D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

New free content from WotC - the latest 4-page Unearthed Arcana introduces six new races: astral elf, autognome, giff, hadozee, plasmoid, and thri-kreen.

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Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[Parmandur]

Sorry if I got a bit snitty there - it's just a pet peeve of mine when people argue over each other's heads or debate meaningless minutia like whether the changes will be "small" or "minor".

Goodness gracious, that's like this forums bread and butter.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Actually... ignore the names a second and they line up pretty well.

Dralasites are Plasmoids
Vrusk are Thri-Kreen
Yazirian are Hazodeed
Mechanons are Autognomes

Then you have humans as humans. The only race that doesn't fit from this UA are the Astral Elves. And space elves are pretty easily added.

There's also the Syllix from Spelljammer who are basically the Sathar from Star Frontiers

 

[Hatmatter]

Hmmm. Spelljammer has some interesting ideas but this looks like this will be another setting that isn’t for me.

Thri-Kreen definitely scream Dark Sun though. I would be surprised if they aren’t folded into some kind of Darksun launch or not intentionally paving the way for a Dark Sun launch.

My issue with Spelljammer is that it seems to be transitive… the action happens somewhere else and the spelljammer element is what you do along the way. Planescape is the holiday destination, Spelljammer is the flight to get there. I don’t really see the point of Spelljammer unless it’s connected to something else.

As someone who has DMed a lot of Spelljammer, I would say it is precisely parallel to a nautically-themed game. In fact, I would not be surprised if Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a model for a Spelljammer anthology of adventures (but likely with an additional chapter or two of lore). The ocean is transitive, but there are destinations within and under it. The Spelljammer box set encourages people to make their own crystal spheres that are a destination and to have adventures set there, not to mention that the dwarves' most typical "ship" is actually a flying dungeon. So, executing a mission or adventure on such ship might be like Star Wars where the characters are trying to meet objectives while within the bowels of the Death Star.

But, a Spelljammer campaign can be like a series of Star Trek adventures or nautical adventures or anything one can imagine. Literally, the entire Material Plane is the playing field. And, of course, other multiplanar shenanigans can also occur, especially with ghost ships (or planets) that inhabit the Ethereal Plane or adventures that make use of the Feywild or Shadowfell.

 

[TheSword]

As someone who has DMed a lot of Spelljammer, I would say it is precisely parallel to a nautically-themed game. In fact, I would not be surprised if Ghosts of Saltmarsh is a model for a Spelljammer anthology of adventures (but likely with an additional chapter or two of lore). The ocean is transitive, but there are destinations within and under it. The Spelljammer box set encourages people to make their own crystal spheres that are a destination and to have adventures set there, not to mention that the dwarves' most typical "ship" is actually a flying dungeon. So, executing a mission or adventure on such ship might be like Star Wars where the characters are trying to meet objectives while within the bowels of the Death Star.

But, a Spelljammer campaign can be like a series of Star Trek adventures or nautical adventures or anything one can imagine. Literally, the entire Material Plane is the playing field. And, of course, other multiplanar shenanigans can also occur, especially with ghost ships (or planets) that inhabit the Ethereal Plane or adventures that make use of the Feywild or Shadowfell.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there.

It seems that Spelljammer isn’t a setting, it’s a way of joining multiple settings together. You could take the Spelljammer out and the adventure could look very similar.

Let’s be honest, how many encounters in Ghosts of Salmarsh actually take place on the ship on the way to somewhere… I’m early into the campaign but my guess is not many.

I also don’t buy a campaign setting to then have to go and make up a load of new worlds. Spelljammer suffers from the same problems as many other open ended settings. Tons of potential but with no way of harnessing is worse than no potential. I’m definitely prefer a tighter better detailed campaign setting. Probably why I’m a fan of the Sword Coast lol

 

[Demetrios1453]

Hmmm. Spelljammer has some interesting ideas but this looks like this will be another setting that isn’t for me.

Thri-Kreen definitely scream Dark Sun though. I would be surprised if they aren’t folded into some kind of Darksun launch or not intentionally paving the way for a Dark Sun launch.

Thri-kreen scream Spelljammer just as much as Dark Sun. They are just an integral part of one as the other.

 

[Bolares]

Thri-kreen scream Spelljammer just as much as Dark Sun. They are just an integral part of one as the other.

Thri-kreen screamming gotta be messed up

 

[Mind of tempest]

Thri-kreen screamming gotta be messed up

it just sounds like a cicader now if you god sounds like that you have a problem but otherwise it is only unpleasant like most screaming.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Thri-kreen scream Spelljammer just as much as Dark Sun. They are just an integral part of one as the other.

You know, I dont really recall much thri-kreen in Spelljammer. Can anyone tell me where they actually appeared?

 

[Mind of tempest]

You know, I dont really recall much thri-kreen in Spelljammer. Can anyone tell me where they actually appeared?

xixchil did which seem to just be dire thri-kreen.

 

[Bolares]

it just sounds like a cicader now if you god sounds like that you have a problem but otherwise it is only unpleasant like most screaming.

yeah, but a cicader is a tinny little bug, and it sounds awfull. Imagine that in a huge scale...