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1[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/planescape_survival_guide_8831.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:310:[-You could probably panic a little bit and still be okay.-]]]
3
4->''"This is Planescape Survival Guide, a rousing tale of grand heroism and gallant deeds in a-- okay, you got me. They're [[IdiotHero mostly incompetent]]. But! They are trying to [[SaveTheWorld save the Multiverse]] from [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt utter destruction]]."''
5-->-- '''From the FAQ'''
6
7That's ''[[http://planescapecomic.com/index.html Planescape Survival Guide]]'', written and drawn by Travers "Swiftbow" Jordan, in a nutshell.
8
9The "they" in the above quote is actually referring to two separate groups - one an unfortunate band of [[Franchise/ForgottenRealms Faerunian]] adventurers with a tendency to leap before they look, the other a newly-partnered team of planar travelers swept off their feet into Multiversal politics... and deeper plots. Along the way there's a bunch of evil dark dwarves and a [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness cult of black-robed madmen]] trying to bring about [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The End Of The Multiverse As We Know It]] and a team of [[BloodKnight followers of the]] [[ReligionOfEvil God of Murder]] [[PsychoForHire in it for the killin']] tagging along for the ride. Oh yeah, and there's a [[PollyWantsAMicrophone owl narrator]], a [[CloudCuckooLander halfling who can't stop talking long enough to register reality]], and a [[ChosenOne blue beholder with a secret he doesn't even know]] somewhere along the way.
10
11%%[[quoteright:321:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MilnyTVTropes_9507.jpg]]
12%%[[caption-width-right:321:Starring Milny Boldoffin, halfling badass.]]
13
14The art isn't the greatest out there, and the update schedule makes "erratic" look like an understatement, but (most of the time) the story makes up for it. Although he has been doing better lately. See ScheduleSlip below.
15
16As can be inferred from the title, it's based on the D&D Campaign Setting ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', and homages ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''.
17
18!!Tropes in Planescape Survival Guide:
19
20* ArtEvolution: The art may not be the best in the world, but the latest strips are an extreme improvement from the first few chapters. ESPECIALLY the TalkingHeads strips. It's visibly obvious that Swift has improved over the duration.
21* ArtifactOfDoom: The three sacred items of Aoskar. They can [[spoiler:survive being pulled into the Nothing, which can unmake ''planes'']].
22%%* AxCrazy: Vec Trasden.
23%%* BlackMagicianGirl: Elera.
24* BloodKnight: The Cyricists, especially Vec. Also Sarn and Railah.
25* BreakingTheFourthWall: A few of the early strips -- confined to the first few chapters -- have panels showing a bunch of people around a table, obviously playing the story as a ''D&D'' campaign.
26%%* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: We figure Destiny must be either drunk or high.
27* TheCavalry: Paladins showing up in the prologue to chase off the Cyricists. Their troops never show up again, as the story quickly leaves [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Faerun]] and moves on to the [[TabletopGame/{{Planescape}} Outer Planes]].
28* ChosenOne: Tchick. He doesn't quite know for what... [[spoiler:And apparently acquiring one of the ArtifactsOfDoom and wearing it for a while qualifies [[TheLoonie Milny]] for the title as well. Gods save us all.]]
29%%* ClothingDamage: Tends to happen to Elera.
30%%* CloudCuckooLander: Milny.
31* CoolGate: The teleportation pentagram in Chapter One. On the other hand, it goes to Hell...
32%%* CoolShades: Jerak.
33* CrossPlayer: There are three people in the original Sigil party - Torin, Elera, and Talanard. In the BreakingTheFourthWall strips that show the players behind the story, there are four male characters around the table, one obviously being the DM. Whoever is playing Elera dings the trope meter, [[DrinkingGame take a shot]].
34* CurseCutShort: Grull has just enough time to say "Oh sh--" before [[spoiler:he gets munched on by the EldritchAbomination from the Far Realms. Good thing he cut himself out of there.]]
35* CuteWitch: The "crazy" Witch is actually quite conventionally attractive, though she initially disguises herself as the stereotypical warty crone.
36* DeadAllAlong: Explains [[spoiler:Talanard's EasyAmnesia and his fear of blood rivers]].
