Spelljammer Spelljammer Shows Up In The Wild - Check Out The Tables of Contents

Copies of Spelljammer are starting to show up. Mike Long of Tribality is in receipt of the books and has tweeted some photos!

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, seems less...spooky, eldritch, terrifying?

Exactly. I’d rather it more closely match the fiction and actually be a quick fix of magic to boost casting. Like a free upcast or metamagic available to anyone…for a price.

4E Dark Sun will probably be the baseline for any future rendition.

That’s a mixed bag, for me. Some good, some bad.

 

[Yaarel]

I am waiting to see all the details relating to 5e "defile".

For those who want a spellcasting mechanic, a homebrew might be as simple as disadvantage to saves against arcane spells. And advantage to spell attacks. But only if there actually are nearby plants that get destroyed and nearby creatures that desiccate. If the proximity is already barren, then there is no benefit from defile.

 

[Remathilis]

Huh. Thanks. That’s not terrible…but that’s not defiling.

It's an interesting take, but it only seems like an AOE Vampiric Touch-ish. It mentions nothing about it happening when it casts spells.

Welcome to post MoTM monster creation, where monster abilities don't resemble PC rules in the slightest.

That said, I think the idea is to create a flavor of defiling that isn't tied to spellcasting as monster spellcasters don't use the same rules as PC casters anymore (IE no spell slots or upcasting). A PC defiler might get bonuses to spellcasting, but monsters might get all sorts of quirky effects instead.

So, I wouldn't read a whole lot into WotC's design goals by reading monster stat-blocks, NPCs stat blocks and PC classes don't remotely resemble each other anymore even if they are both called the same thing.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think they were playing around with what the "Dark" of Dark Sun means.

I like the idea that it is a black hole! Alot.

There can still be a planet Athas orbiting the black hole. Heh, the sky of the planet being on fire might illuminate the planet.

But I suspect @Charlaquin is correct that the feedback from internal testers nixed this change (and probably moreso because of other changes) to the Dark Sun traditional lore. So they split it off as a different setting that is "Dark Sun-esque".

Yeah, I don’t think Athas orbiting a black hole would have been a significant enough change on its own to have drawn enough critique to have convinced them to file the serial numbers off. Honestly, I would bet on the differences being significant enough that we probably wouldn’t have even realized doomspace was ever meant to be Athaspace had it not been for that little oopsie with the poster. We’d just have thought the dark sun monsters were to give the adventure some Barsoom flavor and maybe speculated that it could foreshadow a Dark Sun release in the near future.

 

[MockingBird]

The art work is amazing. This looks really top notch.

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah, I don’t think Athas orbiting a black hole would have been a significant enough change on its own to have drawn enough critique to have convinced them to file the serial numbers off. Honestly, I would bet on the differences being significant enough that we probably wouldn’t have even realized doomspace was ever meant to be Athaspace had it not been for that little oopsie with the poster. We’d just have thought the dark sun monsters were to give the adventure some Barsoom flavor and maybe speculated that it could foreshadow a Dark Sun release in the near future.

I cant wait to read Doomspace.

1. Precisely what is missing from it, will evidence what it is that 5e is uncomfortable with about Dark Sun.

2. What is present but different, will evidence what disgruntled the internal testers.

 

[pukunui]

I cant wait to read Doomspace.

1. Precisely what is missing from it, will evidence what it is that 5e is uncomfortable with about Dark Sun.

2. What is present but different, will evidence what disgruntled the internal testers.

Don't expect too much detail. Judging by the adventure ToC, Doomspace only gets two pages outside the adventure episode/s set in it.

 

[Charlaquin]

I cant wait to read Doomspace.

1. Precisely what is missing from it, will evidence what it is that 5e is uncomfortable with about Dark Sun.

2. What is present but different, will evidence what disgruntled the internal testers.

Yeah, I’m kind of excited for it too. I was dreading it when the poster mixup happened, but hearing that it’s not Athas, but is similar in some ways? I’m pretty down for that.

 

[Weiley31]

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I really, really, REALLY love that Astral Elf art there!

 

[Parmandur]

I really, really, REALLY love that Astral Elf art there!

They really put some tremendous work into them! Gives an idea of a distinct and interesting culture.