Spelljammer Pitch Spelljammer to the New Players

[The Glen]

For those that sailed the crystal spheres, tell the players looking for a setting why they should play Spelljammer. What makes it fun, different and unique. Why should they exchange broadsides with the neoghi, release the giant space hamsters and hire on giff mercenaries for the boarding parties.

 

[Caliban]

Do you love dealing with poor implementations of great ideas? Do you enjoy the jarring juxtaposition of beautifully designed elven spaceships that ply the vast gulfs between the stars, and the moronic silliness of tinker gnomes and giant space hamsters? Then this is the setting for you.

Spelljammer can work great if the DM has a firm idea of what style and genre they want to emulate with the setting - you can do the fantasy equivalent of the 1920's era retro-future science (but with magic!), Babylon 5 style intrigue between spacefaring nations (but with magic!), or the silliness of Muppets In Space! (but with magic...yay...).

 

[Irda Ranger]

Like Caliban, selling Spelljammer is really about selling the DM's vision of Spelljammer. There's a lot of stuff mixed up in Spelljammer that isn't for everyone. The silliness in particular isn't to everyone's taste. And frankly it's hard to run a campaign with both believable Neoghi and believable Tinker Gnomes and Giant Space Hamsters (as written).

My sales pitch (because it would be how I run it) is it's D&D's version of Age of Sail Colonial Empires In Space. The Elven Space-Empire plays the role of the British Empire at its height, with areas it controls thoroughly, colonies it nominally controls, and plenty of areas it doesn't control at all (but can exert gunboat diplomacy). Most of the campaign takes place in the second two areas.

There's also the Dwarf Colonies on Volcano Worlds, Mos Eisley, Babylon 5, Alexander Quartermain, White Apes, Space Reavers, Giff Mercenary Armies, and a Princess of Mars.

 

[Alex Hoggett]

To say that it's lame because of giant space hamsters is really doing it a disservice. There's a ton of ideas in many settings that I don't like and I don't use because of it.

Personally, I like classic D&D... grounded, in a setting like Greyhawk or The Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

But Spelljammer is great for when the party needs a change of pace - finding a ancient spelljammer ship in a dragon's hoard or ruin is amazing, as is the quest the players have to go on to figure out how to use it. Then just bound it by letting them do something like go to Celene (Greyhawk's moon) and discover the Neogi on the way - a very cool "alien" D&D race. I would probably want to bring it back to Oerth soon tho, but it's a very cool set of ideas to use for if you want to explore the world this way. Kind of like going to the city of Brass or Sigil or the Astral or Ethereal for a jaunt.

As a complete campaign I would think it would be more difficult but not if you have a passion for the setting. I would think of your players desires as well as your own tho.

 

[Wiseblood]

It's like Star Trek with 90% fewer cranial ridges.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Magic space-pirates.

/thread

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

D&D in space. As written, with all the gonzo dials turned up to 11. But really, whatever D&D your group prefers, in space.

 

[Saeviomagy]

A blend of D&D and star trek.

 

[Staffan]

D&D, in space, on ships that look like this.

If that doesn't sell them, there's really no hope. Spelljammer is not a subtle setting where you ease into accepting and appreciating its nuances. It's gonzo as anything, and if they don't like that, it's not the setting for them.