"In the beginning existed a misty realm of timeless nothingness, crafted by Ao the Hidden One from the raw elemental bedlam of the Phlogiston."
Seems to imply a connection between the elemental chaos and the phlogiston, which would be a neat twist and maybe make the rainbow ocean a bit more interesting to visit than just a place where you can't cast fireball.
I for one am very eager to see Spelljammer brought back. I liked it better than planescape, despite that settings thrilling aesthetic. The ships, the species, and the bizarre interstellar culture managed to take you the stars oft associated with scifi but still feel completely within the realm of fantasy. I even loved Paizo take on the setting for 3rd ed. Bringing it into 4th ed would really improve my interest in the new version of the game.
No need to bring back giant hamsters though. I think we've all had enough of the gnomes of Krynn at this point.
I think we've all had enough of the gnomes of Krynn at this point.
Talk for yourself. There are no other gnomes than Krynn's tinker gnomes to me.
Those of us hoping for Spelljammer to be on the docket for revived campaign setting got a hint on p41 of the FRCS:
"In the beginning existed a misty realm of timeless nothingness, crafted by Ao the Hidden One from the raw elemental bedlam of the Phlogiston."
Seems to imply a connection between the elemental chaos and the phlogiston, which would be a neat twist and maybe make the rainbow ocean a bit more interesting to visit than just a place where you can't cast fireball.
I for one am very eager to see Spelljammer brought back. I liked it better than planescape, despite that settings thrilling aesthetic. The ships, the species, and the bizarre interstellar culture managed to take you the stars oft associated with scifi but still feel completely within the realm of fantasy. I even loved Paizo take on the setting for 3rd ed. Bringing it into 4th ed would really improve my interest in the new version of the game.
No need to bring back giant hamsters though. I think we've all had enough of the gnomes of Krynn at this point.
I noticed this "phlogiston" reference, too! I remembered that had something to do with Spelljammer. Then I kinda forgot about it, chalking it up instead to my status as a Realms-noob.
I'm not at all experienced with Planescape or Spelljammer, but both settings intrigue me. I've been curious about the potential for combining the two. (The only thing I don't like is thinking about a neatly enclosed setting like Eberron suddenly being adulterated by planar travelers from other settings.
)Talk for yourself. There are no other gnomes than Krynn's tinker gnomes to me.
No way. Zil gnomes are the only way to go.
(The only thing I don't like is thinking about a neatly enclosed setting like Eberron suddenly being adulterated by planar travelers from other settings.
and whose to say that hasn't happened in some home campaigns? for example my Kender Rouge in 3.5 who had found his way onto a jammer and next he knew he was being dropped off in a city with a skyport(Sharn).. tose metal men were quite cold as far as politeness *Sits with a pout while eying everyone and everything around* at least they didn't have to use that lock... I mean com on a baby could have picked it.
I would love for SJ to return then all boundary's between worlds would be gone again
I have mixed feeling on the opening of Eberron myself. The easy solution is just to not make any of it core. Only talk about how Eberron is effected by Spelljamming in Spelljammer products. It's loads of fun to get setting mixed up, it was part of the appeal of SJ in the first place.
Plus, flying to the moons of Eberron and through the ring of Syberis would be awesome. Just be careful it's not Syrania's coterminous phase...
Those of us hoping for Spelljammer to be on the docket for revived campaign setting got a hint on p41 of the FRCS:
"In the beginning existed a misty realm of timeless nothingness, crafted by Ao the Hidden One from the raw elemental bedlam of the Phlogiston."
Just when I thought it is history, in the past, they bring it BACK!!!
:headexplo
and whose to say that hasn't happened in some home campaigns? for example my Kender Rouge in 3.5 who had found his way onto a jammer and next he knew he was being dropped off in a city with a skyport(Sharn).. tose metal men were quite cold as far as politeness *Sits with a pout while eying everyone and everything around* at least they didn't have to use that lock... I mean com on a baby could have picked it.
I would love for SJ to return then all boundary's between worlds would be gone again
Homebrew is at the DM's discretion, and it's nobody's business. As long as my by-the-book Eberron game doesn't have Elminster spelljamming in from Faerun to create his own dragonmarked house, I'll be okay.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm okay with Spelljammer mucking about in other settings when I'm playing the Spelljammer setting. When I'm playing other settings, I like those boundaries. (It seems silly to me that somebody with a ship can travel between settings, but deities and overgods can't.)
Would be neat, though.
(It seems silly to me that somebody with a ship can travel between settings, but deities and overgods can't.)
I can understand what your saying here and in honesty sometimes it makes no sense but then I think that for some deities they may be blocked by the over gods from leaving there planes of godhood while others actually have freedom to move around(The Seldarine for example) as long as they do not interfere with the over gods plans within a certain realm (Dragonlance setting, Ebberon setting for examples) But as to the over gods I don't think there anywhere near as limited I actually think that all of them actually are like brother gods or something and came up with a game, each one would create a realm of existence along with a few gods for those realms and invite wondering gods (Seldarine for example) into there realms if they so chose and see whose worlds will do better and how they progress. Just my opinion.
