Spelljammer...just wow

[MojoGM]

BTW, what's left of my old Spelljammer files:
http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/spelljammer/spelljam.htm

Great stuff here. Ya know, this thread has inspired me to cast Resurrection on my old Spelljammer campaign, and I'll probably use some of this stuff. Mad props, Funny Hat Man

 

[Tolen Mar]

For those of you who derailed the thread with the Giff Ninja...

Thank you so much! My day sucked horribly, I needed a long laugh like that.

 

[RichGreen]

I have always enjoyed Spelljammer and I'm pleased to report that the upcoming Grand History of the Realms will make direct reference to Spelljammer and its various influences on the setting and its history.

-Brian R. James

Good stuff! Looking forward to the book -- the PDF version is excellent.


Richard

 

[boerngrim]

The Spelljammer campaign I played in back in the 90's remains to this day one of the most fun times I've had playing D&D. It was the one setting where our DM would pretty much let anyone try any race or class. Predictably it was weird and wild, but also a blast.

 

[Erik Mona]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I believe that the reason Spelljammer failed was that it lacked one thing a setting really needs to capture people's imaginations: a strong central conflict to act as a central premise for the action.

In your view, what is the central conflict of the Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms campaign setting? For that matter, what is the central conflict of the Eberron campaign setting?

I see one in Dragonlance and I think I see one ("man vs. environment") in Dark Sun, but I'm at a loss to find a "central" conflict in the most popular and longest-running D&D settings.

--Erik

 

[Odhanan]

Forgotten Realms has loads of villain organizations vs. the good guys. Drows vs. surface. Zhents vs. Dales. No matter what region you look at, you can find such a conflict, Erik. It's more about what region you choose to use rather than a global conflict that would explain everything, from my perspective, though the notion of conflict's still there.

For Greyhawk, that's a bit special I think. I see its popularity more as being justified by its status of Classic D&D universe than just what it does present as a setting. Further, I suspect people know Greyhawk personally out of specific modules, like Temple of Elemental Evil, rather than overarching campaign setting products.

 

[Erik Mona]

I can see how both of the examples you cite are true. I cannot see how either of them conforms to Alan's point, which is that a setting must have a CENTRAL conflict, rather than dozens and dozens of little ones.

But I'd love to hear from Psion, because maybe I'm misinterpreting him.

--Erik

 

[13garth13]

4 - the ship is moving at spelljamming speed and "runs over" whatever it is that it encounters. In this case the something is now within the air/gravity envelope of the ship along its FORWARD edge and moving at the same speed as the ship. It will be affected by the ships gravity just as everything else, but will otherwise remain moving at spelljamming speed WITH the ship until it leaves the air/gravity envelope to the REAR edge. It is then instantly left behind. If it tries to leave by the forward edge it will not succeed, simply remaining AT the edge as the ship continues to "run it down".

So, the vast majority of critter encounters aboard a spelljamming ship that is at speed will be their effective INSTANT appearance somewhere along the forward edge of the envelope. And the entire encounter MUST take place entirely within the envelope unless the ship does drop out of spelljamming speed.

I will confess that I don't remember that being in the rules (my bad...). However, as devil's advocate, given the vastness of Voidspace, what were the odds that your ship would bump into something's personal space that many times in a journey at spelljamming speed? Sure, it's permissable by the rules, but it does seem like it would get a little lame after awhile...Yes, yet another large/medium creature out of the millions of cubic hectares of Voidspace has stumbled into your path....roll for initiative.

Again, it was a wonderful concept with some truly freaky beasts that I'm dying for ways to integrate into my 3.5 Greyhawk campaign, but there were some logistical issues to say the least.

Cheers,
Colin

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I will confess that I don't remember that being in the rules (my bad...).

Not at all your bad. It was the rules bad. It took me a good deal of cogitation to distill that nugget of "Just how DOES an encounter occur on a ship at Spelljamming speed?" Those distilled possiblities were created by the rules as written, but were definitely not listed as such or described as such. It is simply the only list of possibilities (with rare exceptions of course). Don't blame yourself for not intuitively grasping what the rules left unsaid.

However, as devil's advocate, given the vastness of Voidspace, what were the odds that your ship would bump into something's personal space that many times in a journey at spelljamming speed? Sure, it's permissable by the rules, but it does seem like it would get a little lame after awhile...Yes, yet another large/medium creature out of the millions of cubic hectares of Voidspace has stumbled into your path....roll for initiative.

And just one of the list of issues with Spelljammer as written. You really can only run a proper Spelljammer campaign if you really ARE flying by the seat of your pants. There are too many holes in the rules, too many walls in the rules, too many inconsistencies, lapses and oversights. But it's Hell On Jets if you have players that are willing to play along, rather than play against the rules.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Spelljamer Helms = Infinite Improbability Drive prototypes