Spelljammer Spelljammer in D&D 5e Speculation: How Will the Setting Be Changed?

[Demetrios1453]

Well, now I like them even more. Well done.

And I hope they get in as well. They're great foes - single-minded mechanical creatures that are simply destroy or be destroyed. No moral qualms about fighting them at all.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Removing the "out there stuff" would be a deal breaker. That's a large part of the draw. I know the tagline is "D&D...in SPAAAACE!" but if that's all it is...the exact same races, monsters, classes...only in space. Damn, that's dull. Ships powered by space hamsters is the cool part. Crystal Spheres and the weird, absurd, crazy stuff is the cool part. The Phlogiston is the cool part. Remove those and it's like the '60s or '70s without the psychedelics. There's no point. The more bizarre the better.

You misunderstand me. I absolutely love a ton of Spelljammer's insane monsters. Giant Space Hamsters, Autognomes, Plasmoids, Giff, Astereaters, Dohwar, Space Swine, etc. I love all of those, and more. They are absolutely a part of the draw of Spelljammer, for me, at least. Those are already weirder creatures than most other settings have.

But for the stuff like the Fal, Gonn, Focoids, Insectare, Fractines, Isopterites, Lhee, Lutums, Misi, and Nay-Chur? Spelljammer has enough bizarre and awesome creatures without them. Creatures that exist in more than three directional dimensions, Mimics IN SPACE, giant contact lenses that melt spelljamming ships and eat their occupants, sexy-female-looking-thing-that-secretly-wants-to-eat-you #17, and just winged dogs? Nah, that stuff I can do without.

I'll gladly have my flightless birdfolk that ride flying pigs, sentient oozes that wield weapons and shields, hippo-headed British gunslingers, psionic eelspiders that enslave humanoids and eat their elders once they get fat and old enough, and mechanical gnomes that ride on steampunk spaceships powered by Giant Space Hamsters that run on giant hamster wheels. Spelljammer is already plenty bizarre with all of those, and I love it because of that. But there is such a thing as going overboard on the weird and I think that a lot of those monsters that I listed qualify. Spelljammer doesn't need derpy phallic space worms, giant origami space mirrors, and rainbow-gnome-stars to get across the theme that it's weird. The Giff, Neogi, Dohwar, and Autognomes accomplish the goal of being the most bizarre D&D setting already. Doing a ton more is just excessive.

If it's around the weirdness level of Doctor Who, that's exactly what I'm looking for in a Space D&D setting. And, only counting the stuff that I listed that I liked about the setting, it's already weirder than Doctor Who.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And I hope they get in as well. They're great foes - single-minded mechanical creatures that are simply destroy or be destroyed. No moral qualms about fighting them at all.

 

[JEB]

One thing I really hope they change is the lack of cannons on Spelljammer ships. I know the Phlogiston. I like the Phlogiston. I hope they keep the Phlogiston. But I hope they make the air pocket generated by a Spelljammer helm push the Phlogiston away, allowing ships to have cannons. Because come on. You can't have Age of Sail pirates in space without the cannons. It's just silly otherwise.

When I had my PCs go spelljamming in my very first D&D campaign (when I was a young teen and anything-goes was the name of the game), I let them have magic-missile cannons. It just seemed natural.

 

[overgeeked]

You misunderstand me. I absolutely love a ton of Spelljammer's insane monsters. Giant Space Hamsters, Autognomes, Plasmoids, Giff, Astereaters, Dohwar, Space Swine, etc. I love all of those, and more. They are absolutely a part of the draw of Spelljammer, for me, at least. Those are already weirder creatures than most other settings have.

So I did. So why the call for the removal of weird stuff? The more the merrier.

But for the stuff like the Fal, Gonn, Focoids, Insectare, Fractines, Isopterites, Lhee, Lutums, Misi, and Nay-Chur? Spelljammer has enough bizarre and awesome creatures without them. Creatures that exist in more than three directional dimensions, Mimics IN SPACE, giant contact lenses that melt spelljamming ships and eat their occupants, sexy-female-looking-thing-that-secretly-wants-to-eat-you #17, and just winged dogs? Nah, that stuff I can do without.

Nah. The weirder the better.

I'll gladly have my flightless birdfolk that ride flying pigs, living oozes that wield weapons and shields, hippo-headed British gunslingers, psionic eelspiders that enslave humanoids and eat their elders, and mechanical gnomes that ride on steampunk spaceships powered by Giant Space Hamsters. Spelljammer is already plenty bizarre with all of those, and I love it because of that. But there is such a thing as going overboard on the weird and I think that a lot of those monsters that I listed qualify. Spelljammer doesn't need derpy phallic space worms, giant origami space mirrors, and rainbow-gnome-stars to get across the theme that it's weird. The Giff, Neogi, Dohwar, and Autognomes accomplish the goal of being the most bizarre D&D setting already. Doing a ton more is just excessive.

