3.P Spelljammer: Pitch me a Planet

[SwordChucks]

I'm the DM for a 3.P Spelljammer campaign where the players tend to move from sphere to sphere rather quickly. In the hopes of not running out of cool new places for them to go, I would like to enlist the Playground in helping me design new worlds and crystal spheres.

So if you'd like to help just post a paragraph or two about an interesting idea for a world.



Algeroon - The PC's home planet at the edge of known space. It's a jungle-filled world with lots of coasts and oceans and some tall mountains. The inhabitants of Algeroon were unaware of spelljamming until an elven ship crashed into the ocean prompting the start of the game.

The Post - A trading post in the same sphere as Algeroon. It's a large cone-shaped asteroid with several traders. It's used as a "last gas" for ships heading out towards the unexplored spheres.

The Sylva Sphere - 5 planets ruled by elves. The elves have the largest ship presence of any race in this sector of space but tend to not expand very fast.

Vitus - A primitive world with a valley filled by the descendants of a ship that crashed several hundred years ago. The tallest mountain in the valley, named Tallfather, is like a magnet to magic and when it glows nearby spelljammers are pulled in.

Nosyd - A large hollow world with a small blue sun at its core. Everything in Nosyd is oversized and primitive. Its inhabitants include dinosaurs, tribal ogres, dire animals, violent shrubbery, and lizardfolk that seem to be becoming more intelligent.

Vania - Wherein I ripoff Castlevania. This planet is quite small and the home of a small country of terrified humans ruled over by a vampire that has blocked out the sun and his monster army.

Harmonoptrix - A desert planet inspired by Egypt and ruled over by the mummy of a former pharaoh. He is cruel to his people, but if he dies the suns surrounding the planet are prophesied to be extinguished. (This is part of an ancient ritual to prevent mindflayers from taking over the planet.)

Chogatha - A planet where this (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?261519-D-amp-Dish-The-city-built-around-the-tarrasque) is a thing.

[Maglubiyet]

I'm the DM for a 3.P Spelljammer campaign where the players tend to move from sphere to sphere rather quickly. In the hopes of not running out of cool new places for them to go, I would like to enlist the Playground in helping me design new worlds and crystal spheres.

So if you'd like to help just post a paragraph or two about an interesting idea for a world.



Algeroon - The PC's home planet at the edge of known space. It's a jungle-filled world with lots of coasts and oceans and some tall mountains. The inhabitants of Algeroon were unaware of spelljamming until an elven ship crashed into the ocean prompting the start of the game.

The Post - A trading post in the same sphere as Algeroon. It's a large cone-shaped asteroid with several traders. It's used as a "last gas" for ships heading out towards the unexplored spheres.

The Sylva Sphere - 5 planets ruled by elves. The elves have the largest ship presence of any race in this sector of space but tend to not expand very fast.

Vitus - A primitive world with a valley filled by the descendants of a ship that crashed several hundred years ago. The tallest mountain in the valley, named Tallfather, is like a magnet to magic and when it glows nearby spelljammers are pulled in.

Nosyd - A large hollow world with a small blue sun at its core. Everything in Nosyd is oversized and primitive. Its inhabitants include dinosaurs, tribal ogres, dire animals, violent shrubbery, and lizardfolk that seem to be becoming more intelligent.

Vania - Wherein I ripoff Castlevania. This planet is quite small and the home of a small country of terrified humans ruled over by a vampire that has blocked out the sun and his monster army.

Harmonoptrix - A desert planet inspired by Egypt and ruled over by the mummy of a former pharaoh. He is cruel to his people, but if he dies the suns surrounding the planet are prophesied to be extinguished. (This is part of an ancient ritual to prevent mindflayers from taking over the planet.)

Chogatha - A planet where this (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?261519-D-amp-Dish-The-city-built-around-the-tarrasque) is a thing.



I made a random Spelljammer Sphere Generator (http://peterstribe.com/crystal_sphere_generator2.html) a few years ago that might help. It generates the Primary and planets, their orbits, sizes, distances, travel times, notable groundling populations and Spelljammer activity, unusual characteristics, and the nature of the stars in the system. It even gives them all names. Races are from 3.x.

The groundling populations, characteristics, and Spelljammer activity might be helpful in generating ideas. Please let me know any way I could improve this.

[avr]

An icy world where human cities war over the possession of hot springs while orcish nomads control the rest of the planet. The wars are being kept going as a distraction by dopplegangers who don't want the humans aware of who really controls them.

A jungle world overrun by demons. Humanoids hide from them, surviving only because most of the demons left after destroying the civilization and because they're easily distracted. Drawing parallels with Algeroon might get the players interested.

