D&D 4E How would you re-envision Spelljammer with 4e?

Najo · Jan 2, 2008

So, 4e has come out. You are working on the WOTC staff incharge of making the campaign guide for the 4e Spelljammer setting. What changes do you make to the setting? What do you focus on for the players to do? How do you change D&D game play? What changes do you make to the story? What sort of content do you plan for the campaign guide?

Aristotle · Jan 3, 2008

This is almost a clone of my Ravenloft answer...

I would present it as a single book setting to be used with ALL other settings. Depending on the vision the designers have for the astral sea, that may in fact be where these great ships sail.. If it is taken in that direction, I think it would kind of replace Planescape (or sit along side if you must) as a common link between settings.

The Little Raven · Jan 3, 2008

I'd do the opposite: I'd give it a unique setting, probably with inspiration from Andy Collin's Shadow of the Spider Moon. In fact, his design tenets for it pretty much mirror how I would handle it.

http://www.andycollins.net/Projects/Spelljammer/Spelljammer.htm

MojoGM · Jan 3, 2008

I'd keep it mostly as it was, maybe take out some of the sillier elements. Scale is down a bit so it would not be for only high level characters.

But then again SJ was my favorite 2E setting.

Spinachcat · Jan 3, 2008

1) Kill the silly

2) Amp the cool

In particular, I would make the setting more accessible for low level characters and I would create a more dynamic ruleset for dealing with boarding and ship combat and a detailed system for trade.

Think Serenity via Fantasy.

Irda Ranger · Jan 3, 2008

Spinachcat said:
Think Serenity via Fantasy.

Awesome.

And get rid of Helms that suck out all of a Wizard's usefulness. You can keep Helms that require some kind of caster or Skill to use, but don't turn a PC into a glorified packhorse. Allow the PC who puts points into Navigation or Close Maneuver to be "cool" during ship-to-ship battles, but don't make him second-appendix kind of useless when going ashore.

Allow the ships to sail into the Astral Sea and the Elemental Tempest if they choose, for higher level play.

The only "problem" with Spelljammer is that there is a huge gulf of adventure types between groups who have their own ship, and those who don't. I think the game will have to decide which one they're going to cater to so they can do it well. I would argue for "have their own ship." Then all they have to do is explain how 1st level characters can manage that.

The Little Raven · Jan 3, 2008

Irda Ranger said:
Allow the ships to sail into the Astral Sea and the Elemental Tempest if they choose, for higher level play.

The only "problem" with Spelljammer is that there is a huge gulf of adventure types between groups who have their own ship, and those who don't. I think the game will have to decide which one they're going to cater to so they can do it well. I would argue for "have their own ship." Then all they have to do is explain how 1st level characters can manage that.

I'd use a galaxy as the overall setting, with the "mortal world" focus on a single star system from which all the core races (and most of the core monsters) originate. Then, you could have your "Elemental Chaos" portion of "space" (I'd probably call it the Aether), your cold, dark, empty Abyss, and so on.

As for ships and characters... I'd have constructing a ship part of character creation for the entire party. Everyone can select some of the options, and the ship "levels" along with you. And introduce the Astrogation (Aethergation?) skill for actually piloting the ship itself.

Marshall · Jan 3, 2008

Irda Ranger said:
The only "problem" with Spelljammer is that there is a huge gulf of adventure types between groups who have their own ship, and those who don't. I think the game will have to decide which one they're going to cater to so they can do it well. I would argue for "have their own ship." Then all they have to do is explain how 1st level characters can manage that.

Not really, the PCs grow from 'crew' at hero to officers at paragon to owners at epic.

Najo · Jan 3, 2008

Irda Ranger said:
Awesome.
The only "problem" with Spelljammer is that there is a huge gulf of adventure types between groups who have their own ship, and those who don't. I think the game will have to decide which one they're going to cater to so they can do it well. I would argue for "have their own ship." Then all they have to do is explain how 1st level characters can manage that.

How does the star wars rpg handle it? That would be a model to follow I would think.

Kesh · Jan 3, 2008

Mourn said:
I'd do the opposite: I'd give it a unique setting, probably with inspiration from Andy Collin's Shadow of the Spider Moon. In fact, his design tenets for it pretty much mirror how I would handle it.

http://www.andycollins.net/Projects/Spelljammer/Spelljammer.htm

This. Alternately, I really loved Dragonstar. Great way of mixing sci-fi space travel with fantasy, and I'm itching to do a homebrew conversion to 4e.