Spelljammer What is important to you about Spelljammer

[HaroldTheHobbit]

..."how does this work for people who don't know much about medieval science?"

Well, one can take good advice about being careful with your fireballs in the phlogiston. Or, after the TPK, one might actually be interested to read up a bit about Stahl and Becher.

On a more serious note, for me it was the other way around - SJ explains the mechanics of the setting in a good way, no prior knowledge necessary, but it got me interested to learn more about real world medieval science.

 

[Tonguez]

I want a rollicking pirate ship in the Rainbow Sea facing off against Neogi Deathspiders and Giff mercenaries

 

[Tonguez]

Remove gunpowder and make all weapons totally alchemical, or artificer based. So instead of shooting a musket ball it shoots a ball containing flame, or an artificer lightning gun (similar to Shaintar). Lots of scope with this to be honest.

You do realise that gunpowder is alchemical?

 

[Rogerd1]

You do realise that gunpowder is alchemical?

This also removes the musket issues and how real you want to be.
Just makes it simpler and cleaner, and leave aspects of the real world science behind.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This also removes the musket issues and how real you want to be.
Just makes it simpler and cleaner, and leave aspects of the real world science behind.

"Real World" and "Spelljammer" really don't belong together!

Spelljammer has fantasy guns firing fantasy bullets using fantasy gunpowder. Any expectation that they should be anything like the real world versions is silly.

And the existing firearms rules in the DMG work just fine for that.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

WotC is only selling us the pieces to build, and we can create a lot of different things. We have got the same pencils and paints, but our pictures may be radically different. For example if you want something more grimmdark, then the darkspace is perfect for you. If you want rainbows and buttlerflies, then the faeriespace is your place, and even you could enjoy a crossover My Little Pony +Faeriespace (take care your sugar level if you don't want to suffer diabetes).

 

[James Gasik]

If you want bionoids in Spelljammer then you have to say Hasbro could sell toys based in these.

And the dragons from the monster manual should come back: sun, radiant, moon, stelar and company. But I guess then we should see also their dragonborn versions.

I fully embrace the ability to buy Elf Guyver toys! Let's do this!

 

[Rogerd1]

"Real World" and "Spelljammer" really don't belong together!

Spelljammer has fantasy guns firing fantasy bullets using fantasy gunpowder. Any expectation that they should be anything like the real world versions is silly.

And the existing firearms rules in the DMG work just fine for that.

I don't agree.
Is the mix for alchemical gunpowder any different from the real world?

 

[James Gasik]

Probably? Just look at some of the reagents alchemists used, like "red sulfur". And it doesn't even matter if it WAS the same, the physical laws of the D&D universe might prevent the standard mix from working.

In Roger Zelazny's novel, The Guns of Avalon, you can bring gunpowder from other dimensions to the protagonist's world, but it didn't work. Only by chance did he discover a compound that, while inert on it's home plane, functioned in a similar manner to gunpowder on his world.

In Joel Rosenberg's "Guardians of the Flame", college students from Earth go to a fantasy world, and one of them manages to create (after trial and error) viable gunpowder. The wizards of that world, not understanding it, created a magical equivalent that exploded when it came into contact with water.

This just goes to show that even if the knowledge gets out, it doesn't mean others will immediately be able to monopolize on it, if at all. "Create Smoke Powder" could be a magic spell that the Arcane offer to sell to prospective clients, along with the ability to craft Spelljammer Helms.

 

[Rogerd1]

In Roger Zelazny's novel, The Guns of Avalon, you can bring gunpowder from other dimensions to the protagonist's world, but it didn't work. Only by chance did he discover a compound that, while inert on it's home plane, functioned in a similar manner to gunpowder on his world.

In Joel Rosenberg's "Guardians of the Flame", college students from Earth go to a fantasy world, and one of them manages to create (after trial and error) viable gunpowder. The wizards of that world, not understanding it, created a magical equivalent that exploded when it came into contact with water.

This just goes to show that even if the knowledge gets out, it doesn't mean others will immediately be able to monopolize on it, if at all. "Create Smoke Powder" could be a magic spell that the Arcane offer to sell to prospective clients, along with the ability to craft Spelljammer Helms.

Now this is how I would work it, or just make it totally alchemical, and thus not worry about real world physics and chemistry too much.

Probably? Just look at some of the reagents alchemists used, like "red sulfur". And it doesn't even matter if it WAS the same, the physical laws of the D&D universe might prevent the standard mix from working.

Doesn't matter what they call it, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck then you know the answer.
So like I said above, just totally change it up a bit, maybe even take a leaf from some superhero stuff, so instead of shooting a bullet it might shoot nets to entangle.