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Spelljammer info

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 10:27 pm
by Nightbringer
Its been brought to my attention that some of you may not be familiar with the Spelljammer campaign setting and thus not know how the universe works. So I thought I'd make this thread so you can ask questions about it...

Lets start with the basics (from the Concordance of Arcane Space, AD&D Adventures in Space, Spelljammer Boxed Set):
Everything you know about space is wrong.

Infinite space; stars as flaming spheres of super-heated plasma; movement through space as a balance of scientific foces, thrust providing acceleration and maneuverability; scientific fact backing up natural phenomena; life on other planets built along blocks of carbon or silicon elements.

Forget all that. Its wrong.

You can get out of the atmosphere on the back of a roc; fly between the planets through a breathable ocean of air; sail between the crystal spheres that surround the inhabited worlds on a river of magical energy; encounter roving mind flayers and beholders. The stars are living things in some areas, great bowls of fire in others, and pinpoints of light painted inside a sphere in others.

One of the best part about spelljammer is is campy throw back to medieval style physics: the stars as points on a giant sphere in the sky, gravity? everything just naturally sticks "down", and the great rivers of phlogiston (what medieval scientists thought was burned in candles and other fires)...

Sure it requires some serious suspension of disbelief, but not any more than mages throwing fireballs nor the gods prancing about... plus much of it comes from things people really did believe hundreds of years ago.

If you've got any questions about how all this sailing through space stuff works, let me know.

You could also grab the Arcane Space Tileset from the vault and check it out for yourself

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 7:01 pm
by Gairus
No one has posted here yet, so I feel obliged to end my silence and say this sounds and looks really fun. Can't have you getting discouraged over lack of (forum) interest! Arcane tileset downloading now to see what this nifty turn based system looks like in action. :D

Only reference this humble D&D neophyte has ever seen to Spelljammer was a single encounter in Boulder's Gate two. A shame, since it sounds like it has so much potential :)

Hard to believe anyone's fiddling with such fundamental aspects of the engine, though :shock:

interest

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:25 am
by hermyt
it sounds totally awesome, don't let any lack of posting discourage the server sounds like a blast, can't wait to see how things are coming along.

HerMyT

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:57 pm
by Nightbringer
thanks for posting! its always nice to know people are intersted... and I had been having my doubts lately, except of course for the hardcore followers ;)

I should hopefully have the next version ready for testing soon... it will have lots of neat things, particularly boarding actions (just don't try that against the beholders!)

lol ya

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 1:27 am
by hermyt
man I bought the spelljammer set the week it came out, always loved it, if done well, and it sounds like you're doing a good job, then it will be a total blast.

I don't think you'll have to worry about players. With what it sounds like you're doing you will have a pretty large cadre of followers for your server that may never even travel to other servers for long durations.

Which is a good thing, the one possible trap being a spelljammer server would be people just using it for transiting from one planet to another, but it sounds like, with what you've been adding, that that won't be a problem at all, really looking forward to checking it out.

I'd even like to help test a bit, if I had about another 10 hrs in the day *sigh*, I had 2 days off and I spent 27 hours coding on those 2 days, man 5 days a week of work sucks especially when you have a project to work on...

HerMyT