Jessica Barrington, an online role-player, college student, and artist, is no stranger to PS or the Mimir.net. We had the pleasure of meeting her at GenCon and she offered to uncover the dark of the Planescape LARP.

Based on White Wolf's popular Minds Eye Theater rules, the LARP focused on the Blood War come to modern day Earth. The waring Tanar'ri and Baatezu took to mortal form and decided this prime world's fate. LARPs are known for giving table-top games a new perspective, experiencing the unusual and embracing with the experimental. This LARP proves to be no exception. It was evidently popular, bringing in 40 players of Tanar'ri, Baatezu, Garou (from the Beastlands,) Aasimar, and even Slaadi!

EARTH SLIDES INTO THE ABYSS

At 8:45 PM on the 6th day of August, the 1999th year of the Christian Calendar, denizens of the planet Earth looked up in horror as they saw there beloved sky turn blacker than cambion skin, the waters turning to the color of blood as the planet sank into... The Abyss.

Since around 7:50 that night, legions of tanar'ri had been invading earth, their primary attacks focused on Europe, China, and Australia. At that time, Baatezu forces had started entering North and South America, Africa, India, and Russia. Almost an hour later, the Tanar'ri had also gained control of North America and Russia, while the baatezu struggled in vain to keep a hold of Indonesia.

"...On the 6th day of August,...the planet sank into... The Abyss."

Two minutes later, the Baatezu had lost their legions in Indonesia, but had succeeded in the United States. But, in three minute's time afterwards, the Baatezu had lost all of their forces on Earth, and thus the planet was plunged into the plane of Chaos and Evil.

How could this all happen?

The planars realized that the power around Earth's crystal sphere was unique, allowing planars to pass through. One of the drawbacks was that they were turned into beings of human form, unrecognizable save through detection spells. Along with this drawback was the fact that the planars couldn't physically hurt each other, a successful 'punch' stunning the target for a mere ten seconds.

Some fiends finally became creative and started throwing their enemies out of the window or down the stairs, which finally did damage and kill a few troublesome tieflings. Other beings learned through experience that being 'killed' was not the end, but merely the beginning- for they were reformed upon Earth (within close proximity of where they just died) with magical items.

"...As always, the Abyssal Lord Grazz't was on top of things."

How then, you ask, did the legions of tanar'ri and baatezu start attacking Earth? You see, the sides of the Blood War had prepared scrolls that would summon the beings to different areas of the Earth, or get rid of opposing armies. The key to winning the war for Earth was to acquire and use these scrolls, which were rather difficult to find.

The success beyond this shows one more time that, as always, the Abyssal Lord Grazz't was on top of things. Lord Grazz't had dispatched one of his servants, a fallen aasimon, to do the dirty work.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Abyssal fiends spent quite a bit of time fighting each other before finding out they were on the same side. (And afterwards, they still fought a little with each other). The fiends then began to recruit others to side with them on the Blood War, one group being the garou... However, it must be noted that the tanar'ri attacked the garou for quite a bit of time before realizing

1. The garou were quite powerful, And useful; And
2. They were both against the baatezu- thus the alliance was formed.

Several aasimon And other beings also sided with the tanar'ri- some because they were magically 'coerced', And others because they found out the tanar'ri were capable of taking care of certain issues (like artifacts needing to be destroyed)

In the nature of the Rule of 3's, I shall give you the bits of wisdom that I have learned:

1)Portable holes to different planes: If you want a laugh, stuff a tiefling who has just stolen several portable planar holes into a portable hole...

(Talk about getting in the dead book fast. However, we tried to trap a garou in the portable hole to Limbo, but couldn't get him in past his knee. It seems that the patterns of belief And thought are different in the garou. He turned Limbo soup into key lime Jell-O And limburger cheese.)

2)Battle: Teleport w/o error is a good thing. So are fear And charm.

3)Rule of 3's: Isn't the rule of 3's supposed to be in effect, like if you found 2 strange magic rocks that needed to be destroyed, shouldn't there be a third? Half of my legion of tanar'ri thought there was a mystery third rock, which actually did not exist in the campaign.