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To me, Plancescape is fantasy done right. A decided move away from castles and knights with elves, dwarves and orcs thrown in for flavor, Planescape brings a truly fantastical spin to things. One of the things that really drew me into Planescape was the politics. The factions, groups of 'philosophers with clubs' as the main rules put it, run most of the city and, arguably, are the focus of the setting. The possibilities for political schemeing between and inside the factions really appealed to me. That said, I found Faction War a bit hard to swallow, as it completely rips the factions out of Planescape. Not just the factions, but the whole setting is pretty much spun around, beaten with a stick and then smacked around. I can almost feel a second edition of Planescape coming after finishing Faction War.

But enough generalities, into the meat of it. This is a module that, obviously, revovles around a war between the factions, broken up into 6 adventures. Most are fairly standard, involving a big battle or a dungeonesque romp around the sewers or tracking down an artifact. The last one is a real kicker, though: it lets the PCs remould Sigil, the central city of the setting. There are catches, conditions and various out-routes, but that's just a bit much power for me to be handing out to players, especially the ones I play with. Other than that, there's no more railroading than any other module, and the storyline is pretty easy to accept, considering that it's a fantasy game. The art is, quite typically, lovely, although there's no DiTerlizzi. Some places are glossed over where a small descriptionm or even a sketchy little map, would have been helpful. I also really like the completely black cover, with only the logos, 'Faction War' and some little blood-tears in color.

Even though this module does away with my favorite part of the Planescape setting, I still liked it. It had a suitable plot twist at the end and also provides lots of extra info and future adventure hooks. The destruction of the factions is handled well and I might even use it. It does render a good many books and info obsolete, though, or else it would have scored higher.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Faction War
Author: Monte Cook & Ray Vallese Category: game Company/Publisher: TSR Cost: $20 Page count: 128 ISBN: 0-7869-1203-0 Capsule Review by Bob Roberts on 11/10/98. Genre tags: Fantasy	To me, Plancescape is fantasy done right. A decided move away from castles and knights with elves, dwarves and orcs thrown in for flavor, Planescape brings a truly fantastical spin to things. One of the things that really drew me into Planescape was the politics. The factions, groups of 'philosophers with clubs' as the main rules put it, run most of the city and, arguably, are the focus of the setting. The possibilities for political schemeing between and inside the factions really appealed to me. That said, I found Faction War a bit hard to swallow, as it completely rips the factions out of Planescape. Not just the factions, but the whole setting is pretty much spun around, beaten with a stick and then smacked around. I can almost feel a second edition of Planescape coming after finishing Faction War. But enough generalities, into the meat of it. This is a module that, obviously, revovles around a war between the factions, broken up into 6 adventures. Most are fairly standard, involving a big battle or a dungeonesque romp around the sewers or tracking down an artifact. The last one is a real kicker, though: it lets the PCs remould Sigil, the central city of the setting. There are catches, conditions and various out-routes, but that's just a bit much power for me to be handing out to players, especially the ones I play with. Other than that, there's no more railroading than any other module, and the storyline is pretty easy to accept, considering that it's a fantasy game. The art is, quite typically, lovely, although there's no DiTerlizzi. Some places are glossed over where a small descriptionm or even a sketchy little map, would have been helpful. I also really like the completely black cover, with only the logos, 'Faction War' and some little blood-tears in color. Even though this module does away with my favorite part of the Planescape setting, I still liked it. It had a suitable plot twist at the end and also provides lots of extra info and future adventure hooks. The destruction of the factions is handled well and I might even use it. It does render a good many books and info obsolete, though, or else it would have scored higher. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)