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We’re excited to share with you the very first trailer for Blizzard in Baator, an unofficial expansion for Planescape: Torment! This fan-made mod expands the core campaign with an all-new storyline and brings tons of fresh content: new locations, characters, creatures, quests, items, and music. Right below the trailer, you’ll also find an in-depth interview with the creators of the mod, where they talk about their work, goals, inspiration, and the modest beginnings of the project.

Intro

The Nameless One still holds some undiscovered secrets from his past that may yet return to change his nature. One such lead to his original identity will take him on a dangerous rescue mission to a whole new region of Sigil and into the depths of the Nine Hells, all the way to the 8th layer: The Frozen Wasteland of Cania, and then… beyond? The danger is not only the inhospitable winter but also getting tangled between Lords of The Nine in their everlasting cold war – Blizzard in Baator.

Blizzard in Baator is a first ever unofficial mod which adds new content on such a massive scale to the beloved classic: Planescape: Torment

After almost two years of development, its first act is set to be released in late 2025. The mod will be available both in English and Polish upon release.

The project is headed by three developers: Szef, FallDamage312 and Wrathu

Trailer

Click here if the trailer doesn’t load

Questions for the creators of Blizzard in Baator

Below you can read an interview with the developers, where they share insights on many aspects of the expansion.

Where did the idea for Blizzard in Baator come from? When did work on the mod begin, and what inspired the creation of a DLC so many years after the original game’s release?

FallDamage312: Szef and I had previously worked together on other, much smaller mods for Planescape: Torment. The natural progression was to eventually make something more ambitious. So the story itself only started to take shape after the decision, 'Let’s make our first story mod, because why not?’, which we made in early 2024. As for the agedness of this game, we all know it’s timeless. It’s strange that we’re the first to tackle it.

Wrathu: Torment has been with us constantly for decades, whether as a game, in music, or in our heads. For several years now, I’ve been a regular collaborator to Grimuar Sferowca, so I had to join their Discord channel, which makes communication much easier. In April 2023, this led to me collaborating with Szef on mods for Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition, adding Torment characters and voices, something I’d been dreaming of for a decade. That mod used also lines hidden in Torment but not used in the game itself. I’m mentioning this because I’ll come back to this later. I realized that for Szef, nothing is impossible. He also collaborated with FallDamage312 on a mod that refreshed the entire game layout and made the dialogue box more like Disco Elysium. This demonstrated that they were not afraid of visual elements. Beamdog’s Enhanced Edition made modding easier, but new mods mostly focused on mechanical, gameplay-related additions, such as armors, the priest class, and above all, restoring cut content. Not just items but also NPCs and entire quests. However, no one attempted a DLC-sized story mod. In early 2024, Szef demonstrated his ability to edit the map, placing a plaque in a tomb with the inscription „Szef was here” and asking us, „So? Are we making our own adventures? 😉 (joke = knowledge still at a too low level).” However, we took this seriously and created a dedicated channel on the Grimuar’s Discord, where we honed the mod’s vision and tested what was possible, what wasn’t, and what would be difficult but possible. The scale of our vision was large, but ultimately, it was even larger. In February, the name that we liked best was finally said – „Blizzard in Baator”, which not only suggests the atmosphere and setting of the action, but is also an interesting Planescape idiom meaning something unusual and rare.

At what point in the adventure is Blizzard in Baator set? At what level will players be able to deviate from the main storyline to visit your expansion?

FallDamage312: The DLC content is aimed at high-level characters. NPCs that allow you to enter new locations appear after the Nameless One’s return from Carceri. But for players who don’t want to replay the entire game (shame on them! 🙂 ), there will be an option to 'skip’ to that level at the very beginning of the game.

Wrathu: The time setting of the story was one of the long-standing issues for us, as we initially planned to be able to travel to the new district of Sigil at any time, even just after leaving the Mortuary. However, this resulted in balance issues, and the amount of experience gained could have disrupted the progression dynamics at low levels or have been irrelevant at higher levels. Ultimately, I think I was the one who convinced the guys to focus on higher player levels, because that’s when we can truly shine with high-level spells, interesting weapons, and finally, we have a complete party. That’s why we chose the return from Carceri as a point where we can turn to a side story instead of searching for the path to the game’s finale. This way, we gain a few levels, items, and skills without disrupting the dynamics of the original. Speaking of chronology, it’s also worth mentioning the connections with other games. Because Torment is set in 1367 DR, nearly 90 years after Icewind Dale, not long before Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights (all of which featured the planes), and most importantly, three years before the Faction War, some events are historical from our perspective, and seeds of other events are being sown. Without giving too much away, our mod doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and we’ll definitely consider related works.

