D&D 5E Astral Sea and Wildspace in the 5e Cosmology

[Maxperson]

So do you think the inhabitants of the Rock of Bral will be in the astral and subject to the no aging thing?

I think it will be in "Realmspace" by default, but will include a paragraph of "If you are running Dragonlance, put it at X location, and if you are playing Greyhawk, put it..."

 

[Maxperson]

I am half asleep and my old books are in crawl spaces, but if I remember it was bigger then a system but WAY smaller then a galaxy. I remember 'space' being able to have multi systems though... lets see if anyone remembers darksun alien halflings with a moon spaceship/deathstar...

I want to say it went twice as far as the distance from the center to the last planet or something like that. Still far less distance than a galaxy.

 

[Shardstone]

Your read on Wildspace is interesting, and is a good deconstruction, but is clearly not the intent WotC has.

Their intent is that Wildspace is space, and outside of space is the Astral Sea. It really is that simple.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Creatures, seems to imply that some of the things from 2e like gravity well air pockets as still there. The 3e Polyhedron Magazine mini setting, Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon implied things didn't work that way, and that Spelljamming helms provided both breathable air and gravity.

I suspect 5e Spelljammer might be somewhere in between both of them. But at least it seems that someone can shoot a flintlock pistol in the Astral Plane no longer worry about it causing a massive explosion like it did in the Phlogiston.

 

[Maxperson]

There are no stars. Stars are a lie.

View attachment babktf-1.webp

 

[overgeeked]

The Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Creatures, seems to imply that some of the things from 2e like gravity well air pockets as still there. The 3e Polyhedron Magazine mini setting, Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon implied things didn't work that way, and that Spelljamming helms provided both breathable air and gravity.

I suspect 5e Spelljammer might be somewhere in between both of them. But at least it seems that someone can shoot a flintlock pistol in the Astral Plane no longer worry about it causing a massive explosion like it did in the Phlogiston.

As much as I love the original setting, I think gaining regular and reliable access to guns and cannons and gunpowder is a huge improvement. But there were dozens of ways they could have done so without removing the phlogiston. Like the air pocket around a spelljammer ship pushed the phlogiston away. Letting you light fires etc aboard ship. But the phlogiston still pushed you along giving you that sweet bifrost hyperspeed.

But I am disappointed about it being planejammer. I’m going to change a lot of it back to the original. To avoid it being Planescape only it takes forever.

 

[Yaarel]

Are you talking Spelljammer or the material plane here?

The material plane is anywhere there is matter.

Most D&D world settings are matter: Forgotten Realms, Oerth, Mystara, Eberron, Dark Sun, etcetera.


But note, the feywild (Witchlight), ethereal (Radiant), and shadowfell (Ravenloft) are immaterial spiritworlds.

Now, Spelljammer is an immaterial astral mindscape.

 

[Yaarel]

So do you think the inhabitants of the Rock of Bral will be in the astral and subject to the no aging thing?

Yes.

The Spelljammer derscription mentions the Rock of Bral being in the astral sea, thus, astral effects apply, including no aging.

 

[Rogerd1]

The material plane is anywhere there is matter.
Most D&D world settings are matter: Forgotten Realms, Oerth, Mystara, Eberron, Dark Sun, etcetera.

So this contradicts your previous statements which are below.

The 5e material plane will have reallife astrophysics: vacuum of space, stars being suns vast distances away. Reallife.

Each world setting has its own cosmological assumptions, map and concepts. If a setting is in outerspace, the Spelljammer setting needs a way to respect that. Making Spelljammer a separate mindscape is win-win. The world settings can be whatever they are. The Spelljammer version of one is only an astral reimagination of it. Not the setting itself.

Now for both of these to be true, would be a direct violation of real world physics, so cannot be true. If they are all in the same material plane, then the same laws of physics apply.

Now, Spelljammer is an immaterial astral mindscape.

You may want it to be, but it isn't, as explicitly stated.
Each world has Wildspace mist-like area which precipitates entry into the Astral.

 

[Lyxen]

The material plane is anywhere there is matter.

Most D&D world settings are matter: Forgotten Realms, Oerth, Mystara, Eberron, Dark Sun, etcetera.

But note, the feywild (Witchlight), ethereal (Radiant), and shadowfell (Ravenloft) are immaterial spiritworlds.

I don't think they are. They are clearly (from the PH) "Material Echoes", parallel dimensions. Nothing says that they are immaterial and nothing says that they are "spiritworlds". They are clearly in the "The Material Plane" section.

Now, Spelljammer is an immaterial astral mindscape.

We'll have to see what they publish about this.