Spelljammer Coming to 5e

Shasarak · April 25, 2022, 08:38:23 PM

Quote from: David Johansen on April 23, 2022, 11:10:35 PM
Spelljammer's problem is that it never quite conveyed a specific tone. Was it cartoonish, light, swashbuckling, epic, wild and crazy? It was hard to say and a bit all over the place. I think it could have been better. I think ships in the astral plane with Gith civil wars and the like would have been more interesting.

Spelljammer is DnD in SPAAAAACE so it has the exact same tone as DnD does naturally.

Armchair Gamer · April 25, 2022, 08:45:34 PM

Quote from: Shasarak on April 25, 2022, 08:38:23 PM
Quote from: David Johansen on April 23, 2022, 11:10:35 PM
Spelljammer's problem is that it never quite conveyed a specific tone. Was it cartoonish, light, swashbuckling, epic, wild and crazy? It was hard to say and a bit all over the place. I think it could have been better. I think ships in the astral plane with Gith civil wars and the like would have been more interesting.

Spelljammer is DnD in SPAAAAACE so it has the exact same tone as DnD does naturally.

As the man said.

D&D can be wildly divergent, and the 2E era was the most divergent of the lot. Even WotC, with its "One game to rule them all, one game to find them, one game to bring them all and to Organized Play bind them" visions, hasn't been able to make the game uniform.

Omega · April 26, 2022, 01:37:01 AM

Quote from: migo on April 25, 2022, 10:23:33 AM
Quote from: Timothe on April 24, 2022, 07:46:47 PM
ASTRAL Elves? Wouldn't they be all mummy-looking and creepified like the Githyanki and Githzerai?

Githzerai are in Limbo though, not the Astral plane, and Gith pirates were on the prime, and they all had the same gaunt look. So that's a Gith* characteristic, not an astral characteristic.

Right. The githyanki did not originate on the astral. They just made their home there after escaping the mind flayers. By A and 2e rules they would have to make trips to some non-astral plane as physical time doesnt exactly work there so one can not conceive. The astral also effected healing. Short of magic, you could not heal naturally in the astral.

Im going to take a wild guess and assume for 5e they are going to drop the time element of the astral.

And reading over my old Manual of the Planes. The Etherial would have made a better place to move spelljamming as it has man elements in common with the Phlogston.

Omega · April 26, 2022, 01:39:18 AM

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on April 25, 2022, 08:45:34 PM
D&D can be wildly divergent, and the 2E era was the most divergent of the lot. Even WotC, with its "One game to rule them all, one game to find them, one game to bring them all and to Organized Play bind them" visions, hasn't been able to make the game uniform.

That and OD&D kicks off with an alien renegade plotting in the swamps and using his advanced tech to create monsters..

Rhymer88 · April 26, 2022, 03:54:22 AM

I love Spelljammer but I hate WotC, so I won't get any new Spelljammer books from them. They'll just ruin the setting anyway.

BoxCrayonTales · April 26, 2022, 11:25:36 AM

Quote from: Omega on April 26, 2022, 01:37:01 AM
Quote from: migo on April 25, 2022, 10:23:33 AM
Quote from: Timothe on April 24, 2022, 07:46:47 PM
ASTRAL Elves? Wouldn't they be all mummy-looking and creepified like the Githyanki and Githzerai?

Githzerai are in Limbo though, not the Astral plane, and Gith pirates were on the prime, and they all had the same gaunt look. So that's a Gith* characteristic, not an astral characteristic.

Right. The githyanki did not originate on the astral. They just made their home there after escaping the mind flayers. By A and 2e rules they would have to make trips to some non-astral plane as physical time doesnt exactly work there so one can not conceive. The astral also effected healing. Short of magic, you could not heal naturally in the astral.

Im going to take a wild guess and assume for 5e they are going to drop the time element of the astral.

And reading over my old Manual of the Planes. The Etherial would have made a better place to move spelljamming as it has man elements in common with the Phlogston.

my thoughts exactly. The deep ethereal specifically makes for a better replacement for the phlogiston. Astral can still work as hyperspace, but having it exist between the spheres just raises more headaches for what is already an extremely convoluted cosmology. If they want to condense the planes, then they should do much more just transplanting Spelljammer into the astral.

