WotC Have No Souls, Confirmed

[Sparky McDibben]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1509878356464091136?cxt=HHwWgIC-sbKXlfQpAAAA

(Guessing this is their idea of an April Fool's Day joke, those sick schmucks.)

[Luccan]

Oh, that's harsh. Someone pointed out the way to make this funnier is to actually confirm the announcement tomorrow

[Sparky McDibben]

Oh, that's harsh. Someone pointed out the way to make this funnier is to actually confirm the announcement tomorrow

Yeah. I'm just taking deep breaths and staying off socials till then. Doesn't help that I'm stuck in the Atlanta airport since my flight's delayed.

[Millstone85]

Oh, that's harsh. Someone pointed out the way to make this funnier is to actually confirm the announcement tomorrowThey better do!

[Jervis]

I’m am become salt, destroyer of forum posts. The first session I ever ran of any role playing game was spelljammer. I was until recently the head of a organized play server focused on spelljammer. This annoys me. The only setting fanbase being treated worse is the Athas fanbase right now.

Can’t wait for critical roll crossover number 37

[solidork]

They did an "april fools" for something that was actually real with Magic once, so not all hope is lost? I'm not invested either way.

[PhantomSoul]

I’m am become salt, destroyer of forum posts. The first session I ever ran of any role playing game was spelljammer. I was until recently the head of a organized play server focused on spelljammer. This annoys me. The only setting fanbase being treated worse is the Athas fanbase right now.

It could be worse -- WOTC could publish something for it xD

[Sigreid]

I know it's April Fools day, but...there is a spelljamming helm in the Dungeon of the Mad mage. So at least at some point they thought they were really going to be doing it.

[loki_ragnarock]

I know it's April Fools day, but...there is a spelljamming helm in the Dungeon of the Mad mage. So at least at some point they thought they were really going to be doing it.
Could have just been an easter egg with no further intentions.

[Keravath]

I'd guess that Boo the space hamster had to come from somewhere ...

However, I don't really understand the salt about it. Spelljammer is just one of several settings that they haven't yet revisited with 5e. It looks like they might be considering Dragonlance after the recent UA.

Also, as mentioned there is a Spelljamming helm in DotMM and a crashed Nautiloid in Rime of the Frost Maiden with a propulsion system that could "propel the nautiloid through the air and across space.". It was also capable of travel through the Astral plane to other Realms of the Prime Material plane. It even has laser rifles and pistols scavenged from one of these civilizations. So it would seem to me that elements of the space faring, plane hopping, spelljamming universe are already creeping into published 5e material. I think the biggest issue is likely the vast amount of lore needed to support the spelljamming universe. At the moment they only have forgotten realms and Eberron as distinct worlds. The domains of dread don't really count. In addition, 5e is missing Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Sigil as well as all of the other planets in the solar system besides Faerun.

If they introduce Spelljammer to 5e - where do all those adventurers get to go if they haven't introduced all the other worlds that Spelljammer allowed to be linked together?

TL;DR Like it or not, I can see why Spelljammer might be a bit lower on their priority list though I could see a supplement on the basic technology and a couple of central places like Sigil and a description of the many places that the DM can create that could be linked through the use of Spelljammers. However, even that likely requires them to decide whether they want to revise lore on Realmspace, phlogiston, crystal spheres and several other elements that (to me) never seemed particularly sensible as a description of the universe.

[Sparky McDibben]

However, I don't really understand the salt about it.

The salt (for me) is in the framing; it's the same problem I had with Big Bang Theory. At some point, it stopped feeling like the joke was us laughing together, and it started feeling like the joke was on the fans. At that point, it starts to feel less like a prank, and more like a mean-spirited kick in the nards.

I take your point, Mr. Keravath; I'm tired, irritated, and this was particularly NOT what I wanted to see.

Maybe it'll be funnier with 8 hrs of sleep and a cup of tea. But I doubt it.

[Tawmis]

Yeah it was April 1st - but they did some UA not too long ago with Spelljammer related stuff.

While I was never the biggest fan of Spelljammer - the 5e version would get me closer to potentially having a "Star Frontiers" game as several of the UA was also races that existed in Star Frontiers, just renamed. :)

I have a feeling with books like "Monsters of the Multiverse" and such... Spelljammer isn't far behind.

And they purposely posted it today, to make people think it was an April Fool's and get a massive reaction from it.

And I suspect they will make an official announcement how it's real in the next few days.

[Sigreid]

I'd guess that Boo the space hamster had to come from somewhere ...

However, I don't really understand the salt about it. Spelljammer is just one of several settings that they haven't yet revisited with 5e. It looks like they might be considering Dragonlance after the recent UA.

Also, as mentioned there is a Spelljamming helm in DotMM and a crashed Nautiloid in Rime of the Frost Maiden with a propulsion system that could "propel the nautiloid through the air and across space.". It was also capable of travel through the Astral plane to other Realms of the Prime Material plane. It even has laser rifles and pistols scavenged from one of these civilizations. So it would seem to me that elements of the space faring, plane hopping, spelljamming universe are already creeping into published 5e material. I think the biggest issue is likely the vast amount of lore needed to support the spelljamming universe. At the moment they only have forgotten realms and Eberron as distinct worlds. The domains of dread don't really count. In addition, 5e is missing Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Sigil as well as all of the other planets in the solar system besides Faerun.

