D&D RPG: Spelljammer Adventures in Space Hard Alternate Cover

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Yeah, so? I find this to be a little silly -- maybe a little too silly. That adventure really tried my patience with the 3rd time a monster appeared at the end of a chapter only to be immaterial to the plot, along with all the plot directions that were like "if the PCs don't do this, have an NPC point out what they should do." As always there's the standard edition of the collection and there will be an alternate artwork release. The artists that worked on the book include: We had a chance to catch up with Chris Perkins, Senior Story Designer for D&D at Wizards of the Coast, to learn more about what we can expect from this triple release. How does Spelljammer: Adventures in Space look? What happens now is, if you are on a planet, and you hop aboard a spelljamming vessel, and you head into space, you are entering the vast ocean — that is wildspace,” Perkins continued. “And if you continue outward to the edge of your system, rather than bumping into a crystal shell, you start to enter or see around you this kind of silvery haze, and the brilliant colors of wildspace sort of give way to kind of a silvery, purplish void through which the light of the stars of other wildspace systems shine.” Spaceships

Almost every time WotC puts out a book they get Polygon to write a fluff piece on how they've finally fixed insensitive material in D&D. This book has a stunning example of how disingenuous that is. There is a Reigar in the adventure path. Reigar are androgynous and this character especially seems to be leaning into a non-binary interpretation. But WotC is mum on the subject (even the monster manual entry has nothing to say on the subject except to note their androgyny and they certainly haven't made them playable). The text contorts itself to avoid ever having to refer to the character with a pronoun in ways that no other character in the book is subjected to. The monster is referred to as "The Reigar" in place of pronouns in a manner that makes it seem like an unintelligent beast rather than a thinking, reasoning person who happens to be aligned against the PC's aims. It reeks of closed room corporate decision making to avoid pissing off the grognards who'd get enraged at the 'woke' invading their fantasy game but leaving enough room for plausible deniability that yes, of course they intended that character to be non-binary, they just didn't put it in writing. In the biz this is known as 'A Dumbledore.' This at a time where Paizo prints every NPC with a gender identity and pronouns. This at a time when Chaosium rubber stamped a third party sourcebook for Runequest exploring the complexity of sex and gender identity in Glorantha. When Wizards of the Coast can be arsed to do something inclusive it is always a day late and a dollar short. In this latest iteration, creative director Chris Perkins is taking a slightly different approach — less phlogiston, more fun. This set contains everything a Dungeon Master needs to run adventures and campaigns set in the starlit realms of Wildspace and the Astral Sea, as well as new options for players who want to create characters at home in this fantastic setting.The Hadozee are a flying monkey race that are "wonderful gliders". They tie into the Planet of the Apes style of future sci-fi as an evolved simian being. This set contains everything a Dungeon Master needs to run adventures and campaigns set in the starlit realms of Wildspace and the Astral Sea. In addition, the set provides new options for players who want to create characters at home for this fantastic setting. Threats that players might face are the Eye Monger, an asteroid-like beholder, and the different groups of Mindflayers that roam the Astral Sea. Knowing that Dungeons & Dragons have been moving away from the idea of certain races always being evil there are still evil factions within the world of Spelljammer, they just want to make sure that if you judge a book by its cover that those expectations might be turned on their head. While the original Spelljammer took place in the Phlogiston but for 5e Spelljammer will take place in the Astral Sea and Wild Space. Talking on this change Perkins explained that in the original the Phlogiston was the flammable ether between the different Crystal Spheres that each of the solar systems of Dungeons & Dragons inhabited. For 5e instead of introducing a brand new system of cosmology, they instead opted to use the cosmology that players would already be familiar with from the DM Guide including the Astral Sea. Hopping aboard a Spelljammer ship players can leave the planet's atmosphere and enter into Wild Space, then if they continue further they'll find that passing through a silvery haze they'll reach the Astral Sea. This creates a new connection between the Material Plane and the Astral Sea that wasn't previously there.

