Planescape Scramble: The Hidden Easter Eggs of Sigil

PST:EE references the works of Franz Kafka, William Shakespeare, Li Shangyin, and more.

Planescape: Torment is a special game that goes deeper than meets the eye. One should not only look for doors to other planes, hidden dialogue lines, and secret spells that can only be taught by NPCs, but also references to the real world. Let’s have a look at a few of the easy-to-miss Easter eggs players can stumble across as the Nameless One.

Warning, Planes dwellers! These barrels are radioactive!

During your travels in Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition you may discover barrels with radioactive warning stickers on them. The images above show a couple of those barrels in the Wrecked Home and the Tenement of Thugs. These are a nod to Fallout, a game many of the original Planescape: Torment team members worked on.

There’s another Fallout Easter egg in PST:EE that wasteland wandering fans may notice - picking up or dropping the Pet Lim-Lim in the inventory screen is the same sound as in Fallout's inventory screen.

The Lord of Murder shall perish…

This one should stand out to all Baldur’s Gate players. A symbol of Bhaal marks one of the gravestones from the Coffin Maker’s Shop in the Lower Ward of Sigil.

Zombie #1041 in the Mortuary recites a poem by Li Shangyin.

Li Shangyin was a Chinese poet of the late Tang Dynasty, "rediscovered" in the 20th century and famous for his tantalizing "no title" poems. If the Nameless One talks to Zombie #1041 on the ground floor of the Mortuary and uses the Stories-Bones-Tell skill, we’re treated to part of a Li Shangyin’s poem which can be translated as:

It is difficult to meet as it is difficult to part,

The north wind has weakened; hundreds of flowers fade way,

When the Spring worms die, the silk shall never come again,

When the candle wax becomes ash, tears shall stop.

According to David Maldonado, a member of the original Planescape: Torment team, this “translation was a little soddy”. This is what David said once: “Apologies; the game deserved better. Still, it's not as bad as our "Slating" flub. Whoops! I still can't explain/understand that how that managed to happen - much like the Nameless One's true name, it's a Big Fancy Mystery".

This item in Planescape: Torment removes the basic human need for food and drink.

A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham Maslow was released in 1943. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid with physiological needs as the largest, most fundamental needs at the bottom and the need for self-actualization and self-transcendence at the top.

A “conqueror on a distant prime material world” is Alexander the Great. Earth is D&D. It’s Planescape canon!

The Gordian Knot, a legend associated with Alexander the Great, is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem solved easily by "thinking outside the box".

The Sensory Stone reflects upon the experience of a insect which has awoken as a human once.

The story told by the Sensory Stone is a reversal of the plot in Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis". This novella, often called one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century, centers on a story of a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous insect-like creature.

Inspiration for Annah-of-the-Shadows and Fall-From-Grace?

The original team on Planescape: Torment liked many books, comics, and games. According to Chris Avellone, Annah and Fall-From-Grace were inspired by Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge from Archie comics. In the comics Veronica enjoys a very posh lifestyle but chooses to hang out with her less affluent friends. Her best friend (and sometimes arch-rival) is Betty Cooper, and the two enjoy countless activities and interests. However, they are also at constant competition for the love interest.

It’s also interesting that Annah is derived from the Hebrew name Hannah, which in turn means "Grace." Since the Nameless One can meet Fall-From-Grace during his travels, the party can include two female members literally named "Grace" and "Fall-From-Grace”.

There is no sadder story on the Planes… than that of Montague and Juliette.

There are at least two references to works by William Shakespeare in Planescape: Torment. If Dak'kon dies, Morte will utter the words: "Alas, poor Dak'kon, I knew him well”. It’s a nod to the Act V of "Hamlet" (and funnily enough, the same statement could apply to Morte himself, considering Hamlet speaks his famous words looking at the the jester Yorick's skull).

The second reference is an alternative version of Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". Juliette is one of the many students of Fall-from-Grace working in the Brothel for Slaking Intellectual Lusts and the Nameless One can help in her relationship with Montague.

There are many more secrets and Easter eggs in Planescape: Torment. Which have you found? Let us know in the comments!

New to the planes? Find out more about Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition at planescape.com.

Developing Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition - Found Artifacts and Oddities

The original Planescape: Torment is filled with hidden gems.

During the development of Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition the Beamdog team dug deeply into the code of original Planescape: Torment and uncovered a treasure trove of secrets hidden within. Here are a few of the oddities we stumbled across while working with the original Planescape: Torment source code.