VengerSatanis · April 26, 2022, 11:36:16 AM

Quote from: Thornhammer on April 23, 2022, 02:12:48 PM
Spelljammer never clicked for me. Damn shame because I really wanted to like it.

$70 for the box set isn't too bad though.

Three magazines, a cardboard screen, and a box to put it in all for $70? Lol... nope. Not even if I liked WotC's woke SJW bullshit!

It's an epic fail in my opinion, hoss.

Timothe · July 20, 2022, 11:10:43 PM

I was looking at some of the free Spelljammer material released on D&D Beyond.

Your first level characters get to go to Spelljammer Academy! WTF!?!?

RandyB · July 21, 2022, 07:09:10 AM

Quote from: Timothe on July 20, 2022, 11:10:43 PM
I was looking at some of the free Spelljammer material released on D&D Beyond.

Your first level characters get to go to Spelljammer Academy! WTF!?!?

"You're a Spelljammer, Harry!"

BoxCrayonTales · July 21, 2022, 10:26:58 AM

Quote from: Timothe on July 20, 2022, 11:10:43 PM
I was looking at some of the free Spelljammer material released on D&D Beyond.

Your first level characters get to go to Spelljammer Academy! WTF!?!?

This is actually consistent with the original settings. Spelljammer and Planescape were written to be accessible from first level.

Shrieking Banshee · July 21, 2022, 10:56:51 AM

Yup. Spelljammer isn't an epic setting by default.

Timothe · July 21, 2022, 12:01:12 PM

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 21, 2022, 10:26:58 AM
Quote from: Timothe on July 20, 2022, 11:10:43 PM
I was looking at some of the free Spelljammer material released on D&D Beyond.

Your first level characters get to go to Spelljammer Academy! WTF!?!?
This is actually consistent with the original settings. Spelljammer and Planescape were written to be accessible from first level.

I do not recall that when I had the Spelljammer boxed set. You had to be a fairly high-level spellcaster or have special inate abilities to be able to power a spelljamming helm. If there were low level scenario cards in that set they were pretty much ignored. Anyway, Spelljammer was so stupid that I gave up on it and went back to requiring an Amulet of the Planes or similar magic for planar travel and each game world was an alternate prime.

I ignored Planescape.

Omega · July 21, 2022, 02:03:18 PM

Quote from: Timothe on July 21, 2022, 12:01:12 PM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on July 21, 2022, 10:26:58 AM
Quote from: Timothe on July 20, 2022, 11:10:43 PM
I was looking at some of the free Spelljammer material released on D&D Beyond.

Your first level characters get to go to Spelljammer Academy! WTF!?!?
This is actually consistent with the original settings. Spelljammer and Planescape were written to be accessible from first level.

I do not recall that when I had the Spelljammer boxed set. You had to be a fairly high-level spellcaster or have special inate abilities to be able to power a spelljamming helm. If there were low level scenario cards in that set they were pretty much ignored. Anyway, Spelljammer was so stupid that I gave up on it and went back to requiring an Amulet of the Planes or similar magic for planar travel and each game world was an alternate prime.

I ignored Planescape.

Box is mostly right here.

Spelljammers can be manned by even 1st level casters. But the boxed set tended to lean to the PCs getting one later in their adventuring careers. Such as mentioning after the PCs have performed some great adventure. But also covers how to get the PCs into space out the gate. At least one of the modules covers getting the PCs introduced to spelljamming fairly early.

So yes. 1st level casters can man a helm. Slow. But can be done. The general assumption though was the PCs had a few, or several levels under the belt before setting out. But getting out there earlier was allowed for and quite possible.

Valatar · July 21, 2022, 02:20:28 PM

Spelljammer could be (poorly) done with 1st level characters back in the day, but unless Timothe is being facetious it's still horrifying for me if they're talking about some Hogwarts-style academy for spelljamming characters. 1st level characters are still supposed to be competent professionals, they aren't tweens going into Adventurer High to have school hijinks.

Timothe · July 21, 2022, 02:44:26 PM

I wasn't being facetious, but now that I think of it the Ice Pirates would make a great Spelljammer adventure.