An ocean world where hurricanes make the surface difficult to live on but there's a bunch of thriving civilizations under the waves. Trade goods from this world are rare and valuable.

[SwordChucks]

I made a random Spelljammer Sphere Generator (http://peterstribe.com/crystal_sphere_generator2.html) a few years ago that might help.

This is perfect. I have trouble trying to picture celestial mechanics and populations so this will save me a ton of time.


An icy world where human cities war over the possession of hot springs while orcish nomads control the rest of the planet. The wars are being kept going as a distraction by dopplegangers who don't want the humans aware of who really controls them.

A jungle world overrun by demons. Humanoids hide from them, surviving only because most of the demons left after destroying the civilization and because they're easily distracted. Drawing parallels with Algeroon might get the players interested.

An ocean world where hurricanes make the surface difficult to live on but there's a bunch of thriving civilizations under the waves. Trade goods from this world are rare and valuable.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. More ideas like these will help me out greatly.

[avr]

This is exactly what I'm looking for. More ideas like these will help me out greatly.
OK. A couple more then.

A sargasso filled with trees floating in midair. No ground, just air, trees growing on floating rocks, birds and occasional weather. And of course the colossal spiders and the ships they have trapped in their webs.

A world ruled by dwarves which they can move around within their crystal sphere using vast sails hundreds of miles long. Enslaved giants operate the sails. Politics dictate how they move it around - since the surface conditions change accordingly everyone lives underground who can.

A swampy mess of a planet inhabited by halflings, who drain the swamps with windmills and dikes. They have a taboo against pessimism which extends to a ban on saying anything negative, which will make tracking down neogi raiders challenging to say the least.

[DrKerosene]

I'm fond of the concept for the, uh, Hork-Bajir "homeworld" from the Animorphs book series. I think I'm embellishing a bit from memory, but spoilers ahead.

Imagine a planet with a thin atmosphere over a moon-like surface. At one of the poles is a huge crater, surrounded by many jagged mountain ranges that pierce the thin atmosphere, clearly a huge celestial impact occurred.

Running around the equator of the plant is a very deep, and gravitationally steep, "valley". This "valley" is filled with huge redwood type trees that grow at a steep angle from the ground/walls of the "valley", creating a many layered forest of branches that eventually meet with the far "wall" when you descend deep enough.

If you continue down you will find an impossibly thick layer of fog, in it are large (probably Gargantuan by DnD terms) creatures created to hunt down and catch any trespassers. These creatures were created by the same race that engineered the Hork-Bajir that prune and take care of the huge trees. The fog is a relatively thin layer compared to the descent from the surface, but below it is more of a mesopotamian wall city with much in the way of laboratory and high-technology.

The Hork-Bajir should be described as beaked, 7+1/2 or taller lizard looking people, with 1/2 to 1 foot long blades at all their joints. To prune and climb the trees. Stupidity was engineered, but not eliminated, and so remotely smart members are "shamans" and/or leaders. I'm fond of the idea of refluffed Goliath Monks with Versatile Unarmed Strike, a Climb speed and dumped Int, when I consider the world.

If you want, I would considered weird-ass Ooze things or Dr. Who-esque Weeping-Angels near the impact site, if your PCs want to explore inhospitable areas.

Alternatively, model a two-in-one world after a figure-8. Like the clashing cubes in Acheron (I think), but the two worlds are stuck together, the inhabitants are hostile to each other, and gravity gets really weird near the "Junction". Choose two worlds and details for each as you prefer.

Have you read some of the established worlds listed on the Spelljammer.org site? One of them is a 5-pointed mountain in a flat wheel of water, as a world! There was one that's more a series of asteroids connected by huge plants, and I think it's called "The Garden". My players and I really enjoyed the "Haunted Library" scenario from the Adventures section.

Honestly, maybe check out alternate worlds/universes from the old Sliders television series. Everything else I can think of sounds like something from Star Wars or Dr. Who.

[SwordChucks]

I'm fond of the concept for the, uh, Hork-Bajir "homeworld" from the Animorphs book series. I think I'm embellishing a bit from memory, but spoilers ahead.

Imagine a planet with a thin atmosphere over a moon-like surface. At one of the poles is a huge crater, surrounded by many jagged mountain ranges that pierce the thin atmosphere, clearly a huge celestial impact occurred.

Running around the equator of the plant is a very deep, and gravitationally steep, "valley". This "valley" is filled with huge redwood type trees that grow at a steep angle from the ground/walls of the "valley", creating a many layered forest of branches that eventually meet with the far "wall" when you descend deep enough.

