WRITER’S NOTE SEPT 8: Due to the enormous response to this article, we must add a few points here at the start. We here at Yawning Portal always knew that a mostly negative critique like this would get responses. And that’s great! We point you to the comments, there’s a lot of nitpicking but also a lot of valid arguments and great counterpoints, particularly from David Shepheard of Wildspace and the Spelljammer Wiki. There remain a lot of points I’d still like to discuss and, frankly, argue there but won’t for two reasons. First, these are mostly subjective arguments – David and I will simply never agree, and that’s fine. Second, I just can’t spend more time on this subject for now. I have to move on to other articles. Hopefully I can return to this subject later on. I wish that more of you wouldn’t be so stuck  on the completely unimportant and trivial (and true) statement that I don’t know anyone who misses Spelljammer (at least until now). That is the least important part of my critique. We offered David the chance to write a rebuttal but he declined due to his schedule. Hopefully he’ll reconsider later. I absolutely do not mind if people don’t agree with me – that’s just fine. I use loaded language and can take it as well. Up to a point…
Finally, to that Spelljammer fan that sent me an extremely graphic and disgusting message where he threatened to rape and murder my wife – you really need to stop and think where you are headed in life. Threats of physical and/or sexual violence are never ok, but if something as trivial as this brings on such emotions, you’re in a bad place fella.
We just did a retrospective on Dark Sun and it was very well received. In fact, I cannot think of anyone ever having a bad thing to say about Dark Sun – There were those who didn’t play it or weren’t that interested but even they conceded that it was an awesome and unique game world with its own identity and great twists on expectations.
The same cannot said for Spelljammer. I have never met anyone who waxes nostalgic about that game world (or worlds, to be more precise). I’ve met people who think it was funny and people who think it was awful but nobody (yet) has said it was great.
Around 1990 and for the next five years, TSR became highly experimental. They churned out campaign settings and game worlds. Some of them were great (and will be explored here by us Yawners in the weeks to come). Some of them were not. Nothing was more odd then Spelljammer.
For those unfamiliar, the idea of Spelljammer was AD&D in space. Yup. The idea is not the worst on paper, space travelling ships that were fuelled by magic and could bridge the gap between the various AD&D worlds, allowing for any type of character to be played.
The execution was, to put it charitably, not particularly well thought out. The worlds were situated within crystal spheres and between them was an element or energy field referred to as the Phlogiston. The ships were not sci-fi spaceships, but galleons or had fantastical bird or animal shapes and the method of travel was the spelljamming helm (not a helmet, but a ship’s helm) that was activated and fuelled by magic. Gravity and air were important factors. There was a region called Wildspace, which was sort of a frontier, outer space region.
You could play all the traditional races and variants from any world but other races and creatures, both new and old, played a large role. Beholders and Mind Flayers, terrible monsters in a more traditional setting, had their own empires and cultures in this space setting. There was a race of militant humanoid hippos called Giff, draconic centaurs called Dracons, an orc variant called Scro (orcs bacwards. Ho-hum…) and so on and so on. One of the few successes were the Neogi, who were genuinely terrifying slavers and pirates who can to this day easily be made an exotic and terrible threat in other, more traditional worlds.
A large part of the design idea of Spelljammer was to connect the various worlds, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance (or rather – Oerth, Toril and Krynn). I can see the appeal, but this never works unless… well, wait until later in this article.
Spelljammer was a surprisingly good seller in the beginning and there were quite a few additions and supplements. There was a book that specifically addressed ship to ship combat in space and a boxed set, The Astromundi Cluster, that was an entire campaign setting within the ruleset. Of particular note was the Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook, which was by far the best addition, and gave the setting its own voice and identity. It contained rules on how to play the various races, a lot of character options, gear and reading it was (and remains) the only thing that I find exciting about the Spelljammer setting.
