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

[TwoSix]

Well, sure, but but the same goes for Eberron or Ravnica, which intertwine in WotC treatment of each other on that same comic level, along with the Forgotten Realms.

Again, I feel like there's a distinction there in that Eberron and Ravnica are super easy (in many ways, expected) to be run standalone with no reference to the larger D&D multiverse. Spelljammer and Planescape are exactly the opposite.

Advocate, maybe not, but expect what is best for their bottom line and you will rarely be surprised (except for when they make colossal blunders and misjudge their audience, as happened in 4E).

I can only hope for more blunders like 4E!

 

[overgeeked]

Again, I feel like there's a distinction there in that Eberron and Ravnica are super easy (in many ways, expected) to be run standalone with no reference to the larger D&D multiverse. Spelljammer and Planescape are exactly the opposite.

I can only hope for more blunders like 4E!

Right? If only it played smoother.

 

[Bacon Bits]

honestly, I agree with you on the first bit portals are kinda dull.

I just what spaceships, guns and magic

That's fair! I hope people that really want that can get it; Spelljammer has been absent for a long time..

I'm just totally stealing it for planar travel instead of interstellar travel.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I think Ted is out to Lunch with the slipcase idea: I think we are way overthinking the "format" issue, and it will be more like how Strixhaven bent the Adventure/Setting distinction.

That very possible, and I've already mentioned that possibility, but Ted isn't wrong about the problems with WotC trying to Cram major D&D settings into a single book, they weren't designed for that and it comes at great expense to a setting. WotC can get away with it with MtG settings because compared to traditional D&D settings they are art focused, lore light (except Dominaria) and very narrow, but D&D trad settings we're designed very, very differently, they designed to be big and expansive and they expanded repeatedly over time via novels and source books, etc...

Even 4e knew that settings needed multiple books to be done right. That doesn't mean doing a ton like 2e, just that you don't try and cram everything in one, sometimes too small (SCAG), book.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I used to always put Sriracha on my pizza when I was younger! Now, alas, even Sriracha is too spicy for me to handle (and I know it's not all that spicy even).

Let's throw it on a pizza and find out.

One thing I want from a Spelljammer return is more on the gnome mindflayers and the squidlings!

 

[overgeeked]

That very possible, and I've already mentioned that possibility, but Ted isn't wrong about the problems with WotC trying to Cram major D&D settings into a single book, they weren't designed for that and it comes at great expense to a setting. WotC can get away with it with MtG settings because compared to traditional D&D settings they are art focused, lore light (except Dominaria) and very narrow, but D&D trad settings we're designed very, very differently, they designed to be big and expansive and they expanded repeatedly over time via novels and source books, etc...

Even 4e knew that settings needed multiple books to be done right. That doesn't mean doing a ton like 2e, just that you don't try and cram everything in one, sometimes too small (SCAG), book.

Such a waste, too. So much of 4E was amazing. A real "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" situation when they scrubbed it all in the transition to 5E.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Does "honey sriracha aioli" sound better?



Back in the day, while we did do a little traveling from setting to setting, our Spelljammer adventures generally all took place in space itself, whether it was fighting other ships, carousing at the Rock of Braal, or seeking out the eponymous Spelljammer itself. It very much has its own flavor and feel. But of course, that probably varied from gaming group to gaming group.

I do think that the connective part is important. As I've said before, the settings of Spelljammer or Planescape need places for people to go. And as Wizards adds more and more settings, they're going to want to avoid the market-fracturing of 2e and establishing strong ties between them all is one way to try to do that.

I view both Planescape and Spelljammers as metasettings, they aren't settings in their own right, they merely connect settings, the means to move between them.

The Planes and Sigil are the actual setting in Planescape, with is really just the way they all connect, as well as adding a theme of philosophical exploration to all of them. The settings are Aborea, Mount Celestia, Abyss, Hell, Hades, Archeron, Fire, etc..., each a large setting in it's own right, with Sigil connecting them all to each other and the material plane settings.

Spelljammers does the same, but excludes planar settings originally, but adds in it's own material plane settings.

So all "Planesjammer" would do is create a connection in Spelljammers to the Planes, but it's would still predominately be Spelljammers, but with a planar element, but still leave a Planescape/Manual of the Planes book open for deeper exploration of the Planes, and the impact of philosophies on the settings.

So "Planesjammer" would be 75% to 90% Spelljammers and 25% to 10% Planescape.

I also think the mirror Planes will fall more into Spelljammers pervue then Planescapes, as they mirror Planes are closer in nature to the material plane, with major twists then they are to Elemental or Outer Planes.

MtG side Alara and Kaldheim also are more metasettings then settings.

Forgotten Realms is a setting with elements of being a metasetting (if Meta setting vs setting was a scale Planescape & Spelljammers at 9 metasettings and Greyhawk & Dragonlance a 1 settings, FR would would be 3 or 4).

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I wonder if Spelljammers will mention the effects that the Spellplague and Sundering had on Realmspace or Wa's space colony on Garden.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

All this talk of Spellscape and Planejammer just makes me really want a “Guide to the Outer Planes” style of book.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I view both Planescape and Spelljammers as metasettings, they aren't settings in their own right, they merely connect settings, the means to move between them.

The Planes and Sigil are the actual setting in Planescape, with is really just the way they all connect, as well as adding a theme of philosophical exploration to all of them. The settings are Aborea, Mount Celestia, Abyss, Hell, Hades, Archeron, Fire, etc..., each a large setting in it's own right, with Sigil connecting them all to each other and the material plane settings.

I reject this because Planescape had a flavor all its own, completely separate from any of the settings it was supposedly just connective tissue for. I think that I'm comfortable claiming that any setting that gets 6 box sets, 12 other source books and 12 setting specific adventures is too significant to be reduced to just a means of transportation in a way that would be satisfactory to its fans.