If they introduce Spelljammer to 5e - where do all those adventurers get to go if they haven't introduced all the other worlds that Spelljammer allowed to be linked together?

TL;DR Like it or not, I can see why Spelljammer might be a bit lower on their priority list though I could see a supplement on the basic technology and a couple of central places like Sigil and a description of the many places that the DM can create that could be linked through the use of Spelljammers. However, even that likely requires them to decide whether they want to revise lore on Realmspace, phlogiston, crystal spheres and several other elements that (to me) never seemed particularly sensible as a description of the universe.

They have only released the barest thumbnail of a sketch of any setting to be blunt about it. I think the marketing strategy is to put pieces here and there to try to encourage people to buy all the books to get more setting lore.

Edit: Thinking about it there's not much need for a spelljammer setting book. There's a need for spelljammer space rules. Other bits can be released as individual settings that you can travel to on your ship and be better fleshed out than if you try to cover everything in one book or box set.

[JackPhoenix]

They have only released the barest thumbnail of a sketch of any setting to be blunt about it. I think the marketing strategy is to put pieces here and there to try to encourage people to buy all the books to get more setting lore.

Edit: Thinking about it there's not much need for a spelljammer setting book. There's a need for spelljammer space rules. Other bits can be released as individual settings that you can travel to on your ship and be better fleshed out than if you try to cover everything in one book or box set.

That's pretty much true for most settings. Eberron's original material is still valid, the only thing that was needed was making the unique mechanics work with 5e. The only difference is FR, because WotC stupidly insists on moving the timeline and changing the setting with every edition.

[Psyren]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1509878356464091136?cxt=HHwWgIC-sbKXlfQpAAAA

(Guessing this is their idea of an April Fool's Day joke, those sick schmucks.)

I laughed :smallbiggrin:

Part of me does wish WotC was a touch more prolific. Like I don't want to open the floodgates like 3e did, but they're sitting on so many valuable settings/IP that are just not getting the love they could.

[GreyBlack]

I laughed :smallbiggrin:

Part of me does wish WotC was a touch more prolific. Like I don't want to open the floodgates like 3e did, but they're sitting on so many valuable settings/IP that are just not getting the love they could.

But the fans want more MTG settings, not D&D specific settings that can play with the various mechanics and explore various magical realms. Didn't you know that?

No hate to those who enjoy the MTG settings; just making a joke about how they've published more MTG-related content for D&D than established D&D settings.

As to the OP, this is a cruel joke. They've been teasing Spelljammer for so long at this point that it feels like they're just egging the fanbase on. And, because of this joke, I'm almost certain we won't be getting a Spelljammer book until 6e.

[Sigreid]

But the fans want more MTG settings, not D&D specific settings that can play with the various mechanics and explore various magical realms. Didn't you know that?

No hate to those who enjoy the MTG settings; just making a joke about how they've published more MTG-related content for D&D than established D&D settings.

As to the OP, this is a cruel joke. They've been teasing Spelljammer for so long at this point that it feels like they're just egging the fanbase on. And, because of this joke, I'm almost certain we won't be getting a Spelljammer book until 6e.

They're hoping that their D&D players will start MTG and vice versa. I think that's been clear for a while.

[GreyBlack]

They're hoping that their D&D players will start MTG and vice versa. I think that's been clear for a while.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/012/132/thatsthejoke.jpg

But yeah; maybe one day, they'll actually start using older settings and revamping them to fit with the modern era. I saw the Dragonlance stuff and it looked interesting (although I am a bit traumatized by Kender), so maybe there'll be a tide shift? I can hope.

[Sigreid]

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/mobile/000/012/132/thatsthejoke.jpg

But yeah; maybe one day, they'll actually start using older settings and revamping them to fit with the modern era. I saw the Dragonlance stuff and it looked interesting (although I am a bit traumatized by Kender), so maybe there'll be a tide shift? I can hope.

At this point I'm kind of ok with them keeping their grubby mitts off Greyhawk instead of "modernizing" it.

[PhoenixPhyre]

At this point I'm kind of ok with them keeping their grubby mitts off Greyhawk instead of "modernizing" it.

To be honest, I'm of multiple minds about revisiting settings.

1. I don't trust WotC to do a good job with them anymore. Where "good" means "in keeping with the things I like about settings" rather than "objectively of high quality" because I think the latter isn't well defined. I like my settings to be separate and do different things, rather than being lumped into the whole Multiverse mish-mash/blandness of universal content, which seems to be their push currently.

2. A lot of the older settings mostly survive on nostalgia and rose-colored glasses. And I'm not even talking about the dated or "political" aspects. Just...a lot of 70s and 80s worldbuilding wasn't very good even at its best and hasn't aged well at all.

3. I'd rather see something new, because I don't have strong attachments to any of the old settings.

4. Modernizing a setting is hard to do well, even in the best of times. FR is a poster child for this--it's such a pastiche of eras that it's jarring.

