Spelljammer 3E Thoughts

The helpful members of the Spelljammer Council directed me to this board to discuss Spelljammer 3E rules.

What I'd like to bring up are some thoughts I've had regarding how I think Spelljammer could best be adapted to 3E. 

First let me start off by saying that I don't currently have in my possession any Spelljammer products, unfortunately. :-(  I believe that I only ever had the original boxed set and one or two Monstrous Compendium Appendices for it, and I never had an opportunity to actually play the setting.  I bring this up so that anyone reading will be aware of the likelihood of errors in my memory of certain specifics of the setting.

That said, I loved the setting concept and the implementation of many specifics.  I still get a kick out of thinking of the "Elven Imperial Armada", or the "Orcs in Space" Scro.  Fantasy space, rather than real world physics, is a very positive aspect of the setting in my mind.  The idea of standing on the open deck of a ship, looking out into a starry void and watching the silent approach of a ship manned by undead, just creates that smile of approval in my role-player's mind.

So, since I've had favorable responses to my previous attempts at role-playing design, and since I don't want to see Spelljammer 3E come out missing some aspect I really wish would have been there and think, "I could have at least suggested it...", I'm bringing up the most important things (in my mind) that I think should be a part of it, even though I feel pretty inadequate as far as my memory of the source material goes.  Comments, corrections, etc, of this rough idea framework are naturally welcome.

Premises:

1. Consistency with Original Material:  We(gamers) don't like to see things we loved changed unless there is an incontrovertibly good reason.  That's not an absolute of course, but making unnecessary changes, unless they are almost universally agreed by everyone asked to be a desired improvement, is likely to upset more people than it pleases, and somewhat needlessly.  Therefore it is important to be as true to the original material as possible, including in areas such as planar definitions, racial presences, availability of other campaign settings, etc.  This is simply an essential component, and any deviation must be seriously considered, as it can cause severe dissatisfaction in fans of the setting.
2. Consistency with D&D 3E:  The new edition of D&D is pretty flexible, and in some ways it should be even easier to use with Spelljammer, such as in providing rules for characters of more powerful races, specifying that most of the spellcasting power of a cleric comes from himself rather than his deity(who just basically grants domain spells and powers and serves as a focus to help the cleric acquire his abilities - although I'm sure that that interpretation of the rules could be debated), and in providing integrated rules for magical item creation, amongst other things.  However, there are going to be some things about the 3E setting that I would think would be tempting to change, especially since it is much more positive about such personalization than previous versions of the game - see the new Manual of the Planes for instance.  I *strongly* recommend against taking advantage of such license to experiment with the rules in adapting it to 3E.  Here is where I may just be talking about my own preferences, and if so, it isn't of too much importance, but in case this mindset is more common(and I tend to think it probably is) I'll bring it up.  People don't want a setting that doesn't fit the official Wizards of the Coast "default" material, even if Wizards of the Coast says you can change it.  The same thing goes with other role-playing games - White Wolf's World of Darkness is a good example.  House Rules, in my experience, unless the rule is exceptionally well done and applies to a situation that no official rule covers, are rarely considered worth using by anyone other than the individual or group who created them.  This is not to say that they are not well done and valuable to the group, just that if someone is going to use an unofficial rule, or a rule that significantly deviates from the standard official material, most established DMs would rather use their own house rule than another DMs.  Therefore, if the Spelljammer 3E material isn't consistent with official 3E material, such as the Manual of the Planes, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, (and even the upcoming semi-official, non WotC, Dragonlance Campaign Setting) then players won't appreciate it, and it will not be received well except by other individuals who agree with the changes and don't mind being disconnected from the cosmology of the rest of the D&D 3E game setting.  In other words, while it can and should *expand* upon WotC official material, it should never directly *contradict* any of it(including by deviating from the Great Wheel cosmology, or altering published campaign settings' alternate cosmologies to "make them fit").
3. Simplest Solutions:  This is pretty self-explanatory, but *often* game designers of all levels of experience and professional involvement(this principle is often left out of popular games) fail to effectively implement it.  Why do we end up sometimes with a ton of convoluted rules attempting to fix a rule that is itself attempting to fix another rule, that was itself implemented because...?  Well, because we are human beings, not deities, that's why.  We aren't perfect in our ability to design simple and enjoyable role-playing games.  However, I think this should be kept in mind, and those working hard on design should remember to occasionally stop, think about the level of complexity they have so far, and see if by peeling back a few layers they can snip out some of this complexity before they have made rules to fix rules that fix rules which...  It's often good after doing some hard work on rules to simply wait a while, come back, and see if it was even necessary, or if there is a simpler solution they didn't see originally - and if there is, by all means use it!  Sometimes it feels like all that work went to waste, but at least a better product results(and the work wasn't a waste anyway if it helped one develop their skills at game design.)  Moral of the sermon: don't overdo it.
4. Artistic Appeal:  No, I'm not talking illustrations or musical scores, what I'm talking about is the general mental image evoked by the setting, and the 3E rules and presentation.  Perhaps more than any other concern, this one will make or break whether people like the setting.  This is where cohesiveness, consistency, simplicity, comprehensiveness, merit, and wonder should come together into a beautiful whole.  It isn't a matter of "style over substance" either.  Substance is essential in the type of artistic appeal I'm speaking of.  I'm looking for a setting that, while you're reading through, captures your imagination, draws you in, and demands that you set a game in it.  Many role-playing games and settings will produce the desire to play in them upon initial reading - one with strong artistic appeal leaves that desire in you for years to come back and haunt you again and again.  Otherwise, I doubt I'd be writing my ideas about Spelljammer after such a long absence from it, having never even played in it. :-)  Spelljammer already has strong artistic appeal(although in some cases the bland appearance of the published materials didn't exactly contribute to it - the mental imagery it created still stood on its own merits), the goal of creating the Spelljammer 3E Campaign Setting needs to be to maintain and enhance it.

