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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dnd.wizards.com

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

 

[Parmandur]

The real kicker is that there are no indisputably Planescape-specific races in the UA. If they had thrown in bariaur or rogue modron, then we would conclude that there's a mix. All we have is the Astral Elves, which are an unknown quantity here. The other five are definitely Spelljammer races (although not exclusively though), so it makes sense that the sixth is as well...

I mean, the Elven Apace Empire is a definite Spelljammerism, and even if Spelljammer didn't have "Space Elves" back in the day, it seems fitting at least.

 

[Bolares]

I'm trying to read up on some spelljammer lore the last few days and from what I've heard the flow seems so.... outdated? I like the idea of the flammable substance existing and all, but it filling the space between the crystal spheres sounds weird. I'd bet they keep it as something that you go into sometimes (something like the faerzress in the underdark) but isn't around all the time. Would this break something fundamental about the setting?

 

[Ace]

Lol at the giff having disputes on how their name is pronounced!

It is hilarious but that is a flavor rule I'm not going to use. Gif with the "soft" G sounds like a well known brand of sweetened peanut butter in my country and it would just render them too silly. Granted the "Victorian Hippo" stereotype from AD&D 2e Spelljammer is pretty silly too but its a manageable amount.

Now Astral Elf seems pretty cool to me

 

[Leatherhead]

I'm pro replacing Phlogiston with the Astral myself, but I don't really visualize that as Planejammer. I don't really know what Planejammer is at all really, except having both settings in one book.

PlaneJammer is an April Fools Joke that got a bit out of hand:


People were like "Ha-ha, we get it, still not confirmed" and then some other people were like "But what if we really did that though?" and from the second group is where it kind of snowballed without context for why it was a joke.

But also possibly the design intent for the theoretical "D&D multiverse setting" which may, or may not, be a thing now, given the lore in Fizbans and the upcomming Monsters of the Multiverse book.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

PlaneJammer is an April Fools Joke that got a bit out of hand:


People were like "Ha-ha, we get it, still not confirmed" and then some other people were like "But what if we really did that though?" and from the second group is where it kind of snowballed without context for why it was a joke.

But also possibly the design intent for the theoretical "D&D multiverse setting" which may, or may not, be a thing now, given the lore in Fizbans and the upcomming Monsters of the Multiverse book.

There had definitely been advocating for Planejammer prior to that post, but it was largely in the context of "Well, WotC won't publish both Spelljammer and Planescape, so lets hope they do both in the same book."

But I think we are way past that now, where WotC actually is interested in doing them separate... classic settings sell well, and this is two separate popular classic settings. Double the sales!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think you may misjudge the interests of WotC writers, especially Perkins, Crawford, and Wyatt.

In 2021 the writers know their personal interests have to play second fiddle to commercial considerations. The playerbase wants D&D meets Star Wars/Trek. Self indulgent writers excessing their pet obsessions in philosophy or the history of scientific thought did the game no favours in the 1980s, however much it might appeal to the intellectuals on this forum.

 

[Scribe]

Self indulgent writers excessing their pet obsessions in philosophy or the history of scientific thought did the game no favours in the 1980s

Have you read the reviews of Planescape? This is a factually wrong take.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Have you read the reviews of Planescape? This is a factually wrong take.

Reviewers and critics like high brow stuff. But the mass market does not.

 

[Scribe]

Reviewers and critics like high brow stuff. But the mass market does not.

You believe Planescape was not commercially a success??

 

[Bolares]

The playerbase wants D&D meets Star Wars/Trek.

Do we hava data for this?