Spelljammer Space Clowns Are A Thing In Spelljammer

WotC's Chris Perkins discusses Spelljammer's space clowns in a new video.

 

[Jer]

There's an article on Polygon that brings them up and I kid you not, Polygon asked Crawford if the space-slaver spider-eels (along with the squid faced brain eating abominations) we're going to be "always evil."

Someone, somewhere is going want to play a neogi to play them against type. Star Trek inspired campaigns pretty much guarantee it.

 

[Parmandur]

All they’ve done so far is highlight a list of weird-ish races (though not the Neogi yet), I’m sure the book has more than the geeks in marketing have showcased

I do think showcasing the Rock of Bral and other Space Lairs would have been a better promotion then this one note race

Dude, they just published a new book with Neogi a few months ago. And that was a revision of Neogi from 6 years ago.

 

[grimslade]

Someone, somewhere is going want to play a neogi to play them against type. Star Trek inspired campaigns pretty much guarantee it.

Been done. Neogi smuggler who is dodderingly old and avoids his kin so they don't fill him full of Great Old Master toxin. Not really against type, more of no choice.

 

[Umbran]

Gen X here, I don't remember clowns being particularly scary as I was growing up.

Coulrophobia isn't, as I understand it, terribly generation-specific.

Some time ago, I was in a live-action game running at a convention, and the game was set at a circus. Three of us were cast as circus clowns, and we'd all gone all in on the costume and makeup. I, personally, did a variation on Emmet Kelley Jr. He was the archetypal "sad hobo clown" variety - not specifically scary looking.

All the players showed up a bit early, while the GMs were still setting up, so we players, having to wait, decided to do the "circus has come to town parade" thing, clowns (and me, specifically, as I was playing the head clown) in the lead. And we marched through the spacious con suite, because it was big enough to do that and we could so off costuming to all the folks there, and all.

One poor woman I didn't know was making herself a sandwich, turned and looked at me (doing my goofy clown marching thing) screamed at the top of her lungs, and dove under the table. She was severely clown-phobic, and close-up-surprise-clown set her right off the scale.

I felt horrible. Of course, I couldn't even apologize or help with her panic, because I was still in makeup and costume - looking at me was the last thing she needed. I had to slink back to game-space and hide there until game start.

I was lucky, in that, with the makeup, she had no idea who played the clown who freaked her out - so later, when I actually got to know her, she didn't hold it against me.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Evil Clown

The Evil Clowns[1] are the main antagonists of the episode "Killjoys". They're vampiric, lamprey-like creatures disguised as clowns that devour victims when they laugh. A nest of five were captured by the Extreme Ghostbusters. At some point in time, a nest of vampiric entities settled in Coney...

ghostbusters.fandom.com

It may be worse, for example a Harley Queen, female Arlequin

my basic statement about the existence of those images:

 

[MGibster]

Coulrophobia isn't, as I understand it, terribly generation-specific.

Yeah, I should have been more clear. I'm aware that some people were afraid of clowns, but the idea that clowns were scary didn't seem to permeate popular culture when I was a kid. In the 70s and throughout most of the 80s, people were more likely to associate clowns with the likes of Bozo, Ronald McDonald, or even Red Skelton rather than something sinister or frightening. i.e. Clowns as scary didn't seem to be part of the cultural zeitgeist. But I don't think coulrophobia (nice use of word by the way) isn't quite the same as the current zeitgeist of the sinister clown.

And oh, man, you must have felt horrible! What a bad experience for both of you.

 

[MGibster]

Poltergeist got me good.

I forgot about that one. I might not be a good person to gauge that kind of thing. I was 5 or 6 when I first saw Poltergeist, either because my parents were permissive or they didn't love me, so when it comes to horror and bloodshed on screen I'm inured at this point.

 

[Umbran]

In the 70s and throughout most of the 80s, people were more likely to associate clowns with the likes of Bozo, Ronald McDonald, or even Red Skelton rather than something sinister or frightening.

Stephen King's IT was published in 1986, by the way.

 

[Willie the Duck]

It's a mad world,

We're talking about Spelljammers, and Puddles has an actual Song about Ships to use.

 

[MGibster]

Stephen King's IT was published in 1986, by the way.

I know. And many more people became familiar with Pennywise when the tv movie came out in the early 90s. I still don't think the "clowns are scary" thing was as big back then as it is now.