Spelljammer Is Spelljammer Coming To D&D 5E?

Thanks to Stan Shinn over on Google+ for this scoop! WotC held a presentation at the GAMA trade show today, in which they covered both recent D&D performance (best year ever!), some previews of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and a small hint towards... Spelljammer?

Thanks to Stan Shinn over on Google+ for this scoop! WotC held a presentation at the GAMA trade show today, in which they covered both recent D&D performance (best year ever!), some previews of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and a small hint towards... Spelljammer?

spelljammerbox.jpg



Here's Stan's report, direct from the trade show:

"Interesting Spelljammer and market news from the GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) WOTC Seminar on March 13 in Reno (I’m there now).

Mark Price talked about D&D and showed some pictures from inside the upcoming Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes book. I have a few pictures (attached) prior to the Mordenkainen’s slides, but they asked us not to take or share pictures of the Mordenkainen’s book interior. They did show us a picture of a ‘Giff’ — a Spelljammer creature, which will be in the book. He looked like a steampunk hippo with a blunderbuss. Regarding why the creature was in the book, he said “I’ll let you speculate wildly about what that may mean.”

There was look of a wink in his eye so I’m pretty sure the hint was that Spelljammer is coming soon!

Other news from the seminar:

— 2017 was the best year for D&D ever in terms of sales
— Year 3 of D&D sales is stronger than their first year
— Actual play streaming is a key driver of D&D’s success, with 9 million users watching D&D on Twitch
— 8.6 million Americans have played D&D in the last 12 months (they did not give stats for overseas)"


It seems Xanathar's Guide was the fastest selling product in D&D history!

Wondering what Spelljammer is? Imagine D&D (2nd Edition) in space, except the ships are magic flying sailing galleons, and space is a "phlogiston" they can sail in with magical helms, and each world is in its own "crystal sphere", and all of D&D's settings exist in the same universe, and you can fly between them. Image above is of the AD&D 2E Spelljammer boxed set.

Of course, it might not be that. It might just be a monster entry Mordenkainen's Tome, and nothing more.


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gyor

Legend
Skywalker in the thread on Marathon, Broadway, and Catacombs made an interesting connection what does one think of on Broadway, Stars. Now that lead to Skywalker thinking of an Astral Sea adventure, an interesting thoughts, but really it confirmed my belief that the Broadway is a Spelljamming adventure where you start out in Lantan with in the Forgotten Realms.

Here is how I came to my realization. It had been mentioned that Lantan would be explored in a future product soon after ToA was released.

Then we found out about the books Marathon (Accessory), Broadway (adventure), and Catacombs (adventure).

Then we found out their are spelljammer creatures in MTOF.

Lantan (a steam punk society in the Forgotten Realms and the most technologically advanced) is one of the few places in the realms likely to have a spelljammer, other being Shou Lung and Evermeet.

At this point I was leaning towards a Spelljammer adventure starting with Lantan.

But when Skywalker made that Broadway's=Stars connection, it made me absolutely positive that is what Broadway is, a Spelljammer adventure.
 

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It could just as easily be "Return to the Barrier Peaks".


If it is Spelljammer, I don't see why they would attach the start point to any particular campaign setting. It's Krynn gnomes who are known to build spelljamming ships in any case.
 

delericho

Legend
Lantan (a steam punk society in the Forgotten Realms and the most technologically advanced) is one of the few places in the realms likely to have a spelljammer, other being Shou Lung and Evermeet.

IIRC, the 2nd Ed Spelljammer lore said that such things were relatively common in FR - at least, as common as flying ships ever get.

Also, FWIW, the Spelljammer novel "Into the Void" touches down in Rauthaven, so I'd have picked that as a likely starting point. Well, there or Shou Lung.
 

delericho

Legend
4e blended the two.

I'm gradually coming around to the view that this is the way to go. Indeed, rather than considering the many Spelljammer spheres as parallel Prime planes, with the other planes somehow orthogonal to this, I'm leaning instead towards thinking of the multiverse as a kind of wibbly-wobbly spaghetti of stuff - lots of strands all mixed up and around together, with some places easier to reach from some others, and also with plenty of soft places where it's possible to slip from one to another.

