consider changing Portal to your first suggestion:
(You may cast this spell for its portal cost. If you do, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.)
It's more wordy than the original but certainly patches up any issues with flicker. I think it makes the design space slightly more complex to work with and makes the mechanic a little pushed to design for at common in all colors, but I'd be willing to experiment and see where it goes.
My main concern is that it's in-built self-bounce now. The opposite rider perhaps would be "If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead", or if I were to restrict the mechanic to creatures on the 2nd side, "If it would die, exile it". That's the opposite route, it gets rid of the flicker problem by simply having the creature exile on death all around. I don't know. But then it's an in-built drawback at that point.
On the other hand, if "this *and* that" is what we are going for, then it makes sense for there to be either a kicker-like mechanic or an alternative cost mechanic that transforms the card on top of its primary effect. The version of Portal above is a bit vague as to if you're paying for both effects. Assuming so, it could be interpreted as the equivalent of:
Kicker (Cost)
If (Cardname) was kicked, exile this spell as it resolves, then return it to the battlefield transformed. If it would leave the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.
I'm honestly not sure if that's all that great. Just going for split cards to represent a choice between a non-permanent and a permanent seems a lot more simple and viable, while cutting out the need for a new wordy mechanic or lots of conditional text on a card. That isn't particularly innovative, but it is true that Wizards has not experimented at all with different card types that includes permanents on split cards and while split cards is formally described as only being for instants and sorceries, that is not actually written into the rules itself.
Part of the point here is really a flavor thing as well - to represent the flavor feel of certain planes with both a non-permanent and a permanent on the same card. Portal overall seems like a clunky attempt to encapsulate that kind of thing, so it's tempting to gut it in favor of split cards with variant card types in general. Which opens up space for other new mechanics to be developed instead.