GB Feature: Cancelled Planescape RPG Interview

A long time ago, well before we ever had a Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter project to pledge toward, designer Colin McComb was heading up a PlayStation-exclusive Planescape RPG at Black Isle Studios that unfortunately never made it to store shelves. But the game is no longer completely shrouded in mystery, at least, as Colin was willing to tell us more about it:

GB: Before we let you get back to Tides of Numenera, can you briefly sum up the main path or plot of the game?

Colin: This was about 16 years ago, so I hope you’ll forgive my hazy memory on the exact details: The core of the game’s story was that you took the part of a young Mercykiller recruit. It’s your first day on the job and there’s a riot in the Hive, the slum of Sigil. You go into the tenements with your squad, but are quickly separated from them by the press of flesh and the flames, and you need to find your way out. Clues lead you into the Lower Ward, where you discover a criminal enterprise run by (apparently) a shadowy thieving organization. Your superiors send in investigators to wrap up most of the conspirators, and they send you to Ribcage in order to pursue certain loose ends. While there, you discover that this is a much bigger conspiracy than you thought, with tendrils extending into the politics of Baator itself. You plunge into Hell to exact justice, even though it means your near-certain death.

We’d have had the politics of Sigil tied into this, which is to say lots of other factions getting involved, and some celestial hierarchy as well. I was looking forward to doing it, but I learned so much from Torment that I have to say it was really for the best.