37* DeathOfAThousandCuts: The Mercy Killers try to execute Tchik this way once they realized he can't be hanged. Also, how [[spoiler: the Tommy series manages to kill Vec.]]
38* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:Railah, a former battle priestess of Cyric]], is possessed by [[spoiler:the dark god of Fate Jergal]] as his pawn and puppet in his scheme to unmake the Multiverse.
39* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: It's becoming increasingly more obvious that to stop the Nothing, the heroes [[spoiler:are going to have to defeat, obstruct, or otherwise stop [[TheGrimReaper Jergal-Possessed Railah]] '''''AND''''' [[PowersThatBe the Elder/the Lady of Pain herself]]. They might have [[HaveYouSeenMyGod the Eldest]] and [[PhysicalGod the Youngest]] along to help... maybe. Maybe not.]]
40%%* DirtyOldMan: Everybody calls Eldon "DOM". Even though he barely qualifies.
41* DoNotTauntCthulhu: The Lady of Pain is as trigger-happy as she is in canon, Tchick gets mazed in the prologue just for talking about her. Subverted later on, when the Sigil party and the Black Robes are fighting while the Mercykillers are closing in and Tchick and Archimedes decide it would be safer to get mazed, something that most in Sigil consider analogous to a death sentence, by suggesting the Lady could use weight.
42* DoomedHometown: Played to garner some sympathy for Milny.
43* DualWielding: Vec Trasden dual-wields twin rapiers in true dervish style, but that pales horribly in comparison to Railah's death-dancing with a longsword in one fist and a ''double-ended axe'' in the other.
44* EarthThatWas: The Firstworld is quite obviously our Earth, with the alternate trope that it has been abandoned by magic and the Gods rather than reduced to uninhabitability. It's VERY difficult to reach, but Jerak has managed... and fell in love immediately with sunglasses and automatic weapons.
45* EldritchAbomination: One appears when a portal to The Far Plane is opened in Dolrak the Arcanoloth's castle.
46%%* EvilLaugh: Glowy red rocks don't have to breathe.
47* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: Jergal's]] plan to unmake the multiverse.
48* EvilSorcerer: Merrel and the Black Robes are an entire cult of them. Also Delia and the Duergar mage whose name I cannot recall.
49* EyepatchOfPower: Sarn Kellfrock.
50* FluffyTheTerrible: Fred the Dragon.
51* FruitCart: Parodied -- finding Tchick's conjured apples littering the road, Elera and Torin assume they came from a spilled cart.
52* FunWithAcronyms: More people know Eldon as "DOM" - Dirty Old Man - than by his actual name. (Troper included, had to look up the real name on the cast page...)
53* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:Jergal gave his Phenomenal Cosmic Powers up to Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul years ago with ThePlan to steal them all back in the future and fuel his scheme to Unmake the Multiverse. [[JustifiedTrope He gets away with this nigh-impossibility]] because he's the God of Fate and TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]
54* GargleBlaster: Balor Ale! Made from the remains of a major demon, few survive drinking it. Talanard is lucky to only get a hole burned in his throat.
55* GoodAngelBadAngel: DOM has them. Unfortunately, they're not very different... Good Angel is just better spoken.
56* HalfHumanHybrid: Elera is a fire genasi (half-fire elemental, her father's an efreet), Torin is an aasimar (part celestial), and Talanard and Twag are half-elves.
57%%* HaveYouSeenMyGod:
58* HeelFaceTurn: Talanard was a Black Robe at some point in the past. (Maybe it would be MookFaceTurn as well, given the one-shot life expectancy of Black Robes...)
59%%* IndyPloy: Starts with Telv and Tommy 5, and spreads like the plague from there.
60* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: The Tommys. Same look, same mentality, same Full Plate And Long Sword... same tendency to be the first and only to die. Though that may not be their real names, just the one that Gerand and Telv label them as soon as they meet.
61* InstrumentOfMurder: Telv's steel-plated banjo. '''DULCET TONES!'''
62%%* KillItWithFire: Elera.
63* KnightTemplar: The Harmonium Guard and the Mercykillers are the traditional Planescape examples, amusingly parodied when a NON-KnightTemplar Harmonium -- Larry the tiefling paladin -- is arrested and [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment hung upside-down from the wall]] for suggesting that Tchick might ''not'' be responsible for the destruction of the city block where he was found unconscious.
64* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Talanard can't remember a thing before he came to Sigil. [[spoiler:It turns out that might be because he's dead.]]
65%%* LeeroyJenkins: The first of many gets Tommy 5 killed.
66%%* MagicKnight: Delia.
67%%* MeaningfulName: Archimedes.
68* MoodWhiplash: [[http://planescapecomic.com/138.html This comic]] juxtaposes Milny and Fred's families having an idyllic farmyard barbecue with Milny fighting for her life against the cultists.
69* {{Mooks}}: Pretty much every Black Robe except Merrel dies in one hit.
70* MoreDakka: One of the best things Jerak picked up from his time on the Firstworld.
71* TheMultiverse: The story focuses on the heroes trying to keep the ''D&D'' multiverse from being destroyed by a force of pure entropy and nothingness.
72* MysteriousInformant: "The Info Imp" and the nameless Black Robe from the prologue.
73* NerdsSpeakKlingon: When Talanard, Twag, and Telv arrive on the First World they're fortunate enough to appear at a Con and meet a [[http://planescapecomic.com/171.html girl who knows Elvish]], as apparently {{Common|Tongue}} is nothing like English.
74%%* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Where to '''start?'''
75* NobleDemon: Jerak, Grull, and Winnie don't convince much of anyone that they're merchandising for the Forces of Darkness.
76* NoodleIncident: Telv's bio mentions him being expelled from minstrel school for "a strange occurrence know only as "the plague of playing cards." Few had ever used a cantrip spell to such devastating effect."
77* NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus: Averted. [[spoiler:Aoskar/the Eldest predicted his future destruction and hid a portion of his essence on the Firstworld two thousand years prior, and despite killing that Aspect out of fear and being without deities since the people of the Firstworld still revere him... making Aoskar equivalent to {{God}} and Jesus his [[PhysicalGod Avatar]].]]
78* TheNothingAfterDeath: It could very well be lifted straight from the pages of Literature/TheNeverendingStory, it is so close. Obviously inspired or suggested by it, at the very least... and that fact is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the first chapter.
79* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Fred is an orange dragon -- not the kind you'd find in an expansion book or 3rd party package, but rather the crossbreed of a male red and a female gold.
80* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Appears to be Subverted at first -- the duergar (dark dwarves) worship [[spoiler:Jergal, ex-God of Death and Fate and master of the Nothing]], rather than their normal [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Faerun]] racial deities. Once you get past that, though, there's not much different about them: they still guzzle alcohol like water and live for a good scuffle (even the [[SquishyWizard mage]]).
81%%* OurElvesAreDifferent: Elves and half-elves are pretty typical to ''D&D'' standards.
82%%* PaintingTheMedium: Archimedes's narration bubbles, for one.
83* PalsWithJesus: The main characters are pretty friendly with [[spoiler:[[PowersThatBe The Witch/The Youngest]]]], and one even ends up getting one-on-one sparring training with Thor himself. Not a bad deal.
84* PaperThinDisguise: The Crazy Witch is [[spoiler:The Youngest]] with a hairstyle tweak, a funny hat, and a very slightly longer nose. [[spoiler:The Lady of Pain isn't fooled.]]
85* PersonOfMassDestruction: Elera when she's pissed and Delia all the time. Merrel too, for being the guy who takes out city blocks in a fit of rage.
86* PluckyGirl: Milny. She's been slashed, kicked, stabbed, scarred, shot [[spoiler:and nearly unmade, and was also technically dead for awhile]]. With a little clerical intervention, she's still going.
87* PrisonDimension: The Lady's Mazes form a major plot point, with the Black Robes chasing Tchick because he somehow managed to escape one and there's an ArtifactOfDoom stored somewhere in the Mazes. [[spoiler:When the Sigil party gets Mazed it's shown to be full of illusions drawn from their memories, and one of Tchick's variant Beholder powers is TrueSight strong enough to see through them.]]
88* PsychoForHire: The Cyricists again. And the Duergar. Also a couple of the heroes have moments...
89* PunctuationShaker: Frd'gl'fn'd'pq'zter the dragon. He goes by "Fred" for a reason.
