Post by Sargon on Feb 29, 2008 12:51:21 GMT -5
since i have started looking into the spelljammer setting, i have decided to use it in my champigns. truly it will not come into play much due to the seperation between the groundlings and the space farers, but since to if going to be part of the larger world i should probbly give you all a very (extreaml) brief overview of spelljammers.
the crystal sphere
this is how the universe it set up. there are solar systems that are basically all the major campaign settings. around these solar systems (usually at twice the distance that the farthest planet is away from the sun) is the crystal sphere. the crystal sphere is a perfectly circular wall that suronds the solar system. the wall of the crystal sphere is black, not allowing light to pass through. apperently random portals open and close on the surface of the wall that allow things to pass through. this is apperently a natural thing. inside the crystal sphere is refered to as wildspace. (which is usuall normal space as we know it kinda) outside the crystal sphere is an ocean of bright swirling colored increadbly flammable gas called the phlogiston (or the flow). in the phlogiston no planer connections (spells bags of holding, spells that use the elemental planes) work at all. it is compleatly devorced from any planes. no divine powers work in the phlogiston, so gods cant grant spells there. however the ethernal shadow and astral extent like ten meters out of the crystal sphere, so one can literlally dimension jump through a crystal wall.
floating in the phlogiston are all the other campaign settings, in there own crystal spheres. so you must travel through the phlogiston to get to another setting. a long trip but it can be done.
gravity
gravity as we know it takes a vacation. there are two types of gravity. earth like gravity. and none at all. if something is over 25 meters large, it has earth like gravity. if under none. all things have small amounts of gravity. but anything 25 meters large and up has earth gravity. so if really dosent come into play. atmopshere sticks with you when you leave the gravity of a planet being held on to you by your own gravity. so you fly around in an air bubble in wildspace. unless you have a way to get fresh air, all the air will get bad and kill you all. the standard duration for a ship is 4 months.
helms
hells are usuualy chairs that you sit in and use to fly the ship through wildsapce. the helm is just a chair, thats all. if you find a helm and bolt it to a ship you can sit on it any take off. the helm turns your personal power into the force it uses to propell the ship. if you get off the helm it stops working. only spellcasters can use helms beacuse the process is similar to casting spells. so the spellcaster supplys the power and the pilot for a spelljamming ship. there are other ways to get power to the ship, but it always needs a pilot. the illithids kill things and use there life power to power there ships. the dwarves use the power of creative force alone to pilot there ships. and the gnomes accutaly have engines.
there are two kinds of helms major helms and minor helms. the speed of you ship is based on the power you supply to the helm (refered to as SR) here is the equation.
a minor helm has an SR equal to your levels divided by three. a major helm has SR equal to your level divided by two.
there is a TON more to helms this is just an overview.
the two speeds
there are two speeds. the first it tactical which is 17 miles per hour, per SR your ship has. the second is spelljamming speed (think hyperdrive) which is 100 million miles per hour.
when you are spelljamming your ship moves in a stright line, when something gets in you way the ship automaticaly drops you to tactical speed. when you enter somethings gravity you are automaticaly droped to tactical speed. at spelljamming speeds small objects are moved out of the way of your ship. and tactical speeds small space born objects can still hit your ship.
the seperation between groundling civilization and spelljamming civilization
there is a huge seperation between groundling civilization and spelljammings civilizations, basicaly because they really dont effect each other. landing on large planets is very dangerious for spelljamming ships. that is why a lot of them crash. but it can still be done. secondly there is nothing on the ground that the spelljamming civilizations dont have in space. thirdly they have verry little common ground, the problems that effect one dont usually effect the other. like the spelljammers dont really care if waterdeep falls to orcs. and the groundlings dont really care if another planet billions of miles away in another crsytal sphere blows up. if dosent effect them.
lastly a big reason for seperation is spelljammers really arnt move powerful then there ground based kin. in fact spelljammers are usualy very fragile in a planets atmostphere.
this seperation is seen as a nessicity for the game spelljammers. beacuse it includes almost all settings, but it could not mess around with already eatablished settings. to is made itself seperate in a way to everything. kinda like thouse liveing in plane scape dont really care about the material plane. similar thing but yeah, the same.
handleing clerics in spelljammer.
when a cleric gets to a crystal sphere first he has to determine if his god is active in the sphere. if he is the cleric can pray to him and get spells normally. if he isnt he cant get spells from his god. so he has to find other methods. first he can travel down a similar god and pray more to the portfolio and the concept of the god and get spells that way. or he can use some unnamed magic (that i am still looking for) to get spells from his god that way. the deity is considered to have a pressance in the system when he has a certian number of worshipers (one hundread) for a certian time (usualy one year) these things however can change due to the will of an overdeity (who can bar any forgein deity) or other factors.
my own planer variant.
spelljammer was made way back in second edition where all the campaign settings shared the same outerplanes. that dosent realy make a lot of sense now, because the outer planes in the settings are all different. so here is how i handle it. all the campaign settings connect to different planes. so you cannot teleport, or gate, or plane shift to a different setting anymore. magic exists that can connect different settings, but it is almost certianlly epic now.
