Sources Say: SpellJammer, 5th edition

 

Name: SpellJamer

Produced By: Wizards of the Coast

System: Dungeons and Dragons, 5^th edition

Genre(s): Fantasy, Age of Sail, Space fantasy

Yeah, we’re doing this… Before we dig in, I haven’t played any editions of D&D since 3.5. As you know, in the last few years, D&D has really taken off. And, every once in a while, I get asked by a friend “Do you want to learn how to play D&D again? This new edition is really good.” I got tired of saying that I really wasn’t interested, or I’d think about it, and get excited, but then get weird because of the bullshit I dealt with the last few times I played. When a friend of mine said that they might be doing a new version of SpellJammer, I said “Okay, you know what? If they actually make it, I’ll start playing D&D again.”

So. Here we are. Having core books cost $50 is a real dick move, Wizards. I hope you choke on my money.

The new edition of SpellJammer is here and I pre-ordered it as soon as I could. I literally didn’t even have any of the books for 5^th edition, and I still ordered it. That’s how much I’ve been looking forward to this. And how is it?

It’s… Passable. But let me explain.

 The new SpellJammer is a boxed set with three books, which has a double sided poster sized map, and a DM’s screen. The three books are an outline of the setting, a monster manual book, and a big adventure. It’s about $70 but it’s worth it. I do hope that the setting book becomes a single item in the future, to bring people in, but I doubt we’re going to get anything for this. I have a feeling this a one-and-done, make the fans happy thing. Okay, okay, let’s talk about the changes to the setting.

The first thing is that the whole idea of crystal spheres and the Phlogiston is gone. Completely gone. Instead, the whole thing about SpellJammer is that it takes place in the Astral Sea, which is part of the Astral Plane. Or is the Astral Plane? I’m not exactly sure. Even after picking up the core books for 5e, I’m still a little lost on how things work in this edition. Another thing is that the Elven Navy is completely gone. And the Unhuman War never happened, so none of that fun. This version of the setting is much more relaxed and more about exploring than war and conflict. However, they did keep the Mercane (originally the Arcane) in the setting. They were introduecd in the original boxed set as traders and merchants that plied the Phlogiston, and they re-introduced in 3.5 as traders and merchants that dealt with buying and selling things across the Planes. I also think that they changed from Arcane to Mercane because the latter is able to be trademarked. As much as they dropped the older, more wargame-y stuff, they did retain some fun and spirit of adventure. Okay, now we talk about the boxed set.

Book one, the Astral Adventurer’s Guide gives us a brief history of the setting, how things work, and the new races we can play, like the Giff, Astral Elves, Hadozees, and Plasmoids. After this, it goes on to explain how gravity planes and air pockets work, but with far less rules and detail than in the original edition. They also talk about Helms. Unlike the original version, which had both Major and Minor helms that would effect how fast the ship could move, we just get the one. Also, they’ve gotten rid of the various other Helms, like Life Jammers, and so on. We also get a very short section on how space combat works, but they really just wanted players to be involved in boarding actions, and not using the two types of weapons they give us (Ballistas and Mangonels). I have to say, these rules are bad. Really bad. There’s nothing really there. While you could use the rules from the original version (it’s on DriveThru RPG for $10), there’s too much of a difference between the two, as one is super simple and the other is overly complex, to really just switch it out. Once this section is down, there’s a bunch of ships, most of which were in the original boxed set, now just updated. Honestly, I really wish they had just updated to old ship sheets and had them in the box rather than the DM screen. The last part of this book is an updated version of the Rock of Bral, which is neat to have around, because they give you a map.

Book two is Boo’s Astral Menagerie, which re-introduces some classic monsters, like the Neogi and Kindori, as well as introduces some new ones like Space Clowns. The book has a good mix of the old classics and new creatures that reflect the setting. It’s nice to see this, and redeems some of the flaws we get in the first book. I do wish there was some more stuff in here, but what we got is fun and makes it clear what kind of game this can be. There’s some very horrible monsters born from Elder God nightmares, which means that you can very easily turn this into horror game. Or, what I’m probably going to do, is make it kind of Mythos Horror Comedy…

The third and final book is The Light of Xaryxis, a great epic adventure. Of all the books in the set, this the best one. It’s a true epic, with the life of a whole planet on the line, and the future of an empire on the line. I don’t want to give any details about the adventures, but I do want to say how much I appreciate the adventure taking into account that the players might fail to win a conflict and how to handle the adventure even after that. The adventure has a really good cast of fun and interesting characters, some of which are begging to be brought back if you continue your voyages in the Astral Sea. If you did pick up the boxed set, I strongly suggest giving the adventure a try. It’s a real “amazing voyage.”

There’s also a DM screen, which is neat but the encounter tables aren’t going to useful if you use it too much. It does have some pretty art on it.

In the end, this boxed set is a mixed bag. There’s so much here, but at the same time, there isn’t. Since I’m familiar with the original setting, I was filling in the gaps as I was reading, but you wouldn’t be able to do that if you hadn’t. And these gaps make no real sense. Why force your players into doing boarding actions when people might not want to be space pirates? The only mention of space pirates is the Githyanki, which tracks with the Astral setting, but we could have so much more. For some, the gaps will make this a product they won’t spend money on. For others, the chance to fix the problems with energize them. Personally, I’ve been wanting to play SpellJammer for 20 years, so I’m going to give it a chance. However, I’m also ready to do a lot of work to get a working system for space combat and the like.

In the end, if you are going to pick this up, go and get the PDFs of the original setting. You’re going to need them to fill any gaps in the system and the setting, as well as giving you a few more ships you can use. But that’s another $10 on top of $70 for the boxed set.

In the end, I have to say that this boxed set was a bitter disappointment for me, but it isn’t complete trash. But I can’t really recommend it to people as it is. Which sucks.

Let's Talk: About My Relationship With Dungeons and Dragons

So… It’s been a wild year for D&D, hasn’t it? I’m sure that if you’re reading this, you’ve heard about the Wizards of the Coast Open Game License stuff that’s gone down over the last week or so. It’s been wild to read. Honestly, I didn’t know that the OGL 1.0a was still being used for much beyond Pathfinder. However, I shouldn’t be surprised that it was used for the 5e stuff.

Anyway, let’s move on to the topic at hand, my relationship with D&D or really how long I’ve been playing it and not playing it and what I’m doing now. Let’s go.

I first started playing D&D in middle school with the one friend I really had back in 1996 or so. Back in these days, it was AD&D 2^nd edition. The old black books, if you’re familiar. I continued to play into high school and then beyond high school, still using AD&D. I had a DM who had developed at really in depth setting over the years he had been playing and had made home rules and such over the years. This isn’t exactly unheard of in the D&D community from the very start. Soon after the introduction of the original D&D game, it seems like people started changing the rules to make sense for what they wanted to. And they also began to develop their own settings, usually based on their own adventures and ideas. And there’s not much a company can do about this. They sell you rules and you can do whatever you want with them. I’m pretty sure that the video game modding community shares something in common with the mindset of those who created their own D&D settings. I’d like to point out that a guy named Ed Greenwood started making a setting that would later be known as Forgotten Realms, which was later acquired by TSR, the company that originally produced D&D.

It’s fair to say that playing that old edition of D&D captivated me and awaken my imagination, as well as the possibility of telling my own stories. However, AD&D 2^nd edition was not easy for me to understand the rules. My brain and math do not get along and THAC0 is the bane of my existence. There’s going to be two reactions to that acronym; either you’re going to have flashbacks or look at me with a dumb look on your face. If you didn’t have flashbacks, count your lucky stars. While I wasn’t great at understanding the rules, I did fully embrace playing pretend.

And then WotC bought TSR and we got D&D 3^rd edition. And it was good. It was a system I could really wrap my head around and gave me the tools to start running my own games. During this period, I was playing in two different games, one in AD&D rules and another in 3^rd edition. It was a good time for my gaming life. I also began to discover other games. Things like Cyberpunk 2020, Rifts, Deadlands, Vampire, Hunter, the Star Wars D6 edition, and GURPS, although I only really played GURPS here and there before 3^rd edition came out and maybe twice afterwards.

With the release of 3^rd edition, we got the original OGL, and it caused a revolution in the gaming industry. As you saw, I listed a bunch of different games, each with different systems. Aside from a few of them (looking at you, Palladium), the companies quickly picked up the OGL and used it to convert their settings and systems to the D20 system, as 3^rd edition became known. Soon after, or around the same time, smaller companies started to release books with unique and interesting content that could be included in your D&D games, or taking your D&D games into wildly different campaign settings. Not just the official ones that were being either slowly updated to the system, but ones that were totally original. There were books that gave you new gear, new monsters, new character classes, new foes, new rules, and the like. These would vary between smaller soft bound books that had a few dozen pages to hard bound books with several hundred pages.

