breschau said:
Medieval fantasy... in space... and you complain of silliness. I'm confused.
The first thing I'd do would be to ditch the "medieval" component. It was forced in, again, by the way Spelljammer had to act as a connection between Krynn, Oerth, Faerun and more. (Also, a lot of AD&D gamers seemed to have a phobia of firearms even in settings where they fit the themes.)
I want handguns and cannons and horribly temperamental alchemical grenades in a "fantasy 1600s" vibe, with pirates and explorers, treasure fleets and a wild, restless setting where a bunch of stalwart adventurers with a
Hammerhead can make their fortunes, and leave a mark on the star charts.
And no, this is not at all incompatible with my loathing of silliness. I'm looking for weirdness, even humor, but it has to be a setting which takes itself seriously, no matter what the characters themselves do. Thus, no incompetent tinker gnomes with haphazard hamster-driven junk ships, or capitalistic penguins, or other similar "ha-ha-ain't-we-funny" critters which are amusing for three minutes, if that.
