Spelljammer Discussion

The elf man-o-war and warbirds were always aesthetic and sexy as FUCK. When I think of spelljammers, I think of those.

But Spelljammer doesn't really have any sci-fi in it. It's really more like what medieval to Renaissance people thought was "beyond the sky." Space is a void, but each solar system is enclosed in a giant crystal sphere floating in a luminiferous aether. Everything is magic instead of tech. I mean, the standard "spacefaring" vessel is a galleon.

Elves had some of the sickest shit and also seemed to be predisposed to some sick ass warcrimes.

Spirit Warriors and Bionoids were some cool shit.

And the Giff were quite bully, I say.

Where did you get the impression it was science fiction? The foreword outright tells you it isn't.

Space = science fiction, obviously.

Bah. Set you expectations properly.

I'd argue Spelljammer is less scifi than Eberron, but if you can't see how the basic premise of fantasy with space travel is too out there for people you're fooling yourself

>If not, what is your least favorite thing about the setting

What I disliked about it was the ability to visit various realms/settings. Sure, it sounded cool at first. One of the big draws. But it just doesn't work.

If Spelljammer actually worked in these settings all of these settings would be hugely changed in response to it.

Spelljammer works best, in my opinion, as its own setting.

The ability to visit different D&D settings is by far the least interesting part of Spelljammer. It's like getting excited that you can use your smartphone as a flashlight

>>Wildspace just has air. Get full Treasure Planet up in this bitch.

Would it surprise you to know I love SJ and am running two sci fi games and about to play in a game which, at least, is *trying* to be sci fi?

SJ is just a setting (one of the "interstitial settings" of 2e, along with Chronomancer {eh}, Ravenloft, Planescape and doubtless others).

Of these, I overwhelmingly prefer SJ because its method of travel is that which can be interacted with the most, whereas Ravenloft and Planescape are essentially arbitrary (DM's discretion/just magic your way over, respectively), neither leaving much room for interaction along the way (the planes being infinitely large afterall).

That's part of what I love about Spelljammer, it really tries to go into the mechanics of how it all works. It totally shits the bed, but by god it tries

>So, how do you feel about Spelljammer?
It loses something from the fact that the stars in the sky aren't actually other worlds. Instead they're basically just painted on the inside of crystal spheres, and the actual "space" travel involves swimming through a sea of dense colors between the spheres that can't be seen through. Something's missing if you can't look up at the night sky and wonder what's out there in the distant stars; it makes the whole thing feel smaller and more isolated.

I remember reading the first in the spelljammer novel series when I was young at my local library, recently tracked down the rest on Veeky Forums and the nostalgia is hitting me hard.

How are the novels?

a bit cheesey but overall not bad, some of the background stuff is quite out there in a good way

Space orcs called 'scro' that are super organised/basically the empire from star wars.

I have got your backs, brethren.

spelljammer.org/

Scro are much different in one other way - they're fucking SMART. They learn elvish specifically so they can taunt elves in their native tongue. They understand that a ravening horde does not do well in space navies. And they understand that hiring specialists is not a bad idea even if they aren't orcs.

If I was re-designing Spelljammer from the ground up without Lorraine Williams standing over my shoulder...

1) There is air in Wildpsace. Treasure Planet this bitch up!
2) The stars are actual stars, abandon the idea of crystal spheres.
3) You can jam 100 million miles in a day as long as you travel in a straight line.
4) For travel between star systems you've got two options:
- a) Phlogiston network that exists throughout WIldspace, like a series of interconnected wormholes that all lead to the great Phlogiston Sea that you can sail through. The Phlogiston Sea is technically its own plane of existence, but it's co-existant with the Material Plane. Basically it lets you jam several lightyears per day. And it has air, too.
- b) Use the Sun of a star system as a portal to Elemental Fire, then seek out the portal that connects to the Sun you want to go through. This option is much more dangerous for several reasons - for one thing, you have to be able to survive a trip to the Sun, for another, the efreet of Elemental Fire are likely to tax you, or even attack you.

I'd keep all the background information about the Unhuman Wars and the Scro and so on.

I just replace Orcs with Scro in my games. They're good villains, and the Unhuman Wars pretty much write a bunch of classic fantasy races out of the setting
Why do people hate the spheres so much? The idea that each one has its own physics and metaphysics opens up so many cool possibilities. Granted, TSR never did much with it, but that doesn't mean you can't. I get gripes like , but I still feel like you gain a lot more than you lose

If I were redesigning it,
1. I'd completely ditch the pretense that Spelljammer was about unifying the different D&D settings. Make space travel more commonplace than the lore implies in spheres where it does exist, although there's countless untouched spheres where it doesn't. Especially play around with interspheral commerce and politics.
2. I think I'd change how gods work, because it sucks for clerics, but having a single pantheon that just exists everywhere doesn't sound right either.
3. Change how ship gravity works. Either it points straight down all the time, perpendicular to the deck, or you can simply walk on/stick objects to any surface while in space. Gravity planes get really fucky and convoluted when you start questioning them.
4. Get rid of forge helms. Of all the ways around the fact that dorfs can't do magic, THAT'S the one you went with?

>Why do people hate the spheres so much?

Basically because stars actually being stars is more fun.

Can someone explain what they were smoking when they invented The Spelljammer? The giant mythical ship, I mean

...

>Instead they're basically just painted on the inside of crystal spheres,
There's a lot of things in Spelljammer that are only loosely based on things, but that detail is straight from Classical Metaphysics.

How is that more fun than a sphere where all metaphors are real, or where the different phases of matter have totally different properties, or where the speed of light is the roughly the same as sound so that brisk jog noticeably slows down the passage of time?