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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Planescape RPG
In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil
Welcome to the Cage! That's Sigil, City of Doors - realm of the Lady of Pain, gateway to all planes and possibilities. It's the most coveted burg in the multiverse, and this tome is the key to unlocking its secrets.
128 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 31, 2024
Amazing, AMAZING book if you are looking to host a game in the City of Doors. Locales, sights, drinks, and even pamphlets populate the pages detailing the various wards of Sigil, providing near-endless plot hooks for anyone looking to be inspired and then use their own imagination.
Re-read it in 2024 in preparation of an adventure for a convention, where the characters would find themselves entangled in the affairs of cats - and by extension, cranium rats.
One of my favorite RPG books since the '90s, when I first picked it up.
Re-read it in 2024 in preparation of an adventure for a convention, where the characters would find themselves entangled in the affairs of cats - and by extension, cranium rats.
One of my favorite RPG books since the '90s, when I first picked it up.
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December 2, 2024Pretty good in terms of inspirational material for a game set in Sigil. Mostly avoids the stupid D&D stuff of "hooks" and gets right down to locations and personalities.
January 15, 2022
A setting book for Sigil, the city of doors. Sigil sits at the center of the D&D multi-verse. It's the most reliable way to go from plane to plane and it's generally accepted as a neutral ground for most parties. Tanar'ri and Baatezu can't bring their Blood War there. The city's ruler, Her Serenity the Lady of Pain would not stand for it.
This, of course, does not make Sigil a safe city. Especially not for a barmy clueless Prime who accidentally found himself on the filth-strewn streets of the Hive ward. They'll quickly learn to give the Hardheads the laugh. It's that or they get put in the deadbook in short order.
The books is a wonderful resource giving detailed descriptions of the city's many wards, prominent locations within that ward, and the movers and shakers of that ward. The book is full of incredible locations and NPCs and I want to use all of them. There's Chirper's, the luxury restaurant/hotel with a menagerie and skull museun inside of it. There's the woman whose spent her inheritance running a soup kitchen in the Hive after she learned her father built that fortune by charging extortionate rents. There's the chief of the office of information who keeps a trove of blackmail hidden in a combination vault in her building's basement and the advertising artist who codes the combination to that vault into his advertisements. Sigil is a living city and the book really helps it come alive.
The writing itself is good. It mostly strays from being overly technical and often slips into Sigil slang as the book presents itself as a transcription from a guide (or tout or factotum) giving a tour to a barmy berk they've found. Statblocks are rare and almost never grind the flow of text to a halt the way they often do in modern D&D books. The book does not use a two-column per page of text format which keeps it from being overbearing. The pages themselves are broken up by tons of inventive interior art which often takes the form of advertisement for the various Sigil businesses which also means they make great handouts. There are even several full page painting of buildings and prominent scenes.
The book gives a at-the-bottom-looking-up perspective to Sigil. The high-up men are hopelessly corrupt and could care less what happens to the common folk. The people at the bottom aren't always good either but it's clear some change is in order. If you want to run highly political, anarchist D&D, Sigil is probably the place for.
So much effort was put in to building up Sigil and its factions. Warring philosophies on the streets of a metropolis. It's a highly political setting and I love it and I will never understand why they decided to blow that up with the Faction War metaplot. Still, it's hard to read a Planescape book and not slip into Sigil slang for days. That's enough wigwag out of my bonebox, though.
This, of course, does not make Sigil a safe city. Especially not for a barmy clueless Prime who accidentally found himself on the filth-strewn streets of the Hive ward. They'll quickly learn to give the Hardheads the laugh. It's that or they get put in the deadbook in short order.
The books is a wonderful resource giving detailed descriptions of the city's many wards, prominent locations within that ward, and the movers and shakers of that ward. The book is full of incredible locations and NPCs and I want to use all of them. There's Chirper's, the luxury restaurant/hotel with a menagerie and skull museun inside of it. There's the woman whose spent her inheritance running a soup kitchen in the Hive after she learned her father built that fortune by charging extortionate rents. There's the chief of the office of information who keeps a trove of blackmail hidden in a combination vault in her building's basement and the advertising artist who codes the combination to that vault into his advertisements. Sigil is a living city and the book really helps it come alive.
The writing itself is good. It mostly strays from being overly technical and often slips into Sigil slang as the book presents itself as a transcription from a guide (or tout or factotum) giving a tour to a barmy berk they've found. Statblocks are rare and almost never grind the flow of text to a halt the way they often do in modern D&D books. The book does not use a two-column per page of text format which keeps it from being overbearing. The pages themselves are broken up by tons of inventive interior art which often takes the form of advertisement for the various Sigil businesses which also means they make great handouts. There are even several full page painting of buildings and prominent scenes.
The book gives a at-the-bottom-looking-up perspective to Sigil. The high-up men are hopelessly corrupt and could care less what happens to the common folk. The people at the bottom aren't always good either but it's clear some change is in order. If you want to run highly political, anarchist D&D, Sigil is probably the place for.
So much effort was put in to building up Sigil and its factions. Warring philosophies on the streets of a metropolis. It's a highly political setting and I love it and I will never understand why they decided to blow that up with the Faction War metaplot. Still, it's hard to read a Planescape book and not slip into Sigil slang for days. That's enough wigwag out of my bonebox, though.
February 13, 2019
I love Planescape and Sigil, and can't stop reading old D&D sourcebooks about it.
I actually think that, should I be so lucky as to run a Planescape campaign for friends someday, I would change a lot of superficial things about Sigil. It's portrayed as very dingy/grimy/ugly, which I don't really like--as the sort of crossroads of the multiverse, I think it should be a more wondrous place with at least some aspects of great beauty. The "cant" (berk, scragged, bubber, etc.), based on various types of British street slang through the ages, is an important part of the feel (and goes with the grimy industrial aesthetic!), but I think the vibe of Sigil should be more cosmopolitan. I think Joss Whedon's use of Mandarin in "Firefly" would be thematically more appropriate, and I think if I ran a campaign I would try to "translate" the Sigil cant into a non-Western idiom.
But stripping away those surface things that I don't like, Sigil has a really compelling core for me. As the "City of Doors," it's the crossroads of the multiverse--similar to the space station Deep Space Nine--and a de facto demilitarized zone because of the dominant influence of the Lady of Pain, meaning that all types of people, factions, and ideas clash without leading to open war. It's full of mystery and intrigue...in short I really want to run a campaign there!
I actually think that, should I be so lucky as to run a Planescape campaign for friends someday, I would change a lot of superficial things about Sigil. It's portrayed as very dingy/grimy/ugly, which I don't really like--as the sort of crossroads of the multiverse, I think it should be a more wondrous place with at least some aspects of great beauty. The "cant" (berk, scragged, bubber, etc.), based on various types of British street slang through the ages, is an important part of the feel (and goes with the grimy industrial aesthetic!), but I think the vibe of Sigil should be more cosmopolitan. I think Joss Whedon's use of Mandarin in "Firefly" would be thematically more appropriate, and I think if I ran a campaign I would try to "translate" the Sigil cant into a non-Western idiom.
But stripping away those surface things that I don't like, Sigil has a really compelling core for me. As the "City of Doors," it's the crossroads of the multiverse--similar to the space station Deep Space Nine--and a de facto demilitarized zone because of the dominant influence of the Lady of Pain, meaning that all types of people, factions, and ideas clash without leading to open war. It's full of mystery and intrigue...in short I really want to run a campaign there!
December 14, 2022
Sigil is the crucial location in Planescape, so a supplement which enriches its flavour just plain makes sense. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
November 29, 2020
Ah now this is the good stuff 😈
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews