Sword of Spirit
Legend
One thing to bring up is that they changed the relationship of Spelljamming civilization to groundling civilization in later products (at least The War Captain's Companion, I don't know which others).
The original box takes IMO the superior approach where Spelljamming is something groundlings mostly don't know about. For example, the Queen of Evermeet on Toril has a single advisor who is responsible for knowing about that sort of thing, and if I recall that's only one of their duties. You kind of get the idea that the queen herself barely knows anything about it other than there are elves on flying ships somewhere, and the advisor isn't exactly an expert. This is presented as an example of a civilization that actually has any idea Spelljamming exists, as opposed to most who have never heard if it. The Shou of Faerun have an actual small fleet of Spelljamming vessels, so they actually do have a presence, but that's an anomaly. And this is in a fairly heavy Spelljamming sphere.
By contrast, the War Captain's Companion has like every groundling nation knows about it and well-known metropolises are Spelljamming ports with repair facilities and such.
I have no idea why they retconned it. The first version, just like Planescape, allows you to add as little or as much as you like, while keeping the individual world settings distinct. The retconned version makes the entire AD&D line Spelljamming, and while I love Spelljammer, I don't like that. I prefer a default that people from various settings don't know Spelljamming and Sigil exist, and that the PCs are exceptions. More like Stargate SG-1.
The original box takes IMO the superior approach where Spelljamming is something groundlings mostly don't know about. For example, the Queen of Evermeet on Toril has a single advisor who is responsible for knowing about that sort of thing, and if I recall that's only one of their duties. You kind of get the idea that the queen herself barely knows anything about it other than there are elves on flying ships somewhere, and the advisor isn't exactly an expert. This is presented as an example of a civilization that actually has any idea Spelljamming exists, as opposed to most who have never heard if it. The Shou of Faerun have an actual small fleet of Spelljamming vessels, so they actually do have a presence, but that's an anomaly. And this is in a fairly heavy Spelljamming sphere.
By contrast, the War Captain's Companion has like every groundling nation knows about it and well-known metropolises are Spelljamming ports with repair facilities and such.
I have no idea why they retconned it. The first version, just like Planescape, allows you to add as little or as much as you like, while keeping the individual world settings distinct. The retconned version makes the entire AD&D line Spelljamming, and while I love Spelljammer, I don't like that. I prefer a default that people from various settings don't know Spelljamming and Sigil exist, and that the PCs are exceptions. More like Stargate SG-1.