If you continue down you will find an impossibly thick layer of fog, in it are large (probably Gargantuan by DnD terms) creatures created to hunt down and catch any trespassers. These creatures were created by the same race that engineered the Hork-Bajir that prune and take care of the huge trees. The fog is a relatively thin layer compared to the descent from the surface, but below it is more of a mesopotamian wall city with much in the way of laboratory and high-technology.

The Hork-Bajir should be described as beaked, 7+1/2 or taller lizard looking people, with 1/2 to 1 foot long blades at all their joints. To prune and climb the trees. Stupidity was engineered, but not eliminated, and so remotely smart members are "shamans" and/or leaders. I'm fond of the idea of refluffed Goliath Monks with Versatile Unarmed Strike, a Climb speed and dumped Int, when I consider the world.

If you want, I would considered weird-ass Ooze things or Dr. Who-esque Weeping-Angels near the impact site, if your PCs want to explore inhospitable areas.

Alternatively, model a two-in-one world after a figure-8. Like the clashing cubes in Acheron (I think), but the two worlds are stuck together, the inhabitants are hostile to each other, and gravity gets really weird near the "Junction". Choose two worlds and details for each as you prefer.

Have you read some of the established worlds listed on the Spelljammer.org site? One of them is a 5-pointed mountain in a flat wheel of water, as a world! There was one that's more a series of asteroids connected by huge plants, and I think it's called "The Garden". My players and I really enjoyed the "Haunted Library" scenario from the Adventures section.

Honestly, maybe check out alternate worlds/universes from the old Sliders television series. Everything else I can think of sounds like something from Star Wars or Dr. Who.

Wow, that's some nostalgia for me. I loved the Hork-Bajir.

I have read a lot of the spelljammer books including part of Practical Planetology, which details several pre-made planets. I try to stay away from well-known worlds like Oerth and Krynn because I feel like I don't have as much freedom in creating quests. Also the whole "Why doesn't Eliminster solve everything?" problem.

Since you mentioned it; Sliders, Star Trek, and Firefly are the types of shows that inspired this campaign. I like doing a situation-a-week type adventures with an overarching story line, in this case "what are those mindflayers up to?"

[Clistenes]

The Hunting Lodge of the Gods:

Created centuries or millennia ago by an unknown group of gods, titans or archmages, the planet has been turned into a hunting reserve for the meanest species in the Multiverse: Dire, Horrid, Giant and Titanic Animals, ancient Megafauna, Dinosaurs, Behemoths, Roc Kings, Chaos Rocs, Oozes, Umber Hulks, Hook Horrors, Snowcloaks, Malasyneps, Tlalusks, Razor Boars, Colossal Monstrous Vermin, Devastation Vermin, Purple Worms, Odopis, Elder Odopis, Chilblains, Shivhads, Landwyrms, Fiendwurms, Megalodons, Krakens, Megapedes, Moonbeasts, Mudmaws, Orcwort, Advanced Orcworts, Rampagers, Red Sundews, Stone Spikes, Wystes, Leviathans, Brachyurus, Bearhounds, Displacer Beasts, Prismasaurus, Tayellahs...etc., you got them all there.

The moon of that planet is airless, but it has an abandoned landing area for space vessels. Close to that area there is a mysterious city (a single massive palace, in fact), sealed against scrying and teleportation magic, guarded by very powerful constructs and bound outsiders, the latter quite mad due to their long period of inactivity. They won't attack visitors unless they try to force themselves into the palace, and they are bound to answer truthfully any question (but they can omit information and there are some questions they aren't allowed to answer); regardless, these outsiders covet any distraction, and wish the visitors to start a fight so they can have their fun with them.

If somebody manages to enter the palace, they will find a vacation resort for the gods (or god-like beings) who created the hunting reserve: Beautiful gardens that look like the paradise, rooms and halls that make any palace or cathedral look like goblin hovels, libraries full of arcane texts of lost or forbidden knowledge, armories with any magic weapon you can imagine, magic items that can produce any food or drink you ask, musical instruments that play by themselves, magic mirrors that show any scenery in the past or present anywhere in the multiverse that isn't magically warded against scrying, unseen servants and construct servants ready to serve your every desire, Simulacra odalisques, singers and dancers, magical lamps that will summon permanent Shades (as per the Shade spell) imitating any creature you wish that will follow your commands...etc.

The staff inside the palace won't attack you and will in fact treat you as honored guests and obey your every desire...unless you try to steal something and take it away. I you do that, they will first warn you that you can't do that, afterwards they will threaten to call the security personnel, and if you don't hear them, the inner guardians, way more dangerous and powerful that the outer ones will arrive and kick your ass.

