SJ Reviews: The 'SJR' References

In my quest to support the delusion that folks care what I've 
produced a series of quick and dirty reviews of all the Spelljammer 
products. I hope these will be useful to newcomers and those without 
all of the products.

Rating System:
*= Mediocre, poorly written product with little usefulness.
**= A bad product for several reasons with one or two useful aspects.
***= An average product with some good and some bad points.
****= An above average product with few bad points.
*****= An excellent product with few if any bad points. An essential 
SJ product.

The 'SJR' Reference Series:

SJR1: Lost Ships
by Ed Greenwood (c)1990
Rating:***

This product is basically just a collection of adventure seeds, magic 
items, monsters, and new ships but it works. The additional vessels 
are all pretty cool and fill a niche, also they are not really any 
less well designed then those in the original boxed set. The 
adventure ideas are somewhat obvious but some gems are there to be 
mined. On the minus side, for some of the adventures to work the NPCs 
are often required to do some things that are simply impossible 
according to the rules. Also, the 'Wonderseekers' seem like simply a 
very bad, virtually unworkable idea. Still, over all a good product.

SJR2: Realmspace
by Dale "Slade" Henson (c)1991
Rating:**

This product has no Forgotten Realms flavor, no Spelljammer flavor, 
and damn little thought exhibited within it's pages. Some of the 
ideas are original and interesting (Coliar and Anadia pop to mind) 
but most GMs will spend a great deal of time simply rewriting this 
book. The NPC's motivations and background are simply unbelievable. 
While of little value some ideas can be gleaned, there are a handful 
of interesting magic items, and the map of Realmspace included is 
actually quite nice.

SJR3: Dungeon Master's Screen
by J. Paul LaFountain (c)1991
Rating:**

This product is exactly what it says and little else.  It has some 
utility as a GM screen, but is otherwise greatly lacking.  The 
additional fold up ships are a nice touch.  While some may dislike 
them, Spelljammer's lack of miniature ships always depressed me and 
these are a reasonable substitute.  With some work, they produce a 
visually interesting ship battle utilizing the hex grided star map in 
the original boxed set.  But if you don't use the fold up paper 
ships, you don't need this product.

SJR4: Practical Planetology
by Nigel Findley (c)1991
Rating:****

Basically a good book with lots of 'drop in' planets correlated 
together. Some of the ideas work better then others but there is 
plenty to work with here. Has the same 'plastic' or 'unbelievable' 
feel of the '______space' sphere references in places but over all 
the product is helpful if a touch too sci-fi for my tastes.  A nice 
touch is that many of these worlds appear in the Spelljammer novels, 
notably Findlay's own The Broken Sphere.

SJR5: Rock of Bral
by L. Richard Baker III (c)1992
Rating:*****

It is impossible to say enough good things about this product. It 
captures the flavor of Spelljammer perfectly, and provides a classic 
fantasy city setting, on par with the 'greats' such as Lankhmar, 
Thieves' World, Waterdeep, or Greyhawk. If every spelljammer product 
had been to the same quality, Spelljammer would be as popular as 
Greyhawk is today. If you buy one Spelljammer book, buy this one.

SJR6: Greyspace
by Nigel Findley (c)1992
Rating:**

All the flaws of Realmspace but _slightly_ better because Borka and 
Ginsel are just damn interesting and useful planets to have in a 
Spelljammer campaign. Still, take away the name and this has none of 
Greyhawk's flavor, and the style of writing and organization is 
copied straight from SJR2 Realmspace (yuck!).

SJR7: Krynnspace
by Jean Rabe (c)1993
Rating:**

As bad as the other two '____space' books, this one is an improvement 
over Realmspace because it has more interesting NPCs and locations. 
Still, no Dragonlance flavor nor any real Spelljammer flavor. Same 
style and organization flaws.

SJR8: Space Lairs
by Nicky Rea and Wes Nicholson (c)1993
Rating:****

A sweet little collection of lairs, just like the title says. Easily 
'plugged-in' to almost any campaign and all pretty well detailed. I 
especially like the 'Base of Woes' even though it is mislabeled as an 
Elven Armada. Lots of good Spelljammer flavor and some interesting 
villains easily expanded by the GM if needed. Use this with SJR5 Rock 
of Bral and SJA2 Skull and Crossbows and you've got yourself a great 
Spelljammer campaign started! ['Gump's Back' caused me to buy a 
back-brush and use it in the shower every morning!:)]



-- 
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like 
less than half of you half as well as you deserve." Bilbo Baggins.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Paul Westermeyer, westermeyer@???????.net