Wasted potential
Spelljammer never really caught on. It was discontinued after four years and largely forgotten. Back in the days when Paizo (designers and publishers of Pathfinder) published Dragon magazine, there was an annual issue dedicated to discontinued settings and how to incorporate them into the current rules and they updated the spelljamming rules. It was nostalgia and fine for what it was, but nothing more. The best element of Spelljammer, the terrifying Neogi, were brought back in the fantastic 3.5 supplement Lords of Madness.
The true sin of Spelljammer was the wasted potential. It could have been a novel idea with its own unique settings, completely new kinds of adventures and a sense of wonder and discovery. Instead its main selling point was always the connections between established worlds.
It was an experiment, and not a successful one, but the core idea of connecting the various worlds was one that TSR was very fond of and wanted to explore further.
And boy, did they…
If once you fail – try, try again
Spelljammer’s legacy led to possibly the greatest thing to come from AD&D 2e, the absolutely, stunningly amazing Planescape. Planescape will be further explored later on here at Yawning Portal, but for a quick recap, it was an explorations of the outer planes and dimensions of AD&D. The elemental planes, the hellish lower planes, celestial upper planes and everything in between was the game world and from there everything was connected. It could be used to bridge exploration between worlds or exclusively to explore the planes. The only limit was the imagination and it was helped a lot by the incredibly beautiful and distinctive look of the products. Many remember the amazing drawings and paintings of Tony DiTerlizzi, but no less important was the general design and layout of the books. Even the fonts were distinct. There was a highly specific lingo based on Victorian working class slang. Planescape was, simply put, amazing.
Poor Spelljammer never stood a chance. I recently looked through the old rules and they make less sense to me now than they did back when I was a young’un. But like most things, there are things in Spelljammer that can be salvaged for an interesting one-off or experiment. And please give the Neogi a chance.
I recently bought a stack of old Dungeon magazines. There are quite a few Spell Jammer adventures in the magazines. And if you read the Letters to the Editor (and that would be Chris Perkins for some of them), there are several who enjoy spell jammer. I remember one, who particularly wrote, that he didn’t expect to like it, but really enjoyed it.
Confession time. Of course I know there are people that enjoy(ed) Spelljammer. But they are few and far between. The rules were a mess and the settings as a whole lacks tone and flavour. There are some redeeming features – Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook is great, the Neogi are a great threat tha lasts from low to high level and while the “official” stuff mostly doesn’t work, some of the best stuff is indeed some of those old Dungeon adventures. There were a total of seven Spelljammer adventures published in Dungeon, in issues 21, 28, 36, 39, 41, 45 and 63. Three of those were written by Steve Kurtz, who really got the potential of the setting.
Good info. And fully appreciate that you paint with a broad brush. 🙂
Hot wash. The rules worked just fine. What EXACTLY about the rules were a mess?
I did quite like the concept of Spelljammer and some of the critters in the relevant Monstrous Compendia were great. I like what it did to give us an extended Beholder family tree, and I enjoyed the terrifying concept of Mind Flayers in space. But linking D&D game worlds together with spaceships? No, what it does to each individual game world is terrible. Each has its own mythos, its own cosmology, and if you try to shoehorn them in together it all becomes a complete mess.
So as a stand-alone game, Spelljammer is fun. But when you start bringing each game world into it, each is lessened.
I’d also add that the thought of linking Spelljammer in to settings like Eberron, Blackmoor or Mystara is a big problem – once you start linking more technology, and the uber-high magic levels of Mystara, you’ve got huge problems for the Spelljammer mythos.
But on the whole, just as its own thing, I really enjoy Spelljammer. Its a shame that TSR never intended for it to be that.
Precisely.
You have *never* met anybody who is nostalgic about Spelljammer and you have *never* met anybody who thinks it is great?
I can see how you might dislike Spelljammer (or be disappointed in it) but you can’t be looking very hard if you have never found anyone who really likes it. I’ve found a ton of people who like Spelljammer. It’s the second most popular campaign setting at the D&D forums over at The Piazza. And it’s the 6th most popular campaign setting on the survey I did on Facebook.
