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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[Ath-kethin]

3)Al Qadim(because I'm one of 3 people who played it and still loves their boxed sets and I think they retconned it to be in the Forgotten Realms anyways)

Sadly, Al-Qadim has always been part of the Forgotten Realms, even in the original Arabian Adventures book, and it's always been an Ill fit. It came out during TSR's "let's cram everything into FR" phase.

So I wouldn't hold your breath. Even if they did it, they probably try to make it more Realms-y, which won't do it any favors.

 

[The Big BZ]

Sadly, Al-Qadim has always been part of the Forgotten Realms, even in the original Arabian Adventures book, and it's always been an Ill fit. It came out during TSR's "let's cram everything into FR" phase.

So I wouldn't hold your breath. Even if they did it, they probably try to make it more Realms-y, which won't do it any favors.

Why do you think it's an ill fit? I like that it's in FR! It's far away and very different but you could potentially travel there and elements of Al Qadim bleed into the Sword Coast. I played a Zaharan Jewel Merchant (assassin) who had come north to find interesting gems (kill people) and it was a blast. Much less suspension of disbelief then say playing a Knight of Solamnia or a Warforged in FR. And then on the other side I don't really see what Al Qadim loses?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Forgotten Realms has always been a catch-all setting for all things fantasy.

 

[Cergorach]

If it looks good, this might be my second 5e book (PHB being the first)...

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I guess that would be okay. I'm a big Age of Sail fan and wanted to like Spelljammer, but it never really tickled my fancy. If that's what they want to release, okay, I'll give it a try. I still think we'll see something more akin to Planescape than Spelljammer but I've been wrong before.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Spelljammer basically got canned after Planescape came out and became a critical hit, so I would be mighty shocked if spelljammer managed to actually get a real setting book and not just a bunch of winks and nods. That being said, if we're wishlisting here, settings I would like in order:

1)Planescape
2)Dark Sun
3)Al Qadim(because I'm one of 3 people who played it and still loves their boxed sets and I think they retconned it to be in the Forgotten Realms anyways)

I ran a very successful Al-Qadim campaign in 5e! The box sets are rather cheap on ebay so I got ahold of the original book (arabian adventures) and a digital version of the monstrous companion as well as the boxed sets of Land of Fate, City of Delights, Golden Voyages, and Assassin Mountain. The PCs reaaaally loved going through the Crowded Sea in Golden Voyages. All the weird encounters and locations proved to be very popular. I actually made a quick and dirty set of 5e backgrounds and an inventory list for the campaign and put them on my blog here and here if you're interested. Monsters I converted on the fly from the monstrous companion.

 

[Fandabidozi]

...

 

[Fandabidozi]

I'm not surprised that Spelljammer got moved up in priority after the success of Starfinder.

 

[DeanP]

You can't kill D&D, it has Resurrection on its spell list.

 

[Morrus]

Here are some hard numbers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3655627.stm

So, in 2004 it was about 3 million people playing per month in the US. According to this seminar, "8.6 million Americans have played D&D in the last 12 months" and "9 million users watching D&D on Twitch."

I'm sure you won't find harder numbers than this, given how surveys are done and how "users" are measured.

There's an awesome website linked in the sidebar there!