Spelljammer Spelljammer Confirmed (MAYBE, April Fools?)

[LuisCarlos17f]

The modules or adventures don't need a previous playtesting in UA. WotC knows the UA articles are practically teasers of future projects. My opinion is it will be a player's guide like Ravenloft.

* The thoon cult is perfect for Spelljammer.

 

[humble minion]

(Confession time - while in general I much much much prefer campaign setting books and I don’t buy modules, I actually wouldn’t mind if the Spelljammer release was an adventure, because my group is coming up on the end of Storm King’s Thunder in the next few months and we’ll be needing a new campaign to start, and I think the only one that none of our group have played are frostmaiden and netherdeep. I’ve read frostmaiden so I’m a bit spoiled, and exandria does nothing for me, so the big spelljammer adventure as option 3 would be nice…)

 

[Blue]

Come on WotC! Release the other good Campaign Setting!

Yeah, I'd love to have 5e Dark Sun to go along with 5e Eberron!

 

[Blue]

Ha-ha! I'm not wearing pants!! April Fools.

Ha-ha! I am wearing pants!! April Fools.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Looking at the Spelljammer wiki (I really don't know much about Spelljammer), they list 24 different crystal spheres. I'm sure they can prune that down to 17...

awkwardly glances at Athasspace and Mystaraspace

A lot of those a mere mentions and unimportant. I think it's likely they prune most of them keeping only the most important and most interesting so they can introduce a bunch of new ones.

Realmspace, Kyrnnspace, Greyspace, Mystaraspace,, will likely survive, with them adding at least a mention of Eberronspace (new) and Athaspace, because those both link and expand major settings.

Outside of that Faeriespace, Darkspace, Herospace, Clusterspace are major parts and very interesting so they will likely make it.

 

[humble minion]

They did a sexy animated short to announce that Squats are coming back. It was pretty epic.

And today they announced that it wasn’t an April fools and that the squats ARE coming back. Which will be a bit bewilderingly meta if WotC end up doing the same for spelljammer…

 

[Parmandur]

Hey, I had forgotten about this, but this would have been about when Chris Perkins began writing his current project, I think they are pulling one heck of a long con here, if it turns out they gave legit teases of a Spelljammer product two years in a row:

 

[Datactingguy]

WotC’s been dropping Spelljammer hints in 5E books for years. And every time fans scream about how it’s “Spelljammer confirmed” and another year goes by with nothing. So, when they make an official announcement, with a title, release date, and price…then I’ll get on the hype train. But not before. I’ll still be leery as I’d rather they not touch it than butcher it or splice it into Planescape. And there’s every chance it could be the cameo classic setting.

It’s a mean joke. The fans who love Spelljammer really love Spelljammer and really want the setting released. If it were a joke about Mystara or Greyhawk or Dark Sun I’d still think it was mean. You’re toying with your fans. Most of them lifelong fans if they’re keyed up about Spelljammer or other classic settings. That’s a crappy thing to do.

I hope they are making a proper Spelljammer book, and not some generic multiverse book with a Spelljammer cameo…but I’m not holding my breath. And I hope they don’t butcher it. But, until there’s a press release, it’s just another crappy April Fools day joke.

So would you like to take the Avatar Bet, since you don’t think it’s coming out, and I think it’s coming out

 

[Parmandur]

Also, looking back, and maybe I'm just having problems with discovery, but...the Dungeons & Dragons account doesn't appear to normally pull an April Fools prank, but I could find plenty of normal communications ("check out this art for Ghosts of Saltmarsh, please buy it" sort of stuff).

This is out of character, which makes it more intriguing.

 

[Jer]

A lot of those a mere mentions and unimportant. I think it's likely they prune most of them keeping only the most important and most interesting so they can introduce a bunch of new ones.

Realmspace, Kyrnnspace, Greyspace, Mystaraspace,, will likely survive, with them adding at least a mention of Eberronspace (new) and Athaspace, because those both link and expand major settings.

I'm actually fairly sure that none of the major settings outside of the Realms and maybe Greyhawk will get more than a passing mention. Eberron specifically has a call out in Fizban's Treasury that it's not a fragment of the "First World" and is located in the "depths of the Ethereal" and sequestered away from the influences of the gods and other cosmic powers. I think they're setting up that the crystal spheres hold a lot of worlds, but not all worlds are in a crystal sphere and perhaps that the worlds in the crystal spheres are also all the fragments of the "First World". (Of course my mind has been corrupted by Grant Morrison comics - the whole "First World" stuff and Eberron not being connected to it feel like a very meta discussion of the split between 2e and 3e and/or TSR/WotC ownership of D&D done as a myth. So I'm possibly reading too much into it).

Mystaraspace isn't a thing in Spelljammer traditionally - Mystara was never in a crystal sphere and had its own cosmology. The stuff on the wiki about Mystaraspace is taking all of the information from the old Immortals Set, the Princess Ark articles, and the space articles from Dragon that Bruce Heard wrote and backfitting them into Spelljammer. Mystara hasn't been mentioned in a 5e product IIRC since Saltmarsh - and I don't expect this to break that mold. I strongly suspect that Mystara's links to real-world cultures are a bit too hot for Wizards to want to touch right now. I could be wrong, but given that it was mentioned in a few products and then has been conspicuously absent since, I'm don't think I am. (I'm a big fan of Mystara but I get it.)

Outside of that Faeriespace, Darkspace, Herospace, Clusterspace are major parts and very interesting so they will likely make it.

I'm betting that the bulk of what we get will be Realmspace (Minsc and Boo ties alone mean it will get front and center treatment) , along with the clusters you mention and then some new ones or some of the lesser spheres reimagined into bigger settings. I expect to get at least as much variation from the original Spelljammer stuff in this regard as VGtR had for Ravenloft's domains. Possibly more because there's actually less Spelljammer material to work with - Ravenloft had a huge product line compared to Spelljammer.

Also I suspect that the setting from the 3e "Shadow of the Spider Moon" Spelljammer conversion could make it in too. I don't see it on the wiki, but it was a fun little setting and could be a springboard for a dev to do something with.