For something that was originally designed as a one-shot boxed set, I think the setting did pretty good. The product line has plenty of issues, but it got novels and comics (something that some other settings were not given) and there have been quite a lot of products that brought back Spelljammer in some form.
It’s the honest truth. I have never met anyone (in person) so far that is nostalgic or has particularly positive views of SJ. Of course I know those people exist, but they are rare in my experience.The fact that you seem to be very much a part of the current SJ community slightly undercuts your point – you don”t have to look for SJ fans, they come to you.
I don’t dislike SJ at all – I lament the wasted opportunities.
And that’s just the thing – apparently the original SJ box wasn’t meant for further or greater things. TSR never knew what they had in their hands, never gave the setting its own unique voice and flavour. Looking back on most (not all) of the marketing materials for SJ makes it painfully clear that the selling point to TSR was connecting the established worlds, not using the unique opportunity. Only at the very end of SJ’s production run do they start making products that use its uniqueness, such as the Astromundi Cluster and the Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook – both products I’m very fond of. This also killed SJ’s production run, since it completely stopped once Planescape was in development.
And that is the real shame.
I cannot comment an auxiliary products like the novels and comics or the borderline classic computer game, that simply isn’t within the scope of the retrospective, nor is the work of fans in subsequent years. The latter one I’ll concede I perhaps should have researched more but in all honesty that isn’t relevant. A thriving community and creative minds can salvage, save and resurrect anything and that’s great.
I don’t have to look for Spelljammer fans, huh? Actually I did.
Back when I first came online, and joined the Wizards COMmunity Boards (remember them?) D&D fandom was kind of polluted by fans that would go around putting down settings and rules editions they didn’t like. I was told quite a few times, that “nobody likes Spelljammer”. (I think that some of those fans genuinely believed that if they bashed every D&D setting – except the one they liked – that WotC would publish the one that was not being bashed. It was quite toxic.)
I heard two mantras, when I first came online. They were repeated a lot and most people took them as facts:
* “Too many settings killed TSR” and
* “Nobody liked Spelljammer”
Neither of these mantras was true. Some of the campaign settings (like Al-Qadim) were highly profitable. And Spelljammer was actually quite popular.
Eventually I got onto WotC’s mailing list and met a bunch of Spelljammer fans that were not being bothered by people bashing Spelljammer and people actually spoke about Spelljammer’s flaws with a view to fixing them, as well as talking about the awesome aspects of Spelljammer.
Later on, WotC decided to shut down their forums for old D&D settings and someone (who I had not met at the time) set up a replacement set of forums. (More importantly, they implimented a nobadwrongfun policy on those forums that allowed everyone to talk about the cool settings they liked, without any “setting X is better than setting Y” stuff getting into their way.)
I spent ages looking for other Spelljammer fans to tell them about the replacement Spelljammer forum and I met a lot of people who had been talked into thinking that Spelljammer was not popular. I also met people who liked other settings (ones that really were less popular than Spelljammer) and decided to try to hook some of those fans up with other fans. They didn’t just come to me. I went hunting for them on the social media. And I found some people who were having amazing fun with the setting.
The AD&D Adventures in Space boxed set works well, not in spite of the “connecting worlds” aspect, but because of it. Jeff Grubb had to spend a lot of page count explaining how wildspace and the phlogiston works. So the addition of crystal spheres containing Krynn, Oerth and Toril, means that a Spelljammer GM actually has plenty of additional content to dip into.
Where Spelljammer had issues was that it *was* successful, but not successful enough for a second big boxed set to come along and pull together the best experimental ideas and tidy up the loose ends. Greyhawk has had revision. Dragonlance has had revision. And Forgotten Realms has had revision. Spelljammer just didn’t quite get that far. But calling that a “wasted opportunity” seems a bit strange to me, as I think that Jeff Grubb nailed it, with many of the things you say you thought were “not well thought out”.
