D&D 5E PlaneJammer: Sailing the Astral Sea

[doctorbadwolf]

I do think I will make ships into creatures a la the Avernus infernal machines. To what degree they are alive or sentient might vary by faction.

Lot of opportunity there, for sure. Also some sentient ships are a lot scarier than others. I bet a halfling ship would be very chill, though.

 

[Fenris-77]

Again, I'll give props to Jim Butcher. He has the size, age, and quality of the aether crystal powering a ship as the mechanism for sentience. It works really well, at least as fiction. Translating that to an RPG is, of course, another whole thing.

 

[Reynard]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with clerics and other divine casters in this setting/campaign. It feels like the traditional D&D view of gods just doesn't work in a planar campaign. How did Planescape handle it?

 

[jgsugden]

I recommend "all of the above".

When Spelljammer was introduced way back when, I moved them to the Astral sea and ignored the Crystal Sphere concept. They've been a part of my campaign world (although rare) for decades now, and I have a variety of different ships, propulsion, etc...

Many folks go with ships made by a confederation of dwarven smiths that have a 'moon' that orbits my equivalent of Sigil (which is also in the Astral). Those vessels work on science, not magic, whether using Astral Sails, steam jet propulsion, rockets, and the newest invention that swept the verse - rail propulsion (hollow tubes launched like a rail gun towards a target and then pulled into their goal with magic).

Others have propulsion systems based upon the old Spelljammer books, Eberron designs, Psionics, sledding (pulled by creatures of the Astral Sea that move fast), etc...

Some are built like trains, some like sailing ships, some like alien creatures, some like spaceships, etc... One legendary vessel is the body of a brain dead god.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with clerics and other divine casters in this setting/campaign. It feels like the traditional D&D view of gods just doesn't work in a planar campaign. How did Planescape handle it?

I would probably treat that issue with benign neglect.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with clerics and other divine casters in this setting/campaign. It feels like the traditional D&D view of gods just doesn't work in a planar campaign. How did Planescape handle it?

Planescape still had clerics but their spell level varied depending on how far away they were from their Diety’s Plane (as counted on the Great Wheel) , there were also plane specific changes to different spell types
I’d ignore them though you could use the Dis/Advantage mechanic to simulate something.

Clerics have a strong hook in Planescape since as direct representatives of their god they are Agents in Planescapes divine politics

 

[Malmuria]

I'm trying to figure out what to do with clerics and other divine casters in this setting/campaign. It feels like the traditional D&D view of gods just doesn't work in a planar campaign. How did Planescape handle it?

If I played a cleric in an astral campaign, I would want to be one of the last worshippers of a dead god, wanting to find its corpse and resurrect it. Same with villainous clerics

 

[Reynard]

EDIT: What 3rd party 5e fantasy non-WotC species/races/lineages would be cool to include in a PlaneJammer campaign?

 

[darjr]

Starfrontiers species, at least in mine there would be.

 

[Dioltach]

What non-WotC species/races/lineages would be cool to include in a PlaneJammer campaign?

The hyperintelligent shade of blue mentioned in H2G2?