Spelljammer Spelljammer Shows Up In The Wild - Check Out The Tables of Contents

Copies of Spelljammer are starting to show up. Mike Long of Tribality is in receipt of the books and has tweeted some photos!

 

[darjr]

Newbiedm vod of his walkthrough is up. Spoilers!

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, it's pretty substantially different. Obviously they originally toyed with the idea with it being Athas, and then stopped when they realized it would obviously not be a good idea for various reasons, and re-worked it to something else entirely with a few similarities here and there...

Right. It's odd though. Why the vanishing map from that article and why the monsters from Dark Sun and why defiling of all things? There's a lot that they could have easily renamed if they weren't trying to poke at Dark Sun, but clearly they are. It's a weird middling choice. Sort of, but no. Maybe, but not really. Maybe they just liked the art and wanted to poke Dark Sun fans in the nostalgia. But for me, either do or don't. Half measures are a waste of everyone's time. Get people's hopes up but not deliver. Eh. Here's to hoping there's a Dark Sun announcement on the 18th.

 

[JEB]

But hey, at least crystal spheres get mentioned.

If in a way that pretty strongly suggests the (current) default cosmology doesn't and never has had them - this one had to be specially built.

 

[JEB]

Right. It's odd though. Why the vanishing map from that article and why the monsters from Dark Sun and why defiling of all things? There's a lot that they could have easily renamed if they weren't trying to poke at Dark Sun, but clearly they are. It's a weird middling choice. Sort of, but no. Maybe, but not really.

I'd be interested to know what that section looked like when it was "Athaspace." Which changes were made before and after the name change?

 

[overgeeked]

If in a way that pretty strongly suggests the (current) default cosmology doesn't and never has had them - this one has to be specially built.

Maybe. This one being specifically built doesn't imply that others weren't. But the default cosmology is what it is. Nary a crystal sphere in sight. It's all superposition and co-location on the material and astral...or something. The mention was likely a nostalgia bone thrown to us olds.

I'd be interested to know what that section looked like when it was "Athaspace." Which changes were made before and after the name change?

Same. But I doubt we'll ever get that behind the scenes info. It must have been fairly late in development to make the switch. No reason to use so many Dark Sun specific monsters and phrases otherwise. Maybe someone thought better of pulling the trigger on Athas' apocalypse and so they swapped names and flavor text at the last minute. That seems likely given the use of monsters, etc.

 

[humble minion]

Right. It's odd though. Why the vanishing map from that article and why the monsters from Dark Sun and why defiling of all things? There's a lot that they could have easily renamed if they weren't trying to poke at Dark Sun, but clearly they are. It's a weird middling choice. Sort of, but no. Maybe, but not really. Maybe they just liked the art and wanted to poke Dark Sun fans in the nostalgia. But for me, either do or don't. Half measures are a waste of everyone's time. Get people's hopes up but not deliver. Eh. Here's to hoping there's a Dark Sun announcement on the 18th.

It has all the appearance of a very last-minute editorial choice to me. Someone balked at the last hurdle before at reducing Athas to stopover on a Spelljammer Contiki tour and they had to go back and hastily file the serial numbers off. Too late to do a complete rewrite, so all the Athasian monsters etc stay in the book, but just enough for deniability. Go back and change the names in the book, bash out a couple of paragraphs of alternative backstory to an Athas-like (desolate, dragon-ravaged, tyrant-ruled) planet. Presumably the leaked map was handed off to the marketing or social media dept ages ago and someone forgot to update them when the changes came through, so the old version was initially released by accident

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If in a way that pretty strongly suggests the (current) default cosmology doesn't and never has had them - this one has to be specially built.

Yeah. They note that this Crystal Sphere was specifically created by Primordials to keep the Gods out after they kicked their butts during the Dawn War (which is mentioned for the first time in 5e in this release, IIRC).

I actually like the explanation for this Crystal Sphere that they give, but I can understand why others wouldn't.

Also . . . Primordials are confirmed to have made the Wildspace Systems in D&D 5e, which makes sense. Primordials are connected to elemental forces, and some of the major types of solar bodies do fit with the 4 Elements pretty well (Stars = Fire, Rocky Planets = Earth, Gas Giants = Air, Frozen/Ocean planets = Water).

 

[darjr]

WotC is known for telegraphing what’s coming by putting stuff in books. As of late they’ve been more upfront or obvious about it. This could easily be more of the same.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Yeah. They note that this Crystal Sphere was specifically created by Primordials to keep the Gods out after they kicked their butts during the Dawn War (which is mentioned for the first time in 5e in this release, IIRC).

I actually like the explanation for this Crystal Sphere that they give, but I can understand why others wouldn't.

Also . . . Primordials are confirmed to have made the Wildspace Systems in D&D 5e, which makes sense. Primordials are connected to elemental forces, and some of the major types of solar bodies do fit with the 4 Elements pretty well (Stars = Fire, Rocky Planets = Earth, Gas Giants = Air, Frozen/Ocean planets = Water).

There's been a bit of speculation that the giant stuff we've seen in UA might be part of a giant/primordial themed book, so dropping hints now does make sense if that's the case....

 

[Weiley31]

That's no moon . . .

I got a funny feeling about this

I think that's no moon guys...