90%%* RebelliousPrincess: Elera.
91* RecursiveCanon: [[http://planescapecomic.com/183.html This page]] has a character visiting the comic's site.
92%%* RedShirt: The Tommys.
93* ReligionOfEvil: Varlan and Vec (and supposedly Delia) worship Cyric, God of Lies and Murder, and the Duergar worship [[spoiler:Jergal, former God of Fate, Death, and Oblivion who is looking to reclaim his Greater Deity status then [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt unmake the Multiverse via The Nothing]].]]
94%%* RuleOfThree: It's ''Planescape'', what did you expect?
95%%* RunawayBride: Elera ''again''. The two go hand in hand, expectedly.
96%%* SmugSnake: Dolrak the arcanaloth.
97* SuccubiAndIncubi: The succubi in Jerak's caravan are pretty standard, save Winnie. And Milny, even in her pseudo-Succubus shapechange, is too busy being Milny to even try being seductive.
98%%* TakenForGranite: Silly Black Robes. Tee hee!
99%%* TalkativeLoon: '''MILNY.'''
100* TalkingAnimal: Archimedes, a talking owl. Likely the most intelligent character in the cast...
101* TalkingHeads: Some of the early, black and white strips are nothing but this. Thankfully it stops around Chapter Two.
102%%* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Milny by a country mile.
103* TheyKilledKennyAgain: The whole point of the Tommy series, [[spoiler: with the possible exception of Firstworld Tommy]]
104* ToHellAndBack: Thanks to Talanard jumping on an active pentacle.
105* TokenEvilTeammate: Telv is more of a sociopathic Chaotic Neutral, but he fits.
106* TransformationTrinket: An AncientArtifact transforms Milny into a semi-Succubus when she puts it on.
107* UnsoundEffect: Amongst others: "Release!", "Teleport" and "DULCET TONES!
108* WebcomicsLongRunners: 14 years old as of April 2019.
109* WelcomeToTheRealWorld: Chapter 4 reveals that the Firstworld doesn't just have no magic and greater technology, it also has discontinued ''D&D'' campaign settings that plainly depict ''Planescape''. Some of the characters believe the solution to defeating the unstoppable villains may be inside.
110* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Talanard is terrified of the Blood River. Thanks to LaserGuidedAmnesia, he doesn't know '''why''', but he is.[[spoiler: It's because he used to be one of the baddies, but was killed in one of the blood rivers by another bad guy.]]
111** Also, according to the MysteriousInformant in the Prologue, Cyric -- the patron God of all the [[PsychoForHire Psychos for Hire]] -- is apparently ''also'' dead, and their powers are being provided by another source [[spoiler:probably [[TheGrimReaper Jergal]]]].
112** And again [[http://planescapecomic.com/175.html here]], wherein Fred (a dragon) bemoans the disappearance of Falcor while watching the [[Film/TheNeverendingStory movie]] on a Firstworld TV.
113** Aoskar [[spoiler:AKA the Eldest]], with good reason -- he's been dead, killed by the Lady of Pain, for some time.
114** Eldon and Telvrin take out a couple of baddies, without the reader seeing it, using [[NoodleImplements playing cards, flowers, and an accordion]]. What do they say?
115** He has improved his schedule-keeping skills lately, much to the delight of his fans. It's not perfect, as he notes in one of his footnotes, saying "I kind of feel silly apologizing for one day late, though... since I'm much more accustomed to being a month overdue". But hey.
116** The characters have also discovered ''Planescape''-related internet forums during their foray on the Firstworld. And, as seen above, Milny may have found TV Tropes...
117--->'''DOM, Gerand, Twag:''' ''It was '''EVIL!'''''\
118'''DOM:''' ''So we need a strategy.''\
119'''Eldon:''' Let's never speak of this again.\
120'''Findellinia:''' ''It's in the traditional tongue of our ancient race!''\
121'''Goronkodar:''' ''It's unpronounceable.''\
122'''Telv:''' ''BORING! Want to do something stupid with me?''\
123'''Telv:''' ''Pretty nifty! Er, I mean, '''EVIL!'''''\
124'''Telvrin:''' Aw.\
125'''Tommy 5:''' ''You know it!''

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