Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Worlds of Design: Spelljammer 2.0
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="OB1" data-source="post: 8818712" data-attributes="member: 6796241"><p>I never played or ran Spelljammer back in the day, but was always intrigued by it. Needing a break from my homebrew campaign, I'm now DMing the adventure for my group (4 players, 2 who've been playing D&D for 4 years, 2 who've been playing for decades) and will run episode 8 tonight.</p><p></p><p>The short review is, everyone is loving it and having an absolute blast. Spelljammer has a very strong frame, and lets the DM and the players build on that frame in play in their own preferred play style.</p><p></p><p>For me, the greatest asset has been the flexibility in design of both the source book and the adventure. I typically hate running pre-gens, as I feel like I have to study sections for hours to get them to run right. With LoX, I skim thru a chapter to get the gist, then go, referencing the books in play for some specific events, and make a lot up on the fly based on what the PCs do (which is similar to how I DM). And even though the adventure has some pretty strong rails (which the players bought into in session 0 and is primarily tied to the desire to stop the empire from destroying their world, but which they also now have a lot of personal reasons to keep following the main plot thread), there is plenty of room for them to explore outside the primary quest in each session. We've had some amazing role play in the campaign, maybe the best this group has ever had. And it's also changed things. NPCs who should still be in the campaign are now gone, but the structure is loose enough to let me get around those things.</p><p></p><p>A close second is the monster design. If this is what we can expect from the 2024MM, I can't freaking wait. And the adventure puts together set piece combats with those monsters that are TOUGH and we're even playtesting the no monster crit rules. Most of these have even been single encounter days, and they are pushing the group to the limit. We've had 1 character death (and a session with a replacement before the original got resurrected), 1 near TPK, and at least 1 PC at 0HP per combat. The combat that start's todays session could well be a TPK if the PCs don't play smartly. </p><p></p><p>Ultimately, the frame that Spelljammer comes with I think makes it both more accessible to a less experienced group, and less restrictive to a more experienced one. It doesn't necessarily READ great, but it PLAYS wonderfully. And I expect that should the group make it to the end, they would want to keep adventuring in space, and that I could keep it going without any additional DMs guild materials. </p><p></p><p>The construction of the random encounter tables is superb, for example, and lead to a multitude of possibilities for what happens even if the same encounter was rolled twice. For example, last session, while in the Astral Sea, they just happened to not only encounter a Solar, but a hostile one (total odds of that were 1 in 1,200). Take away the adventure rails and just go Spelljamming around the multiverse, and those encounter tables alone could make sessions for another 10 levels, or an even an entire campaign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="OB1, post: 8818712, member: 6796241"] I never played or ran Spelljammer back in the day, but was always intrigued by it. Needing a break from my homebrew campaign, I'm now DMing the adventure for my group (4 players, 2 who've been playing D&D for 4 years, 2 who've been playing for decades) and will run episode 8 tonight. The short review is, everyone is loving it and having an absolute blast. Spelljammer has a very strong frame, and lets the DM and the players build on that frame in play in their own preferred play style. For me, the greatest asset has been the flexibility in design of both the source book and the adventure. I typically hate running pre-gens, as I feel like I have to study sections for hours to get them to run right. With LoX, I skim thru a chapter to get the gist, then go, referencing the books in play for some specific events, and make a lot up on the fly based on what the PCs do (which is similar to how I DM). And even though the adventure has some pretty strong rails (which the players bought into in session 0 and is primarily tied to the desire to stop the empire from destroying their world, but which they also now have a lot of personal reasons to keep following the main plot thread), there is plenty of room for them to explore outside the primary quest in each session. We've had some amazing role play in the campaign, maybe the best this group has ever had. And it's also changed things. NPCs who should still be in the campaign are now gone, but the structure is loose enough to let me get around those things. A close second is the monster design. If this is what we can expect from the 2024MM, I can't freaking wait. And the adventure puts together set piece combats with those monsters that are TOUGH and we're even playtesting the no monster crit rules. Most of these have even been single encounter days, and they are pushing the group to the limit. We've had 1 character death (and a session with a replacement before the original got resurrected), 1 near TPK, and at least 1 PC at 0HP per combat. The combat that start's todays session could well be a TPK if the PCs don't play smartly. Ultimately, the frame that Spelljammer comes with I think makes it both more accessible to a less experienced group, and less restrictive to a more experienced one. It doesn't necessarily READ great, but it PLAYS wonderfully. And I expect that should the group make it to the end, they would want to keep adventuring in space, and that I could keep it going without any additional DMs guild materials. The construction of the random encounter tables is superb, for example, and lead to a multitude of possibilities for what happens even if the same encounter was rolled twice. For example, last session, while in the Astral Sea, they just happened to not only encounter a Solar, but a hostile one (total odds of that were 1 in 1,200). Take away the adventure rails and just go Spelljamming around the multiverse, and those encounter tables alone could make sessions for another 10 levels, or an even an entire campaign. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Worlds of Design: Spelljammer 2.0
Top