Spelljammer Why Spelljammer?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I go to The Piazza for Spelljammer discussion, but except while it was in print it never really burned up the internets with interest ANYwhere.

I've been working on a Spelljammer game myself after a REQUEST from a group of 5E players, but sad to say, like Zardnaar I've concluded (for perhaps the 3rd or 4th time, as I've tried before) that it's more work than I care to put into it to ensure that it will play the way I can accept as DM. Either way too much redesign from scratch or way too much handwaving, neither of which I care to do anymore.

 

[DammitVictor]

I am all about Spelljammer, even though I came late to the party. (I was mostly a Planescape guy in the Nineties.) It just hits a lot more of my buttons than other settings do: it's in space, PCs can travel freely, and it's free to be weird.

I mean, find a way to jam some Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter in it, and I'll stop playing anything else.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Spelljammer is known because it's got a premise that some people like: space exploration. The problem is that the actual spelljamming is kinda the boring part. It's hard to talk to new people or adventure from the deck of a ship, even in pirate campaigns. It's mostly just the way you get where you're going.

 

[Zardnaar]

Spelljammer is known because it's got a premise that some people like: space exploration. The problem is that the actual spelljamming is kinda the boring part. It's hard to talk to new people or adventure from the deck of a ship, even in pirate campaigns. It's mostly just the way you get where you're going.

The ship can be a flying dungeon but yeah you don't want to overdo the ship combat.

 

[Bohandas]

Also, technically its part of the early edition material for most of the major campaign settings (other than eberron), so anyone researching Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk or Dragonlance lore is going to come across spelljammer

 

[Tony Vargas]

One thing I have noticed with new players in 5E.
For whatever reason they know about Spelljammer.

'New,' I guess, doesn't always mean 'innocent.'

 

[SerVenger]

Yoho mateys
I'm an old SJ addict. I have been sober 20 something years
But that heady feeling is coming back
Shiver me timbers

give me spelljammer, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead, screw the hamsters
I'm building 5e Spelljammer content and scenarios for a pirate flavored campaign.
High piracy in high space, yeah baby welcome aboard

I got places
I got people
I got dungeons
I got plots
I got twists

What I don't got is SJ rules except a handful of conversions to pick through for ideas, so that part is a gray area.
I need rules and so do my players, that's six copies right there

Yeah we could play with it as is, with SJ as a backdrop, but the ships were at the core of our old game.
Its more visceral to roll your own ship's demise rather than be merely a victim of some stanky DM plot device
I Need rules to give the players a chance to fight back lol

It will be some time, maybe a year before I take my seat at the helm to DM it, but hopefully SJ setting is released soon if its to be released at all

Why Spelljammer? We talked about it.
My guys and I want D&D medieval style, space opera style, no interest in the sci-fi, aka Starfinder style

my 2 cents

 

[Beleriphon]

As a thought to run Spelljammer, why not take the ship rules in Ghosts of Saltmarsh and just addy a flying speed? By and large Spelljammer just handwaves the vast majority of physics issues in favour of easy of use and fun. GoS for the most part that covers the general ship to ship combat, from there it is a matter of just building the stats for different ships.

 

[Lord Crimson]

As a thought to run Spelljammer, why not take the ship rules in Ghosts of Saltmarsh and just addy a flying speed? By and large Spelljammer just handwaves the vast majority of physics issues in favour of easy of use and fun. GoS for the most part that covers the general ship to ship combat, from there it is a matter of just building the stats for different ships.

This is what I was going to suggest. Port over a couple useful ideas or assumptions from the old SJ books (materials affecting a ship's saves, modifying ships in various ways, giant space hamsters, etc.) and then come up with a way for a PC who is using the ship's spelljamming helm to ALSO be useful instead of just being a battery/engine (which unfortunately flies in the face of the cool idea of "power thrones" but is necessary if you want the highest level mage or cleric to actually be involved in the game).