The adventure then is called Light of Xaryxis. It's not good. Some parts of the D&D community online talk about 'railroading' like it's the worst crime imaginable, but this really is railroaded all to bits. There's a series of linear encounters that always end up at the same next encounter, with no real player choices involved. The initial journey from your home planet into the stars contains a series of encounters that are literally just: you run into another ship, you run into another ship, you run into another ship. Then we've got Hadozees, which are bipedal with some big eyes and very cute squirrel-like or simian-like features, and then they've got wing flaps, like flying squirrels. They're wonderful gliders, and they're delightful space explorers. And they trope-wise or homage-wise, they tie into the science fiction Planet of the Apes feel to them. Unlike a number of DnD veterans I never had the original version of Spelljammer as my DnD days have been bookended by 1st and 5th edition. the concept of DnD in space was always a little jarring to me: I never liked the introduction of space-type tech into my games (like the famous Expedition to the Barrier Peaks), finding its inclusion in campaigns like Rime just uneasy. Planescape also introduced the setting of Sigil (also known as the “City of Doors”) a torus-shaped metropolis located in the center of the planes of existence atop a infinitely tall Spire. A kind of interdimensional gathering place, Sigil was filled with countless portals leading to other planes of existence, allowing numerous species and interplanar travelers to meet and trade. Because of its unique location in the multiverse, Sigil also featured a variety of warring Factions, unique monsters, magic items, and a variety of powerful NPCs (including the enigmatic masked Lady of Pain who ruled over the city).This review copy was provided by Wizards of the Coast, and we spent the week we had with it reading through the entire set of books, as well as running an experimental session focused mainly on the spelljamming mechanics, new races, and monsters with a party of seasoned adventurers (thanks, Longtooth Crew). Without the time and opportunity to fully play through the Light of Xaryxis module, we can only speak to its quality as readers, not players. There aren't any rules around creating your own ships with so many others on offer but Perkins was confident that players would be able to mix and match where they saw fit and that there would be plenty of communities that would want to create all manner of ship, or recreate previous versions of ships. Nope... CP: In the early years of Fifth Edition, we were really focused on the forgotten realms for various and sundry reasons. And occasionally branched off and did stuff apart from that like Curse of Strahd. But we weren't at the point in the line yet where we felt like we could really start to dive into the multiverse. Well, that changed about two years ago. In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com. These alternate-art covers will only be available at local game retailers. Image: Hydro74/Wizards of the Coast

There are, however, no additional covers being created by third-party publishers like Beadle & Grimm’s (which has published collectors editions for various Wizards of the Coast products in the past). What other tie-in products will be available? Despite its success, the Planescape setting was largely ignored in the 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of D&D, although many of the concepts (including the city of Sigil) are briefly mentioned in various DnD 5e campaigns and adventure materials. When did Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse come out?Astral Adventurer's Guide - A Spelljammer equivalent of the Player's Handbook with some extra information related to the Spelljammer setting Likewise, the monster book is confusing -- why so much Dark Sun? Why so silly in parts? (Why do they make the joke about how Giff argue about how to pronounce their names?) The idea of how gravity works within an air-envelope and combat in zero-gravity is something I would not fully adapt in a game, but as far as I remember this is almost the same system as in the old Spelljammer book. The air-envelope itself is a cool idea, but the whole gravity system when two spelljammer ships hit each other and the gravity-direction of the ship with the most HP remaining decides the direction of gravity is a messy system. Also, the rules about going overboard in wildspace and bouncing up and down the gravity direction is a bit silly. It's like floating on an invisible sea as far as the air-envelope reaches.

The Thri-Kreen is an insectoid race that almost resembles a praying mantis. While this bug-like appearance is a bit of a far cry from the sci-fi fantastical natures of the other races this was a good fit for them to be added to 5e. Theme or Fluff- I don’t hate the story here, but I’m left wanting more in a bad way. This setting is all about space and boldly going to new worlds. You do get the basics of that, but you don’t get a ton of new worlds beyond "Go grab your favorite other books and go there!" Again, it's not bad, but it feels too loose to be helpful. I do think the adventure they give is awesome and will help GMs and players who are new to the setting get used to it. That "fish out of water" adventure that is included is going to be your best introduction to this setting. That said, after reading this book, I need more to really know what this setting is. 4/5 Spelljammer: Adventures in Space presents the Astral Plane as a campaign setting unlike any other. Home of the stars and gateway to the heavens, the Astral Plane teems with excitement and possibility. With the help of magic, spelljammers can cross the oceans of Wildspace, manoeuvre through the silvery void known as the Astral Sea, and hop between the worlds of the D&D multiverse. If you compare this Spelljammer campaign setting with the Starfinder setting of Paizo, then Starfinder is clearly and unquestionably the winner here.

An adventure for Dungeon Masters set in the Astral Plane. When a cosmic enemy threatens to destroy their world, brave heroes must do everything in their power to save it. This quest will take them across the teeming oceans of Wildspace to the silvery void of the Astral Sea and beyond. Along the way, they’ll make friends, encounter terrifying foes, and face one cliffhanger after another. Can they save their world before time runs out?

However, all in all it's still a fun box set. It does feel somewhat incomplete, but nothing a dedicated DM can't fill out and the adventure (Light of Xaryxis) included is pretty fun, though short, and somewhat rushed, again making it the DMs job to put some more meat in those bones. Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is the next Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting and Adventure Book to release. It will release on August 16th so it is just around the corner! In this collection of three books players will be returning to the Spelljammer setting first introduced in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons but all with a few 5e twists.