I was listening to the Drink Spin Run - An RPG Talk Show Podcast episode about published campaign settings this...
I was listening to the Drink Spin Run - An RPG Talk Show Podcast episode about published campaign settings this weekend. Adam Muszkiewicz, you don’t need to be ashamed of Spelljammer. Spelljammer is fantastic. I ran it in 4e a few years ago with lots of sci-fi and fantasy parody stuff, like an Aliens rip-off with giant space hamsters on a gnome asteroid station.
If I did Spelljammer again, I’d want to focus on the naval aspect. I don’t feel like the Napoleonic British naval elves really got their due. I'd go full-on Master and Commander in space.
yup, got a whole bunch of box sets that tell me it's still a pretty cool setting. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Gif were our favorite. The original illustration from I think the Spelljammer Monster Manual was these crazy hippo men dressed like British marines from the Napoleonic era. In our games they all spoke with awful accents and were the true "naval" power. Not the fucking elves.
ReplyDeleteGif are the best.
ReplyDeleteGif as the British, Elves as the French?
ReplyDeletehttp://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12419418/images/1286911721009.jpg
ReplyDeleteGOOD SHOW, OLD BEAN!
I had a blast with a Spelljammer/Planescape/Pathfinder campaign that lasted over 3 years thanks to Loki in New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteSpelljammer has nothing to be ashamed of. :)
I would so play the hell out of a new spelljammer setting!! All my buddies mocked the boxed sets, I not knowing any better succumbed to peer pressure and sold my sets.
ReplyDeleteI sold my box sets to Barry Lovseth when he was a teenager. I'm sure I charged too much at the time.
ReplyDeleteI was always obsessed with the design of those elven man-o-wars. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWould anyone make a product like this now? Think of the expense of designing those ships. Each has full color art and a deck plan.
ReplyDeleteCasey G. don't worry about charging too much. I am sure your brother got back any value that I lost by overpaying. When you were away at college, referring to your room: "Rummage, Rummage, Swipe, Swipe"
ReplyDeleteReal Quote.
You scamps.
ReplyDeleteI would love an Age of Space-Sail Spelljammer game. Don't know how its naval combat stacks up, though...any reports, folks?
ReplyDeleteI make no apologies over loving Spelljammer. I will say that I love what my mind wanted Spelljammer to be more than the Spelljammer that TSR ended up developing.
ReplyDeleteAdam Muszkiewicz that's probably the truth of it for me as well. It's the ideal Spelljammer in my head that I'm most fond of, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteHumza K I don't think we ever did the wargame part of it, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAdam Muszkiewicz it's got the same problem every big campaign setting does, "what do we do now that we're here?" TSR was never good at answering that outside of published adventures.
kreg Mosier Even after the original release or two, Spelljammer quickly turned away from what made it unique and more toward "D&D in space" and away from "D&D IN SPAAAAAACE!" The fact that it linked TSR's blander 1e settings and ignored the cooler later 2e settings was a missed opportunity as well.
ReplyDeleteCasey G. Too true! "Now that the players have a Hammerhead loaded with catapults and ballistae, what do they fight?" "Um, orcs?" "Sure, but we'll spell it backwards! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!"
ReplyDelete"What do we do once we're here?"
ReplyDeleteIf we're going for the Napoleonic outlook described earlier - Giff vs Elves as the two major empires squaring off, but they're forced to engage in peripheral theatres since a direct confrontation would be too risky. So of course the campaign is set in a peripheral theatre - one where both sides are attempting to woo and/or coerce the local rulers into joining their side.
(The local rulers would obviously be hobgoblins, because hobgoblins are frickin' awesome, I mean, look at this guy, isn't he the best? http://diterlizzi.com/home/wp-content/gallery/games/hob_0.jpg)
The PCs are positioned to aid any one of the three factions listed here (giff, elves, independents), or to simply engage in basic murderhobodom (adventuring, piracy, etc) with the three factions taking an interest in their activities, offering missions, setting bounties on their heads, etc.
Humza K Spelljammer's ship-to-ship game was probably my first honest-to-goodness wargame (and only one, until Battlemasters). It was okay. Math-y, halfway compelling. The "material saving throw" component sucked, but saving throws are usually not the most fun of rules. One early problem we had BITD was altitude since the game includes no way of really accounting for it simply.
ReplyDeleteAdam Muszkiewicz Battlemasters? That's a name I haven't heard in ages. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for the rundown on the ship-to-ship combat, that's very helpful.
Humza K Right? But what do we get instead? Fucking "scro."
ReplyDeleteBull
Shit
PC's with a letter of marque from a faction would be cool. Commerce raiding, etc. Frigate vs. frigate style action would be best. Oops, this asteroid is guarded by a ship way out of your class. Stern Chase follows.
ReplyDeletehttp://valymardeus.deviantart.com/art/The-Spelljammer-2-0-1-61827479 love the weird
ReplyDeleteHow would you add the third dimension? Go for White Star type combat? Ship as player?
ReplyDeleteChris P. this is of interest to you.
ReplyDeleteSince giff were mercenaries, I always kinda imagined them as Hessians or the like. Although, the giff cleric I'm playing in Ed Hackett 's 5e game (not spelljamming as of yet; he's from a crashed ship) is loosely based on Theodore Roosevelt instead.
ReplyDeleteBuilding on Chris P.: hippos with handlebars. Bam. Sold. Throw them in some spiked helmets and they're winners.
ReplyDeleteKaiserpotamus!
ReplyDeleteAnother idea: in an age of sail or napoleonic war game, Arcanes/mercanes might take on a more sinister edge and be war profiteers.
ReplyDelete