Spelljammer Space Clowns Are A Thing In Spelljammer

WotC's Chris Perkins discusses Spelljammer's space clowns in a new video.

 

[Dioltach]

"The enemy ship draws up alongside yours and a boarding plank is lowered. A clown comes over. And another. And another. And another ..."

In space, nobody can hear you scream.

 

[Bill Zebub]

"The enemy ship draws up alongside yours and a boarding plank is lowered. A clown comes over. And another. And another. And another ..."

In space, nobody can hear you scream.

VW Beetle of Holding

 

[Reynard]

"The enemy ship draws up alongside yours and a boarding plank is lowered. A clown comes over. And another. And another. And another ..."

In space, nobody can hear you scream.

Maybe clown ships will be Tiny in size but carry Huge sized ship crews...

 

[Dioltach]

Now I want to see a beholder with a clownface.

 

[Reynard]

Now I want to see a beholder with a clownface.

Do you, though?

 

[grimslade]

They are playing up the absurd with Space Clowns but disguised fiends traveling the multiverse giving ironic punishment to people is kind of cool. Gen X is a bit of a crossroads with clowns. I remember clowns at events, clown camp for kids, and clown birthday parties as a kid. I also remember creepy clown sightings in Chicago, John Wayne Gacy, and Killer Clowns from Outer Space. So yin and yang. The positive clown aspects have diminished since then or rather transformed. Joker is a villain, but Deadpool is a 'hero', both are clowns.

I like the idea of space traveling demons. I would tone down the anachronistic ray guns and joy buzzers to more my preferences, oversized blunderbusses from WB cartoons. The problem lies with the corruption of the jester trope to make an evil clown. There are few positive clown icons to mock. Maybe Space Bards? Mockery and corruption need to be played up for a serious take on the Space Clown or go gonzo with it.

 

[Charlaquin]

I've seen enough scary clown videos pop up in my kid's Youtube watching to think scary clowns, as a trope, has definitely become a Gen Z thing. It's a good job by WotC to lean into the current zeitgeist.

It was definitely a thing with millennials when we were kids too.

 

[Charlaquin]

My personal experience is that the "scary clown" trope is somewhat more prevalent in Gen Z than in earlier generations. If you ask kids to describe the stereotypical "monster under the bed" or "monster hiding in the woods", they tend to default to the clown trope. My younger kids don't even realize there's a connection between clowns and circuses, they just view them as a generic boogeyman.

Circuses like… aren’t a thing any more, at least in the US, save Cirque du Sole which… Is not your typical three-ring with clowns affair. Also birthday clowns haven’t really been a thing for a long time. As a kid I was aware of the concept through media, but never actually experienced it. I went to Barnum and Baliey’s once and there was a clown routine in it, which was quite enjoyable. But yeah, most people 30 and under in the US have little to no experience with clowns as anything other than monsters or ICP.

 

[Tonguez]

Their home system has three worlds, rings each one…..

Yeah not a great delivery better would have been “Their home World has three rings…”

 

[payn]

Circuses like… aren’t a thing any more, at least in the US, save Cirque du Sole which… Is not your typical three-ring with clowns affair. Also birthday clowns haven’t really been a thing for a long time. As a kid I was aware of the concept through media, but never actually experienced it. I went to Barnum and Baliey’s once and there was a clown routine in it, which was quite enjoyable. But yeah, most people 30 and under in the US have little to no experience with clowns as anything other than monsters or ICP.

I remember in 8th grade we had a school assembly. It was a god damn clown show and I was very annoyed. I was sitting with my arms crossed zoning out to the distance. Suddenly this clown walks up and starts imitating me to mock me. So, I gave him the finger and was quickly ushered out of the gym by a teacher. She scolded me for my behavior and I told her that I'm 14 not 8 and do not appreciate this sh#@. I expected more push back, but she sort of sighed and apologized for the experience. Loved that teacher.