so yeah there is a lot more, and if if ever really comes in to play ill make sue to get you all the expanded information. but for the time being this should be good.
the crystal sphere
this is how the universe it set up. there are solar systems that are basically all the major campaign settings. around these solar systems (usually at twice the distance that the farthest planet is away from the sun) is the crystal sphere. the crystal sphere is a perfectly circular wall that suronds the solar system. the wall of the crystal sphere is black, not allowing light to pass through. apperently random portals open and close on the surface of the wall that allow things to pass through. this is apperently a natural thing. inside the crystal sphere is refered to as wildspace. (which is usuall normal space as we know it kinda) outside the crystal sphere is an ocean of bright swirling colored increadbly flammable gas called the phlogiston (or the flow). in the phlogiston no planer connections (spells bags of holding, spells that use the elemental planes) work at all. it is compleatly devorced from any planes. no divine powers work in the phlogiston, so gods cant grant spells there. however the ethernal shadow and astral extent like ten meters out of the crystal sphere, so one can literlally dimension jump through a crystal wall.
floating in the phlogiston are all the other campaign settings, in there own crystal spheres. so you must travel through the phlogiston to get to another setting. a long trip but it can be done.
gravity
gravity as we know it takes a vacation. there are two types of gravity. earth like gravity. and none at all. if something is over 25 meters large, it has earth like gravity. if under none. all things have small amounts of gravity. but anything 25 meters large and up has earth gravity. so if really dosent come into play. atmopshere sticks with you when you leave the gravity of a planet being held on to you by your own gravity. so you fly around in an air bubble in wildspace. unless you have a way to get fresh air, all the air will get bad and kill you all. the standard duration for a ship is 4 months.
helms
hells are usuualy chairs that you sit in and use to fly the ship through wildsapce. the helm is just a chair, thats all. if you find a helm and bolt it to a ship you can sit on it any take off. the helm turns your personal power into the force it uses to propell the ship. if you get off the helm it stops working. only spellcasters can use helms beacuse the process is similar to casting spells. so the spellcaster supplys the power and the pilot for a spelljamming ship. there are other ways to get power to the ship, but it always needs a pilot. the illithids kill things and use there life power to power there ships. the dwarves use the power of creative force alone to pilot there ships. and the gnomes accutaly have engines.
there are two kinds of helms major helms and minor helms. the speed of you ship is based on the power you supply to the helm (refered to as SR) here is the equation.
a minor helm has an SR equal to your levels divided by three. a major helm has SR equal to your level divided by two.
there is a TON more to helms this is just an overview.
the two speeds
there are two speeds. the first it tactical which is 17 miles per hour, per SR your ship has. the second is spelljamming speed (think hyperdrive) which is 100 million miles per hour.
when you are spelljamming your ship moves in a stright line, when something gets in you way the ship automaticaly drops you to tactical speed. when you enter somethings gravity you are automaticaly droped to tactical speed. at spelljamming speeds small objects are moved out of the way of your ship. and tactical speeds small space born objects can still hit your ship.
the seperation between groundling civilization and spelljamming civilization
there is a huge seperation between groundling civilization and spelljammings civilizations, basicaly because they really dont effect each other. landing on large planets is very dangerious for spelljamming ships. that is why a lot of them crash. but it can still be done. secondly there is nothing on the ground that the spelljamming civilizations dont have in space. thirdly they have verry little common ground, the problems that effect one dont usually effect the other. like the spelljammers dont really care if waterdeep falls to orcs. and the groundlings dont really care if another planet billions of miles away in another crsytal sphere blows up. if dosent effect them.
lastly a big reason for seperation is spelljammers really arnt move powerful then there ground based kin. in fact spelljammers are usualy very fragile in a planets atmostphere.
this seperation is seen as a nessicity for the game spelljammers. beacuse it includes almost all settings, but it could not mess around with already eatablished settings. to is made itself seperate in a way to everything. kinda like thouse liveing in plane scape dont really care about the material plane. similar thing but yeah, the same.
handleing clerics in spelljammer.
when a cleric gets to a crystal sphere first he has to determine if his god is active in the sphere. if he is the cleric can pray to him and get spells normally. if he isnt he cant get spells from his god. so he has to find other methods. first he can travel down a similar god and pray more to the portfolio and the concept of the god and get spells that way. or he can use some unnamed magic (that i am still looking for) to get spells from his god that way. the deity is considered to have a pressance in the system when he has a certian number of worshipers (one hundread) for a certian time (usualy one year) these things however can change due to the will of an overdeity (who can bar any forgein deity) or other factors.
my own planer variant.
spelljammer was made way back in second edition where all the campaign settings shared the same outerplanes. that dosent realy make a lot of sense now, because the outer planes in the settings are all different. so here is how i handle it. all the campaign settings connect to different planes. so you cannot teleport, or gate, or plane shift to a different setting anymore. magic exists that can connect different settings, but it is almost certianlly epic now.
so yeah there is a lot more, and if if ever really comes in to play ill make sue to get you all the expanded information. but for the time being this should be good.