What is up with Spelljammers?

[Kruno]

They go through space and they land on Faerun sometimes. Does anyone follow this part of D&D? Is it just D&D in space, does it tie into Faerun history in anyway?

 

[Spukrian]

Yes, it's D&D in space but it has it's own history. They land on other planets as well, Krynn, Athas etc.

 

[Tweed]

They're ships that sail through space. A sort of space ship, if you will.

 

[Silva]

Can someone try to sell this setting to me? As an old TTRPG player fascinated by settings like Planescape, Glorantha, Jorune, Earthdawn, Shadowrun, etc. Spelljammer always looked pure, undiluted shit to me, and I can't fathom how someone can appreciate it.


Edit: also this. how can someone look at this shit and want to play it?

 

[Tweed]

Hippophobe.

 

[Berengar]

You power it by forcing a wizard to sit on a throne forever. Enslaved to be an engine

 

[Eldagusto]

Its a fun idea to just borrow the concept that the other planets/moons of Faerun actually have isolated civilizations on them, and maybe you can find portals to connect them, if you can crack that egg the resources and influence you can gain through establishing trade networks would make you a Lord of Lords. Sultan of Ancapistan.

 

[Caim]

They go through space and they land on Faerun sometimes. Does anyone follow this part of D&D? Is it just D&D in space, does it tie into Faerun history in anyway?

Between the material planes like Toril, Krynn, Athas and the other main D&D settings there is the Phlogiston. Think of it as a cosmic pea soup except it's gray, there's no peas, doesn't taste good and is highly combustible. This exists outside of the Ethereal Plane of Planescape, sitting in between it and the material realms. On this cosmic pea soup sail the Spelljammers, great ships that can traverse the Plogiston as if it were an ocean with waterways, currents, stills, dangerous storms and more. There's also cosmic sea monsters and pirates that try to mess you up. Now, the Plogiston isn't a flat ocean like here on Earth: it is as three dimensional as outer space, so you can be sailing at a straight angle in the eyes of an observer. By rupturing the Phlogiston around a material world you can enter Wildspace, which is the space around a solar system which works like regular space (a Spelljammer normally brings about 3 months of air with it as part of how a Spelljammer works).

So why use a Spelljammer when you can just use things like Planar Shift? Sure, Spelljammers are slower and the journey's more dangerous, but travel can be a lot more precise and it's far easier to bring a LOT of stuff along with you. Plus, it alllows for swashbuckling adventures. Ever seen Treasure Planet? It's kinda like that.

Also this is an excuse to post the excellent Planescape map once again, Spelljammer stuff at the top

 

[NecroLord]

I always thought that each D&D setting was its own.
For example, going from Oerth to Abeir Toril makes very little sense, at least to me.

 

[Hagashager]

They are but they aren't. Over the decades different authors shoehorned their personal DnD settings into a broader multiverse. Then, the tissue that connects these universes, themselves, became different universes which were then made into a broader multiverse.

It's exactly as stupid as it sounds. You get good stuff like Planescape and Krynn, but then you get shlock like Fearûn or one of the weird, new fruity pseudo-settings that special snowflake GMs crowbar into the canon.

Interesting to note, for a long time Forgotten Realms refused to be part of the DnD cosmology. They were treated as a separate entity, but I believe it was the introduction of Spelljammer in the '90s that forced the FR writers to play nice with everyone else.

 

[Caim]

Not all planes are quite as connected with the rest: Athas is difficult to enter because a single portal to the Elemental Plane of Water would fuck up the core premise of the setting, Eberron is locked off and has its own cosmology, IIRC Krynn had a few issues as well (plus the whole "Is Takhisis Tiamat" question), and a few more.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Can someone try to sell this setting to me? As an old TTRPG player fascinated by settings like Planescape, Glorantha, Jorune, Earthdawn, Shadowrun, etc. Spelljammer always looked pure, undiluted shit to me, and I can't fathom how someone can appreciate it.


Edit: also this. how can someone look at this shit and want to play it?

You're looking at the wrong giff artwork:

Alex

 

[Norfleet]

Between the material planes like Toril, Krynn, Athas and the other main D&D settings there is the Phlogiston. Think of it as a cosmic pea soup except it's gray, there's no peas, doesn't taste good and is highly combustible.

I've always wondered why, if the cosmic pea soup of not-space is highly combustible, it somehow doesn't go up in a giant chain explosion.

 

[Alex]

Between the material planes like Toril, Krynn, Athas and the other main D&D settings there is the Phlogiston. Think of it as a cosmic pea soup except it's gray, there's no peas, doesn't taste good and is highly combustible.

I've always wondered why, if the cosmic pea soup of not-space is highly combustible, it somehow doesn't go up in a giant chain explosion.

I would guess because phlogiston, while extremely flammable, still needs oxygen to burn.

 

[Berengar]

Between the material planes like Toril, Krynn, Athas and the other main D&D settings there is the Phlogiston. Think of it as a cosmic pea soup except it's gray, there's no peas, doesn't taste good and is highly combustible.

I've always wondered why, if the cosmic pea soup of not-space is highly combustible, it somehow doesn't go up in a giant chain explosion.

Because that wouldn't be very fun to rp

 

[Norfleet]

I would guess because phlogiston, while extremely flammable, still needs oxygen to burn.

Which is weird, because phlogiston is what people believed caused fires before the discovery of oxygen.

Because that wouldn't be very fun to rp

I dunno about that. It would be pretty funny, briefly. Explosions usually are.

 

[Fedora Master]

Imagine actually participating in a Kruno thread

 

[Silva]

I'm still waiting someone admit playing as a Giff.


P.S: the only "Gif" I would ever play is this bad ass dude here..

 

[Norfleet]

That's a Gith-. They only become a "Gif" when you punch their teef out.

 

[Norfleet]

Edit: also this. how can someone look at this shit and want to play it?

Because

is OP, obviously.

 

[OndrejSc]

 

[0sacred]

These militaristic space hippos are totally not Umpani, right?