Spelljammer Check Out These Spelljammer Ships!

WotC has shared some of the upcoming Spelljammer ship designs in a video with Chris Perkins.

 

[grimslade]

I've always been very puzzled by Spelljammer. I remember when it came out the first time. I had nothing against it but decided it wasn't for me. I tend to prefer a more "traditional fantasy" setting for D&D. If I wanted to play in space with space ships, I'd play Star Wars or Star Trek or something along those lines. I'm curious if there is indeed a HUGE following for Spelljammer and if so, what do they like about it?

I don't know that there is a huge following. It is a 30 year old campaign setting. There have been enough seeds planted in a variety of 5E products to herald the return of Spelljammer so there is some buzz.
The appeal, to me, is simple. It is a setting that combines nautical swashbuckling, exploration, and an innate weirdness that is incredibly fun. It is Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander with Mind Flayers, Elven Imperial Navy, and explosive-loving hippofolk. The party has a homebase that travels with them. Owning a ship and having ship combat is another glorious layer.

 

[Kurotowa]

I'm curious if there is indeed a HUGE following for Spelljammer and if so, what do they like about it?

Huge? No, never. Spelljammer wasn't Birthright tiny, but it was one of the smaller 2e setting lines and AFAIK was never a big seller. Heck, I remember it with mild fondness, and I never played a single game in it! I just read the novels and the Dragon magazine articles and thought the art was cool. (As expected of a 13 year old.)

 

[Guest 7034872]

I've always been very puzzled by Spelljammer. I remember when it came out the first time. I had nothing against it but decided it wasn't for me. I tend to prefer a more "traditional fantasy" setting for D&D. If I wanted to play in space with space ships, I'd play Star Wars or Star Trek or something along those lines. I'm curious if there is indeed a HUGE following for Spelljammer and if so, what do they like about it?

The size of the following might not be so huge, but the enthusiasm of those who are fans will be an avalanche, and I expect that avalanche will draw the attention of curious onlookers, many of whom might then become fans.

I am dying to sink my teeth into this and Radiant Citadel when all the current mayhem of my life settles down and I find myself with a few quiet Saturdays.

 

[Audiomancer]

The appeal, to me, is simple. It is a setting that combines nautical swashbuckling, exploration, and an innate weirdness that is incredibly fun. It is Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander with Mind Flayers, Elven Imperial Navy, and explosive-loving hippofolk. The party has a homebase that travels with them. Owning a ship and having ship combat is another glorious layer.

I mean… I’m not even a Spelljammer fan (I had stopped playing when the setting came out), but everything you just described sounds like fun.

In fact, our DM just pitched an idea for a future campaign: “Nautical theme, the party gets its own ship, hunting pirates (or maybe you ARE the pirates.” And my response was a hearty “oh, hellyeah.”

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I've always been very puzzled by Spelljammer. I remember when it came out the first time. I had nothing against it but decided it wasn't for me. I tend to prefer a more "traditional fantasy" setting for D&D. If I wanted to play in space with space ships, I'd play Star Wars or Star Trek or something along those lines. I'm curious if there is indeed a HUGE following for Spelljammer and if so, what do they like about it?

exactly the thing that causes your disinterest, actually.

Star Wars will never be Treasure Planet with magic. At least not without heavy reworking. Alternity could come very close, but still assumes sci-fi ships.

When I was working on my Space Fantasy! setting, I made it a galaxy with a naturally occurring aether gas that all life forms could breath, and that could be distilled into a fuel along with some other elements, combined that with some crystal punk, and ended up with a galaxy in which you might see a goblin or human ion impulse driven starship with a sealed hull, because the aether is thin where they developed, a dryad ship that is a forest that has come together into a living ship with a gestalt conciousness that needs a young and mentally agile mind to pilot it, a gnomish crystal powered ship with an open deck and arcane cannons, whose sails both catch aether winds and collect that aether to power the core crystal at the heart of the ship, which is itself possessed of a sort of sentience which gives the ship it's own quirks and personality, sailing long the same Star Lane as a great astral wyrm with it's colonies of kobolds living on it's surface, all being watched over by Angel Knights in their aether powered mech suits of the human-lead Coalition of Free Worlds, the Star Rangers in their light and quick personal interceptors that can transform into AI controlled mechanical horses when needed, and assorted others.

That same sort of mix of future and past, real space and HG Wells style fantastical space, scifi and fantasy, is precisely what draws a lot of people to Spelljammer.

 

[Mercador]

Nice but not for me, not this time.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Turtle Ship!

Time to kick some shell!

 

[Mind of tempest]

Turtle Ship!

Time to kick some shell!

so we agree to an all tortle party then?

 

[Vaalingrade]

so we agree to an all tortle party then?

Throw in one aging nezumi and you've got a deal.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Throw in one aging nezumi and you've got a deal.

excellent.

should we put an aboleth in a mech suit for a villain?