5. I don't plan on using any of the setting material at all for my own games except maybe to "borrow" (ok, steal and adapt). Because I have my own setting. So I'm probably not the one to talk about it.

[Psyren]

But the fans want more MTG settings, not D&D specific settings that can play with the various mechanics and explore various magical realms. Didn't you know that?

No hate to those who enjoy the MTG settings; just making a joke about how they've published more MTG-related content for D&D than established D&D settings.

I know this is blue, but the official line per the most recent Sage Advice is that they're exploring this stuff in the MTG settings first intentionally, but plan to roll some of the design choices out more widely later. Feats in backgrounds is a key example of this.

Actually, I haven't seen a thread about that Sage Advice and I found it a pretty fascinating watch, so I'll go make one.

[Composer99]

Just picking up on one of the threads (har!) of conversation...

To my mind the point of Spelljammer isn't that you get to visit the Realms, Krynn, Oerth, and so on as such. It's that you get to gallivant around the crystal spheres on a fantasy spaceship.

So I think apart from the rules for elves in spaaaaaaaace, you probably want some ability to quickly generate just enough content for a crystal sphere for the PCs to have stuff they can interact with and play around with, with the tools in the DMG or third-party sources to fill in blanks as required.

A Spelljammer book, then, ought (IMO) to enable you to come up with planets-of-the-week - like old-fashioned Star Trek (*), or, if I'm not much mistaken the star system generation of games such as Traveller or Stars Without Number.

(*) Or maybe new-fashioned Star Trek, too. I couldn't say.


Apropos of the actual topic, I don't know that the Tweet is intended to come off as mean-spirited, and while it doesn't feel especially mean-spirited to me, I can easily see why someone who was a big fan of Spelljammer would see it that way. (The sight of the space hamster, giant or miniature giant, floating through space is, at any rate, mildly amusing when divorced from the overall context of the Tweet.)

I don't know that you have to be accountable for every interpretation of content you produce (especially nudge-wink prank content), but I do think you have to take at least some variations in interpretation into account. Good case to be made that the D&D Twitter person could have done a better job on that score.

[JackPhoenix]

I wouldn't quite lose hope yet (well, I've lost hope long time ago, but that's a separate thing). Games Workshop announced a new 40k army (squats) the same day, and it seems it's not a joke....

[subtledoctor]

Thinking about it there's not much need for a spelljammer setting book. There's a need for spelljammer space rules.

Out of curiosity... what’s wrong with the 2E spelljamming rules? They are all available at DnDClassics.com, and fairly cheap to boot. I mean I guess the stuff about NPCs and races and kits etc. would need to be updated, but the basic rules about ships and helms and gravity planes and SR etc... none of that is edition-dependent. I haven’t thought about it beyond the time it is taking me to type this, but if you want to take your campaign into space, I’d wager the existing spelljammer rules could be dropped right into a 5E game with little adjustment needed.

Probably?

[Blackhawk748]

So I think apart from the rules for elves in spaaaaaaaace, you probably want some ability to quickly generate just enough content for a crystal sphere for the PCs to have stuff they can interact with and play around with, with the tools in the DMG or third-party sources to fill in blanks as required.

A Spelljammer book, then, ought (IMO) to enable you to come up with planets-of-the-week - like old-fashioned Star Trek (*), or, if I'm not much mistaken the star system generation of games such as Traveller or Stars Without Number.

Rogue Trader had a really nice planet generator. Took up like... 10 pages but it worked fabulously if you pre rolled the stuff and just made a bunch of systems, and I agree that Spell Jammer is best like that.

Ya I can go to Tellene or Dark Sun, or I can go to Uljek or Krimsekar and have no idea what Im running into.

And I don't even play Spelljammer and I feel that this joke is in poor taste. Its like hanging a hotdog in front of a keneeled dog.

[Sigreid]

Out of curiosity... what’s wrong with the 2E spelljamming rules? They are all available at DnDClassics.com, and fairly cheap to boot. I mean I guess the stuff about NPCs and races and kits etc. would need to be updated, but the basic rules about ships and helms and gravity planes and SR etc... none of that is edition-dependent. I haven’t thought about it beyond the time it is taking me to type this, but if you want to take your campaign into space, I’d wager the existing spelljammer rules could be dropped right into a 5E game with little adjustment needed.

Probably?

For me, personally? That it isn't available in Fantasy Grounds, my current preferred gaming tabletop. If they release it for 5e it will be ported. Also, spells don't work exactly the same way anymore and I'd like some pros looking at whether they think the interraction between the spells of a caster and the helms should change as well.

[Telwar]

I wouldn't quite lose hope yet (well, I've lost hope long time ago, but that's a separate thing). Games Workshop announced a new 40k army (squats) the same day, and it seems it's not a joke....

Off-topic, but that's probably the most clever April Fool's joke I've seen in years.


But frankly, they probably get more mileage out of you buying the PDFs than spending effort on modernizing it.

On the third hand, there is that Plasmoid/Giff/Astral Elf UA. So maybe next year?