Pith and Vinegar

10 years ago today, on December 12, 1999, the world saw the introduction of the greatest game ever released. Planescape: Torment (it’s also Wikipedia’s Featured Article for the day).

Okay, maybe not the greatest, but it’s certainly up there. It’s still getting attention 10 years later. I was a big fan of Planescape from the first time the box set was released in 1994. The game line had ended in 1998, but I still loved it, and Torment had been in production for a while, so I still had something to look forward to.

It used the Infinity Engine of Baldur’s Gate fame, but before Baldur’s Gate was released. It was a D&D game, but broke every convention they could get away with, as was appropriate to Planescape. No elves or goblins, no swords, one of the first games with moral choices that mattered (i.e. being a bastard wasn’t an objectively wrong choice, although it might have consequences in-game), sympathetic undead, travel to other planes… it was fantastic.

As we know, I liked the setting so much I got it as a tattoo in 2000. Nearly 10 years on and I don’t regret it.

Unfortunately, Torment never got a sequel, although fans have made several of their own unofficial sequels over the years.

Thanks to everyone connected to the game for making such an impact on me.