Spelljammer help

[BobVosh]

I have a game that is going to be about level ~16-17 when it ends with my current plans. At that point I am thinking of going spelljamming since one of my good friends always has liked it. However he has only ran it, so I figured it would be nice to run one (even a short one) for him.

However I have only shortly played any spelljammer games. I have access to every single 2nd ed spelljammer book so I can easily look up whatever, and feel confident in my ability to update to 3.5.

Now to the point of this thread: What makes for good spelljammer games? Does anyone have specific things that make spelljammer unique, but I could very possibly miss? More over...what is a good way to make a campaign thread in SJ. It seems very large and hard to make a cohesive story through out it.

Any fun stories of games in SJ you ran before would also be appreciated.

*edit: they are currently level 11 so I have plenty of time to plan and read out important details*

[Flayerman]

Spelljammer is great for taking sci-fi cliches and applying them to fantasy. Xenomorphs? Ship full of unusual monsters floating in space. Invaders from beyond? Insert any Spelljammer faction ever as it lands on the planet. Wanna do Flash Gordon? Maybe Doctor Who? Easy.

The MMV also includes a great group of Mind Flayers who would do wonderfully in spelljammer, the Mind Flayers of Thoon. They build constructs and worship a Far Realms creature (or philosophy, or idea, or something along those lines). They're great for Spelljammer antagonists, especially if you want to inject a bit of confusion into the -existing- Mind Flayer faction (already Spelljammer antagonists). Makes for a great "Enemy Mine" scenario.

Also, remember, Ship To Ship Combat in Spelljammer just has three dimensions. The simpler you do, the better. Make sure all players can contribute to the combat, even if it involves a lot of boarding, otherwise people get, well, bored. I recommend "fighters" (the star-type, not the class) or something along those lines, though Spelljammer prefers a Pirates In Space theme to an actual sci-fi theme.

If you're really stumped for ideas, read Treasure Island (or just watch Treasure Planet and convert all tech to magic. It's pretty much the archetypal spelljammer) or any other pirate stories from that era. They'll inspire you pretty well. Pulp also works for great concepts - what's better than hunting for treasure on a deserted planet? Hunting for treasure on a HOLLOW EARTH planet!

[BobVosh]

That is brilliant. We are doing pirates in my friends game but he is running out of ideas. So he is planning on moving his game to other things. After that I have plans for mind flayers for my current game. So now I have my reason for moving them into space.

Obviously you have been watching me to hit two key things out of two for my game. Now...I have to find out if my friend actually owns a MMV. I never even looked at one before.

[Flayerman]

I have not, I am just an enormous Spelljammer fan. It is pretty much set up for you to be a SPACE PIRATE fighting against the Brit,er, Elven Empire.

[Myrmex]

Letting your players travel around and visit stuff is fun, too. Spelljammer can be a lot like an island hopping campaign IN SPACE.

You can have planetoids and asteroids based around themes that the players visit. Deep space mining camps, living planets, fungal moons, a floating water bubble full of sea elves and fish. And let's not forget derelict vessels, hiveminds, swarms, trading posts, and epic space bar fights with militant anthropomorphic hippos!

I think a desert asteroid with a single palm tree, a sad pirate, and his ruined ship would be hilarious. He got pulled down by whirlpool at sea that spat him out there, and he's been stranded on the asteroid for months, drifting in space with nothing to keep him company but his foulmouthed parrot.

[BobVosh]

Letting your players travel around and visit stuff is fun, too. Spelljammer can be a lot like an island hopping campaign IN SPACE.

You can have planetoids and asteroids based around themes that the players visit. Deep space mining camps, living planets, fungal moons, a floating water bubble full of sea elves and fish. And let's not forget derelict vessels, hiveminds, swarms, trading posts, and epic space bar fights with militant anthropomorphic hippos!

I think a desert asteroid with a single palm tree, a sad pirate, and his ruined ship would be hilarious. He got pulled down by whirlpool at sea that spat him out there, and he's been stranded on the asteroid for months, drifting in space with nothing to keep him company but his foulmouthed parrot.

Oh those silly hippos. Hmm...one foulmouthed and scared parrot, and one monkey skeleton? ^^

Has you actually done a island hop campaign in spacejammer? Did it keep your interest? I guess it could work well, but it feels weird to have level 17 characters on relatively nonepic quests.

[Kurald Galain]

Part of the fun is the weird (but pretty well thought out) physics system.

Another is the sheer over-the-topness of all those ships.

[Kiero]

As far as I'm concerned, something that improves things immeasurably is to remove the PCs from longer-range ship-to-ship combat. This is done by making the Helmsman an NPC, so we don't run into the Netrunner Problem of something that only involves one of the players, while everyone else twiddles their thumbs. It also means some poor PC spellcaster isn't stuck without any magic when it matters because they've been piloting the ship.

The part of ship-to-ship combat everyone can get involved in is close-range firefights (ie magical and non-magical artillery) and boarding actions. Thus maneuvering is background stuff.

