Should PCs be able to build helms. Was: Alternative helm creation

>From: Dreamer <dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk>
>Reply-To: Spelljammer Setting Discussion <SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com>
>To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
>Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Alternative helm creation
>Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 15:15:34 +0000
>
>In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Mon 14 Nov, Bart Dedecker wrote:
> > Keep the creation of helms for the Arcane... it's the
> > mystery of the setting and it'll give your players
> > something to chase for their entire career as players
> > :)
> >
> > and if they ask Luigi on the Rock, let him mumble
> > something about patience...

It would be better if Luigi told them about a sage on a world in a different 
sphere that he knows was researching on this 20 years ago. That way you can 
send the PCs on a quest and see if they are interested enought to track down 
all the information they need. A few red herrings and a few side quests 
along the way would build this into a good long term campaign objective.

You could even have something hidden in a fairly nasty sphere like the 
Astromundi Cluster (the "hotel california" sphere) or have a wizard with a 
working homebuilt helm crash land in the middle of the desert on Athas (in 
Night Druid's Crimson Sphere). The wizard could have turned himself into an 
archlich in order to have enough time to learn how to create a helm and 
could agree to teach the PCs how to do it if they help him complete some 
sort of life quest (perhaps he wants a copy of his plans passed to the 
Seekers or some other group).

>I'm afraid I must disagree with you.
>
>It is pretty clear that the Arcane/Mercane have some sort of big
>edge in Helm creation, but, it is also pretty clear that they are
>not the only ones building them.

That wasn't the impression I got from reading the SJ boxed set and other 
suppliments. I got the impression that the arcane viewed helm production as 
some sort of industrial secret. I got the impresion that they *did* have a 
monopoly (at least, they do at the moment). Are you saying what you think 
spelljammer *should* be like or are you refering to something a specific 
product? Please supply a book and page reference, if I am wrong about how 
the arcane fit into SJ.

I think that some non-arcane should know how to build some helms. However, 
mostly these people would keep that very quiet. A lone wizard with a "how to 
build minor helms" book would probably be the target of arcane assasination 
or kidnap by rival groups.

>The elves would not let someone else be their only source of
>supply, and I think the Vodani made their own. Furnace Helms were
>probably not all made by the Arcane either.

I agree that the elves would not like to be in that position, but do not 
remember anything in any book I read that said they were not at the mercy of 
the arcane. Would you please give me a page reference where it says they 
*can* make their own helms.

I'm not massively familiar with the Vodani, but I do recall that they "only" 
controll a small number of spheres (12 I think). If the EIN can't outsmart 
the arcane then the Vodani don't *need* to. I thought they were an agressive 
race. If they are, they don't need to make helms - they can just steal them 
from inferior races that they defeat.

>It's undercutting the others that the Arcane excel at - a Minor
>Helm at 100,000gp - the cheapest I've seen them sold for if built
>by 'standard' enchantment is 250,000gp, and 500,000gp is more
>credible.

Apart from the Minor and Major helms. Most helm types have some sort of 
built in disadvantage that makes players not want to use them. Furnaces 
explode if you enter the flow. Series helms are useless unless you are a 
mind flayer. Orbus are also useless. Non spellcasting helms give poor SRs 
and automatically die if they get "spelljammer shock", so they are less 
likely to win during ship to ship combat.

>Yes, you could have a campaign where the Arcane are the only
>source, but I think you would want to re-work the logic of the
>standard SJ setting in a few places.

As far as I'm concerned the "Arcane are the only source" campaign is the 
default SJ campaign setting. It is part of what makes them have power in 
space.

What *you* are proposing is *changing* the setting (from my point of view), 
however that *could* be a good thing. It *could* be better if other races 
could build some types of helm.

But instead of saying: "everyone can *already* make spelljamming helms," I 
think it is better to say: "the other races are on the brink of learning the 
arcane's secret." That way when your PCs find out how to create helms (or 
meet the wizard/cleric that has spent the last 30 years perfecting the 
method) you can have a massive chase across the spheres as various people 
try to steal the secret for themselves.

The process can then be a part of your ongoing campaign. The PCs could 
struggle for a year or so to actually find a secret location (where they 
won't be disturbed) and manage to perfect the method. (I would actually make 
the cost of avoiding the espionage by opposing groups so high that the first 
helm costs way more than it is worth. (Think of the United Kingdom 
government getting Colin Pillinger (the Beagle II man) to duplicate the 
Space Shuttle without NASA finding out what he was doing!)

>For example, how do groundlings get off-world to where the Arcane
>are in the first place, so as to be able to trade with them? At
>least some crude sorts of Helms should be possible to non-Arcane.
>I very much doubt that the Arcane are watching lots of worlds in
>the hope of acquiring new customers.

Don't forget that 99.99 percent of groundlings don't get off of their 
worlds. Most of them don't even leave their own country. In D&D culture most 
people don't even move out of their own villages. Most of them don't even 
realise there is anyone up above their world (or even on the other side of 
their own world). Groundlings don't "need" to build helms because they don't 
"want" to go up into space. You might as well ask why groundlings don't 
build magical devices that let them live under the sea or let them turn into 
Planewalkers. *Most* groundlings would think you were mad if you told them 
they could live on a tiny point of light in the sky. It must be a massive 
culture shock for many of them when you show them that they are wrong and 
that the point of light is another planet.

I would think that the only groundlings that would want to go into space are 
the ones that have been contacted by spacefarers. And if they know some 
spacefarers they can get access to wildspace or helms via the people they 
know.

(It isn't just groundlings that are like this. 90 percent of people living 
in wildspace also stay on whatever rocks they were born on. People that 
travel on spelljammers are a tiny minority of the population of the spheres 
they were born in. They are a tiny elite. Although many "Spacefarers" look 
down on "Groundlings", most of them are no better - they just think they are 
because they are arrogant. I think it is the Complete Spacefarers Handbook 
that compares small asteroid communities to groundling villages.)

Anyway, I'll go into the actual process of creating a minor or major helm 
but that is another email...

David Big Mac Shepheard
easyInternet internet cafe
London UK