Re: New Races of SJ, esp Giff

Scott McCarroll wrote:
>
> The model for my campaign (which is pure homebrew...)
> is the colonial period of Earth's history (14th-17th
> centuries mainly.)

        Same here, but I throw in some Classical Era as well:)

> Spelljammers are expensive, which
> means primarily only governments can afford them.
> There are no world governments, but those governments
> that don't have spelljamming technology are at the
> very least dominated by those that do.  You have to
> admit the ability to rapidly move troops and
> communicate has definite advantages, even if the
> jammers themselves aren't used in combat...
>
        Sure, of course spelljammers are an advantage.  However, I look at
space the way presented in Complete Spacefarer's Handbook: Spacers
consider themselves to be part of a huge and grand civilization, but
they have resources more closely resembling towns and minor cities
rather than Torilian city-states.  And while cities like Bral may
certainly establish colonies to get resouces they can't get at home
(such as timber, food, and water), they aren't going to be able to
conquer Waterdeep, Hillsfar, or just about any other large city.

> Of course, this is starting to veer off into a
> discussion of could spelljammers conquer a planet?  In
> my mind no, but a spelljammer-aware and capable
> *planetary* governmnet would have a definite military
> advantage over those that don't.  It won't win a war
> on its own (still need ground troops for that) but it
> would help a lot...

        I'd say no because the resources for spacers just aren't there.  It's
kinda tough to take any fair-sized world when your whole population
(colonies included) is maybe 20,000.  The only force that could are the
Vodoni, elves, and scro.  Vodoni only because they already have so much
power behind them that they could pull it off.  Elves because they have
the forces (but an invasion of say Greyhawk would probably bleed them
dry for the next two-three generations).  Scro because they've already
done so (but with the side note that Wizard's has always presented elf
lands as massively underpopulated, say 20,000 in an area the size of a
good-sized midwestern state).
        In my Maelstrom, there have been a half-dozen or so empires that have
taken whole worlds.  However, it might be noted that such empires
usually 'colonied' worlds rather than outright conquered them.  They'd
take worlds where native populations were very small or nonexistant,
allowing them to invade and cow the few natives into submission.
Conquest in 'modern' times is a whole lot more difficult because there
are more independant nations now to resist conquerers (conquest is easy
when there isn't much resistance:).

--
Adam Miller