I prefer a Firefly-type vibe to the game myself, the PCs as independents sometimes hassled by an overbearing Imperial Elven Navy against the backdrop of a recently finished war.

[arguskos]

Hey Bob, check out Spelljammer: Beyond the Moons! It's as official as fan conversion can be, and is the 3.5 update for Spelljammer.

[bosssmiley]

Funny this coming up now. Noisms was just raving about Spelljammer the other day.

The Grand List of Things That Are Interesting about Spelljammer

1. It taps into that very compelling subgenre of fantasy that is sometimes called "Sword and Planet" ("Science fantasy" is both boring and inaccurate), and which swirls, vortex-like, around a certain Michael Moorcock. We all know about the connections between Hawkwind (the ur space rockers) and that author, but it goes much deeper than that - just about every Eternal Champion incarnation has some sort of space-going element to it. And since the Eternal Champion is just about the most interesting fantasy series ever written (if not the best, always the most interesting) that makes Spelljammer interesting too - brilliance through association. That's not even to mention Edgar Rice Burroughs.
   
2. Don't even get me started on the picaresque. The thesis that D&D is a picaresque seems compelling to me and you don't get a better setting for that than riding through the phlogiston on a star sailing ship, landing on random planets and meeting space orcs. You just don't.
   
3. There are not one, not two, but three subgenres of Spelljammer game which you can explore. (There are more than that actually, but let's look at the main three.
   
   
   • Horror Spelljammer. In space no one can hear you scream. In the phlogiston, people might hear you scream as the pack of githyanki pirates begin to eviscerate you with astral cleavers, but seeing as those people are likely to be illithids and neogi, you can forget being home in time for dinner. Spelljammer has a potential like no other setting (except Planescape, natch) for existential terror: in the big bad prime material plane there is only murder and pain.
   • Traveller Spelljammer. Roll up a sector of crystal spheres on a hex map and go off a-trading with the Zhodani scro in a combination of (arguably) the two greatest role playing games of all time. Just be careful of those space elves waiting in that asteroid belt.
   • Trad Spelljammer. The background music is Hawkwind, The Mars Volta, Pink Floyd, Monster Magnet, Klaatu, Ziggy Stardust, and weird Daft-Punk-esque French synth pop; the flavour art is stills from Ulysses 31 and Thundercats, the illithids are dressed like Marc Bolan. It's so naff that it has gone beyond naff into cool again. It's Spelljammer how God intended it, and it is really, really great.

I'm a Trad Spelljammer fan myself. Ulysses 31, Flash Gordon, Star Fleet, Original Star Trek, Star Control/The Ur-Quan Masters and The Clangers (stat as Derro) are my touchstones.

[ErrantX]

I think a desert asteroid with a single palm tree, a sad pirate, and his ruined ship would be hilarious. He got pulled down by whirlpool at sea that spat him out there, and he's been stranded on the asteroid for months, drifting in space with nothing to keep him company but his foulmouthed parrot.

Assuming he doesn't find a way to lasso some space turtles and tie them together with human hair (from his back) once he finished the rum cache he found there (But why is the rum gone?!?)

-X

[BobVosh]

the illithids are dressed like Marc Bolan

I just can't get my head wrapped around this image. I try, but it is very, very hard.

Thanks for the spelljammer link. Too bad it seems to have stopped being update. However I'm really enjoying the rules it has for ship construction (glad to not have to do it myself).

Started reading the actual 2nd ed books. Now I'm getting a little sad I'm running it, it seems amazing to play.

[Cieyrin]

[QUOTE=Myrmex;7250855And let's not forget derelict vessels, hiveminds, swarms, trading posts, and epic space bar fights with militant anthropomorphic hippos![/QUOTE]

Oh man, I love the Giff! XD

Dragon issue 339 updated a number of the races to 3.5 officially. I recall the Giff and the Scro and another race whose name slips my mind, some cross between crickets and elves...

[Darrin]

The official 3.x adaptation for "Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon" appeared in Dungeon #92/Polyhedron #151.

I would assume the Beyond the Moon website builds on top of that.

[Deth Muncher]

Naff? People use that in common speech? The only time I've ever heard it is in an interview with Rick Astley, and it had to be explained to me what it meant.

Then again, I'm 'Murrican, so British (or is it UK? I'm ignorant.) slang isn't something I know off the top of my head.

EDIT:

ON TOPIC, I'm really glad the update was linked, because I was just about to ask about it. I want to use it soon.

[Zaydos]

The official 3.x adaptation for "Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon" appeared in Dungeon #92/Polyhedron #151.

I would assume the Beyond the Moon website builds on top of that.

I'm not sure if it does, I special ordered Dungeon #92 because of the Spelljammer section but found it unsatisfactory. I remember liking Beyond the Moon better and it came first (as it is referenced in Dungeon #92 for those that want updated stats for some things considered too "silly" for 3.X like giff). Beyond the Moon stays truer to the old game, where as Shadow of the Spider Moon tried to give it a less nonsensical feel and left me unsatisfied. If you like AD&D/2e spelljammer and its Crystal Spheres, giff, phlogiston then I'd say go with Beyond the Moon.