They will try to not kill you, but if you don't drop whatever you were trying to steal before the fight starts, they will lock you in a (quite comfortable) cell until their masters come back (their masters haven't visited for centuries).

A very special Elven Wingship crashed on the surface of the Hunting Reserve Planet long ago. It is an intelligent construct, an Advanced Guardian Ship (Dragon Magazine 333) with the Sacred Guardian template (Dragonlance Bestiary), equipped with a Major Spelljamming Helm, a Planar Helm, Everfull Sails and a Cloud Keel.

The ship is made of supernaturally hardened wood, so she isn't very tasty and has been left alone by the dangerous predators (some of them have turned her into their home, however), but she can't leave on her own. The royal elven family who lost her would pay handsomely to recover her. They wouldn't even mind if you took the Major Spelljamming Helm, the Everfull Sails and the Planar Helm before returning it; the Guardian Ship is a well-loved member of their family, and they just want her back.

While the wildlife on the planet would devour most adventurers in minutes, most of them aren't intelligent, and only a very few of them have any spell-like or supernatural ability, so intelligent use of magic would maybe allow a group of valiant adventurers to brave its dangers and find the ship.

[kopout]

Combining two results from the generator.




System Type:
Planets orbit clockwise around Primary

Primary
❖ Cluster Earth Body
Size A
Notable Groundlings: democratic goblin magocracy

Rogodilt's Bauble
Planet 1: ● Spherical Fire World - Size E
Inner orbital track: #5
Distance to Primary: 100 million miles (travel time 1 day)
Notable Groundlings: fire mephling nomads
Characteristics: hot
Satellites: none

Sphere has no stars

Wildspace Conditions:
- moderate temperatures

Spelljammer Activity:
- none, sphere undiscovered


The PC's are the first to breach this sphere. At the the center is a cluster of asteroids shrouded by a common atmosphere. The goblins ( I'd suggest monkey goblins as they get a climb speed and acrobatics bonuses which will be helpful in a 3d environment like this) who live here are quite different than the ones most people think of, they have a complex social structure and a great respect for int based casters. the largest and most influential nations have democratically elected leaders.

Despite their advanced magi-tech they have yet to discover wild space and have not yet struck out for the only other object in the sky, the sun (which orbits them contrary to a theory long discredited by the famous scholar Rogodilt).

A fun concept is that these people have never even considered the possibility of life out side their home world. Or they may be very interested in how spelljaming works, how peaceful first contact is is up to you.

[Tvtyrant]

4 planets and 2 suns, one blue and one red.

Three of the planets are far out from the suns, rotating around the center of the solar system (which if the fourth planet).

Furthest Planet: Zeryz

Large air planet planet, size of Saturn. Three moons, 2 water and 1 earth.

Water Moon 1: Horten. No solid core, size of Earth's moon. Actually a bubble of water around a full size Leviathan (Elder Evils) whose Aspects hunt Krakens and other giant sea monsters through its waters. CR ranger: 9-16 (excluding true Leviathan).
Water Moon 2: Chupo. Solid core covered by a thin sheet of ice and water. The moon is small, only 20 mile radius. Almost nothing but Ice Worms live on the surface as it is too cold, but volcanic activity keeps the water under the ice warm. Filled with reefs and tropical fish.
Earth Moon: Lorn. Solid planet with canals of water. Primarily filled with lizardfolk and Yuan-ti civilizations who live along strange, Nile-like rivers.



Closer Planet: Renly.

Single planet with a large population of Aboleths, Beholders, and Silithar. The most common species on the planet are the Bullwugs, which the Aboleths and Beholders enslave in large numbers. The primary adventure here is the endless wars between the Aboleth mages and the Beholders over who truly dominates the planet. The Silithar are friendly and are likely to hire the group to help maintain balance between rival groups.