General Suggestions:

Here are some of my general suggestions on what I think is essential in balancing the needs of those premises.

1. Use the Great Wheel Cosmology as defined and explained in the Manual of the Planes.  Simple enough, but essential.  Any deviation will hurt the fan acceptance of the setting, and instead of being the setting that ends all house rules(metaphorically), it will be the setting that spawns a gazillion house rules alternatives - which you don't want.
2. Use the alternate cosmologies for other settings, such as the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, etc.  Use them as is, without attempting to pigeonhole them into the Great Wheel cosmology.  Allow travel between them by means of the Plane of Shadow, as WotC recommends.
3. Allow the Spelljammer Campaign Setting to have access to all of the different original campaign settings.  Spelljamming ships ought to be able to travel from Realmspace to Greyspace to Krynnspace, etc, exactly as they could before 3E.
4. Create rules to fit these goals, rather than changing the goals to fit the rules.  We can do it, we are thinking humans, the rules are malleable pieces of math and abstract concepts.

Specific Suggestions:

With all of that basis laid down, I'll get into some specific suggestions I have about how to include some of those aspects, especially in areas where I think it can be difficult to balance the needs of multiple premises.

1. Coordinate with other authorized D&D 3E materials. I believe that this is a vital component of "doing it right".  For example, if you do an absolutely wonderful job of making Spelljammer 3E all that could be hoped for, and the people working on Planescape and Dragonlance do the same with their own materials, but you fail to coordinate, it will not be as great as it otherwise would have been.  Planescape especially, since it's probably pretty easy for you to coordinate with them(some of you might be involved with the creation of Planescape - if so, you've got this one down already), is almost essential.  I'd hate to see one or the other work their mechanics to carefully fit into 3E in an enjoyable manner, but then have the other one completely deviate from the official 3E Manual of the Planes Great Wheel Cosmology.  Then I'd have to choose, "Do I want to play in the Spelljammer Cosmology, or the Planescape Cosmology?" when I'd really like to have both, just like in previous editions.  Coordination will create a *lot* of gamer satisfaction - or at the very minimum avoid the dissatisfaction that will otherwise result.  I highly recommend it if at all possible, as it will help overcome many problems which are otherwise almost certain to arise.
2. We need to preserve the concept that Spelljammer primarily is set in the Material Plane.  Making each crystal sphere its own Material Plane reduces compatibility with the Manual of the Planes(where the Material Plane is intended to be infinite in size) and reduces general cohesiveness of the settings.  It simply *feels* wrong.  Making each world within a crystal sphere its own Material Plane also has the same problems.  At the same time, we must preserve the fact that the Forgotten Realms is now part of an alternate cosmology from that of Greyhawk, and must be on a different Material Plane.  This whole mess was a sticky part, until I realized an obvious concept from the Manual of the Planes that I had not considered in this light before: planar layers.  No, lest you think I have a dumb idea, I wasn't going to make alternate Material Planes layers of the same Material Plane(which would cause more consistency problems than it would solve).  What I meant was that *each crystal sphere within the same Material Plane is its own layer of that Material Plane*.  Therefore Material Planes, like most other planes, are theoretically infinite, but they are divided into finite layers, each layer being one crystal sphere.  This has the positive effect of making it so that teleportation spells don't work across crystal spheres, but spells such as plane shift and gate do.  This really strikes home with me as something that feels good for a definition of how the different crystal spheres all fit into the Manual of the Planes Material Plane - simply make them layers of the same Material Plane.  There isn't necessarily a "1st" or "2nd" layer of a Material Plane, since the layers are related to each other in a more three-dimensional or even horizontal manner, than the normal vertical imagery of planar layers, but it seems to fit the concept of layers well(to me at least).  Instead of numbering different spheres, one could either say that planeshift takes a traveller to the crystal sphere they are most familiar with, unless they have a different crystal sphere clearly in mind, or one could say that the default crystal sphere for the cosmology(Greyspace for the Great Wheel) for instance is the "1st" layer, and is the one that planeshifting brings one too(and the dominant planet is the planet arrived at) unless another layer(and/or planet) is specifically targetted by the spell.  "Okay", you're thinking, "you still haven't addressed how other Material Planes fit into this concept".  And you're right I haven't.  I'll get to that shortly.  Suffice it to say that this explanation only applies to spheres within the same Material Plane, alternate Material Planes are still alternate Material Planes.
3. The Phlogiston is a Transitive Plane.  Nothing new here, but it's simple, it works, and it doesn't mess anything up.
