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

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I'll say what I always say, "Spelljamming in space, asteroids, planets, star systems. Then use the Atral as Hyperspace, with 'rivers', 'currents', etc for plane to plane (substitute world for plane) travel.

Done.

Thats not bad if you want a more modern sci-fi spin. I personally prefer the traditional 'jammer way with crystal spheres, phlogiston etc - it got a more archaic and magic feel that better match D&D in general, imho.

 

[overgeeked]

And there's the adventure when, after running a grim & gritty infiltration of a orc/goblinoid space startion to investigate their new planet killer weapon - you immediately follow it up with a trip to a triangular planet where you have to convince the local rainbow pegasus ponies that the purple fruits are ok to eat after all, and then steal a tentacle planet's favourite toy to give it back to the fish-constellation whose eye it is. Holy thematic whiplash, Batman!

Yeah. It’s amazing. “In space, the weirder the better.”

I imagine WotC would love to get Spelljammer up and running again as it is a perfect multimedia property. From Star Trek to Doctor Who to Rick & Morty to Adventure Time. It’s a universal adapter.

 

[overgeeked]

Because it is nonsensical on its face.

_
glass.

You say that like it’s a bad thing. Hint: it’s not a bad thing.

 

[TwoSix]

Because it is nonsensical on its face.

When you think that some coherent principles should be able to be extracted from the design of a fantasy world multiverse, you've internalized too much fantasy.

 

[glass]

You say that like it’s a bad thing. Hint: it’s not a bad thing.

It's not a good thing or a bad thing; is not (cannot be) a thing at all because it is nonsense. A contradiction. Gibberish.

_
glass.

 

[Steampunkette]

It's not a good thing or a bad thing; is not (cannot be) a thing at all because it is nonsense. A contradiction. Gibberish.

_
glass.

First things first: Magic.

Second things second: There are more dimensions to reality than we can perceive, and at this time we've gotten to a point of relative certainty that it is absolutely so. The idea that a self-contained reality would be incapable of nesting other realities because it exists within a separate outer reality is nonsensical, at best.

If planes of existence are a material reality and a segment of a plane of reality can be contained within a given structure then any number of alternate planes of existence can also be contained within the same structure so long as they can be contained at all.

Plus, like, C'mon. It's fiction with magic in it. Even if it seems contradictory it still works because that's how it's written and designed to work. suspend that disbelief!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Because it is nonsensical on its face.

_
glass.

But it isn’t. You need to defend your claim for it to be taken seriously by anyone.

The prime material already has planes that exist inside other planes.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If I get a single sniff of 'making sense' or 'having dignity' in the Spelljammef release, I'm walking.

British hippos firing giant minitaure space hamsters at the dumbest of Lovecraft castoffs and literal ghost ships. That's what I want.

And I know that's not what the hamsters are for. That's what they're going to be for.

 

[see]

I certainly never suggested that, nor anything like that. If I had, I’d understand the reaction to my posts.

Whether you specifically suggested it, it is a common item among advocates of the "Planejammer" mash-up, much mentioned in this thread, that the phlogiston be replaced by the Astral or Ethereal -- which is to say, "every spelljammer having to engage in interplanar travel to go between systems."

 

[overgeeked]

Spelljammer is the goofy, absurd, nonsensical D&D setting. That’s what it’s for. That’s why it exists. Any less nonsense and it would be just another generic kitchen sink blandscape of a setting.

“In space, the weirder the better.”