Closest Planet: Burn

Burn is a highly volcanic planet with a single small moon (2 mile radius). The moon is populated and acts as a giant star port, as the planet is too dangerous for humanoid civilization but promises wealthy beyond measure. The volcanoes regularly cough up diamonds, chardalyns and a wide variety of magic gems. Anyone searching the surface rolls a d20 each day, finding a gem of the type indicated by the roll.
1.Diamond worth 1,000 GP
2.Diamond worth 2,000 GP
3.Diamond worth 3,000 GP
4.Diamond worth 4,000 GP
5.Diamond worth 5,000 GP
6.Diamond worth 6,000 GP
7.Diamond worth 7,000 GP
8.Diamond worth 8,000 GP
9.Diamond worth 9,000 GP
10.Diamond worth 10,000 GP
11. Chardalyn Type I
12. Chardalyn Type II
13. Chardalyn Type III
14. Elemental Gem (roll d4 for type)
15. Gem of Brightness
16. Third Eyes (Roll D10 to decide which one, Repudiate Third Eyes never appear).
17. Crystal Mask (Roll d8 to decide which one).
18. Diamond Cube of Force
19. Gem of Seeing
20. Chaos Diamond
The possibility of finding instant wealth draws many individuals to the molten surface of Burn. The planet is also full of many threats which makes long term survival here unlikely. There is a 25% chance per day that the region the party is on becomes volcanic, the hot rocky surface turning quickly to lava and submerging the party. There are many genies which walk the planet in search of gems for themselves, along with red dragons and Hellions (Multiheaded Half-Dragon Purple Worms, usually between 6 and 12 heads).




Name: Seven Headed Hellion
Neutral Gargantuan Magical beast (Dragon)
Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60, Low-light Vision, Tremorsense 60; Listen +30; Spot +11
DEFENSE
AC 28, Touch 4, flat footed 28 ( No Armour, Shield, none)
(-2 Dex, +34 Natural, -4 size)
hp 574 (28d12+392);
Fort +30, Ref +14, Will +8
Immunity to Fire, sleep, paralysis
OFFENSE
Speed 20, fly 40ft., swim 10ft., burrow 20ft.
Melee
Single Attack Bite +41 (4d6+16)
Full Attack
7 Bite +41 (4d6+16)
Sting +40 (2d6+8)
Space 20ft.; Reach 20
Special Attacks
Breath Weapon DC(38) 1/day 6d8 damage 30ft cone of Fire,
Improved Grab If hits can start a free grapple no attack of opportunity,
Poison DC(38) Sting DC25 fort or inital 1d6 str secondary 2d6 str,
Swallow Whole If grappled can make another grapple to swallow,
Swallow Whole If swallowed 2d8 +12 crushing + 8 acid/round,
Swallow Whole to escape 25 points of damage with light slashing or piecing (AC17)
STATISTICS
Str 43, Dex 6, Con 39, Int 3, Wis 8, Cha 10
Base Attack 28 Grapple 56
Feats
Awesome Blow: -4 from attack deliver awesome blow knock back 10 ft and prone DC=damage dealt (reflex),
Cleave: Get extra attack if kill monster,
Improved Bull Rush: +4 to Bull rush; no attack of opportunity,
Improved Initiative: +4 Initiative checks,
Improved Multiattack: +0 to any secondary attacks,
Improved Natural Attack: Attack damage goes up 1 size ,
Multiattack: Secondary Attacks are at -2 instead of -5,
Power Attack: Subtract from to hit add to damage,
Weapon Focus: +1 to attack rolls
Skills Listen 30, Spot 11, Swim 55
Languages None
MAGIC ITEMS
Chaos diamond - (160000gp)



Central Planet: Zof

Zof is a planet centered between two suns. The planet is covered in a giant protective shield which makes the sky appear purple. Crossing onto Zof without teleportation is impossible, and the outer part of the shield is incredibly hot from repelling the sun rays. Those who teleport inside find themselves in a strange world dominated by tiny life forms. Jermalaines, pixies and sprites make up the principle population, and they war with evil Ents beneath purple skies. Pristine ivory white towers rise skyward from the blue grass, and inside live myconid sorcerers.

The suns are of moon size and rotate the central planet.

[SwordChucks]

Notable Groundlings: democratic goblin magocracy
:smallamused: I can have fun with this.

I can't wait until I have some time to put all of the ideas from this thread in to the star charts for the players and get some stories written. I'll always need more though so keep the ideas coming :smallcool:.

Thanks for all the ideas so far.

[Afgncaap5]

In a world of steam engines and low-powered electricity, the only common races are humans, half-orcs, and orcs (though the half-orcs probably call themselves something like urg'gn'ki or something growelsome like that.) Due to a few weird historical situations, the half-orcs are the administrators who tend to run everything based on the reasoning that since they're smarter than the orcs and stronger than the humans they're more likely to not have an upper hand and tend to see things as being balanced. A steam-borne magical plague begins killing off the half-orcs, though, and evidence points to one of two possible secret societies, one a coven of humans and the other a cult of orcs. Both groups have the means to generate this mystical illness, and since both are led by people who would benefit in one way or another from a civil war, they both probably have motive. Similarly, each group has opportunity, meaning that either organization could have engineered the half-orc targeting illness. More to the point, whatever the players are using to travel through the spheres (I'm guessing a spelljammer, but it could be something else) is broken due to it landing during The Storm Of Sevenmoon, and one of the half-orc mages who first greeted the players is the only one with the knowledge of The Storm required to repair it, and the plague has put him into a coma before he can finish the repairs. Can the players find an antidote or develop one on their own before they wind up stuck on this world?

