D&D 5E New Year speculation thread!

[see]

SpellJammers are already in 5ed.

Yes, in Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, pages 250-252 and 297. Where they're explicitly established as flying in space, while not established as planar-capable.

A Nautiloid would not go to Avernus (from SpellJammer setting) and yet, this is what we see in Baldur's Gate.

Yes, and we also had it said back in Volo's Guide to Monsters that a nautiloid could go to the Astral and go between stars.

The thing is, that's not remotely new. All the way back a bit more than three decades ago, it was established that some spelljammers could plane shift ("Pirates of Gith" entry, MC7 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix, 1990), and that some people on the Astral used ships to get around (see "Voidjammers", Dragon #159, July 1990). That didn't merge Spelljammer and planar travel then (back before Planescape was even launched as a setting). Why would it now?

The settings can cross over some, sure, but they're fundamentally different (one's centered on Sigil and philosophical factions and the struggles between planar beings, the other is flying around in space between planets in a setting filled with elven, illithid, neogi, beholder, and unhuman ships). Imagining some ships on the Astral is a fusion of the two settings is like imagining someone in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos making a dragonlance or two is a fusion of Krynn and Mystara, or adding a magic railroad between Urik and Tyr would be a fusion of Eberron and Dark Sun.

That's why I assumed you hadn't played them both, whatever material you may own. A few cameos isn't a merger. The kind of violence that would have to be done to both settings to actually fuse them is huge.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

RotFM spoilers:
There is also a nautaloid in RotFM, which is described as "spacefaring". It says this about it: "Designed to move through the Astral Plane plane, nautaloids and also transport Mind Flayers between the various worlds of the Material Plane".

 

[Helldritch]

I am not saying that such a merger would not be hard for die hard fans to swallow. But allowing all spelljammers to actually be able to planeshift to the astal would not be that hard a change. I have ran campaigns on both settings and I know them from the box set and a few additional expansions but not every single ones. Remember that at that time, the amount of expansions to a setting were staggering. 3 to 6 different product per month. This is why I usually stick to the original boxset and not the rest. We need common ground. All the other stuff is icing on a cake.

 

[see]

Yes, they could absolutely attempt to force a merger between two disparate settings by fiat. What is not established is either that they actually intend to do so or why they would bother.

"All spelljammers are now plane-traveling ships because we made nautiloids able to do both" would make precisely as much sense as "All ocean-going ships are now spelljammers because we gave spelljammers a water speed in Dungeon of the Mad Mage".

 

[Remathilis]

Oh! I would LOVE if the 4e astral sea was the new spelljammer. That way you could sail right up to Sigil. Imagine the city ringed by astral ships going to and fro!

That can't get into Sigil because the only way into or out of Sigil is though portals that the Lady of Pain can control. There is a reason they call it "The Cage", berk.

 

[Burnside]

Wait, why are we talking about a crossover between two settings when neither setting has even been introduced to 5E?

Imagine for a moment that you are under 45 and your D&D experience is not entrenched in content that was at its peak in popularity 30-35 years ago. What would be your reaction if a book released this March introduced BOTH Dark Sun and Spelljammer AND mashed them together?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

We have to remember Planescape and Spelljammer were created as transitional settings, to allow possible "crossovers". Even if the spaceships can't travel to other planes, they could do it through special planar portals.

About the spelljammers.... they are too expensive to be used for level 1 PCs.


I doubt a merger between both, but races and monsters from Spelljammer could appear as "guest artists" in Planescape.

We also to remember if a new setting arrives, then the DMGuild has to allow sourcebooks by 3PPs, and you can imagine more of one with crazy ideas about space fantasy, for example about biotech or fleshwarping machines. Have you thought about players inventing new alternate timelines of Dragonlance? The novel "Tanis the shadow years" tells an adventure within a demiplane created by the memory by next-to-death old man.

The faction war can continue, but not within Sigil.... and I don't remember the Lady said it was neither in the Gatetowns.

The return of the astral sea could be useful to use aquatic monsters and races, as the sea elves or the tritons.

And what if the next crossover is Planescape as future Magic: the Gathering event? With planewalkers visiting Sigil.

 

[darjr]

That can't get into Sigil because the only way into or out of Sigil is though portals that the Lady of Pain can control. There is a reason they call it "The Cage", berk.

That can't get into Sigil because the only way into or out of Sigil is though portals that the Lady of Pain can control. There is a reason they call it "The Cage", berk.

Think Charybdis

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We have to remember Planescape and Spelljammer were created as transitional settings, to allow possible "crossovers". Even if the spaceships can't travel to other planes, they could do it through special planar portals.

We already know they can - it happens in Baldur's Gate 3, which is canon, so much as anything is in 5e.

About the spelljammers.... they are too expensive to be used for level 1 PCs.

A rowboat is too expensive for 1st level PCs. If the players end up with a ship it is generally for plot reasons, not because they have bought it.

 

[OB1]

I'm gonna go wild with my predictions.

Feywild/Shadowfell short adventure collection - Similar to Yawning portal

Dragon based Volo style monster guide - Possibly with new character options as well

Spelljamming 'roadtrip' style adventure - Interesting that the new Tasha's spell Dream of the Blue Veil requires a magic item from another world to work. So how about a Spelljamming adventure where the party gets picked up on the Sword Coast and becomes part of a crew going from world to world collecting items for someone, with each chapter giving a brief intro to a classic setting. Could include Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and more, which would also open them up to the DMs guild for further exploration.

Sigil/Outer Planes Campaign Setting - In depth on Sigil and then Manual of the Planes style intro to the outer Planes. This will also be the book that the Psionics class launches in.

Looks like I was right on the short adventure collection but off on the theme. Still holding out hope that Candlekeep Mysteries will have a couple of Feywild/Shadowfell tie ins. With 17 mysteries in one book I'd think that's a good possibility!