Polyhedron (Dungeon #92) did 3E conversion.
(edit: I accidently added 100 to the dungeon issue)
Spelljammer was only partly a setting in itself. It was also a way of linking two (or more) settings together.
spelljammer wasn't too popular in my group. i used a few elements in my games, never a full campaign.
Happy posting.
Originally posted by Outsider
Two of my players that have been playing D&D for quite awhile are fans of Spelljammer, but they laughed at the swashbuckling campaign setting stuff in Dragon. This confuses me
Probably because the Spelljammer mini-game in Polyhedron (not Dragon) was a bit...different than the classic SJ game. No crystal spheres, no phlogiston, and a bit more tech than what classic SJ had. Plus, no giff, neogi, etc. etc.
Beyond the Moons has done much to incorporate "Pyrespace" (the system in the Polyhedron article) into mainstream Spelljammer.
And yes, I remember Star Frontiers. Wish I had some of the old products.
BTW, why do we not have a Star Frontiers board?
Say you're in Greyspace, and you need to get rfom Greyhawk to the Forgotten Realms. So you make sure you think you have enough air to make it there, and you set off. You ahve to get out of your sphere, through the Phlogestan, and into the other sphere.
Isn't the sphere solid? If so, How do you get through it? Are spelljamming ships able to teleport through the wall of the crystal sphere, or is it not solid, otr do they drill-bash through and just leave a hole in it while they fly away?
Originally posted by Mordenkainen's Rubber Duck of DOOM
I have a question about Crystal Spheres, though.
Say you're in Greyspace, and you need to get rfom Greyhawk to the Forgotten Realms. So you make sure you think you have enough air to make it there, and you set off. You ahve to get out of your sphere, through the Phlogestan, and into the other sphere.
Isn't the sphere solid? If so, How do you get through it? Are spelljamming ships able to teleport through the wall of the crystal sphere, or is it not solid, otr do they drill-bash through and just leave a hole in it while they fly away?
Nightdruid had the right answer of it; there are portals through the sphere.
Crystal spheres are indestructable, and for the most part, immutable. However, you can open small, temporary holes in them which allow ships to enter and leave the sphere. These holes do close though. Furthermore, despite them being open for a time, the material of the Phlogiston never ever leaks into the sphere - that just isn't possible.
And yes, I remember Star Frontiers. Wish I had some of the old products.
BTW, why do we not have a Star Frontiers board?
I have a lot of the old Star Frontiers products. It was a great game :D . In fact I try to run a session every so often just for fun.
Anyway, I used to regularly visit this site. Although it hasn't had a lot of activity lately, it does have some great discussions on various SF topics that might interest you.
;)
Old Sage of Palanthus
Now that's an idea I never considered.
I never liked the idea of an endless phlogistan.
Can I use this idea?
It's a limitless gas cloud that surrounds the Crstal shells. And the Flogistan is highly flamable, if I remember right a torch can cause a d6 fireball.
Then the first small spark will set the entire Flogistan alight. In fact you should be entering a plane of elemental fire or lifeless blackness when then fuel source burned itself out.
I felt that the Flogiston was too unstable to use it as described.
Originally posted by lrdnecron
Now my understanding of Flamability Physics is not very good, but I see a fundemental problem with the Flogistan.
It's a limitless gas cloud that surrounds the Crstal shells. And the Flogistan is highly flamable, if I remember right a torch can cause a d6 fireball.
Then the first small spark will set the entire Flogistan alight. In fact you should be entering a plane of elemental fire or lifeless blackness when then fuel source burned itself out.
Hmmm.... I'd never thought of that before. One thing you're overlooking, though, is that fires need oxygen to burn. Therefore any fire in the phlogiston would be limited by the boundaries of the air envelope.
Wyvern
I still believe that if the phlagostan is a s flamable as they say it is I don't believe that other than the most couragous adventure would venture past the crystal shell.
As always I appoligize for the misspelling of Phlagostan
I have been running a SJ campaign set in the Astromundi setting (a box set) for 2.5 years now and the PCs haven't been out-sphere once.
I just love the thought of 3D ship combat, and it does lend itself to swashbuckling very well.
My PCs have found out that teleport is great, but not really useful for everyday use to move cargo and people a couple million miles away.
If it weren't for my fleet of ships, surrounding territories would've crushed my domain by now and my glorious plan to relieve Oerth of both Furyondy and Iuz would hardly be tangable.
Am I to carry my army on my back? Pay for them to travel great distances through hostile territory as well as feed them? Spelljamming is just so much more efficient at this level of the game.
My next plan is to rig up the "Tower" in Expedition to Barrier Peaks and see if 20 Spelljamming ships can't rip it out and transport it to my lands on Oerth for use as a main castle. Sure would compliment the prospering city surrounding my current one.