How extensive is the expansion? Approximately, how many hours of gameplay, dialogue lines, and story content can we expect?

FallDamage312: The trailer is only for Act 1, the demo version of our DLC. The first act introduces over 20 locations and over 100 characters. The time needed to get through it is very difficult to estimate. We’ve created a lot of optional content, a lot of alternate options for solving individual quests, which can take more or less time. There are also a few secrets. 🙂 Maybe we’ll be able to talk about the number of hours closer to the release.

Wrathu: In the initial tests, just exploring all the locations in Act 1 without dialogues took several hours, and I knew roughly what was where, so I think we’re aiming for a demo that will take over a dozen hours, depending on the inquisitiveness of the players. It’s difficult to gauge the exact amount of dialogue, but there are at least dozens of NPCs with dialogue. Some are very complex, but even the simplest ones have at least a few options to choose from, and usually the second conversation differs from the first.

Is the story presented in the DLC a fully original tale, or are you also using materials cut from the original Planescape: Torment campaign?

FallDamage312: We don’t want to talk much about the story. It’s deeply embedded in Planescape, in areas less explored in both PS:T and the adventures of the original TSR manuals. However, it’s our own story, written by us.

Wrathu: The story is original, and in terms of cut content from Torment, what returns are rather lost items, graphics, or audio files that are already in the game, but sometimes it takes a bit of ingenuity to come up with a use for them. Still, these are minor details, and the vast majority are our own inventions.

The trailer features cinematic scenes – how many cinematics did you create specifically for the expansion?

FallDamage312: The number of cinematics is growing week by week. Planescape: Torment had significantly more of these elements than its Prime Material Plane counterparts, such as Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. We felt compelled to create a sufficient number of them, even though this made the creative process more difficult and lengthy. The DLC would be incomplete without these elements.

Will Blizzard in Baator be released in both Polish and English?

FallDamage312: Yes. More than half of our team uses English professionally, so writing everything in two languages ​​isn’t a huge challenge for us. We’ve even created dedicated tools for working in both languages ​​simultaneously, so both will be available immediately upon installation.

Will we meet famous Planescape characters in the expansion?

FallDamage312: I’ve already mentioned that we don’t want to reveal the course of our story, but there will definitely be familiar faces, both from the general Planescape canon and from some other publications, and maybe even some from the Forgotten Realms. 😉

Wrathu: There’s a lot I’d like to say, but we still want to surprise you, even though some references are hidden in plain sight in the trailer. It shouldn’t be surprising, however, that sometimes, to properly depict the political climate of Sigil, it’s necessary to mention a high-up or two who don’t necessarily appear physically but operate in the background. As we think about modern times and our history, it’s impossible not to mention that this or that happened by the decision of a president or a king. I’d like to give some depth to the non-player characters, who are also entangled in some system and whose decisions are influenced by those in higher positions. However, this is still a sideline, and the plot revolves more around the original characters. You can certainly expect a whole zoo of strange planar creatures, as the trailer hinted at. Which ones, exactly? I encourage you to guess. However, we’ve blurred the bestiary shot so as not to give everything away.

What source materials do you rely on when writing the story?

FallDamage312: When writing the story, we considered the canonical sources of Planescape and DND. We primarily relied on the 2nd edition, but attentive players will find some elements from the 3rd, 4th, and even 5th editions. Cania, where much of the DLC will take place, had very little content in the pure 2nd edition. We’ll also touch on several deities from pantheons stemming from our 'earthly’ history, which the TSR sources treated somewhat sparsely, so here we even drew on authentic mythologies.

Wrathu: The trailer revealed the first major location, namely Sigil’s new ward, The Ditch, whose description was translated on Grimuar Sferowca. This site is also an important source for information and Polish nomenclature, but Sferopedia and The Forgotten Realms Wiki are also invaluable in this regard. It’s worth noting, however, that the Polish translation of Planescape Torment is the main determinant for naming conventions, names, and slang.

