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

[doctorbadwolf]

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.

Yeah, really. I think that’s the thing I dislike most about the phlogiston. The giff should be in full age of sail frigates and galleons that you talk about in terms of how many guns they can load out. I’ve got a 6 gun sloop, but with my crew of teleporting assassins and some luck I can take that stolen giff turned pirate 21 gun frigate and make it mine. Hell yeah.

Combustible gas everywhere…get outta here with that…

 

[Parmandur]

Like I said, a product for me, not you. I don't want or need a product that does "justice" to either planescape or spelljammer. I'm not I fan of them, so I'm not worried about doing justice to them. I just want all the cool/fun ideas in one book instead of two!

Listen, we can go round and round on this, but we just want different things. That is OK. I do think you are more likely to get something closer to what you want than what I want so you've got that, maybe?

Even outside of being a fan of a Setting...I'd rather have two books that do two things, than one book thst does two things.

 

[JEB]

WotC has shown a willingness to tweak existing canon, but not more fully reimagine it. Well, not since 4E anyways. If we get Spelljammer or Planescape, I would anticipate changes on the same level as Ravenloft enjoyed.

And . . . that's what I prefer. I'm not against reimagining a classic story or franchise (love me some nu-Battlestar Galactica), but I would prefer WotC to tweak those classic settings as needed, but to not reinvent them. We'll see how things go.

I'd definitely place the way they handled 5E Ravenloft in the nu-Battlestar Galactica category. No more Core, every single domain rebuilt from the ground up (with some basically being brand-new domains that happen to reuse old names), intentionally wider array of horror genres represented, etc. Outside of Barovia, it's pretty hard to find something that didn't change from the older versions of the setting.

However, that degree of change shouldn't be necessary to update Spelljammer for today. Much looser setting, much easier to present any changes as an update rather than a reboot. But as you say, we'll see.

 

[Yaarel]

What if

Spelljammer turns out to be Planes-star-jammer? A fusion of Star Frontiers, Planescape, and Spelljammer.

Full-on scifi, with laser guns, force fields, computer AI, and space opera.

"Sufficiently advanced technological" energy fuels jammer ships, that hyperdrive thru the astral sea, to seek out new worlds, where no human has gone before?

 

[dave2008]

Even outside of being a fan of a Setting...I'd rather have two books that do two things, than one book thst does two things.

I've gathered as much. If I'm really honest I want one book that that combines two old, seemingly disparate things, and combines then into one new interesting idea with only a thread to old ideas/starting points. A fresh take that isn't afraid of sacred cows if you will. Not going to happen, but this what I really want.

 

[overgeeked]

What if

Spelljammer turns out to be Planes-star-jammer? A fusion of Star Frontiers, Planescape, and Spelljammer.

Full-on scifi, with laser guns, force fields, computer AI, and space opera.

"Sufficiently advanced technological" energy fuels jammer ships, that hyperdrive thru the astral sea, to seek out new worlds, where no human has gone before?

I don’t think they’ll go full-on sci-fi. More likely they’ll stick with some version of magitech fantasy in space, or planes. Science-fantasy at most.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'd only describe Strixhaven as hyperfocused, due to how deep it dives into a specific campaign. But all these books go into bringing in a particular genre feel to D&D: Planescape and Spelljammer share nothing in common, even totnally, so it doesn't make sense.

Nothing in common? They’re both about adventures in the cosmic metasetting of D&D, in the places between and surrounding the other settings. That’s a big commonality.

 

[Yaarel]

I don’t think they’ll go full-on sci-fi. More likely they’ll stick with some version of magitech fantasy in space, or planes. Science-fantasy at most.

The spaceships and laser guns are already 5e canon. There is no meaningful difference between magitech and a sufficiently advanced technology. Using Dispel Magic to ruin gunpowder is canon. Magic and tech are "transparent".

The scifi will be magitech, thus the space opera will feel like D&D despite the prevalence of standard scifi tropes, including AI and technobabble. But the magic will inform superscience.

Regarding the Wheel, it is astral domains. The astral plane is a realm of thoughts, similar to the platonic ideals, and is immaterial. Each domain is like a collection of categorization tags, for memory to access. Sure, when one "sorts" the astral domains according to the alignment tag, their structure can look like an eight-spoke wheel. But if sorting them according to an other tag, the resulting structure looks completely different. The astral has nothing to do with physical locations, but rather the network of mental connotations. The astral plane is as fluid as language is. It is more like a dreamscape where some cultural constructs are more persistent because a culture continues to use this construct and reinforce it.

When the jammer hyperdrives into faster-than-light travel, it effectively translates into a thought construct, to roam the astral thoughts free from material limitations. Thereby, via the astral, the jammer can navigate the thoughts of any world setting, and materialize there in that other setting.

 

[Parmandur]

Nothing in common? They’re both about adventures in the cosmic metasetting of D&D, in the places between and surrounding the other settings. That’s a big commonality.

They both tie into "metasetting" elements...but different parts of the metasetting that do not intersect 9unless you want them to). Spelljammer is on he Prime Material, Planescape is in the Outer Planes. Indeed, the metasettign elements are tertiary in both cases, the primary point of Spelljammer is space opera or planetary romance swashbuckling, whereas Planescapse is weird fiction and political intrigue between various abstract principles beyond the material world. Any swashbuckling ship stuff doesn't contribute to a Sigil campaign, and Sigil material doesn't contribute to a Spelljammer campaign. Mixing at home is one thing, but for organizational purposes they are more distinct than any other two D&D Settings: it would be like covering Dark Sun and Birthright in one book, because both involve dealing with governments in some fashion.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Mixing at home is one thing, but for organizational purposes they are more distinct than any other two D&D Settings: it would be like covering Dark Sun and Birthright in one book, because both involve dealing with governments in some fashion.

Yep. Dark Rite would make an awesome home campaign, but as replacement for those two settings, I think fans of the originals would rightly feel cheated.