Back to my Spelljaming "arguement" tho. Now that I'm running my own game I find that Spelljamming takes this game to a whole new level. Characters sometimes tire of the planet they are on and the politics and history that go with it. A nice adventure in space is a good way to break up the long term legacy your players are building for their characters.
I thought I might return and add a little about the phlogistan. I find it to be a good way to break up the different game settings as well as "detour" my players from reaching places in which I have no content ready for them to adventure in. The basic description and "rules" set forth in the Spelljammer Campaign Setting box set are quite reasonable, and with even the slightest imagination they are perfectly logical.
I know often times as a DM, we may more or less peruse through content relating to the world and atmosphere we are to create and uphold without comprehending the fundamental basics within, just as you may be doing reading my post here, simply because we are forced in the name of gameplay to read so much of it! Perhaps it may be best to re-read some content about the phlogistan keeping in mind that you are reading for comprehension.
I, in no way, mean to say you folks aren't understanding it. Just perhaps if you do some re-reading some new ideas may arise that will allow you to incorporate the phlogistan in a more comfortable manner?
Abysslin
Originally posted by abysslin
Wow! Spelljamming not useful? I disagree entirely.
Who are you responding to? Ogre-MJC said that teleport is "not really useful for everyday use to move cargo and people a couple million miles away." Nobody has made any such comment about spelljamming. As for the phlogiston, a couple of people said that they don't care to use it in their games. That's their preference, and they're entitled to it. I don't see how that shows a lack of understanding on their part. When it comes to "reading for comprehension," I think you should be mindful of what they say about stones and glass houses.Wyvern
I don't think there is much room for glass houses here either...
Abysslin
If i remember the game mechanics, the air any ship brought with it was the only air available to use as fuel for any fire.
If the flow had any air of its own, it would be a plane of fire, as someone pointed out.
Why do some people have a hard time with the concept of the flow but they go right along with clerics asking for a piece of thier gods power to cast spells? Not everything has to make sense or be beleavable. As long as the rules stay consistant,who cares what the flow is made of or how it got there?
its fantasy. real life physics has no place in a fantasy game.
In terms of suspending disbelief, I find more people have trouble with Crystal Spheres than they do with the Flow (which they can rationalize as "hyperspace". Air envelopes are another sticking point, along with gravity planes.
And about the portals, it does even have to be in the idea of spelljamming. i think there was a teleportation box that you could place items into and then pop, it would appear in another teleport box somewhere else.
I agree with you on how trade could be effected by magic. Magic in general could destory a trading empire unless they embraced the magic themselves and used it to their advantage
Originally posted by Nightdruid
Anytime you interject portals & gates, you could pretty much argue that any sort of long-distance trade, be it ship or caravan, becomes obsolete. Pop open a portal from Waterdeep to Kara-Tur, and you ruin whole countries as the trade dries up.
There are other reasons though. It's the same for why we can ship things in cargo planes now, but still have a shipping industry based on boats and trains.
People who build portals would likely charge a lot for the instantaneous nature of them - so using spelljammers to undercut costs is one reason.
Another is that some places might not want a portal built there, since those things are permanent...and thus might be a security breach (those things can be magically forced open, after all).
And of course, you have to find someone who can build a portal, and pay him or her enough to actually do so...no easy feat.
Finally, lets not forget that normal teleportational magics don't work trans-sphere. Portals won't help you deliver stuff from Greyspace to Realmspace.
Originally posted by Alzrius
There are other reasons though. It's the same for why we can ship things in cargo planes now, but still have a shipping industry based on boats and trains.
Oh I know; my point was direct at the many people I've seen that like to use portal/gate magic as a "hammer" to dismiss SJ. Of course, you could use that same logic to pretty much end any sort of long-distance trade
--remember, in a universe with magic, physics might work differently NB
Originally posted by Nero's Boot
The phlogiston is not a natural substance; it's magical. Hence, it doesn't all burn, and it snuffs out flame fairly quickly, to boot; but not fast enough to avoid fire magic from blowing up in your face.
Just because the phlogiston is arcane in nature doesn't mean it isn't natural. In a magical universe, arcane happenings can be natural phenomena. The Flow is part of the fundamental fabric of the universe, so its inherently natural.
As for its flammable properties, I'm not sure what you're trying to say. It does burn...if you're trying to say why all of the universe outside of the spheres doesn't explode when someone lights a match, I'd say its because the surrounding Flow burns so quickly that the phlogiston further than that doesn't have time for the flame to reach it...the phlogiston around the fire source ignites before the fire can move through it to more Flow.