The crystal spheres are a stroke of genius. They are based on old real-world theories of how the universe works, so they ring true. But they also solve the problem of individual worlds having different gods and different constellations. Each sphere is a “control mechanism” that allows a GM to spread a specific set of campaign setting rules (or house rules) across the sphere, without those rules continuing across the entire universe.
The phlogiston allows a GM to make a ship get lost and arrive at another destination. It also speeds up movement (over and above spelljamming speed).
The fish and birds that spelljamming ship designs use are based on the concept of sympathetic magic, so again they ring true (as true as Icarus with his flying wings).
The helms are also well thought out. People sometimes say that SJ would “destroy groundling worlds” but the fact that you need helms (not just ships) means that spacefarers would never have the ability to take over a world like Krynn, Toril or Oerth. (And on a groundling world, the spacefarers would actually be outnumbered. So you can have occasional illithid or neogi slave raids, without it really being that big a deal.)
Gravity and are were other areas that Jeff Grubb got right at the very first stage. Science fiction games have to deal with a bunch of stuff like artificial gravity, inertial dampers, forcefields and airlocks. Jeff Grubb swept all that SF stuff away and made it as easy for people to travel on a spelljamming ship, as it is to travel on a seafaring ship.
As for wildspace, that’s just the part of the Material Plane that is inside the crystal spheres. Wildspace is inside. Phlogiston is outside. Some parts of wildspace might be in frontier crystal spheres, but other parts would be well travelled.
Jeff Grubb’s genius is that he makes it look like these elements are just tossed together, but there is actually a ton of thought put into making each and every one work.
And where you compare Spelljammer with earlier “ground based” settings, the designers have not had to explain so much of how the universe works. GMs and players have had an easier time immersing themselves into the world and things have been easier for everyone.
You spoke about Planescape. That’s based not on Spelljammer, but Jeff Grubb’s 1st Edition book: Manual of the Planes. And, it’s the exact sort of “revision” that SJ could have benefited from. Planescape didn’t have to start from scratch. It started from Jeff Grubb’s foundation and then built from there. And I’m sure they also learned lessons from the success of Spelljammer and found more ways to tide different campaign settings into the Great Wheel. (And then when WotC made 3rd Edition, they handed Planescape back to Jeff Grubb to be squeezed down into a new edition of Manual of the Planes. 🙂 )
The auxiliary products are relevant, not for what they are, but for how they signal that TSR was willing to invest into Spelljammer. You might want to take that into account, when you look at other campaign settings. (The impact of the novels on Dragonlance, would be especially relevant, for example, as you could look at the vast quantity of them and ask if the novel line was supporting the RPG products…or vice versa.) I am hearing unconfirmed talk of a plan for a Spelljammer TV show. I am cautious about that, as people might just be mixing it up with the Wildspace video, but if it does turn out to be true, then it would signify a point-in-time when TSR management had a ton of confidence in Spelljammer.
If you ever get a chance to have a look at the Illithiad products, especially Dawn of the Overmind, I’d be very interested to know if that late-2e approach to the SJ universe is more to your taste.
Spelljammer was easily my favourite setting for AD&D, closely followed by Dragonlance. I ran a campaign (back in the day) which my players felt was successful at linking the various worlds together. It was a blast! I also greatly enjoyed the space setting purely as a setting with politics and intrigue between differing factions. The best thing about Spelljammer was the fact that it gave a creative DM (which I believe I was) a fantastic ability to go pretty much anywhere with AD&D, no holds barred. I cannot agree with your article (although it’s always nice to read anything about my favourite setting) but you do echo what some people have expressed to me about it. I like to think that there is a setting for everyone and for creative sci-fi nuts like me this setting was/is perfect.
I don’t feel that this was researched very well at all. What rules made no sense and why? Part of the point of Spelljammer WAS the ability to connect the various settings. I would not call this a fault.
Wildspace was anywhere within a sphere without its own atmosphere.
The neogi reappeared in the 3e Monster Manual 2, so they were not missing from the game for very long.
