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!

 

[pukunui]

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).

The Dawn War pantheon is in the DMG.

 

[JEB]

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).

Well... this was in Princes of the Apocalypse, in the section on adapting the adventure for Dark Sun:

Long ago the gods of Athas fought a terrible war against the mighty primordial powers of the elemental planes - and they lost. The gods were slain or driven into exile, leaving Athas under the dominion of elemental beings who took little interest in the affairs of mortals.

And "Doomspace" just happens to also be a world where the primordials won... for a while, anyway. As if we needed any more clues that this was totally going to be a 5E Dark Sun...

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Dawn War pantheon is in the DMG.

Sure. But the event isn't explained at all and the term's only used as the name of the pantheon. This, while it doesn't explicitly call it the "Dawn War", mentions a war between the Gods and Primordials for the first time in 5e, if I'm not forgetting anything.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Newbiedm vod of his walkthrough is up. Spoilers!

Oh! Watching him page through, I had somehow missed seeing the Feyr in the previous previews of the ToCs. That's an old school general (not Spelljammer-specific) 2e monster I'm happily suprised to see updated.

 

[Yaarel]

Newbiedm vod of his walkthrough is up. Spoilers!

The Astral Elf Aristocrat statblock is only creature rating 8, but it has Intelligence score 21.

It is nonepic, but breaks the ability score 20 ceiling.

Of course, this is an NPC statblock and doesnt follow player character creation rules.

Even so, it might signal ways to break the 20 ceiling.

 

[Parmandur]

The Dawn War pantheon is in the DMG.

Pretty sure Fizban's says something about it, too.

 

[Parmandur]

Well... this was in Princes of the Apocalypse, in the section on adapting the adventure for Dark Sun:



And "Doomspace" just happens to also be a world where the primordials won... for a while, anyway. As if we needed any more clues that this was totally going to be a 5E Dark Sun...

It does suggest they have plans to use the Dawn War a bit in the future.

 

[overgeeked]

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).

Not so much. It's not named in this screenshot that I saw...but the Dawn War is explicitly mentioned in the DMG. There's even a list of the gods of the Dawn War Pantheon on page 11 of the DMG.

 

[Charlaquin]

EDIT: This post was ill-conceived. Sorry, everyone.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The war between the primordials and the gods, which ended with the gods being banished, is straight-up the explanation for the lack of gods in the 4e iteration of Dark Sun. I am completely convinced that “Fyreen” had been Athas until a fairly late point in development.

It looks like the plan was to advance the metaplot: Athas’ gods return, get rejected, and destroy the setting in a fit of petty vengeance. The desert world becomes an ice world (gotta “subvert expectations,” amirite?), and they can mine the setting for monsters and one anthropomorphic animal PC race, then literally chuck the rest into a black hole so they don’t have to bother figuring out how to update it for a modern audience without upsetting anyone. Toss in an offhand remark that “maybe the black hole is actually a portal to somewhere else” so they can say they gave DMs the option to keep the setting going in their home games if they want to. Wash their hands of Dark Sun forever.

Seeing this, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be getting a 5e Dark Sun, which is a little sad, but at least we have closure on the matter. Doomspace can be it’s own thing, Dark Sun gets to Rest In Peace, and I get to finally stop holding out for an official conversion and either use one of the countless fan-made ones that are out there or homebrew my own. This may actually be the best solution Dark Sun fans could have hoped for.

If that were the case, they would have just done it. By not doing it, they leave the door open.