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I first played Planescape Torment about three years ago. At the time I was deeply struck by the game's incredible depth, and many layers.

A few days ago I installed it once more, and yet again I am completely blown away. I don't think any game I've ever played has this level of profundity, and as I play I find myself mourning the fact that there will never be a sequel.

But, my sadness at the lack of a sequel did lead me to this thread idea.
Simply put, if you had all the technological knowledge and resources in the world, and were in charge of creating a sequel how would you frame it? What would you do with the story? Would you try to have any of the characters resurface? What kinds of philosophies would you enter into the dialogue?
And anything else you can think of..

I know for a fact that a sequel was planned, though I have no details of it. In fact, a team was assembled for the game and put to work on it, only to be taken off it for another RPG entitled TORN--and then removed from that. They got understandably annoyed, and the management, having an excellent resource on its hands, decided the logical thing to do was fire the resource.

I suspect if I were making a successor title I would start with the NO down in the hell regions, far behind the lines of the grand war, being contacted by someone outside. Perhaps someone else from his past, or possibly one of the characters he journeyed with in PS:T. Thus, a fair amount of the game could take place in other locations, before traveling back to the battlefront and confronting more powerful beasties.

Beyond that, I can only guess. The NO has achieved knowledge, and rectified his error. He still has to atone. So presumably, this sequel would be about achieving, at least in part, atonement.

[QUOTE=fable]I know for a fact that a sequel was planned, though I have no details of it... ...Beyond that, I can only guess. The NO has achieved knowledge, and rectified his error. He still has to atone. So presumably, this sequel would be about achieving, at least in part, atonement.[/QUOTE]
Or maybe a prequel? How he got to the repeat-incarnation-state he was in?

Or maybe a semi-prequel? A different adventure with one of NO's other incarnations?

You know a story is great when the follow-up could go in any direction. I would pay just to know what their idea was for part 2.

[QUOTE=fable]
I suspect if I were making a successor title I would start with the NO down in the hell regions, far behind the lines of the grand war, being contacted by someone outside. Perhaps someone else from his past, or possibly one of the characters he journeyed with in PS:T.[/QUOTE]

Roger that. I would somehow insert his Twin sibling, the one he never knew of, & some of his progeny as a jumping off point in exploration of such mundane concepts as 'kinship' & 'family'. Talk about 'regret'!

Just in terms of game dynamics, it would be interesting to follow up on how belief creates reality. Instead of just magic (wizard) and divine (priest) spells, the NO could have access to certain powers based on his belief system. This could go as far as allowing him to access certain areas of the Planes based on the beliefs he holds at any given time.

Being a romantic, a sequel would certainly need to follow up on Grace's pledge to find the NO no matter where he ended up on the Lower Planes. Now that the NO is mortal, it would be interesting to look at the way love and pain arise together for mortals while at the same time exploring a relationship with two people who have lived as long at they have. And, of course, this time he gets to read Grace's diary.

If a studio declared an intention to make another planescape game my heart would soar.

But bringing back the nameless one, or even any of his cohorts, particularly as central figures would be a truly tragic choice to make in my bloated cynical opinion .

The original story may have left holes in the story, unfilled conclusions and even a sour taste about some things, but thats almost what the game is about. You can't have depth without a hole, and i don't want a sequal filling it. (you see filling that hole would be really screwing the original over, [how far does that statement push the rules about vulgarities?])

I'd love to see a heavly story influenced game in the same vein as torment with a central figure bumped across the planes , TNO is finally where hes supposed to be, dont take him out.

I wouldnt want to speculate on the story of the sequal, personally i find it more than a little inane when people do that.
The themes and concepts behind it, i feel would best be revitalized forms of what were explored in planescape.
More importantly than that i think what really set planescape apart from other RPGs, and games in general is how the design process made was taken, which, knowing next to nothing about how it was actually done, can be seen in the originals end product.

an emphasis in art of graphics
expectation of dialogue over exposition
truly thinking out the way people talk act (or in many cases how people who arn't really people tak and act)
use of real description in the text
putting forth story itself as the main vechicle of gameplay

Having finally hunkered down and finished this great game a few days ago myself, I was struck with a small amount of things that were hinted at, but never followed through with. One of them being a scene very early on in the game when he says "expect things to change around here" when an NPC in The Hive asks him why he did something... and quite frankly that led me to believe that later in the game there was going to be some attempt on his behalf to wrest control of Sigil from The Lady. A concept that I would love to see tackled in a future Planescape game.

Whereas Torment dealt with "The Nature of a Man", the concept of Sigil and trying to usurp control of it (to change it for the better or rule it with even more distance than The Lady did) could offer some insight into "The Power of Belief"

Just to clarify (as my intention was not to suggest that a confrontation with the Lady of Pain should be the game's focal point) here's a quick concept:

Your character is mortal, knows their name and has memories of a rather 'average' life (as average as can be in Sigil). But what if this character unknowingly had the ability to manipulate matter; create things from nothing or alter existing matter? Perhaps they have no idea that they can do this in the beginning and all of these memories that they have of their life are false, to prevent them from knowing what they can do (as it is seen as a monumental threat).

So do you continue to believe what you know, or take a leap of faith to discover who you truly are? And when you find this out, is the path you're taking one an attempt to bring a order and peace to Sigil or do you want to make a bid to rule it with an iron fist, holding your powers over the heads of the people like an executioner's axe?

[QUOTE=TinSaladin]If a studio declared an intention to make another planescape game my heart would soar.[/QUOTE]

QFT!

[QUOTE=TinSaladin]TNO is finally where hes supposed to be, dont take him out.[/QUOTE]

But I am not sure I agree with this. He may be where he was suppose to be but after then he committed further atrocities, such as becoming immortal, which surely should be worth a further punishment, i.e. More Torment!

I quite like the idea of his children (though it has been years since I've played it so somebody may have a reason why he never spawned any), which he did not know of, being intergral to the plot somehow. Something along the lines of how he has doomed his entire bloodline by his actions. Just thoughts.

I similarly would understand though if they took a completely different line in a sequel but just continued with the rich and enthralling storytelling of the first. I played for hours solid, unable to stop, just to unravel the mysteries of The Nameless One!

Think my sig says it all!

Personally, I think the easiest thing would be to pick up a fresh character with a similar problem - unwanted immortality. Different circumstances, different cause, different characters, but a similar central theme. Further, I'd stick with Sigil, but explore areas ignored or only briefly touched on during the original game - the Market Ward, the Guildhall Ward, the Lady's Ward. Sigil is just too interesting to leave behind.

-- CG Drake

Mortality twisted by the planes

How's about Planescape Anguish?
I'd do something along the lines of a parallel story from TTO's point of view. (Inspired by Shadow of Ender(,boy Ender comes up a lot on this board).) It could start out with TTO's traumatic experience and the slow and painful realization of what he is. Explore deeper his motivations, as well as probe into the nature of perception and memory with direct contradictions to what we know from Torment.

Praxis