4. Crystal spheres set in their own cosmology are alternate Material Planes of course, with alternate other planes attached to them, which can be accessed normally from other Material Planes through the Plane of Shadow.  However, they may also be accessed through the Phlogiston.  I don't know enough about the Flow anymore to remember how it all works, but it should be treated as similar to the Plane of Shadow, in that it connects to multiple cosmologies.  Some manner of determining which cosmology a particular location in the Phlogiston is currently coexistent with should be determined, to determine which Astral Plane someone travelling through the Phlogiston is currently coexistent with.  Via the Phlogiston, one may travel from one Material Plane to another without any strong visible indication of the difference, although once fully into the realm of a particular Material Plane, one is treated as being within that Material Plane entirely.  From within the Phlogiston one may visit multiple crystal spheres from the same Material Plane(and thus cosmology), or crystal spheres on another Material Plane(and thus cosmology), without any real indication of which Material Plane/cosmology they are in unless they attempt planar travel.  This preserves the ability of characters to travel from Realmspace to Greyspace to Krynnspace, etc, without worrying about planar tangents.  With the exception of those who receive spells from a deity(which was a consideration in the original Spelljammer material anyway), most characters won't be too concerned about the particular cosmology they are in, which is how it should be - it only really comes into play when planar aspects are involved, and a Spelljammer Campaign can go for years without much planar involvement, unless planar involvement is desired.  Note that I can't remember exactly what the rules about planar access from the Flow from the old Spelljammer material were.  I'm assuming in these suggestions that the rules allowed normal access to the Astral Plane.  If they didn't, one might instead say that the Flow is not coexistent with *any* plane, and that spells that allow planar travel simply don't function at all until one gets back into a crystal sphere.  In other words, the Phlogiston would then exist outside the boundaries of all cosmologies, and connect them together.  This should *only* be done if the original rules for the Phlogiston did it, otherwise it is a drastic and undesirable change.  In either version, the concepts of an infinite Material Plane from all versions of D&D, the separateness of crystal spheres from the Spelljammer setting, and the unique cosmologies of the Forgotten Realms(and other settings no longer officially supported) are all maintained without seriously compromising any of them.  It appears that it should actually work quite well.  The messiest part comes into play if you want to have plane-hopping spelljammers, as they will be travelling through multiple cosmologies(unless they steer their ships towards spheres that are all part of the same cosmology), but in general, a heavily plane-hopping game and a Spelljammer game are two different concepts.  The plane-hopping game is about weirdness of alternate dimensions and realms of existence.  Spelljammer is about travelling amongst the multiple worlds of the Material Plane(s).  Planar adventuring is a vertical exercise, Spelljammer games are a horizontal journey.  So they don't usually come into contact much, and with a consistent rules framework (such as whichever one I mentioned above fits the original Phlogiston information) one can mix and match them as desired without rules conflict.
5. I would recommend that clerics on different layers(crystal spheres) of the same Material Plane not suffer any spellcasting restrictions, even if their deity isn't worshipped within that crystal sphere.  I'd also recommend, however, that this be thought about seriously, to see how people are likely to react to it.  In general, removing restrictions isn't nearly as bad of a move as imposing new ones, and I think this would be a generally good thing to do.  As far as receiving spells in crystal spheres on alternate Material Planes(and thus alternate cosmologies), it could depend on another factor - whether or not the deities that appear in both cosmologies(such as Lolth existing in the Great Wheel and the Forgotten Realms cosmology) are the same deity with two homes, or alternate versions of the same deity.  If the same exact deity is found in an alternate Material Plane, one could receive all of their spells as normal.  With an alternate version of the deity, one may need to make contact with some sort of spell, or receive some sort of spell from a native cleric of that deity to "convert" to that version of the deity, so as to be able to receive spells from it.  I'd probably say that such conversion is more like a permanent attunement, and once performed, that cleric can thereafter access their spells through both versions of those deities, depending on whose cosmology they are in.  As long as the deity is basically the same, with the same name(possibly in another language), and the same (or a compatible) alignment, the cleric can attune themselves to any number of different versions of the deity.  If a cleric finds themselves in a  cosmology without attunement to the version of their deity residing there(or in a cosmology without the presence of a version of their deity at all - which should definitely happen if enough cosmologies are visited), then they lose their domain spells and powers, and can not make use of spells which contact their deity(though spells that summon outsiders might still work, provided there are similar outsiders to be summoned in this cosmology).  Other than that, their spells are not affected.  Of course, there are other things to consider in fully converting the cleric spellcasting rules from Spelljammer, but these are some preliminary thoughts based on information from the Manual of the Planes.  Planescape 3E designers must be coordinated with on this one too, since an actual decision regarding such things as whether the Great Wheel's Lolth is the same as the Forgotten Realms Cosmology's Lolth or merely a similar deity must be decided - and as far as know there is no official statement one way or another.  Without coordination on this, problems will occur.
6. Don't overdo it.  I'd specifically recommend not adding any additional skills or feats unless they are essential.  Obviously some of them are, but others could be better represented by simply assigning DCs to accomplish the desired effects to already existing skills, for instance.
7. At the same time, don't be afraid to retrofit small aspects of the setting, in harmony with official 3E retro-active changes.  For instance, the Arcane are now the Mercane, and instead of merely travelling through the spheres, they are now highly accomplished planar merchants also.  That's fine, go with it.  They are now some of the most widely travelled creatures across multiple cosmologies, and are found throughout the spheres and the planes, making them a valuable source of information and good travel agents for the far-ranging spelljamming plane-hopper.

