Spelljammer Is Spelljammer Coming To D&D 5E?

Thanks to Stan Shinn over on Google+ for this scoop! WotC held a presentation at the GAMA trade show today, in which they covered both recent D&D performance (best year ever!), some previews of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and a small hint towards... Spelljammer?

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Here's Stan's report, direct from the trade show:

"Interesting Spelljammer and market news from the GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) WOTC Seminar on March 13 in Reno (I’m there now).

Mark Price talked about D&D and showed some pictures from inside the upcoming Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes book. I have a few pictures (attached) prior to the Mordenkainen’s slides, but they asked us not to take or share pictures of the Mordenkainen’s book interior. They did show us a picture of a ‘Giff’ — a Spelljammer creature, which will be in the book. He looked like a steampunk hippo with a blunderbuss. Regarding why the creature was in the book, he said “I’ll let you speculate wildly about what that may mean.”

There was look of a wink in his eye so I’m pretty sure the hint was that Spelljammer is coming soon!

Other news from the seminar:

— 2017 was the best year for D&D ever in terms of sales
— Year 3 of D&D sales is stronger than their first year
— Actual play streaming is a key driver of D&D’s success, with 9 million users watching D&D on Twitch
— 8.6 million Americans have played D&D in the last 12 months (they did not give stats for overseas)"

It seems Xanathar's Guide was the fastest selling product in D&D history!

Wondering what Spelljammer is? Imagine D&D (2nd Edition) in space, except the ships are magic flying sailing galleons, and space is a "phlogiston" they can sail in with magical helms, and each world is in its own "crystal sphere", and all of D&D's settings exist in the same universe, and you can fly between them. Image above is of the AD&D 2E Spelljammer boxed set.

Of course, it might not be that. It might just be a monster entry Mordenkainen's Tome, and nothing more.

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[Mercurius]

5E seems to be built on the idea of inclusivity of the entire heritage of the game. In other words, every era, edition, and setting has a place within the multiverse, even if only in an implied way. In that sense, it is true the actual experience the multiplicity of game groups and DMs out there: every single game picks and chooses from the entire corpus of ideas. Everything is available, but also optional.

I love Spelljammer, in a similar way that I love 1970s jazz-fusion or the film Logan's Run or LPs. Spelljammer feels dated and very late 80s/early 90s, but also has a unique quality to it that just exudes pure imaginative fun.

That said, I've always liked the idea of integrating Spelljammer and Planescape - that the SJ ships actually sail the Astral Sea, not the phlogiston/crystal sphere setup. Come to think of it, didn't 4E go this route?

 

[Jester David]

I imagine the fall adventure will be a planar adventure, possibly on a Spelljammer ship travelling through the Astral Plane.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

5E seems to be built on the idea of inclusivity of the entire heritage of the game. In other words, every era, edition, and setting has a place within the multiverse, even if only in an implied way. In that sense, it is true the actual experience the multiplicity of game groups and DMs out there: every single game picks and chooses from the entire corpus of ideas. Everything is available, but also optional.

I love Spelljammer, in a similar way that I love 1970s jazz-fusion or the film Logan's Run or LPs. Spelljammer feels dated and very late 80s/early 90s, but also has a unique quality to it that just exudes pure imaginative fun.

That said, I've always liked the idea of integrating Spelljammer and Planescape - that the SJ ships actually sail the Astral Sea, not the phlogiston/crystal sphere setup. Come to think of it, didn't 4E go this route?

I mean, there's no reason why those two could exist alongside each other.

The way I think it is, is that Spelljammer is the physical universe of D&D, while Planescape is the spiritual universe of D&D. You can use both to travel the worlds of the D&D Cosmos, they just have different ways of doing so.

 

[Ancalagon]

Hopefully the next cover will have better armor...

There hasn’t been a dying market narrative for years.

Well there does seem to be a poster or three who are really attached to the idea... but overall yes, the mood is quite optimistic

 

[QuietBrowser]

Spelljammer is a huge unknown to me, but the simple facts that A: I like "cosmic fantasy" and this may finally give me a chance to see things like star magic or fantasy spaceships, and B: I'm absolutely sick to the back teeth of Forgotten Realms has me excited.

I don't know what Spelljammer is going to give us, but so long as it's not Dragonlance style bad comedy from top to bottom, I'm positive about it.

That said, I've always liked the idea of integrating Spelljammer and Planescape - that the SJ ships actually sail the Astral Sea, not the phlogiston/crystal sphere setup. Come to think of it, didn't 4E go this route?

It did go this route, yes.

 

[darjr]

All I can say is that I hope spelljammers are in our future!

Oh and the PHB hit number 1 in sales renal at Amazon over the weekend.

According to some that means it’s sellig upwards of 5000 copies a day.

https://www.tckpublishing.com/amazon-book-sales-calculator/

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[Vampyr3]

A pretty big stretch here don't we think... oh well have fun going wild speculating.. I'll just be here waiting for an offical annoumcnet

 

[jgsugden]

But it IS the cosmology of D&D.

Again, I said Cosmology of 5E. Appendix C of the PHB (The Planes of Existence) begins with "Incredibly vast is the Cosmos of the Dungeons & Dragons game"....) The section was seemingly intentionally written to accomodate Spelljammer concepts, but only if they try to keep it consistent. Also, they have to make better sense of how all the different worlds of D&D share Outerplanes if they have events in some of these worlds that would impact other worlds as well. FR's Time of Troubles, the Dragonlance exodous of the Gods, etc....

 

[Zarithar]

That artwork reminds me of the odd obsession that Easley, Elmore, and Caldwell had with putting feathers on everything.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Wait a second, they don't really say whether or not Giff would be playable.

Hmm...

At what point, would you say, was the giff ever REALLY "playable?"