Not your ordinary test NPC.

Meet the infamous test character, Testocles. Like many cRPGs of its time Planescape: Torment was filled with text, however the conversation  mechanics of PST take speech option outcomes to the next level. In Planescape: Torment, the Nameless One can not only gain XP during conversation, but also be granted extra stat points, new abilities, or have his class change between fighter, thief, and mage.

Updated journal to “check shops with Robert Holloway."

Testocles’ dialog text tree is full of choices ranging from the aforementioned ability to make the Nameless One change class to a simple demand that the test character fidget. Here, Testocles fields a demand to view merchant stores for Robert Holloway, a programmer on the original game.

All hail Holloway! Merchant king!

These stakes are real! A successful test cancels plans for world destruction.

A secret message uncovered 18 years later.

As you can see in the above image, Technical Designer and Voice-over Coordinator on the original Planescape: Torment, David Hendee, left his mark on Curst’s Automap Screen. In the original Planescape: Torment this message was hidden and we found it only by adding the zoomed out map and uncovering the walkable path for the area. Learn about this discovery in the Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition launch livestream.

Run away from me, if you can. Like you’re scared. “RunAwayFrom ((PC), 2000)"

If we didn’t eat cheesy poofs, we’d be lame!

A sign of the times. The C language programmers on Planescape: Torment encrypted the data type void as a reference to the brand new hit show, South Park.

Japanese popular culture not only influenced Planescape: Torment, but also some of the test dialog.

Here, we’re introduced to Dak’kon in a test dialogue with some Hive thugs. According to the original team (watch our livestream with Chris Avellone!), the Planescape: Torment developers played a lot of Final Fantasy VII which may have influenced many of the higher level spells and the preference of each of the Nameless One’s companions to favor a single type of weapon based on their personality.

The original team had some fun with test text.

During our journey back in time, we found this bit of early UI and discovered the two most popular spells in development.

Creating Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition has been an unforgettable experience for the whole Beamdog team. Watch out for more on the making of PST:EE in the weeks ahead!

New to the planes? Find out more about Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition at planescape.com.

Q&A With Chris Avellone

Chris Avellone has returned to Planescape as the Lead Designer on Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition.

Planescape: Torment may have been released nearly two decades ago, but its status as a beloved genre classic remains untouched largely due to its amazing setting and unique story.

Chris Avellone, Lead Designer on Planescape: Torment, went on from PST to work on many other popular titles, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Wasteland 2, and Prey. Now he’s returned to his roots to help Beamdog bring Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition to life.  

We’re glad Chris has found time to share insights about the original game and PST:EE.

Warning: Interview contains spoilers.

1. What was your involvement in Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition? Was an enhanced edition something you always wanted to do?

CA - A lot of people have mentioned Torment to me over the years, and the chance to do an updated version of it was appealing – not to change the core content, but with the goal of re-introducing  a new generation to the RPG and allow them easier access to playing it without having to jump through hoops to make it happen.

While I love the original game deeply, I recognize that both interface design and tech across platforms have come a long way since ’99. I believe the Torment experience can be kept while taking advantage of the technical achievements over the past 15+ years, so when Beamdog contacted me to gauge my interest, I told them I was absolutely interested… especially if they allowed me a chance to do a real grammar fix of the discrepancies in the original, of which there were many (we weren’t able to hire an editor, who could have helped back then, so I am happy to have a chance to do it now).

Before anyone thinks editing was a lot of changes to the text, it was more along the lines of fixing basic errors, establishing naming consistency and formatting consistency, and elements that were never intended to make it into the final product (narrative bugs).

2. Take us through the development of the original Planescape: Torment. What makes this game different from other RPGs you’ve worked on since?

CA - I suppose it was largely the Planescape setting that TSR/Wizards of the Coast had established – it was a very freeing license, so it allowed for departures from mainstream fantasy tropes which was welcome. (See below for additional motivation.)

3. How did you come up with the idea of an RPG where combat is not a focus? Was it difficult to create a game where most of the quests can be talked through instead of just fighting?

CA - Unfortunately, I was so focused on dialogue interactions/verbal combat that actual combat in PST was something of an afterthought. Yes, that is my fault. Was it hard to do a narrative-focused game? No – it was one of the things I liked about designing the game in the first place, as I’ve always seen conversations as both dungeons to explore and also conflicts and challenges to resolve.