The Astromundi Cluster was not its own setting, though it was somewhat isolated from the rest of the setting the same could be said for any crystal sphere to one degree or another.
Planescape had NOTHING to do with Spelljammer, and was based on the 1st edition Manual of the Planes. Assuming some sort of connection between the end of Spelljammer and the start of Planescape is just wishful thinking. The only thematic similarity is the connections with various other settings…but then Ravenloft should be added to the list as well.
The setting WAS a fan favorite in the early 90’s, though never as popular as Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, or even Greyhawk. It does boast more Dungeon Magazine adventures than the arguably more popular settings of Dark Sun, Ravenloft, or Planescape combined for example. A few very late 2nd ed adventures even revisited aspects of the setting after it had been canceled (see Stardock, or Dawn of the Overmind, eg). It’s loss was felt enough that when Kenzer and Company published their 1st ed retroclone “Hackmaster” they went out of the way to get Spelljammer as well. Called “Hackjammer” it was K&C’s top selling product that year. It did have it’s detractors though, as not everyone likes weird stuff in their Dungeons and Dragons. What I have difficulty believing is that you have NEVER met a fan of the setting. You must have an insular and small gaming community in your area or not have been playing for very long.
Your later responses to people indicate you felt that TSR never gave the setting its own unique flavor. I disagree, the thing that killed the setting was that the flavor was so different than what was the standard at the time, and there was quite a bit of competition from other TSR settings to justify keeping it alive. One thing I do agree with, is that there was quite a bit of potential in the setting that went unrealized. Again, these were due to marketing reasons at the time, as well as the perceived greater sales of other more popular settings. There is however a chance that 5e will do something with it again, as weird fantasy is again on the rise, and 5e is striving to make its adventures as different as possible.
You can feel that way to your heart’s content, but just because you don’t agree with me you don’t gain the right to accuse me of anything. Let me make one thing clear, I have no problems with people disagreeing with me but once it gets personal or makes personal claims that cannot be substantiated, that’s when I get annoyed.There is one statement you make that borders on that. More on that later.
You disagree with me that that SJ’s connectivity between worlds is a fault and you’re welcome to think so. I simply disagree and think it’s the colossal flaw of SJ and offer my critique on that in the article. I’m getting rather tired of explaining that opinion pieces are not statements of fact, but reflections of the author’s feelings. If you feel different me, then you feel different from me. That’s it.
Yes, the Neogi do indeed reappear in MM2, but my point is that they are deeply explored in Lords of Madness.
Saying the Astromundi Cluster is not its own setting is nitpicking. It explicitly states in the campaign book that even if you have a group of players not local to the cluster, they’re pretty much stuck there for a long while.
Planescape had nothing to do with Spelljammer, apart from effectively killing it. There is not a single product releaased for SJ once Planescape went into production and once PS goes into production all mentions of space travel, crystal spheres etc start fading out from AD&D. What PS was or was not based on will be visited in a later article. And c’mon… Ravenloft? The point of Ravenloft was that even though it was connected to other worlds, once you got in, there was no way out. Again, something that will be visited later.
Spelljammer was popular but fan favourite is stretching it. Like all the more niche worlds, it was trumped by the more traditional settings. Every time a setting is discontinued, its fans will react. And that’s great. I still preserve all my old stuff and like to revisit it from time to time and share with others. I’ve also long since learned that people that don’t agree with me are welcome to it.
Now, the only thing you say that annoys me is the incredibly tired variation on the claim that all you old SJ fans make that I cannot possibly have never met a SJ fan, unless I didn’t know anybody or never met people or was a newbie or was braindead. Sorry folks, I’ve been playing and running games for almost 30 years and am heavily involved in the local scene and in that time I HAVE NEVER MET A SJ FAN. That’s just a fact. Granted, I have not been actively seeking them out. Of course I know they exist and good on ’em. If you can keep this world that deserved so much better alive than i have nothing but positive things to say about that.
