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Ozreth
Learned Scribe
227 Posts |
 Posted - 07 Oct 2025 : 23:26:08
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I've seen mention that spelljamming and/or travel to other worlds was affected by the changes to cosmology in the 3e realms. How so?
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4253 Posts |
Posted - 07 Oct 2025 : 23:33:00
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| I think it had more to do with the fact that there was no 3.0/3.5 book sold concerning Spelljammer...so it was mostly overlooked/ignored. Perhaps there were no "Crystal Spheres" at all. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3762 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2025 : 06:12:26
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| -During the 3e era, there were a handful of mentions of Spelljammer-related stuff in A Grand History of the Realms, and most specifically that I can recall, there were characters from another planet and an actual crashed spelljammer in one of the LRPG Malatra: The Living Jungle adventures. |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know) |
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Scots Dragon
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
114 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2025 : 13:34:23
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| It helps that most of the actual novel and supplement writers seemed to quietly ignore the new cosmology and pretend it wasn't a thing whenever they could get away with doing so. |
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Ozreth
Learned Scribe
227 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2025 : 16:39:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Scots Dragon
It helps that most of the actual novel and supplement writers seemed to quietly ignore the new cosmology and pretend it wasn't a thing whenever they could get away with doing so.
What was the issue they needed to ignore, did it affeect Spelljamming? |
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TomCosta
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
1020 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2025 : 18:30:03
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Are you sure you're not thinking of the changes 5E just made to Spelljamming. the 3E FRCS alludes to spelljamming on p 230-231, but there's nothing there that invalidates 2e Spelljammer lore.
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Scots Dragon
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
114 Posts |
Posted - 08 Oct 2025 : 20:28:06
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quote:
Originally posted by Ozreth
quote:
Originally posted by Scots Dragon
It helps that most of the actual novel and supplement writers seemed to quietly ignore the new cosmology and pretend it wasn't a thing whenever they could get away with doing so.
What was the issue they needed to ignore, did it affeect Spelljamming?
Generally nothing, because they ignored it.
But also we saw Spelljamming references in the novel Blackstaff. |
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Ozreth
Learned Scribe
227 Posts |
Posted - 09 Oct 2025 : 00:15:05
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quote:
Originally posted by TomCosta
Are you sure you're not thinking of the changes 5E just made to Spelljamming. the 3E FRCS alludes to spelljamming on p 230-231, but there's nothing there that invalidates 2e Spelljammer lore.
It certainly could be that. I wish I could recall where I read what I did. |
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ElfBane
Learned Scribe
USA
301 Posts |
Posted - 09 Oct 2025 : 09:43:52
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| Well, fast interstellar flight/transport may be largely ignored by some aspects of D&D Lore, but it's certainly used in the video games. BG2 and BG3 definitely had it. BG2 even had a Spelljammer ship in the game. BG3 had the Githyankee using Portals for fast, distant travel, but the game did NOT show a Spelljammer wooden ship. |
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Scots Dragon
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
114 Posts |
Posted - 09 Oct 2025 : 11:45:41
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quote:
Originally posted by ElfBane
Well, fast interstellar flight/transport may be largely ignored by some aspects of D&D Lore, but it's certainly used in the video games. BG2 and BG3 definitely had it. BG2 even had a Spelljammer ship in the game. BG3 had the Githyankee using Portals for fast, distant travel, but the game did NOT show a Spelljammer wooden ship.
Mostly because the Spelljamming ship we saw was a mind flayer Nautiloid. Notably plenty of people seemed to generally know what it was as an object, though. |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2509 Posts |
Posted - 10 Oct 2025 : 11:45:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-During the 3e era, there were a handful of mentions of Spelljammer-related stuff in A Grand History of the Realms,
GHotR contains no mechanics, of course, but it covers Spellplague. Thus not a 3e era source.
quote:
and most specifically that I can recall, there were characters from another planet and an actual crashed spelljammer in one of the LRPG Malatra: The Living Jungle adventures.
The Oscray, that is Scro who transparently renamed themselves once more.
Living Jungle (RPGA campaign, published in Polyhedron) was made in AD&D2 era, however (first published in Polyhedron #102, December 1994). |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo. -Ed Whitchurch |
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Scots Dragon
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
114 Posts |
Posted - 10 Oct 2025 : 23:07:48
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quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-During the 3e era, there were a handful of mentions of Spelljammer-related stuff in A Grand History of the Realms,
GHotR contains no mechanics, of course, but it covers Spellplague. Thus not a 3e era source.
I think it's the official 'last 3e sourcebook' and thus features a mention of the Spellplague as setup for 4e. Certainly it doesn't feature much else past 1385 DR, so it's easily ignorable for the most part. |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
8024 Posts |
Posted - 11 Oct 2025 : 04:16:50
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Spelljammer was creative and interesting, a fine setting filled with grandly romantic imagery. I liked it.
But Spelljammer was also a complete flop.
It was too weird. Too inconsistent. Too filled up with long drawn-out dull and dreary travel times which players and their characters despise.
And worst of all, the published Spelljammer products were sadly a consistently poor quality, they seemed rather confusing and amateurish, almost like half-assed magazine article stuff. Not TSR's finest products.
The entire Spelljammer setting was basically a teething pain which got reworked and evolved/recycled into the basis of the Planescape setting. That's why they're so thematically similar.
The 1990s were a period of then-new experimental and edgy "out there" RPG settings which dared to pull away from yet another generic olde pseudo-medieval pseudo-Middle-Earth ripoff. D&D without the generic elves and dwarves and fantasy kingdoms which had always been the core of the D&D genre was then a wild and exciting novelty. But Spelljammer just wasn't able to deliver on its grand ambitions, at least in part because of the bewildering and janky way it was presented.
Then the 2000s weren't really ready for such "out there" settings either. Spelljammer and Planescape still each have small, dedicated followings - but neither of them really gained enough traction to develop forward when their ideas were timely. Some D&D sourcebooks, adventures, and novels still have small callbacks to Spelljammer and Planescape (mainly because individual authors were fans of certain old lore) but for the most part these old settings have just been swept under the rug and forgotten. D&D 3E's new cosmology was basically the metaphorical equivalent of putting a big heavy chunk of furniture on top of that rug in an extra effort to forever bury all the old dirt that was swept underneath it.
The answer to the OP's question is that, overall, 3E's new cosmology "affected" spelljamming by tacitly pretending it never really existed. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 11 Oct 2025 04:33:24 |
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How was spelljamming affected by the 3e realms?