There were also fans making RPGs of some of their favorite media into D20 system games, because the rules were easy and readily available. For me, it was a great time, as I could pull things from a bunch of different books to make my own settings and throw players for a loop.

This was also the era where I played the most D&D in my life. At one point, I was in two weekly games; one in AD&D 2^nd edition and another in 3^rd (later converted to 3.5) and I had a lot of fun. It was really the Good Old Days for my gaming life. I also tried to run some games here and there, but I did have a lot to learn.

Another thing that came from the D20 system was D20 Modern, which I’ve discussed elsewhere, but I always liked the idea of it more than actually playing it. It just never worked out, really. Which is a shame in my opinion.

Now, we need to move on to the end of this era for not only D&D but my time with it. You see, Wizards was acquired by Hasbro and when things like this happen, there’s always changes. Now, this is just my opinion, but I think that the corporate masters at Hasbro saw all the money D&D was giving away with the OGL and wanted to bring it back to their coffers. And thus D&D 4^th edition was born. And no one I played with at the time was really excited or wanted it. Sure, 3.5 had several problems, but we’d already invested a lot of money into the system, not to mention time and effort. A lot of people who played or ran the games had worked out what books to allow, what sort of worlds they wanted to be in, and had bought several Wizard’s products, as well as third party ones. And now we had to give it all up for a new edition? No thanks.

In hindsight, I find it interesting how we had done with this edition that our 2^nd edition AD&D DM had done when 3^rd had come out. As I mentioned, I was in those two games with two different editions. Well, there were two reasons why we stayed with the old system. The first was that we were in the middle of a major campaign that had been going on for years at that point, using a setting the DM had worked on for decades, with a ton of homebrewed rules, classes, and races. Converting that to 3^rd would take a lot of time. There was also the issue of the DM not really wanting to learn a new system, even if it was easier. People are creatures of habit and a fair amount of us hate change to varying degrees. We don’t want to update what we’re familiar with just because it’s popular. However, a fair amount of the group I was in were getting familiar with the newer edition and helped the old DM update his stuff. Shortly after 3.5 was dropped, that campaign switched over to 3.5.

 When it comes to 4^th edition, my friends went through the same thing. They had resisted playing 4^th for several years, having some major issues with the mechanics. But then someone bought the core books and then they wanted to try it and one thing led to another and they were soon playing 4^th regularly. Meanwhile, my life had changed and I no longer had time to play D&D or really hang out with them, so I never got into it. What little I did know about 4^th edition, I really didn’t like. I feel like as Wizards attempted to streamline and condense the rules, classes, abilities, and tried to incorporate the accessibility of things like how they were done in MMORPGs, they lost the uniqueness of the classes and the game itself. I’m no longer angry or bitter about what happened but I do just feel… Sad about the whole thing. D&D was an important part of my life and then it faded away.

However, out of that, I began to explore more and more different and unique games, as did some of my friends. While most of them continued to play D&D, we would try other things besides GURPS here and there. I was able to run some Deadlands, a very brief game of Hunter, I played BESM with some other friends, and played a variety of systems with super heroes. While I didn’t jump on the Pathfinder train like a lot of people did, I respect it. I’ve only briefly played it, many years after playing D&D, but I liked how familiar it felt without the baggage. It was a good time.

Before moving on to 5^th edition, by the time it had come out, I was done with D&D. I think I’ve commented a few times how much I dislike the fantasy genre these days. You have to remember that when I was playing in two different D&D games, this was also the same time that the LotR movies came out, which caused a massive explosion of fantasy books and other D&D settings. It was peak market saturation. Those same friends also played Diablo and World of Warcraft, while I didn’t. A lot of the books I read at the time were fantasy, but all of them. The genre was hard to avoid but it was also starting to become more bland and boring. I felt like there wasn’t really anything interesting going on with it for me. I did develop a few campaign settings in my spare time for D&D during this period, when I wasn’t playing or running anything, but they were all unique or tried to be in places that my group and I hadn’t really played in before. While we were on a sailing ship for part of a campaign, it was mostly to get us from point A to point B, without much of a chance to explore how that would go. So, one of my game ideas was for a fantasy version of Pirates of the Caribbean, but more about pirate nations and politics. Another one featured an Elven kingdom that had been slowly fallen from power, due to the expansion of humans and Dwarves, before being pushed to the brink of destruction by a long war against orc hordes. This kingdom, with a new, very evil prince that ascended to the throne, would lead his people into a fantasy version of Facism and a war of reclaiming his peoples’ land. Another idea I had was for a world with several racially divided kingdoms having just ended a massive war having to deal with a bright and strong orc mercenary returning to the scattered orc hordes and start making them into a proper kingdom from what he learned while fighting in the war. Think of something like an Oricsh Genghis Khan. And those were the kinds of ideas I had. Spinning ideas out of things I’d like to see, subverting the expectations of the players, as they wouldn’t expect most of this stuff.