Now, looking back on Dungeon’s print run – There are two PS adventures (55, 60), ten (or twelve if include Masque of the Red Death) Ravenloft adventures (31, 38, 42, 50, 52, 55, 58, 61, 64, 76), seven SJ adventures (21, 28, 36, 39, 41, 45, 63) and four Dark Sun adventures (35, 44, 56, 110). So there simply aren’t more SJ adventures than the others combined.
Whatever your opinions on my opinions (and vice versa) the fact remains that the only thing that matters is the one we agree on – there was potential for so much more. I’m getting tried of stating this, but I don’t dislike SJ, I lament the wasted opportunities
Please get it, SJ fans, I’m not your enemy. We just don’t agree. If you’re fond of SJ, please keep on being that. If my critique isn’t your cup of tea, then it isn’t. Move on.
Planescape didn’t kill Spelljammer. TSR didn’t work like that. They had accountants that looked at things like profits. (Jeff Grubb even designed several end points into Al-Qadim, so that it could be shut down or continued, depending on profit forecasts.)
Planescape was simply published after Spelljammer had already gone out of print.
As to your idea of there being no mention of Spelljammer after Planescape came out, that’s just not true. There are many nods to Spelljammer in 2nd Edition products. They even published a series of three Illuminati adventures that concluded with the PCs flying off to an illithid crystal sphere long after the end of Spelljammer’s run.
What did flop, was Spelljammer’s sequel (Wildspace) and the Spelljammer flight simulator ride. But even after TSR ran out of money and Wizards of the Coast came in to save D&D, there were still references to Spelljammer. The 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting hardback has a section about the Sea of Night that briefly explains Realmspace, Monster Manual V had an Eberron/Spelljammer link and I believe you own Lords of Madness, which contains a SJ-themed adventure. And the 4th Edition era had nods to Spelljammer too.
And Mike Mearls has said (on Twitter) that the D&D team want to bring back Spelljammer for 5e:
https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/881717018482712576
My attacks are not personal, but since you used personal experiences: “I have never met anyone who waxes nostalgic about that game world (or worlds, to be more precise). I’ve met people who think it was funny and people who think it was awful but nobody (yet) has said it was great.” to justify part of your thesis you should expect them to be challenged.
Since you have not actively been seeking out those people, my guess is you have met them and it just never came up. I don’t tell everybody I meet that I am a Vikings fan, I imagine that it is where the fault lies. In the future, perhaps re
Granted, I was overzealous when including Ravenloft Dungeon adventures, though some of those sidetrek one-pagers I would hardily qualify as a full adventure. Still, the point with Dark Sun and Planescape adventures stands.
David got to the Planescape comment before I did, but it is important to drive home. You said that Planescape killed Spelljammer, and that is just not true as evidenced in the adventures that I mentioned which came out after even Planescape was gone. Unless you are thinking Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc, there is no relation.
Ravenloft itself was said by the designers of the setting to be a nice way to merge characters from different worlds. As for “No Way Out” I know they like to play that up, but I can count up to 7 modules that have an exit clause in them at the end. I do look forward to seeing your retrospective take on it though, ditto Planescape.
As for the Neogi, that may be what you meant, but it was not what you wrote. “The best element of Spelljammer, the terrifying Neogi, were brought back in the fantastic 3.5 supplement Lords of Madness.” Coupled with my other corrections covered already, you can see my concern about research.
Planescape was the greatest setting/supplement/whatever, bar nothing. I’d love to read a review of it and what’s been going on with it since ages ago when we shopped the streets of Sigil.
And you will. It’s high on our to-do list.
I love spelljammer, even though it’s frequently bashed by many. The rules were never any problem for me. The setting was off-beat, evocative and flavorful, trippy in a way that many of the pseudo-medieval settings are not. Regardless of which way you lean, I’m always astonished people get so riled up about how other people feel about it. Certainly, I would never threaten to sexually assault anyone over a dissenting opinion.
People are such idiots.