When nearing a planet, the ghost of an ancient elvish space pirate appears before the players, informing them that this is his planet, and it's where he hid all of the plunders from a life of rambunctious ne'r-do-wellery, and one player successfully identifies him as a historically monstrous figure who was so dangerous that the armies of entire worlds, and if legends are true even a rare alliance of angels of devils, joined forces to stop him once and for all. With a soul to fiery for hell, he was said to be imprisoned on his throneworld planet as a ghost. The ghost won't deny any of it, and in fact is willing to give hints to the location of one of his greatest plunder piles, with two caveats: first, for every hint about his plunder pile that he gives, he also gives a hint about a location that's just a deathtrap, and he won't say which is which, so it might lead the players to their deaths if they pick the wrong the one. Second, he had one of his crew devise a ritual to reconstitute him should he die, and the ritual will go another step toward completion with every hint requested; he won't say what the ritual is or where on the planet it's happening, but he assures the players that they're not the first treasure seekers to move the ritual along for him, and they won't be the last. (This last part is a lie, of course... if he can give five "valid" hints, the ritual completes and the elf is reconstituted as some ludicrously powerful custom monster of the type Monstrous Humanoid (Elf), probably with the Anarchic template, and a dodge bonus to AC and Save bonus suite of Yes, at least during this part of the story...) The world itself is gray, rocky and mountainous with a windswept green sky and a few oceans, and one or two deserts, jungles, and islands just to keep it hard to find wherever he might've built his structures.

The players are asked to find a missing person who went to explore a strange world marked as "Cursed By Olidammara" on most maps and "Blessed By Olidammara" on a rare few others. The world contains islands amid seemingly endless seas. Twenty-two islands have giant statues of stunningly beautiful people inside shrines, though a strange magic prevents more than twenty-two people from approaching the statues at a time. The statues themselves generate a psychic emanation that makes people feel drawn to them (each similar to a Sympathy spell geared toward certain kinds of individuals, whether as generic as "Dwarfs" or as specific as "Left-Handed Neutral Good Human Men" or "Chaotic Neutral Halfling Women with Keen Senses of Smell.") When the twenty-two lucky people pass through the magical barrier and enter the shrines, they can touch the statue. The statue triggers a variety of powerful magical effects so that the moment they touch it they are teleported to a grotto beneath the island that leads to a secret launch-sight for boats, have their memories cleared, alignments adjusted, and physical features altered so that they are affected by the psychic emanations of one of the *other* statues elsewhere on the planet (chosen seemingly at random). The grotto they've been sent to features a boat with a cloaked, angelic figure who resembles the just-used statue who says that he or she can take the pilgrims to a nearby island where they can begin chartering vessels or finding other passage to wherever on the world they wish to go. One exception to this behavior exists: there is a twenty-third island where the remains of a statue exist, now called "The Weeping Isle." Pilgrims still gather there as the emanations still sweep the globe, but the statue they wish to find no longer exists, for some cruel reason. (I'd suggest NOT having one of the players be a valid target of these statues, incidentally...) The players may eventually find the person they were looking for, though the person will have no memory of his or her old life, and only incredibly powerful Break Enchantment spells can restore someone so altered by the favored world of the Laughing Rogue.

The players are asked to recover a noble who was wrongly accused of a crime from a prison world, barely larger than an asteroid. Unfortunately, they learn that the prison in question is the Ice Cold Irongate, a rock of enchanted cold iron designed specifically to keep fey creatures from leaving; any known magic carrying a fey creature away deactivates, and "fey" in this case includes elves, half-elves, gnomes, and even some goblins for some reason. Naturally, their noble is a half-elf. Can the players infiltrate the asteroid, fight their way to where the half-elf is kept prisoner, deactivate the magic of the prison, leave, and reactivate it without freeing any of the other legitimately dangerous fey criminals? (Worse... did they actually pull the plan off without a hitch, or is that just what the Dryad Enchantress who rules Quadrant Gamma *wants* the players to think?)

[afroakuma]

I made a random Spelljammer Sphere Generator (http://peterstribe.com/crystal_sphere_generator2.html) a few years ago that might help. It generates the Primary and planets, their orbits, sizes, distances, travel times, notable groundling populations and Spelljammer activity, unusual characteristics, and the nature of the stars in the system. It even gives them all names. Races are from 3.x.