 But now, let’s finally get around to 5^th edition D&D. I heard about it, saw it on the shelves, but pretty much ignored it until last year. I briefly played a game online with it before that but it just didn’t engage me. It wasn’t until SpellJammer was announced that I even really looked at it. In fact, I flat out told a friend of mine that I wouldn’t pick it up until SpellJammer was in my hands. While SpellJammer is disappointing (yes, there is a review I’ve been meaning to write for a while), I did buy the PHB. And I can understand why it became popular. It was easily accessible without being bland. From a purely mechanically view, it’s a solid game. But I still don’t like it or love it. At this point, I’ve bought the core books and the SpellJammer boxed set. Beyond that, I have a few other books I need/want to buy so I can include the stuff in my SpellJammer game, but that’s it. 4^th edition did a lot of damage to my favorite setting, Forgotten Realms, and the world I see in 5^th edition doesn’t make me happy. It feels far more generic and watered down to the complex and interesting world I once knew. And it pains me to look at it. Things that were great are either gone or less important. I know that a lot of people didn’t like FR because it felt “generic” in older editions, or that it was copying LotR, but I read a good number of books and I felt like the world of Toril was a living, breathing thing. Now, it feels no different than Greyhawk, which was the default setting for 3^rd and 3.5. These changes have kept me away from 5^th and make it that much harder to get into it. I will say that there are some wonderful things to see in the 5^th edition Monster Manual, and that the classes included in the PHB are nice, even the way they handle races and the variants of them are good. However, this isn’t my D&D. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be yours and if you enjoy playing it, more power to you. I asked around my new friends that have played D&D in the past and a fair amount of them started with 2^nd edition AD&D but really got into it when 4^th edition came out. For them, that’s their D&D and they have embraced 5^th with open arms. And I have no problem with it. I can’t drag on them for enjoying something that isn’t something I like. You’ll always remember what got you into the hobby with rose tinted glasses, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And it’s really about what you enjoy.

 When I started working on this little (massive) essay, the D&D community was roiling with the leak of the OGL 1.1 and the obvious corporate greed on display there. By the time I’ve gotten around to finishing this, a lot of that has changed. Hasbro and Wizards has got through ignoring the problem, putting their foot in their mouths, and now, finally listening to what the community has to say. However, I think the damage is done. Wizards has lost a lot of money, but they’ve also lost the respect of the community. They’ve done a lot of make D&D more inclusive and less problematic, which I fully support. I know that they’re probably doing this to expand the market share of their products, but even being driven by greed, it’s good to see. D&D means different things to different people and that’s great. For me, D&D is something I can look at fondly, but it’s no longer a part of my life, nor is it something I want to engage with. I will be playing it, but I’m not looking to get back into it fully. That time has past.

If you’re on the fence about what to do now, as I feel that many people are now wondering if they can trust Wizards from this point forward (I don’t think you can but that’s my opinion), they’ve been hearing a lot about a bunch of different games and systems. I think a lot of people are having the exact same moment I did when 4^th edition was released. You can try to hold on to what you have and ignore D&D One, or you can look into those other systems and games. I think we’re going to see something wonderful happen in the gaming community, where those who have heard about things like GURPS, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and everything else will now be giving them a try. I say, go for it. Losing D&D as my main game made me really embrace what I really wanted to play and I was able to push forward with that. I hope you can, too. And give those greedy jerks in Hasbro and Wizards corporate (the ones that said that D&D was “undermonitized”) the middle finger on the way out.

What you need is a game that you enjoy, which doesn’t have to be D&D. Good luck.