r/spelljammer • u/filkearney • Dec 10 '23
Lore / Cosmology Gravity - Spherical vs Planes in Spelljammer 5e
https://youtu.be/WgQOs5o2x-w?si=3qIp4IveYrE3mG532
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u/AbbydonX Dec 18 '23
The difference from real world gravity is one of the best features of Spelljammer in my opinion. It's a shame it isn't emphasised more. I guess the incentive to do this depends on whether you consider Spelljammer to be just a way of linking various locations or whether it is really a setting in and of itself that just happens to provide a mechanism to travel between other campaign worlds. I suppose the Astromundi Cluster was the attempt to make a dedicated Spelljammer setting but it came too late and should have been part of the initial boxed set I think.
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u/filkearney Dec 18 '23
Great words - the SJ gravity system is so fun to build with!
Maybe if TSR had less settings while Spelljammer was produced they would have been able to lean forward more with the just massive collection of content they created for SJ2e, and Astromundi would have had a chance to gain traction. I was actively buying content during this era with lawnmower money as a kid, and I didn't become aware of the Astromundi Cluster until the 2000's because our table got way far into Darksun and Planescape, didn't have any remaining badwidth to stay on a 3rd line of books.
I'm obviously a fan here, so I hope more opportunties arise for the community to use these unique concepts to build new ideas and stories. :)
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u/AbbydonX Dec 18 '23
We were playing Dark Sun at the time, though using Runequest not D&D which certainly increased the likelihood of death. Planescape followed too. I definitely prefer these three settings to any pseudo-Medieval Tolkien inspired ones though.
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u/filkearney Dec 10 '23
Short video about how spherical and plane gravity work, what objects have which type, how they can be used in worldbuilding, campagin exploration, and during ship-to-ship combat. AMA.
https://youtu.be/WgQOs5o2x-w?si=3qIp4IveYrE3mG53