D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana: Travelers of the Multiverse

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Looks like Spelljammer and/or Planescape is back on the menu!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Not sayin' you're wrong here, @Maxperson, but "Countless" does often mean "Infinite". A lot of the time they are used interchangeably.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not sayin' you're wrong here, @Maxperson, but "Countless" does often mean "Infinite". A lot of the time they are used interchangeably.

Amusingly, some infinities are what mathematicians call “countable”

 

[Fenris-77]

Amusingly, some infinities are what mathematicians call “countable”

You hush with your high level maths. We're trying to shout at clouds here.

 

[Maxperson]

Not sayin' you're wrong here, @Maxperson, but "Countless" does often mean "Infinite". A lot of the time they are used interchangeably.

Yeah. I get that. Having read the 2e Sigil book which by far has the most detailed information on the place, it's just because people don't know where most of the doors are AND because most of them are temporary and/or randomly show up places with random triggers. They literally cannot count them.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Here is the rub though, Sigils portals don't cost spell slots. They are permanent gates. That is what takes away the advantage of Spelljamming for getting from plane A to plane B.

Still, as far as I now, Sigil's portals aren't big enough to move large amount of shipments through constantly. And even if they did, wouldn't one faction try to monopolize that portal, and apply a bunch of taxes and stuff through it? And block shipments of products they don't like, or send them only to factions they're allied with?

I mean, most of the portals on Sigil are meant for individuals passing through, and small-business merchants. But it's not like Sigil is a particularly safe mode of transportation either, with the factions there constantly fighting for control.

I personally would view Sigil portals like air travel; faster, but you aren't going to be able to move mass quantities of product very easily. Possibly more expensive too, considering that the portals may be controlled by factions who enforce rules/tarriffs. Spelljamming is like container shipping; takes longer, but you get more control of your shipments size, timing, and security.

 

[Augreth]

I don’t think so, as that book sounded like it was going to be entirely or almost entirely monster reprints. But I do think “the multiverse” is going to be a big theme for the next few products, likely pointing towards the possibility of an upcoming planescape and/or Spelljammer book.

Here’s what WotC have to say about that:
„[…] Monsters of the Multiverse, a comprehensive resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike, containing over 30 updated player character races […]“

(Rules Expansion Gift Set | Dungeons & Dragons)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Just to remind people, the opening sequence to Baldur's Gate 3 was developed in conjunction with WotC, and is as canonical as anything in 5e.

Spoiler

A mindflayer nautiloid arrives through a portal above Baldur's Gate. Githyanki dragonriders portal in in pursuit. In order to escape the nautiloid makes an apparently random jump to Avernus. The Githyanki pursue. The protagonist portals the nautiloid back to the FR (by connecting two tentacles together) where it crashes.

 

[TheSword]

Just to remind people, the opening sequence to Baldur's Gate 3 was developed in conjunction with WotC, and is as canonical as anything in 5e.

Spoiler

A mindflayer nautiloid arrives through a portal above Baldur's Gate. Githyanki dragonriders portal in in pursuit. In order to escape the nautiloid makes an apparently random jump to Avernus. The Githyanki pursue. The protagonist portals the nautiloid back to the FR (by connecting two tentacles together) where it crashes.

I think is a good case for why Spelljammer is superfluous. The cool things are easily folded into existing settings.

 

[JEB]

Just to remind people, the opening sequence to Baldur's Gate 3 was developed in conjunction with WotC, and is as canonical as anything in 5e.

Per D&D Canon:

The current edition of the D&D roleplaying game has its own canon, as does every other expression of D&D. For example, what is canonical in fifth edition is not necessarily canonical in a novel, video game, movie, or comic book, and vice versa.

So Baldur's Gate III doesn't necessarily tell us anything about how Spelljammer (or Planescape, or anything else) might be treated in 5e. It might suggest things, but they could also go in a wildly different direction, as far as we know.

 

[Aldarc]

OKay, that's fair.

And I think the He-Man and Buck Rodgers stuff can still work, but by making Spelljamming more like expeditions to mine asteroids, and less to travel from plane to plane.

Apart from the (we don't talk about) New Adventures of He-Man, He-Man remained pretty much bound to Eternia, though later with more crossover with Etheria, once that became a thing. It also seems a lot more science fantasy than Spelljammer too. Arcana of the Ancients by Monte Cook Games probably does a better job of moving D&D towards a more He-Man style game than Spelljammer does.