Tinker Gnome
Explorer
What are your experiences with this setting? Did you have fun if you were a player? What about if you were GMing it?
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Your experiences with Spelljammer?
- Thread starter Tinker Gnome
- Start date
Patryn of Elvenshae
First Post
I played the hell out of the old computer game (and I always wished that they'd made an update to it).
Other than that, no meaningful experience with Spelljammer.
Other than that, no meaningful experience with Spelljammer.
the Jester
Legend
The most wahoo campaign I've ever played in had a bunch of Spelljamming in it.
Favorite moment: Getting into ship to ship combat with an enemy ship... and realizing only after they hit us with several catapult shots that they were firing galeb duhrs.
Favorite moment: Getting into ship to ship combat with an enemy ship... and realizing only after they hit us with several catapult shots that they were firing galeb duhrs.
greatamericanfolkher
Explorer
Spelljammer is one of my favorite settings. I've always been a cheeseball, so some of the sillier elements of the setting that have soured others were to me the highlights. Coming up with spheres and planets and juggling the twelve or so plothooks while trying to anticipate the players decisions was always fun.
The last game I ran the players all decided to hit the "Yarrr!" button so hard their thumbs fractured.
The last game I ran the players all decided to hit the "Yarrr!" button so hard their thumbs fractured.
You basically have to be fully comfortable with silly aspects to your gaming to use it to its full potential. If a race of Hippo Men with an obsession with guns and who all dress up like 18th Century English Naval Officers doesn't appeal to you, it may not be your kind of thing.
(God, do I love the Giff. So absurd, but so hilarious.)
(God, do I love the Giff. So absurd, but so hilarious.)
Stormonu
Legend
I ran a little bit of it; the spelljamming was happening "in the background" as a means to get from one adventure to another.
The group were military officers based on the Rock of Braal, running relief efforts to the worlds besieged in the Beholder-Neogi-Mind Flayer war. They occassionally could call on aid from the elves to help in repairing worlds where the ecosystem were wrecked, but the had to be wary of drawing unwanted attention from the Scro empire (they might try to engage the elves or otherwise interfere with blockades and such against the elves).
The group were military officers based on the Rock of Braal, running relief efforts to the worlds besieged in the Beholder-Neogi-Mind Flayer war. They occassionally could call on aid from the elves to help in repairing worlds where the ecosystem were wrecked, but the had to be wary of drawing unwanted attention from the Scro empire (they might try to engage the elves or otherwise interfere with blockades and such against the elves).
David Howery
Hero
I ran a short Spelljammer 'side trek' as part of a larger FR campaign. I didn't use much of the boxed setting, making up my own crystal sphere, my own Spelljammer ships, and had a lot of the adventures revolve around the monsters out of Predator and Aliens. IIRC, I had the crystal sphere destroyed in a whopping grand finale, and the PCs turned their ship over to their crew and returned to Toril...
Ahzad
Explorer
Spelljammer hands down is my favorite campaign setting ever produced, silly bits and all.
It's a setting that has so much potential and one that isn't really set up for a novice GM to run. It's a very sandbox kind of setting that I think needs a GM who is comfortable at running on the fly. It's also best IMO if you divorce it from the big 3 (FR, Greyhawk, & DL) as much as possible. Start out in them if you must but quickly get away and work on building your own spelljamming society built around all the nifty hooks scattered around the setting, with the Rock of Bral as the center point. I didn't mind the goofy elements so much, but then again I didn't dwell on them or just ignored the ones I didn't like, for example, giant space hamsters powering ships.
Some of my favorite hooks:
The vodoni war,
The showdown between the scro and EIN (elven imperial navy)
The illithiad trying to darken spheres
The tenth pit slaving operations
The merchant houses trying to out do each other
The political machinations of the EIN, who can make for some pretty nasty bad guys in their own right.
The last is more of my take on certain factions of the EIN, who can be kind of fascist and hardcore especially if you start having the scro kicking their ass. The kind of group for who the end justifies the means, and the players have to help excise this cancer from the EIN.
All in all a great setting if you like the space fantasy mash up.
I love the Giff too!
"Maybe I can't be a paladin and carry a holy sword, but I can still use 'Lady Elaine' here and get exactly the same results." - Major-General Ruthgar Gronig, Company of the Chalice said while fondly patting his three-barrel arquebus nicknamed 'Lady Elaine'
It's a setting that has so much potential and one that isn't really set up for a novice GM to run. It's a very sandbox kind of setting that I think needs a GM who is comfortable at running on the fly. It's also best IMO if you divorce it from the big 3 (FR, Greyhawk, & DL) as much as possible. Start out in them if you must but quickly get away and work on building your own spelljamming society built around all the nifty hooks scattered around the setting, with the Rock of Bral as the center point. I didn't mind the goofy elements so much, but then again I didn't dwell on them or just ignored the ones I didn't like, for example, giant space hamsters powering ships.
Some of my favorite hooks:
The vodoni war,
The showdown between the scro and EIN (elven imperial navy)
The illithiad trying to darken spheres
The tenth pit slaving operations
The merchant houses trying to out do each other
The political machinations of the EIN, who can make for some pretty nasty bad guys in their own right.
The last is more of my take on certain factions of the EIN, who can be kind of fascist and hardcore especially if you start having the scro kicking their ass. The kind of group for who the end justifies the means, and the players have to help excise this cancer from the EIN.
All in all a great setting if you like the space fantasy mash up.
I love the Giff too!
"Maybe I can't be a paladin and carry a holy sword, but I can still use 'Lady Elaine' here and get exactly the same results." - Major-General Ruthgar Gronig, Company of the Chalice said while fondly patting his three-barrel arquebus nicknamed 'Lady Elaine'