The Planes of Spelljammer 3E At a Glance

Expanded Material Plane Traits
These traits apply to a typical Material Plane, including the Material Plane of the Great Wheel cosmology, which includes the crystal sphere of Greyspace as the default "1st" sphere of the plane.  These traits expand on, but do not contradict the material in the Manual of the Planes, and generally are only necessary in a Spelljammer campaign.

- Normal Gravity, Objective Directional Gravity, and No Gravity:  On a planet or planetoid of sufficient size, normal gravity(pointing towards the center of the planet) applies.  On space-faring vessels or other sufficiently large objects, gravity is towards an invisible horizontal plane extending along the longest axis of the object, and generally pointing in the most convenient direction.  The top deck of a space-faring ship will have normal gravity, and the underside of the ship will have normal gravity(such that it could be walked upon) for instance.  In the void of Wildspace, the No Gravity trait prevails.  See the Spelljammer Campaign Setting for more precise gravity details.
- Normal Time:  The Material Plane is the standard for time throughout the planes.
- Infinite Size:  The Material Plane is theoretically infinite, although it is broken up into finite layers called crystal spheres.  No one crystal sphere is higher or lower than another, but instead they resemble air bubbles floating in an endless sea.  The natives of a particular crystal sphere often think of it as the 1st layer or sphere but this is only a convention and spells that allow planar travel can reach any crystal sphere as long as the destination sphere is known.
- Alterable Morphic.
- No Elemental or Energy Traits:  Specific locations within a sphere, or specific spheres, may be elemental or energy dominant however.
- Mildly Neutral Aligned.
- Normal Magic:  Specific spheres may have different magic traits on occasion.