The groundling populations, characteristics, and Spelljammer activity might be helpful in generating ideas. Please let me know any way I could improve this.

I always wanted to assemble something like this with all the myriad weird races from 2E.

[Segev]

A world where the landmasses seem to float above a bottomless chasm. Water is extremely rare, and only exists where the cloud-cover that obscures the endless fall touches willow-wood. Willow trees grow at the edges of landmasses specifically to help harvest water, and the low-magitech people of this world sail on boats made of this stuff across the cloud-cover.

[Maglubiyet]

I always wanted to assemble something like this with all the myriad weird races from 2E.

I'm pretty sure I used all the iconic SJ races from 2e when I made this. People have posted conversion stats for 3.5 in various places.

[Sian]

Amafron 14
System Type:
Planets orbit counter-clockwise around Primary

Primary:
Portal to Plane of Elemental Fire

Sphere has no stars

Wildspace Conditions:
- moderate temperatures

Spelljammer Activity:
- none, sphere unexplored

Solduc
Planet 1: ‡ Belt Earth World - Size A
Inner orbital track: #2
Distance to Primary: 40 million miles (travel time 9 hours)
Notable Groundlings: alliance between dwarves and kobolds, carnivorous plant life
Characteristics: temperate surface, fast rotation -- short day and night cycle
Satellites: none

Planet 2: 0 Elliptical Earth World - Size F
Inner orbital track: #4
Distance to Primary: 80 million miles (travel time 19 hours)
Notable Groundlings: sentient constructs
Characteristics: cold surface
Satellites: ice ring

Endolam
Planet 3: ● Spherical Water World - Size D
Inner orbital track: #5
Distance to Primary: 100 million miles (travel time 1 day)
Notable Groundlings: nation-building hobgoblins
Characteristics: warm surface, unstable surface
Satellites: 3 moons
Al
Moon 1: 0 Elliptical Air World - Size A
Notable Groundlings: nation-building cyclopses
Dian'ilov
Moon 2: ❏ Cubic Earth World - Size B
Notable Groundlings: pastoral gnome cultists
Talari
Moon 3: * Amorphous Air World - Size B
Notable Groundlings: half-dragon goblins, living-dead hordes

Uhiqui
Planet 4: ● Spherical Fire World - Size H
Inner orbital track: #10
Distance to Primary: 200 million miles (travel time 2 days)
Notable Groundlings: mephling colony
Characteristics: cooler flames, calm weather
Satellites: none

Porugereth
Planet 5: ❖ Cluster Earth World - Size E
Outer orbital track: #4
Distance to Primary: 1600 million miles (travel time 16 days)
Notable Groundlings: autocratic ettin empire, barbaric halfling towns
Characteristics: tropical climate
Satellites: ice ring


... Very interesting one here

[afroakuma]

I'm pretty sure I used all the iconic SJ races from 2e when I made this. People have posted conversion stats for 3.5 in various places.

Who's limiting to SJ? I'm talking about the weeeeeird things. :smallbiggrin:

[kopout]

The groundling populations, characteristics, and Spelljammer activity might be helpful in generating ideas. Please let me know any way I could improve this.

Maybe make it so that moons are always at least one size smaller than what they orbit?

Edit:
Notable Groundlings: godless gnome cultists

godless gnome cultists :smallcool: atheist cultists, its a thing now.

[SwordChucks]

Maybe make it so that moons are always at least one size smaller than what they orbit?

Might want that to be moons of equal or lesser size so you can have binary orbits, like Pluto and Charon.



Notable Groundlings: godless gnome cultists

godless gnome cultists :smallcool: atheist cultists, its a thing now.

I guess they could be worshiping a cause or something non-divine, but I like the idea that they worship the idea of not worshiping.

[Maglubiyet]

Maybe make it so that moons are always at least one size smaller than what they orbit?

That should be the case unless the planet is size category A.



Notable Groundlings: godless gnome cultists

godless gnome cultists :smallcool: atheist cultists, its a thing now.

Maybe it's a nature cult?


I guess they could be worshiping a cause or something non-divine, but I like the idea that they worship the idea of not worshiping.

Even better!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A collection of habitable worlds filled with centuries old abandoned cities, with evidence that the inhabitants were brought to violent ends. Further investigation reveals nests of hibernating Kythons (BoVD), along with a crashed mothership and their queen.