Homebrew is at the DM's discretion, and it's nobody's business. As long as my by-the-book Eberron game doesn't have Elminster spelljamming in from Faerun to create his own dragonmarked house, I'll be okay.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm okay with Spelljammer mucking about in other settings when I'm playing the Spelljammer setting. When I'm playing other settings, I like those boundaries. (It seems silly to me that somebody with a ship can travel between settings, but deities and overgods can't.)
This.
A combination of Eberron and Spelljammer works with this philosophy. I'd have lots of fun this way.
It works better than a certain other settings "WE ARE CANON. LIKE IT OR GTFO" fan philosophy...
-Joni
I thought it was silly then, can't imagine it any better now.
Helms that make the ship fly? Nah, I'd rather they use the concept of the airships from Adventurer's Vault, and take it a step further, if they must take D&D to space, which I don't think they need to...
And tinker gnomes are the only gnomes as far as I'm concerned, a concept WOW had no trouble stealing outright...
And I for one LOVE silly D&D. "Minsc and Boo, together again. Rangers and hamsters rejoice!!!!"
Helms that make the ship fly? Nah,...
Is that in general or the spelljamming helm in particular?
A world that has a decent level of access to interstellar travel is going to be fundamentally affected by the fact that it's there. Interaction with cultures from other places, no matter how remote, always changes things for a society -- most particularly in economic and strategic ways. Any planet with a decent level of natural resources would be targetted by someone (usually elves, orcs or neogi) and as such would have to be able to hold its own. That is something that would affect society on a very basic level -- everyone would be constantly aware of the fact that something other than a dragon might be swooping down out of the sky at some point.
But, that's not the way most of the staple D&D worlds are built because (logically enough) most of those worlds were written up before Spelljammer was even a twinkle in TSR's collective eye.
So, there were attempts made to fit the worlds to Spelljamming by saying that it was only known about by select groups and that the existence of spelljamming was kept secret by those groups (essentially turning clutches of sages, gnomes and elves into the MIB). I hate to say it, but this was an obvious continuity band-aid at best and still brought up too many questions (e.g. the aforementioned "why hasn't Elminster yet gone flying over and started his own power group/dragonmarked house/dance club/etc).
That said, I think that if Spelljammer IS redone at some point, it would probably be easiest to keep things focused on societies that have been written up with spelljamming kept in mind (e.g. the Astromundi Cluster).
There wouldn't be a need to pretend the other D&D worlds don't exist and there could potentially even be a means of reaching them, but the way should probably be difficult enough that travel from, say, Toril to Oerth by spelljamming vessel is as uncommon as travel between the two places via the planes (which is not to say that plenty of home campaigns won't start out with Elminster's Dragonmarked House Dance Party on Athas with guest MCs Mordenkainen and Fizban, but it's the thought that counts). I think the easiest world with which that idea could be implemented is Eberron, since it's already been mentioned that the asteroid belt / Dragon Above makes it nigh impossible to make it into the upper orbit.
So, anyway, I would like to see a Spelljammer supplement come out but I'm hoping that if it does, it comes with its own set of worlds to play with.
There haven't been any anouncements to date about Spelljammer being 4e.
Actually, the 4th Ed team stated that Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Planescape and Spelljammer were all being considered for their yearly campaign setting model.
otherdoc: The way I see it, any non-planescape or spelljammer campaign involving planescape or spelljammer lore automatically becomes a planescape or spelljammer campaign set on a particular prime. So FR without spelljammers is FR., but FR with spelljammers is actually a Spelljammer campaign set on Toril. Ditto with Dragonlance and Greyhawk. It avoids that kind of problem.
-steely dan: That doesn't leave much room for a completely new campaign for 4e before 5e comes out.
-otherdoc: The way I see it, any non-planescape or spelljammer campaign involving planescape or spelljammer lore automatically becomes a planescape or spelljammer campaign set on a particular prime. So FR without spelljammers is FR., but FR with spelljammers is actually a Spelljammer campaign set on Toril. Ditto with Dragonlance and Greyhawk. It avoids that kind of problem.
-They said "considered", so we may only see one of those, or maybe none.
-Yeah, that's how I look at it.
I'm also curious as to how the 100 year leap will come into play.
So, as much as I would personally like to see the Spelljammer universe revived in a new campaign sourcebook, you shouldn't infer that such a book is in development because of the references I've hinted at in the lore.
The Spelljammer references in the FRCG are there simply because they are part of the canon history of the setting, and I have a particular fondness for the setting.
Personally I wish it wasn't, since FR have their own fair share of airships.