Re: Krynnspace

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Westermeyer" <westermeyer@????????.net>
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 2:12 AM


> From:    Trampas Whiteman <dragonhelm@??????????.net>
>
>>  > My main bug with this is
>>>that we clearly now have two crystal spheres and I'm not sure what is in
>>the
>>>new crystal sphere. Page 120 of DLCS lists the constellations (moons and
>>>planets) of Krynn. This is the only mention that the planets get, but it
>>>suggests that the planets may have been recreated in what I'll call
>>>"New-Krynnspace". (I don't know if there would be any life on New-Sirron,
>>>New-Reorx, New-Chislev, New-Zivlyn and New-Shinare. They might even be
>>>gigantic illusions put there to keep the groundlings happy.)
>>
>>This is all future history as far as Spelljammer is concerned. 
>>Dragonlance's timeline is around 60 years ahead of the Forgotten Realms
>>and Greyhawk (rough estimate).  So a modern Krynnspace campaign would
>>still be within the 4th Age.  Any adventure past the War of Souls would be
>>in the future of Spelljammer, where any number of things may have changed.
>  The current year of SJR 7 Krynnspace is 5049 OC (364 AC), but I'm not 
> certain what year the 5th Age starts.

The Second Cataclysm doesn't happen until 383 AC so it is well into the 
future of the universe set down in SJR7. The DLCS ends with 420 AC (39 SC).

> This is why I choose to just ignore the War of Souls in the 'Official' 
> Spelljammer Timeline.  The whole issue is just to confusing and is best 
> left to individual GMs.  My gut says few GMs were running Spelljammer 
> campaigns based on Krynn, and that very few Krynn campaigns had a 
> Spelljammer component.

There are four different things that can be done with Krynnspace:

1) Add more fluff that gives each small community on Krynnspaces's planets a 
"character" similar to the communities on Ansalon and Taladas,
2) Give Krynnspace 3e compatible subraces and local classes and feats (to 
make it accessible to new gamers and give them plenty of options for PCs),
3) Project Krynnspace's timeline backwards to give its planets a history 
that is as colourful as Krynn,
4) Update the timeline of Krynnspace to deal with the Second Unhuman War 
and/or the Vodani Empire plot arcs and
5) Continue the timeline of Krynnspace/Reoxspace on to create a future 
version of the crystal sphere that can be used by anyone who wants to go 
down that route.

Steps 1, 3 and 4 make Krynnspace better for all players as they add more 
fluff that they can use. Step 2 only helps d20 gamers, but then we need 
those people onboard to keep Spelljammer alive. Step 5 is the "least useful" 
step as it only helps the 5th Age gamers, but Reoxspace* will be a fun place 
to develop.

Maybe you can help with the general fluff that will help your campaign. Once 
we have the past and the present sorted out we will know where to build the 
future from.

I agree that we should have a "default" version of Krynnspace that is set 
before the Age of Mortals. My take on the new SJCS is that we should look at 
the current timeline of both Living Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms Campaign 
Setting and work out which one has advanced the least number of years. That 
is how far I think we should advance the SJCS.

We have to advance the SJCS a bit. We need new things to happen to make it 
more interesting. We need to use things like the Second Unhuman War to 
tinker with the parts of SJ that don't work very well and bring in new plot 
arcs that will be exciting to players.

* = I'm liking Trampas's new name for Krynnspace more and more because it 
will give us a way to show that this is the Age of Mortals crystal sphere. 
Reorxspace can have its own page on Beyond the Moons so that Krynnspace can 
be free of any future plot arcs.

> For my own games, I plan to have Krynn and her moons just disappear. A 
> great mystery.  If my games ever get that far into the future.
>
> For me, Krynn's major role is as the source of tinker gnomes, kender, and 
> minotaurs.  But all three are so widespread that the world's disappearance 
> won't matter much.  Very few folks from Krynn become spelljammers, in my 
> campaigns.  I've always beleived it wasn't very spelljammer aware. 
> Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms produce far, far more spelljammers.
>
> I like Krynn, and Dragonlance, I just think it doesn't work well as part 
> of a larger universe.

The beauty of this discussion is that we can create off-world homelands for 
all the races of Krynn. That way we can have access to spacefaring versions 
of those races. Hopefully they should then have a Dragonlance feel to them 
while being designed to work well within a wildspace campaign. For example 
your Taurusspace was a great home for minotaours, but we could also stick 
lots of small empires similar to that within Krynnspace itself.

We now have an opportunity to address all the issues that you didn't like 
about SJR7 (I just read your review, so I'm aware of them) and make an 
updated version of the crystal sphere that *should* get a 5 star review from 
you. All you have to do is tell us what is "missing" from Krynnspace and we 
can add it to one of the unexplored regions of one of the planets.

And if there is anything already in Krynnspace that you really hate (and 
everyone else really hates) then I suppose we could use the Second Unhuman 
War or something similar as an excuse to deal with it. (However, I'd much 
rather add to Krynnspace that take away from it. That is why I want to do 
things like have lots of small colonies of different elf races.)

We can then create a Krynnspace (set a short amount of time after SJR7) that 
has extra fluff added and all of the bugs ironed out.

And for the future Reorxspace the Second Cataclysm becomes the end of a 
"Krynnspace" that is "controlled" by Dragonlance and the start of a crystal 
sphere that is *inspired* by Dragonlance. For that future version of the 
crystal sphere we get to look at post 5th Age Dragonlance material and just 
pick out the stuff that works well for us. I'm actually a big fan of 
Dragonlance and really mourned the loss of Krynn to Spelljammer, but this DL 
plot arc has given us the freedom to create a new crystal sphere that has 
the best ingredients of both campaign settings. Like you I'll probably play 
with Krynnspace, but Reorxspace is probably going to be 100 percent cooler 
that Krynnspace is now.

Once we have sorted Krynnspace out we can systematically go through every 
other SJ product that anyone has any gripes with and look at ways to bring 
in new plot arcs that make it work better with the SJCS. A lot of people 
probably agree with the opinions in your reviews, so we could start of with 
the products you gave the lowest ratings to and give them all a five star 
makeover.

(Along the way we can create background fluff for the new SJCS, sort out all 
the 3e conversions we need and even think about other crossover campaigns 
that turn other "groundling" campaign worlds into new crystal spheres.)

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://www32.brinkster.com/virtualeclipse/