D&D 5E Spelljammer 5E Poll

[R_J_K75]

The lack of a meaningful spaceship battle system in the spaceship swashbuckling setting was ridiculous.

Yeah this is something that I'm still astounded by considering it was such a big part of the original setting. I think WotC severely underestimates its customers sometimes by over-simplifying their products at times.

(and 3 pages on the Rock of Bral) was pathetic

This really isn't really anything new. Think of the how little space Skullport got in FR products before getting its own product, which was a great book. IIRC it was in the original Undermountain boxed set and the 2E City of Splendors boxed set which it probably got a page or so at best. If I recall the original SJ boxed set didn't give more than a few pages to the Rock of Bral but I agree that this was disappointing.

And the gm screen, despite its beautiful art, was a waste of effort and resources

WotC Never put out a good DM screen, ever IMO. the last, and best DM screens were the ones made for 2E, primarily the one that was released about 1996 for the 2E revised black books. They always contain so much wasted space with art and spacing. If youre going to make a DM screen isnt the point to cram as much info on there as possible. I wish I still had my Kenzer & Co Kingdoms of Kalamar DM screen that thing was a beast, even had a pizza toppings chart on it.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I was looking forward to this product because I figured it would have to come with ship combat rules. I was disappointed.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I did not buy it, but one of my DMs did and gave me DNDBeyond access to it. No, I do not like it.

Same. It's deeply unimpressive. Very glad I didn't spend money on it.

 

[jasper]

Group buy only. Toss your money into bag and get the DM to run the adventure for you. 2 stars out of 5.
I ran the adventure with any where from 3 to six players. It smacks of the Flash Gordon 1980 movie only more railroading. Think A kiddie roller coaster ride of the monsters of spelljammer universe. The adventure is on the rails and has little extra plot hooks to hang a full campaign on. Just a loose connection dragging the adventurers to see some of the various new monsters the collection has.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I do think it's interesting how many third party D&D-in-space-sailing-ships projects are now on Kickstarter and elsewhere. Obviously, there are people who really want old school official lore updates, but for everyone else, other publishers are competing to offer alternatives.

(As someone who doesn't have any feelings either way about Spelljammer, I do think a number of the projects on Kickstarter look more interesting. If we're doing stuff with sailing ships, even in space, I want them to be swashbuckling.)

 

[Vael]

Bought it, liked it well enough. This is my first exposure to Spelljammer. I ended up running Light of Xaryxis twice (well, in the process of running it a second time with another group).

 

[Hussar]

Gonna echo a lot of the other points.

I bought it. I'm running it. It's good for a source of inspiration.

But, yeah, it needs about 20-50 more pages. There just isn't enough there.

 

[R_J_K75]

There just isn't enough there.

The thing that aggravates me about WoTC 5E products is that most products seem to be between "x" and "y" number of pages. Kickstarter and Beadle & Grims products clearly proves that people in the RPG community are willing to pay more money for some stuff. I wish WotC would be willing to make some products with a higher page count at a higher price point if needed to fully realize a setting, rule book or adventure.

 

[Parmandur]

The thing that aggravates me about WoTC 5E products is that most products seem to be between "x" and "y" number of pages. Kickstarter and Beadle & Grims products clearly proves that people in the RPG community are willing to pay more money for some stuff. I wish WotC would be willing to make some products with a higher page count at a higher price point if needed to fully realize a setting, rule book or adventure.

Some people are willing to pay, but that's not WotC target market (which is 12-24 year olds on a budget).

 

[R_J_K75]

Some people are willing to pay, but that's not WotC target market (which is 12-24 year olds on a budget).

Your right regarding their target market, but what 12-24 year old has the $69.99 MSRP in this example for the SJ slipcase. Obviously you can get it cheaper but still even ~$40 isn't cheap for that demographic. My neighbor's son is 21 and he just started playing D&D within the last year and I'm assuming that he's probably piggy backing off of someone's D&DB account, and/or using .pdfs and playing online. As far as I know he doesn't own any hard copy books and has little disposable income. Granted that's only one person but I'd guess that is the case with lots of people in that age range.