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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7445872" data-attributes="member: 2629">When Spelljamming was first introduced, I, as a teenager, replaced the Phlogiston with the Astral Plane.  At the time, I didn't want to add the 'Dead Space' to my games and the players were already touching on the Astral Plane.  I think that is at the core of the issue... man of us are familiar with the Astral Plane and make use of it already, and it was a more efficient place for Spelljamming for us.This is how it works in my games.  There are permanent gates to other planes, but most of them go to the Astral Plane.  Some races, especially dwarves, create 'ports' on the other side of the gate and then sail across the Astral Sea to get to other ports/gates.  In my game, these other gates may head back to other places on the PMP (which is infinitely wide), or to places where trade or mining takes place on other planes.  If you want to use spells to travel the planes - fine - but it is hard to move cargo that way, and some of those spells are not precise where they take you on other planes.  Also, some planar locations are shielded so that the only way to access them is through the established gate.It works like this in my game: Until PCs get access to Planeshift, they have to rely upon Spelljamming and gates to travel.  Spelljamming is dangerous.  The Githyanki claim the Astral Sea as their territory and attack any Spelljammer that does not have their permission to operate if they find them.  It is a nigh infinite space, so they are rare.  But there are also pirate ships, primarily Ratmen (Nezumi and Wererats), that plague those that sail the Astral Sea.  Spelljamming can turn a 90 year voyage across the PMP into a 3 day trek across the Astral Sea, or allow Dwarves to mine Elemental Earth for resources to being back to the PMP after a brief sail of the Astral Sea, but it is risky and - if you wish to pay off the Gith - expensive.  Once access to Planeshift is gathered, you generally need to rely upon Sigil sequences to arrive in an exact location.  Many extraplanar areas are warded against planar travel, so they can only be accessed via circles and gates.  Alternatively, you can travel to a non-warded area and then physically move across the plane to your desitination.  Regardless, if you have cargo to move, it is hard to do so with magic. Planeshifting brings you within 50 miles of your desired destination if it is not warded and you do not use a sigil destination, but your destination is usually determined by the powerful beings that have influence over the planes, such as Demon Lords, Devils, Gods and Giant Space Hampsters.Finally, there are permanent Gates that connect two places on two different planes.  The vast majority of these go to or from the Astral Plane.  It is easiest to build a gate to the Astral. There are some gates that bypass the Astral, but they are rare... attempting to make them often ends in disaster.  Unfortunately, then you make a gate to the Astral, although it is less perilous, it is hard to control where on the Astral it will appear.  You might be creating a permament access point on your plane that is too close to a gate between the Abyss and the Astral Plane.  Given the expense in making them, it is often preferable to establish one point of access to the Astral and then make use of other existing, safer, gates nearby than to try to make more.  One other note on gates - it is not possible to make a permanent gate while on the Astral Plane... you have to be elsewhere when you make it.  Any gate made on the Astral collapses over time, regardless of how well made it is.I've used variations of the above model since the late 80s.  It works really well and gives us some exciting opportunities for planar travel and advanced 'seafaring' for PCs in the middle levels.</blockquote>

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