Re: SJ Reviews: The 'SJR' References

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Wed 22 Feb, Ben Wafer wrote:
> Dreamer wrote:
> > So, reading below the "must have"s are: 'Rock of Bral', followed
> > by 'Space Lairs', with 'Lost Ships' and 'Practical Planetology'
> > being "possibles".
> 
> I would go so far as to say that Lost Ships is in the "must have" 
> category. While I agree with Paul that it's a little uneven, it also 
> includes some of the most flavourful ships in the setting IMO. Of 
> course, it also includes a few ships that are poorly thought out - as 
> written the Vipership should be the dominant naval vessel in the 
> spheres, bar none - but a little tweaking can make these workable. The 
> ship write-ups actually gave me more good adventure ideas than the 
> adventure idea sections.

Would it be a good idea to try and assemble some sort of errata,
that makes the basic 'reference' books for SJ fit the style of
the campaign worlds they are associated with?

What sort of "look and feel" would 'Realmspace', 'Greyspace', and
'Krynnspace' need to aim for? Could a sort of style guide be put
together for each of them, that there is some chance people would
agree on?


And, in the case of 'Lost Ships' which ship designs are probably
OK, which are flawed, and why, and which will trash your
campaign, if you allow them? Could there be any agreement on what
tweaking is needed?


> Practical Planetology is highly useful, but IMO Lost Ships beats it out 
> purely because Lost Ships includes a wide variety of potentially useful 
> goodies for the DM, while Practical Planetology only includes planets.
> 
> > Do you think it would be worthwhile people trying to write-up
> > their own 'Realmspace', 'Greyspace', and 'Krynnspace'?
> > 
> > As these worlds seem so core to SJ, it would be nice to have
> > something for reference that people would want to refer to!
> 
> Weeeeellll, the 'big three' are core to SJ, but IMO they really 
> shouldn't be. Realmspace, Greyspace, and Krynnspace should be nothing 
> more than spelljamming subburbs. If not, it begs the question "why do 
> most of the powerful nations/wizards/priests on these worlds know 
> nothing about spelljamming?"

If this ignorance is the main sticking point, would adding some
sort of errata which gives one or more explanations be a good
idea?

The classic reason for this would be "The Gods Will It So!",
maybe with some long-a-go council of the gods which agreed that
SJ would not be encouraged, except that it be allowed among those
who already knew about it. Realmspace, for example, with its many
off-world portals can provide those who think space travel is one
way home (even if they're wrong), without SJ travellers from
beyond the sphere being the only source. You could even say that
there was a low-grade world-wide geas!

Throw in a few Council of the Gods empowered demi-gods, who are
supposed to maintain the SJ status quo, while being as covert as
possible (you can bet that some gods, or groupings of gods, would
see other uses to put these to [grin] ), and this might even give
some interesting adventure ideas!

As for who knows, in some settings the idea of "secret knowledge"
could be very tempting to nations/wizards/priests - one big
difference between medieval and modern settings is the guild
system with its idea of craft secrets, for example. Without the
printing press and modern travel and telecomms (though I've seen
campaign settings where there are teleport gates in most major
cities)...

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/