Re: The Crimson SpheRe: DS & SJ

Hey Rich! :)

> I did some when I wrote "Forbidden Flight," which is, at best, *dubious.*
How's that for
> an understatement? :}  However, I stuck mostly to the world of Athas
itself, and included
> some historical material to establish context with the rest of the AD&D
multiverse.  I went
> with the assumption that Spelljamming used to take place in Athasspace "in
the distant past,"
> but the elemental gods, and/or the sorcerer kings of Athas sealed the
sphere from the inside,
> thus putting an effective end to it.  I also made it impossible, or at
best very difficult, to enter
> the sphere using a standard portal; a psionic procedure was used instead.

    I wasn't sure if "Forbidden Flight" qualified as a sphere-writeup, since
it was a story rather than a writeup, so I didn't include it.

>
> At a quick glance, none of what I wrote is incompatible with what Adam
just posted.  In
> the event of a conflict, go with Adam's stuff.  It has much more "meat" to
it.

    :)  Well, I remember a bit from FF, which I read like 10 years ago, but
I didn't go out of my way to use it as my guide.  At the same time, I didn't
go out of my way to directly invalidate anything you wrote, either ;)  In
rereading bits of FF, I realize there is little that can't be used together
with my article, other than the Black Gulf itself (which obviously would be
absent from your story, since the concept is brand-spanking new :D)  Of
course, one could say that the psi-procedure that you used "tagged" the
Eternal Wanderer to not have to go through the Black Gulf or somesuch
technobabble...:D

> Sidebar: It's nice to see that this topic is no longer a flame magnet.
Does anyone remember
> the flame wars this used to generate?  Nasty stuff.

    I don't, but I was pleasantly surprised by the conversation on the DS
boards.  There were several of the opinion that the two should not mix, but
I did win a few people over with my ideas.  One of the highest compliments I
got was when a DS fan, who knew very little of SJ and was sorta a "don't mix
the two", and when I posted the notes on History & some of the Warden-Kings,
he said he was impressed by the thought and research I put into it :D  Made
my day.

    The genesis of this project really started there.  I noticed that
several people said things to the effect of "I use X from SJ".  That got me
thinking about what in SJ appealed to DS players.  I asked them such in a
tread titled "Why DS Spelljamming?", thinking I could make a sphere with
DS-themes.  I got a few good posts, which boiled the answer down to "wanting
to save DS ala Dune".  People opposed the idea because they didn't want
10,000x spelljammers showing up with massive cargo-holds of iron.  From
that, the Black Gulf was born.  I wanted to retain a "DS-feel", so I wanted
sorcerer-kings.  However, the idea of retro-fitting some new ones or
stealing existing ones was not appealing.  So thus the idea of the
Warden-Kings came to me...12 powerful protectors to keep such mettlers like
the illithids & Elven Fleet out of Athas so that Rajaat could do his dirty
work.  Likewise, these Wardens could also be fodder for DMs to steal for
their own "sorcerer-kings" outside of Athas...:D  All in all I think the
results fit well with both SJ and DS canon, without having to sacrifice one
for the other.  ;)

Adam