A sphere in which the primary is a massive gas giant with multiple habitable moons orbiting close. There's no star, but the gas giant provides a dim glow and produces moderate heat, so all of the outlying worlds are cold and dead. The gas giant is surrounded in a heavy mist, the inhabitants of the moons collect and refine it to produce a hard resin for buildings, tools, and ships that sail across the mist to reach the other moons. There are ancient ruins visible within the gas giant's mass, floating cities suspended on pillars anchored deep within, but centuries of being in the mist has deposited a thick layer of resin on their surface, obscuring details and sealing every entrance.

[OttoVonBigby]

I eventually intend to do a campaign like this. One setup I intend to borrow/adapt is the planet from the movie Pitch Black-- specifically, the way that every few hours, the relative danger of being on the surface (or underground or at sea or airborne or w/e) changes completely due to complex and rapid orbits. It'd be a good way to deprive PCs of downtime :smallamused:

[SwordChucks]

A collection of habitable worlds filled with centuries old abandoned cities, with evidence that the inhabitants were brought to violent ends. Further investigation reveals nests of hibernating Kythons (BoVD), along with a crashed mothership and their queen.

I was planning to do an Aliens inspired dungeon. Maybe I'll include clockwork armor near the queen's location :smallbiggrin:.



A sphere in which the primary is a massive gas giant with multiple habitable moons orbiting close. There's no star, but the gas giant provides a dim glow and produces moderate heat, so all of the outlying worlds are cold and dead. The gas giant is surrounded in a heavy mist, the inhabitants of the moons collect and refine it to produce a hard resin for buildings, tools, and ships that sail across the mist to reach the other moons. There are ancient ruins visible within the gas giant's mass, floating cities suspended on pillars anchored deep within, but centuries of being in the mist has deposited a thick layer of resin on their surface, obscuring details and sealing every entrance.

I really like this idea and will almost definitely be stealing it.


I eventually intend to do a campaign like this. One setup I intend to borrow/adapt is the planet from the movie Pitch Black-- specifically, the way that every few hours, the relative danger of being on the surface (or underground or at sea or airborne or w/e) changes completely due to complex and rapid orbits. It'd be a good way to deprive PCs of downtime :smallamused:

Pitch Black is another great movie I was planning to take from. Working out the orbits might be a bit difficult but I think it would be worth it.

I also want to try to work in the plot to the movie Predators but I'm not sure what creature to use as the predators.

[kopout]

This one from the generator sounds cool.


Apol's Star
System Type:
Planets orbit counter-clockwise around Primary

Primary: Planet
● Spherical Earth Body
Size D
Notable Groundlings: predatory dragonkin, power-hungry vampire

Stars are radiant fragments of a shattered elemental around the inside of the crystal sphere

Wildspace Conditions:
- moderate temperatures

Spelljammer Activity:
- interplanetary war between k'r'r'r and dracons

Evedit
Planet 1: ● Spherical Air World - Size B
Inner orbital track: #6
Distance to Primary: 120 million miles (travel time 1.2 days)
Notable Groundlings: barbaric neogi traders, poisonous plant life
Characteristics: temperate climate, elemental pockets
Satellites: none
Histashept
Planet 2: ‡ Belt Air World - Size F
Inner orbital track: #10
Distance to Primary: 200 million miles (travel time 2 days)
Notable Groundlings: halfling nation-states
Characteristics: arctic world, severe weather
Satellites: cluster of asteroids
Ripothok
Planet 3: ● Spherical Earth World - Size C
Outer orbital track: #3
Distance to Primary: 1200 million miles (travel time 12 days)
Notable Groundlings: warlike kender hordes
Characteristics: arctic world, extreme temperature variations, fouled air
Satellites: 3 moons
Ibuhuna
Moon 1: ● Spherical Earth World - Size B
Notable Groundlings: stranded bronze dragons, giant vermin
D'iltic
Moon 2: ● Spherical Earth World - Size B
Notable Groundlings: human traders
Illi'quidiva
Moon 3: * Amorphous Water World - Size B
Notable Groundlings: warring kender kingdoms
Granobi
Planet 4: ● Spherical Earth World - Size A
Outer orbital track: #4
Distance to Primary: 1600 million miles (travel time 16 days)
Notable Groundlings: dangerous halflings, dominating vampire
Characteristics: warm climate
Satellites: none
Bupihal
Planet 5: ● Spherical Fire World - Size H
Outer orbital track: #6
Distance to Primary: 2400 million miles (travel time 24 days)
Notable Groundlings: hidden efreeti nations
Characteristics: superheated flames, elemental pockets
Satellites: none



Edit: these guys sound cool too


agrarian ettin nation-states