Blasphemy. The weirder the better. If it's not a drug-addled fever dreamscape David Lynch and Philip K Dick mind-screw...it's just not trying. Dig up Burroughs (William S. not Edgar Rice) and get his opinion. If he's not like "Damn, that's too weird" then it's just not trying hard enough.

If it's around the weirdness level of Doctor Who, that's exactly what I'm looking for in a Space D&D setting. And, only counting the stuff that I listed that I liked about the setting, it's already weirder than Doctor Who.

But Doctor Who isn't weird. It's goofy sci-fi. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Doctor Who. I mean, the weirdest thing they've had on there was someone pantomiming being eaten by an inflatable plastic chair. Maybe that pig that was semi-uplifted. The farting aliens. It's a children's show. It's amazing, sure. But it's not weird.

 

[JEB]

giant contact lenses that melt spelljamming ships and eat their occupants

I do have an irrational fondness for the ol' focoid, but you're not wrong about it and others crossing some undefined line. (Though I'd be perfectly happy to see them stick around as well, if they can make it work.)

 

[overgeeked]

Ted from Nerd Immersion seems to be onboard and pulling together relevant info for the hyper train. Must resist until absolutely confirmed.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So I did. So why the call for the removal of weird stuff? The more the merrier.

I didn't really call for the removal of the weirdest stuff, more just predicted that they wouldn't be included to make way for the more iconic/important creatures in Spelljammer. There's not enough room in a single Spelljammer book to include all of its weird monsters, so including just the most popular/iconic ones is a no-brainer. If it comes down to including a Giant Space Hamster stat block or a weird humanoid lizard with boneless fingers, I have no doubt that the better choice would be to include the Giant Space Hamster.

I'm not asking for the mostly-unknown weirdest stuff to be removed, I just don't think it's necessary to get the theme of Spelljammer across and that including the more iconic monsters would take precedence over including the weirdest ones.

So, I absolutely want Wizards of the Coast to include as many bizarre, old Spelljammer monsters as possible in the book's bestiary, but I would also prefer that time and effort went to translating the most iconic creatures from the setting before they did the random bizarro ones that no one knows about.

But Doctor Who isn't weird. It's goofy sci-fi. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Doctor Who. I mean, the weirdest thing they've had on there was someone pantomiming being eaten by an inflatable plastic chair. Maybe that pig that was semi-uplifted. The farting aliens. It's a children's show. It's amazing, sure. But it's not weird.

I don't know if we watched different shows or something, but the Doctor Who that I remember watching got pretty freaking weird. I have some distinct memories of a living girl's face melded into a slab of concrete, an antagonist that was human skin stretched out like tanning leather, a crazy omnisexual immortal companion that eventually became a giant tentacled head in a jar, the moon hatching into a giant space dragon, and David Tennant getting shrunk down into a wrinkly, undead-looking Doctor baby after being zapped with a laser pointer.

I mean . . . maybe we have different definitions of "weird", but IMO, all of that easily makes the show very weird.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I miss the outer dragons (moon, solar, stelar...). Why not dragonborn based in these?

Hasbro wants to sell toys based in Spelljammer. Maybe we see a griff action figure. Maybe a videogame for mobile and tablets.

There is a logic reason to keep the crystal spheres: They are defensive barriers created by the gods to stop possible invasions by the Vodoni empire and to controll the access by traders to avoid cultural pollution.

The Vodoni corsairs have become too dangerous, and the interestelar trade now it is in the Astral Sea. And traveling here doesn't need ships with too expensive magic.

The aperusa will be rebooted, with their fashion style will be only lighty inspired in the Roman people, and mixed with other urban tribes.

A third gith subrace living as pirates and renegades.

What about insectares as PC race?

Easter Eggs about "d20 Future" (Star*Drive and Star Frontiers) and Gamma World. One of these will be the fraals (little gray alien). In April' Fool an article about cybertronians, maximal and predacons as PC races. (I have said April's Fool). Other easter eggs could be about other Hasbro franchises, for example Rom the spaceknight and the inhumanoids.

The monster manual will be with creatures from Spelljammer and Planescape.

* A fan will create a homebred version of Starfinder core races, and classes, for Spelljammer, and others based in other sci-fi franchises: (Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Stargate, Babylon 5, Scarface, Star Trek, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Halo, Flash Gordon..)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And I hope they get in as well. They're great foes - single-minded mechanical creatures that are simply destroy or be destroyed. No moral qualms about fighting them at all.