(Of course, this also also not-entirely-uninspired by "Thor: Ragnarock"...)
 

Big Mac

Explorer
Confirmed where?

Very good question.

Confirmed (accidentally) by Mike Meals, when he replied to Jeff Grubb on Facebook:
Mike Mearls on Jeff Grubb's Facebook page said:
Jeff Grubb on Facebook said:
Rumors of a Spelljammer relaunch coming out of GAMA. I dunno, you'd think if they were up to that, they'd at least buy me dinner and talk. After all, I just live up the hill from them. It's not like they have to fly me in.

Believe me Jeff, when the time comes we'll talk.

Unless this conversation was some sort of convoluted lie by Jeff Grubb, meant to trick us into thinking that Spelljammer was not being made, it means that WotC have not yet started work on a Spelljammer product.
 

Big Mac

Explorer
I'm gradually coming around to the view that this is the way to go. Indeed, rather than considering the many Spelljammer spheres as parallel Prime planes, with the other planes somehow orthogonal to this, I'm leaning instead towards thinking of the multiverse as a kind of wibbly-wobbly spaghetti of stuff - lots of strands all mixed up and around together, with some places easier to reach from some others, and also with plenty of soft places where it's possible to slip from one to another.

(Of course, this also also not-entirely-uninspired by "Thor: Ragnarock"...)

Spelljammer's crystal spheres are not parallel Material Planes. They are all part of a single Material Plane (along with the Phlogistion, which is also part of the Material Plane).

Mike Mearls reconfirmed this SJ canon, in two recent back-to-back D&D Beyond video about the Illithids and the Gith races. That conflict is going to be featured as one of the chapters in Tome of Foes, so we might get some detail on Illithid worlds in the SJ universe, in that chapter. (Maybe Penumbra, in Truespace, will get a namecheck.)

Mike Mearls also stated that different cosmological models (such as the Great Wheel, the Forgotten Realms cosmologies in the 3e and 4e FR books and the Eberron cosmology) were all different philosophical views of the same thing and that all of the models worked.

So, I think that WotC are working on some sort of "grand unified multiverse theory", where somehow every D&D product that has presented a slightly different concept of how the multiverse works can now be retconned into a single D&D multiverse.
 


Old One Eye

First Post
Mike Mearls also stated that different cosmological models (such as the Great Wheel, the Forgotten Realms cosmologies in the 3e and 4e FR books and the Eberron cosmology) were all different philosophical views of the same thing and that all of the models worked.

Really? I have used that exact concept as my pet theory of the DnD cosmology for some 2 decades in my home games. What a nifty councidence if it actually becomes the official cosmology.

Pretty sure I posted it on the WotC boards back in the day. But there is no way an obscure gamer just posting things on a message board could possibly germinate the seed of a concept to officially appear years later? No. No chance of that, just happy coincidence
 

delericho

Legend
So, I think that WotC are working on some sort of "grand unified multiverse theory", where somehow every D&D product that has presented a slightly different concept of how the multiverse works can now be retconned into a single D&D multiverse.

The irony of that being that as soon as the 6e design team wanted to change it, any such "grand unified multiverse theory" would itself be retconned as just another "different philosophical view".
 

Confirmed (accidentally) by Mike Meals, when he replied to Jeff Grubb on Facebook:


Unless this conversation was some sort of convoluted lie by Jeff Grubb, meant to trick us into thinking that Spelljammer was not being made, it means that WotC have not yet started work on a Spelljammer product.

Actually, I don't think this means what you think it means. "The time" to consult with the original writer is when you have a solid proposal: I.e. an "alpha" draft ready to show them. Not before you start writing. The key word here is "when". If it was still in the phase of a possible idea being kicked around, Mearls would have said "if the time comes". He says "when the time comes" indicating development has already started and they are confident they will have something to show.
 

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