Will there be new characters in the DLC that can be added to the party?

FallDamage312: We’re planning two recruitable characters. Those familiar with the differences between PS:T and BG or IWD are probably already scratching their heads, because adding such characters in our beloved Planescape: Torment is about 100 times more complicated. The bad news is that we won’t meet any of these characters in the upcoming demo. They simply appear in Act 2.

Wrathu: I’d like to use an analogy here. The Neverwinter Nights expansion, Hordes of the Underdark, also introduced new companions a bit later in order to focus the first act on the party members from the base game and the first expansion. Similarly, we wouldn’t want to reveal such a major innovation right away, but we already know it’s feasible. The characters mentioned by FD appeared in the initial promotional materials, and that’s probably the only reason we’re not avoiding this question. Regardless, since the topic of party came up, our companions are important. All of them. The original game, to a certain extent, favored companions that later became the most beloved by fans. So I set myself the goal of giving everyone the opportunity for more interaction, even those who didn’t have it much earlier. As we walk through the Ditch, our companions react to our actions and engage in conversation with NPCs if they’re interested. Right conversations can even improve their stats. But thoughtless actions can result in the loss of friends. Just like in real life.

Do you already have an approximate release date for the full version?

FallDamage312: The first act will take us about two years overall. So, if I were to estimate today, I’d say we’ll finish in 2031. But I really hope it’ll be much sooner, for several reasons. First and foremost, we’ve gained a tremendous amount of experience creating Act 1, which will certainly transfer into smoother workflows for subsequent acts. Furthermore, I’m very hopeful that after watching our trailer, or playing the demo soon, we’ll attract people willing to help. Our team is incredibly small. I’ve seen teams five times larger working on mods five times smaller. This is a major obstacle to working quickly. In an ideal world, I’d like to release the full version within a year.

Wrathu: The development time is influenced by the number of people working and the amount of free time. However, I hope that a year or two will actually be enough to complete what we have planned. Obviously, preparations took the longest. However, we already have so many sprites, items, and maps that the most time-consuming part will be writing the dialogues.

How can the community support you in developing the expansion?

FallDamage312: We’ve already asked our multiverse for a 'multivoice’. We already have a small squadron of guest writers for side-character dialogues. We’ve also been reaching out to potential Infinity Engine coders/modders to help us tame the monster that is PS:T (compared to the much easier to mod Baldur’s Gate). A few programmers have appeared, but they quickly disappeared for various reasons, so there’s still room for help here. We know there are people in Poland with decades of experience in this field. Perhaps after seeing what we’ve accomplished, one of them will toss in their two cents’ worth. I’ve already received two separate inquiries about whether we have a Patreon where they could support us. Well, we don’t, but it’s starting to sound more and more intriguing. Our budget is zero; we do everything ourselves. Perhaps it’ll be time for a Patreon, but for now, we carry on. 🙂

Wrathu: There’s a lot of text, and even more is needed. People with original ideas and writing skills would certainly help. Thanks to a few such talented individuals, we’ve managed to populate the new district with interesting NPCs who wander the map, seemingly irrelevant to the plot, but who make the player wonder what they’ve just read. This is the effect we had when visiting Planescape for the first time. Immersion in this strange world.

Could you tell us more about the music you’re composing for the project?

Wrathu: The mod will have a completely new soundtrack, which won’t copy the original’s themes. However, I’ll try to recreate the atmosphere of tracks by Mark Morgan and Lustmord whose lost tracks will unfortunately remain unheard (I asked him about this personally after a concert). Therefore, I focused on elements like sonar melodies, a low string and brass background, and tribal-industrial drums. The Ditch itself also has a different background music depending on the time of day and a dedicated combat track, which is obviously faster and combines themes from both daytime and nighttime music. Some songs from the original game may return if they’re appropriate for a location, but these are a minority. The trailer also revealed a new feature: through dialogue, I managed to construct a working piano in the game. It’s limited, but you can play simple melodies using the numeric keypad.

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If you want to learn more, we encourage you to join our Discord server where you can talk directly to the creators of the DLC.

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