Planescape/Spelljammer knowledge needed ...

[Arnwyn]

All of those spheres were all contained within the Prime Material Plane, there was only one of them that contained the various worlds/settings. 3e's design philosophy has tried to split off all the settings, FR being the prime example, retroactively into their own specific prime material planes without any connection between them now or ever, and glossing over the continuity issues in the process, or just ignoring them for better or for worse.

Oh, I understand how it worked for the "TSR/WotC game settings" - but really now, no 3e product talks about all the WotC settings (past and present) in it. Lords of Madness certainly doesn't (and I certainly saw nothing in LoM that 'kicks Spelljammer cosmology to the curb'). Space? Check. Alternate Material planes? Check. Looks like it's all intact to me (just with omissions, vagueness, and nothing set in stone).

 

[Alzrius]

And spelljammers that can planeshift are indeed a nifty idea, though the spelljamming stuff won't work except on the prime itself IIRC.

That's hardly true, since there's a functioning squidship in Sigil.

Spelljamming works by the helm taking the energy of memorized spells and converting it into energy to move the ship. The local environment doesn't really play much of a factor, except that as long as the ship is in a gravity field, it can't attain spelljamming speed (one hundred million miles per day). It works fine in any other plane.

There are a few variants of spelljammers, however, that have some troubles on other planes (such as the githyanki astral ships from Incursion).

 

[Shemeska]

That's hardly true, since there's a functioning squidship in Sigil.

The squidship isn't said to be functional.

“Where’s the squid?” Imel asked.

“Are you blind, berk?” laughed the bariaur. "Whaddaya think that is?”

The bariaur gestured to a loading platform
near the main plaza of the Great Bazaar. There, like
some great bird, perched a gleaming skycraft at least
150 feet long. Three piercing rams that looked like tentacles
with spear points sprouted from the bow. A towering
mainmast rose from the stem.

It suggests that it's sitting on a platform, not hovering or flying around. Probably imported through one of the portals either pushed through whole or reassembled piece by piece within Sigil.

 

[Alzrius]

The squidship isn't said to be functional.

[...]

It suggests that it's sitting on a platform, not hovering or flying around. Probably imported through one of the portals either pushed through whole or reassembled piece by piece within Sigil.

That doesn't mean it's nonfunctional. Spelljammers are only capable of flight when someone is sitting on the helm, otherwise they're just large paperweights. The fact that it isn't flying at that moment doesn't seem to indicate in any way that the spelljammer doesn't work.

 

[Shemeska]

That doesn't mean it's nonfunctional. Spelljammers are only capable of flight when someone is sitting on the helm, otherwise they're just large paperweights. The fact that it isn't flying at that moment doesn't seem to indicate in any way that the spelljammer doesn't work.

*shrug* You could read it either way.

And I'm not super familiar with SJ material, so I was under the impression that it required wildspace to hit super fast speeds, and something restricted to the Prime Material to fly normally at all, plus I'd never seen evidence of proper Spelljammers outside the Prime. If that's not the case, I stand corrected.

 

[Alzrius]

And I'm not super familiar with SJ material, so I was under the impression that it required wildspace to hit super fast speeds, and something restricted to the Prime Material to fly normally at all, plus I'd never seen evidence of proper Spelljammers outside the Prime. If that's not the case, I stand corrected.

You're half right. Spelljammers can only reach spelljamming speed when they're in an area that doesn't have an object's gravity field slowing them down. The most obvious place for this is wildspace, but you could have it in places like the Astral, Ethereal, possibly the Elemental Plane of Air, etc. There's no reason it can't fly at tactical (normal) speeds anywhere though, even other planes.

For a nice example of a spelljammer being used (if only briefly) on the Outer Planes, check out the novel Tymora's Luck. That said, it is pretty much the only example of a "traditional" spelljammer (as opposed to a Voidjammer or an astral ship), other than the bit from In the Cage, outside of the Prime.

 

[Pants]

Space? Check. Alternate Material planes? Check. Looks like it's all intact to me (just with omissions, vagueness, and nothing set in stone).

Yeah, that was my feeling too.
Enough info and nodding is done to appease the SJ fans, but not enough to alienate the people who dislike SJ. Perfect middle road in my opinion.

 

[Rystil Arden]

You're half right. Spelljammers can only reach spelljamming speed when they're in an area that doesn't have an object's gravity field slowing them down. The most obvious place for this is wildspace, but you could have it in places like the Astral, Ethereal, possibly the Elemental Plane of Air, etc. There's no reason it can't fly at tactical (normal) speeds anywhere though, even other planes.

For a nice example of a spelljammer being used (if only briefly) on the Outer Planes, check out the novel Tymora's Luck. That said, it is pretty much the only example of a "traditional" spelljammer (as opposed to a Voidjammer or an astral ship), other than the bit from In the Cage, outside of the Prime.

Indeed. Having read all the SJ material (and seen info on Planejammers), I can confidently state that there is nothing unique to the Prime that lets them fly. I mean, why would there be a reason that this particular flight magic doesn't work on the planes when all the other ones do.