I got the Dark Sun print a couple of days ago - much thicker than I had thought, and a really reasonable price. Paperback was less than twenty bucks, hardback is twenty-three.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on February 12, 2021, 10:33:45 AM
  Production costs may figure in as well--IIRC, Planescape included a lot more full-color art that Spelljammer, which drives up the printing costs.

I thought about that, but I remember Spelljammer having a ton of full color art, including all the fold up spelljammer ship tokens and cardstock sheets for each ship including full color art of the ship on the front. Plus the fold out maps.

I'd have to check then out to compare. I think Planescape had a lot of sepia-ish art, but it was on practically every page.

OBS uses Lightning Source for their print on demand books in the US. I could be wrong, but don't they charge a flat fee based on binding, page count, and paper quality (e.g. color/not color)? Since they're not charging publishers separately for the number of pages that are in color or black and white, or the ink used, the graphical density shouldn't impact the cost. Though it's certainly possible that Wizards of the Coast gets special treatment, because they certainly do in other areas (DMs Guild, it's OBS staff not WotC staff who scan and prep the books for conversion into PDFs, etc.).

I love spelljammer! Id like a hard copy.

Wear a Guyver suit and pilot a giant hollowed out Gamera.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on February 12, 2021, 12:18:31 PM

I'd have to check then out to compare. I think Planescape had a lot of sepia-ish art, but it was on practically every page.

Yes, it was.  The MC stuff was a bit more colorful, but the rest was sepia and on every page.
I may have to buy this so I don't have to use my originals.

Okay, ordered both Spelljammer and Planescape. This better be good

(and apparently Premium shipping should bypass EU customs and shit).

Im trying not to buy all these...but its tempting.

If you want to buy a lot of stuff, you might be better off waiting a few weeks—we're not too far from the annual GM's Day Sale.

Planescape.. the one with Torment Now why they never capitalised on the crpg i will never understand. That thing was the bees knees. Instead we have some numenera ''spiritual sucessor''. I guess it sjust not possible to make a game aimed at people who like action philosophy, multiverse hopping and.. wait, why am i talking about Amber?

Planescape in a way never left. Its a part of 5e in a way and still gets refferenced. But as its own setting, so far seems not. Though Descent into Avernus does involve the Bloodwar. YMMV of course.

Is Spelljammer actually any good? Serious question. I started playing Rifts about the time it came out and thought it was a bad knockoff, never really gave it a chance.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on February 12, 2021, 03:35:36 PM
If you want to buy a lot of stuff, you might be better off waiting a few weeks—we're not too far from the annual GM's Day Sale.

Good to know!

Quote from: Brad on February 13, 2021, 07:36:50 PM
Is Spelljammer actually any good? Serious question. I started playing Rifts about the time it came out and thought it was a bad knockoff, never really gave it a chance.

I quite like it, but  its not really like rifts...its more like....well i always thought of it being like Treasure Planet.

Quote from: Brad on February 13, 2021, 07:36:50 PM
Is Spelljammer actually any good? Serious question. I started playing Rifts about the time it came out and thought it was a bad knockoff, never really gave it a chance.

It's not a knock-off of RIFTS. They're not even in the same vicinity.

Pre-Spelljammer D&D had a lot of mechanics for traveling between planes, but aside from a few handwavy mentions of gates or that appendix in the Manual of the Planes, it never really delved into how travel between different alternate worlds within the Prime worked. Spelljammer answers that question.

And it does it using space travel. Except it's not science or science fiction space travel. It's space travel based on pre-modern cosmological theories like celestial spheres and luminiferous ether. Basically, each campaign setting (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, your own, other worlds they made up) is in a solar system surrounded by a giant crystal sphere. Crazy flying ships shaped like animals or other weird things can travel between planets (bodies) within a single crystal sphere, and can cross the (highly explosive and flammable) phlogiston between spheres.

As with all 2e settings, there are some issues, for instance too great a dependence on casters (ships fly using helms -- think helming a ship, not armor for the head -- which are almost always powered by casters), but conceptually it's a lot of fun, the ship designs are fantastic, and the setting components are great. For instance, beholders are more concerned with their own internal war of racial purity so they might trade peacefully with outsiders, spider slavers with umber hulk muscle are common in ports, an powerful elven armada keeps peace, and religious factions (Ptah is big) have to deal with the connection to their god varying from sphere to sphere, and more. A lot of high concept ideas, leavened with some silliness (sometimes both -- humanoid hippos with monocles and military uniforms sound absurd, but the giff are one of the most popular and well developed elements of the setting).

Quote from: Pat on February 13, 2021, 09:53:14 PM
It's not a knock-off of RIFTS. They're not even in the same vicinity.

I was in junior high...gosh!

Thanks for the info, though. Cheap as an 18-pack of High Life so might as well buy it.