Expanded Material Plane Links:  In addition to all of the normal types of planar links associated with the Material Plane, each crystal sphere is coterminous with the Phlogiston(see below).  Crystal spheres are separate from one another, and travel from one to another may take place through the Phlogiston, or through any other normally available method of travel between separate planar layers.
Naturally occurring and magically created portals in the crystal sphere itself(here referring to the crystalline border, rather than the area within) are the most common method of reaching the Phlogiston from within a crystal sphere.

Expanded Material Plane Features:

Crystal Spheres:  Each crystal sphere is a planar layer which shares the normal traits of the Material Plane, but is separate from other layers of the Material Plane.  Crystal spheres are highly varied in their features, but all share the common traits for their Material Plane, unless specifically mentioned.
Most crystal spheres contain a system of worlds with one or more suns near the center.  Each world is usually surrounded by a breathable atmosphere, however beyond that atmosphere is an airless void known as Wildspace.
Like crystal spheres themselves, worlds within them may be highly varied in their features, but spherical worlds are the most commonly encountered worlds.

Wildspace:  Wildspace, the airless void in which the worlds of a crystal sphere float, is in all respects considered a part of its Material Plane and crystal sphere, but has no gravity and no atmosphere, except as such gravity or atmosphere is brought into it in connection with a large object or creature.

Greyspace:  In the Material Plane of the Great Wheel cosmology, the world of Oerth is a planet at the center of a crystal sphere known as Greyspace.  By default, this crystal sphere is considered the "1st layer" of the Material Plane, and the world of Oerth is considered the target of any spells allowing planar travel to the Material Plane, but as noted, this is only a convention, and natives of other crystal spheres and worlds within this Material Plane would likely consider their own crystal sphere as the "1st layer" also, and spells allowing planar travel when cast by them would be more likely to target their own crystal spheres and worlds by default.  When in doubt about what an outsider, elemental, or other planar being in this cosmology will consider to be the central crystal sphere and world of the Material Plane, consider it to be the world of Oerth in the crystal sphere of Greyspace.

For more information on the features of crystal spheres mentioned above, as well as other features, refer to the Spelljammer Campaign Setting.

Expanded Phlogiston Traits(I *know* I'm not remembering enough here, so there may be some glaring inconsistencies with published materials, in which case they are most likely accidental rather than intentional - please point them out.)
The Phlogiston(or the Flow) is a Transitive Plane in which float the crystal spheres of multiple cosmologies.

- ? Time(Yep, I definitely forgot)
- Infinite Size:  The Phlogiston extends infinitely in all directions, and an apparently infinite number of crystal spheres from countless Material Planes float within it.
- No Gravity and Objective Directional Gravity:  Gravity within the Phlogiston functions the same as gravity within Wildspace in a Material Plane crystal sphere.
- Alterable Morphic.
- No Elemental or Energy Traits.
- Mildly Neutral Aligned.
- Enhanced Magic:  ???
- Impeded Magic:  ???
- Limited Magic:  ???

Phlogiston Links:

The Phlogiston is coterminous with all of the crystal spheres of multiple Material Planes, thus serving as a means of travel not only to multiple layers of a Material Plane, but to the layers of alternate Material Planes(and thus alternate cosmologies) also.
(What follows is based on really sketchy memories of the Phlogiston, and may have to be entirely re-evaluated as indicated in my specific suggestion 3 above.)
In the Great Wheel cosmology, the Phlogiston is coexistent with the Astral Plane.  In another cosmology, the Phlogiston may or may not be coexistent with the Astral Plane.  A traveller in the Phlogiston is always considered to be within one specific cosmology based on their location and proximity to crystal spheres, and the nature of that cosmology determines whether or not they have access to the Astral Plane.
Although rare, some cosmologies may allow the portions of the Phlogiston that reside within them to be coexistent with planes other than, or in addition to, the Astral Plane.
Experienced planar travelers may be able to identify a peculiar cosmology in which a crystal sphere they are approaching lies within by attempting to cast spells that access the Astral Plane and others, thereby determining which planes this particular cosmology has access to.

Well, thanks for taking the time to read this long post.  I hope it will serve as some valuable input for anyone involved in adapting the Spelljammer setting to 3E.  Feel free to let me know where I'm right, wrong, useful, or redundant(er...I mean redundant with something published, not redundant with my previous statements - that's a personality trait.)

To the Spheres,

Enochscion