4. How did the name of the original game come up? Why Torment?

CA - The original name was “Last Rites,” but it didn’t pass marketing (if I recall – it may have been b/c of a name conflict with something else, but it’s been so long, I don’t remember).

So Planescape: Torment was the next choice – and once we knew what the title was going to be, we worked on reverse engineering the title into the theme of the narrative (esp. the player’s existence and the reason his companions join him/gravitate to him).

5. What inspired you to write a game in a (at the time) relatively obscure and strange universe a long way away from other popular, but more generic, fantasy world settings?

CA - The inspiration came from being exposed to several fantasy RPGs in quick succession that seemed to follow the same conventions (system and narrative) without even trying to break the mold or even the basic gameplay loop – I thought Planescape was a way to experiment with deviating from the design norms of fantasy RPGs all in one fell swoop. :)

6. Which parts of Planescape: Torment are you particularly proud of?

CA - I loved the Modron Cube, and kudos to our Lead Programmer, Dan Spitzley, for architecting the mechanics. I also enjoyed the final battle moments (esp. your companions squaring off against the antagonist), and the final sequences that followed – including the meeting of the other NPCs near the end of the game as well (no spoilers, but one of them I enjoyed writing immensely for reasons that are likely obvious to those in the know).

7. What parts of the game would you go back to rewrite or expand (if any)?

CA - Probably the Buried Village, as we didn’t have time to flesh it out in as much detail as we wanted. Also, we would have loved to include more plane-travelling in general, but we just didn’t have the resources and time.

8. Have you thought about extending the Planescape: Torment universe in the past or did you consider this story finished?

CA - While Planescape: Torment’s storyline is done (it reaches a definite conclusion in my eyes), I think the rest of the Planescape universe (multiverse) is ripe for further exploration – there’s countless planes and settings to explore, it would be a shame to let them go to waste.

9. With which character in Planescape: Torment do you feel the greatest connection?

CA - I care for them all in different ways – even Ignus and Vhailor, who have their own emotional moments where they go beyond their outward obsessions.

Each CNPC and NPC was designed to represent a certain story or emotional arc to inform the player about the Planescape universe – and the player’s role in it. I care about them all in different ways, so I couldn’t choose only one.

10. Which Planescape faction would you choose to join?

CA - None, actually. The factions (forgive me) were one of the things I didn’t like about Planescape because none of them really seemed to “fit” me (even the Indeps and Anarchists).

I did think they were great “foils” to test a character against, however, and were the source of fun narrative and political challenges.

If I had a “faction,” I suppose it would be a follower of Aoskar, since I always imagined his deity portfolio represented the true theme of Planescape – the ability to connect all the planes together and provide access to all of them through portals (and the secrecy of the portals and the nature of the keys to open them was another nice narrative layer).

11. What led you to keep the true name of the Nameless One secret from the player, even though the protagonist himself finds it out eventually?

CA - Spoilers! ;) I thought whatever name we chose would never be as cool as the one players themselves imagined – and in the end, it’s not what you’re called, it’s who you are, which the game has already shown you through your actions. The actual name wasn’t important anymore, and I thought it was more literary if it was a secret that only 2 people in the multiverse knew for certain.

12. If given the opportunity, would you cosplay as a PST character? If so, which one?

CA - I’d try for Morte, because I could just wear a black robe and put on a skull mask.

Of course, then people would likely mistake me for Darth Nihilus and challenge me to duels.

13. This is the second time you’ve worked with Beamdog (Chris was a Narrative Consultant on Siege of Dragonspear). Would you be interested in collaborating with Beamdog again in the future?

CA - Of course. And have! Secrets!

14. What can change the nature of a man?

CA - The high Wisdom response at the end of the game is the “true” one (and there’s an Achievement for it to boot, in case there was any doubt).

From there, it’s up to the player to interpret what that truth is for them, I don’t feel it’s the game’s place (or any game’s place) to choose an answer for you.

Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition Livestream with Chris Avellone

On April 3rd, 4 PM PDT we go live on Twitch with the one and only Chris Avellone, Lead Designer on Planescape: Torment and now Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition. Beamdog’s Lead Producer Phillip Daigle, will be joining Chris for an evening of RPG fun where we show off classic Planescape locations alongside all the new improvements that PST:EE has to offer.

The PST:EE team will be in the chat to answer your questions and give away prizes as Chris Avellone talks about his experience on Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition and the original Planescape: Torment.

Can’t wait for the stream? Check out www.planescape.com for all the latest Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition details!