Level Up (A5E) Planestrider's Journal: A New Cosmology for 5E & A5E!

[Vincent55]

never liked spelljammer, but do feel the ship thing works well for this planescape sitting than space.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

never liked spelljammer, but do feel the ship thing works well for this planescape sitting than space.

I didn't mind Spelljammer, but thought it worked best when played as its own thing - essentially a gonzo nautical campaign - and not as interludes between going to adventure on some dirtball or another. Make the game about the ship and its crew, like a fantasy Age of Sail story. How much gonzo you wanted could be dialed up and down too, with the official stuff being a bit farther out there than we used - no Gamera or Bio-Booster Guyver, and the tinker gnomes stayed home.

Shifting to a "planar sea" cosmology does seem a more comfortable fit though, and still leaves a lot of the old TSR material useable without excessive tweaking. The whole crystal sphere/phlogiston thing wasn't really the good part of Spelljammer IME, so losing a lot of it isn't an issue for me, anyway. Hopefully this book adds something new in terms of ships and ship rules after WotC's relatively disappointing takes in both 4e and 5e so far. Don't need to go back to TSR levels of detail and the War Captains' box set, but a little more optional meat on that bone would be nice.

 

[SkidAce]

Anyone else remember WotC's humble beginnings when they were publishing the Primal Order books and Talislanta? Be willing to bet the Chessboards book still does planar shenanigans at least as well as anything modern WotC manages, and it's system agnostic to boot. And surprisingly, you can still buy it on DTRPG - even the softcover version.

Man, how many copies of those books were left in the warehouse when Adkison started up Hostile Work Environment, anyway? That was 12 years ago, and Primal Order came out in '92. Long strange trip for those books.

I still have my original copies of Primal Order, Chessboards, Pawns, and Knights.

We were ecstatic when they bought D&D.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

We were ecstatic when they bought D&D.

Ditto. I have to keep reminding myself that the WotC of today is not the WotC of yesteryear at all, and that under Hasbro they've done some quite awful things. Their current incarnation is almost as different from their roots as NuTSR is from the original. It's really sad that so many people know them only as the corporate industry giant they are now, and so few as the folks who helped keep Talislanta in print and published Primal Order.

 

[Esme_Bancroft]

Very exciting. Will be keeping an eye on the Kickstarter.

 

[Faxfire683]

My initial thought when I heard about this project was that it was more Planescape-adjacent with Spelljammer elements, but perhaps my initial read was wrong and it's actually the reverse. Are the 30 planes then better understood as worlds to be visited similar to Spelljammer or as other worlds similar to those featured in Monte Cook's Path of the Planebreaker?

Either way, very interested in this project and the Monsterous Menagerie II mentioned for later this year!

 

[barasawa]

It’s more MotP than SJ. If I had to make a comparison, as it’s really its own thing. But I wouldn’t want people to think this will be a SJ alternative.

Lol, it can't be a worse SJ alternative than the recent one WotC made, it didn't even have the Spelljammer mentioned in it, the namesake for the entire setting!!!
Also yes, I do look forward to this book and won't mistake it for Spelljammer

 

[Faolyn]

So what sort of kickstarter goals might there be?

 

[Reynard]

So what sort of kickstarter goals might there be?

Given their history, I imagine primarily funding it. Morris does crowd funding right, avoiding stretch goal bloat and delivering fast.

 

[Micah Sweet]

As I've said before, I was quite impressed with @Mike Myler 's work on the planes that he previewed last year and which makes up a large portion of this book. I'm looking forward to seeing what else will be in there.