The Spelljammer

Hey, Mr. Westermeyer,

Aw, heck, smalljammers don't bother me. They do have a lot of power, but my players learned long ago that I shrug that off. :) Now, as to the rarity - that's another matter. I'd greatly hesitate to have more than one smalljammer in the campaign at once (unless the other one(s) belonged to NPCs competing for a chance for theirs to be the next Spelljammer or otherwise at odds with the PCs). Smalljammers should be rare, I'd think - we know that it's a fact that the Spelljammer sure can't make enough of 'em to suit itself. LOL

The lady player whose character bonded with my campaign's smalljammer would (naturally enough) like it to become the next Spelljammer. I think that's very unlikely, but as Mr. Grubb himself pointed out, where PCs are concerned, the unlikely often turns out to be a sure thing. I could be wrong.

For the other players, the thing that interested them the most about flying a smalljammer was that it can land upon both hard ground and water. As to its power, they are not very concerned about shipboard armaments; the spellcasters among them tend to be the most potent weapons on board.

As presented, LotS is loaded with good ideas, but the overall generic quality of its inhabitants is disappointing. I like the maps and the additional ships presented, and a few of the NPCs are interesting - again, The Fool is my favorite and if my players somehow find the Spelljammer, I may keep him in the Warrens, reworked a bit. Mr. Grubb outdid himself with LotS - in small ways.

In the unlikely (there's that word again!) event that my lady player ever got to the Spelljammer, for me to run it as presented would be a serious mistake. My players would probably get bored very quickly if they interacted with the NPCs presented. As you and others have pointed out, they could do exactly that upon any asteroid city in the stars, and they would expect more from me during a visit to the Spelljammer - and rightfully so, I think.

In such a place, my players would expect to meet people of races they've never even heard of (or that no longer exist anywhere else, perhaps), and encounter dangers, puzzles, obstacles, and rewards that they couldn't possibly see anywhere else, even in space. In my opinion, that's why putting the Spelljammer into a boxed set must have been a bear, and why a good portion of it is a flop.

But at least it's a springboard. Mr. Grubb, creative genius that he is, managed to do that much. But heck, our expectations for such a boxed set would be so high that anything publishable might have been a letdown. I know my expectations were high, and I commend Mr. Grubb for managing to do as well as he did. The Spelljammer is a tall order.....

..... as my players will discover if they try hard enough to find it! LOL

Jim