SJ Reviews: The Polyhedron Articles

In my quest to support the delusion that folks care what I think 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 Polyhedron Magazine Articles

Polyhedron #48 "Spelljammer" (preview)
by Jeff Grubb (c)1990
Rating:**

Just exactly what it claims to be, nothing more or less. 

Polyhedron #55 "Spelljamming Monsters"
by Conners, Donovan, & Moor (c)1990
Rating:***

Straight forward Monstrous Compedium entries for the Chakchak, 
Oortling, and MagiStar.  Most of those appeared in later Spelljammer 
modules (Oortlings are in  SJR2 Realmspace, for example).  The 
Oortlings are an excellent addition, easily added to mind Flayer 
communities where the GM wants a more cordial relationship between 
the Mind Flayers and the local human communities.

Polyhedron #71 "Highlander" (adventure)
by Minniear & Bassingwaite (c)1992
Rating:***

A very short adventure, but easily placed in most Spelljammer 
campaigns.  A nice little NPC as well.

Polyhedron #73 "An 1889 Crystal Sphere" and Polyhedron #74 "A New 
Crystal Sphere"
by Timothy B. Brown (c)1992
Rating:***

Space:1889 is my other great love, after Spelljammer.  In fact, all 
of my published RPG writing is for either Space:1889 or Spelljammer. 
Brown does a good conversion job, but generally speaking the flavor 
and intent between the two settings is just too great to bridge.  You 
might find some thing in here worth cannibalizing, however, and it's 
a fun read.

Polyhedron #81 "In His Majesty's Spacial Service" (adventure)
by Tom Prusa (c)1993
Rating:***

A pretty decent adventure with a new crystal sphere that's dominated 
by the IEN.  Not as good as Steven Kurtz' Dungeon adventures, but 
still worth having.

Polyhedron #87 "Eye of the Leviathan" (adventure)
by Randall Lemon and Ed Peterson (c)1993
Rating:**

This adventure takes place planet-side on Toril in the Forgotten 
Realms, but has a crashed Squidship.  The Squidship is almost 
incidental, but the map could be used for a crashed squidship in 
space, and the plot could easily be integrated or convert for use 
with Spelljammer.

Polyhedron #100 "Gorlash Spacescum"
by Tom Prusa (c)1994
Rating:***

Just a write up on a Kobold NPC and his crew, but still a great 
single encounter to throw at PCs.  Useful.

Polyhedron #122 "A World of Your Own: Islands in the Multiverse: An 
Overview (Part I)"
by Roger E. Moore.(c)1996
Rating:**

This is the start of a six part series that describes how a GM can 
design an 'island' campaign.  There is a little bit of good 
information on various possible Spelljammer 'island campaign' 
locations, as well as similar information on other settings. 
Spelljammer lends itself to 'islands', so the other setting 
information could be used as a laundry list for cannibalizing 
material from those settings.

Polyhedron #123 "A World of Your Own: Island Campaigns: Part 2 Sea to 
Shining Sea"
by Roger E. Moore.(c)1996
Rating:**

On the surface, this installment has no connection to Spelljammer. 
But in fact, it provides a world nearly as well detailed as those 
found in Practical Planetology.  The Gothmarian Hobgoblins would make 
a useful counterpoint to the Scro!

Polyhedron #124 "A World of Your Own: Island Campaigns: Part 3 
Speaking (demi-)planely"
by Roger E. Moore.(c)1996
Rating:*

Not really connected to Spelljammer, but the demiplane information 
could prove useful.

Polyhedron #125 "A World of Your Own: Island Campaigns: Part 4 The 
Wild, Wild, Wildspace"
by Roger E. Moore.(c)1996
Rating:*****

This is a don't miss article.  It begins a three part examination of 
the Tears of Selune asteroid field above Toril, but really is just a 
wonderful primer for any GM designing asteroid communities.  Of 
special note is the chart 'Surface Areas and Populations of Spherical 
Planetoids'.  Lots of solid practical discussion of trade and 
defense.  Great stuff.

Polyhedron #126 "A World of Your Own: Island Campaigns: Part 5 
Ecological Nightmares"
by Roger E. Moore.(c)1997
Rating:*****

Another wonderful article, which discusses how to populate an 
asteroid without straining ecological credibility.  And, we get a new 
Tears of Selune asteroid described, 'Long Block', which I believe is 
the only wildspace community of Rastipedes described in published 
product.

Polyhedron #127 "A World of Your Own: Island Campaigns: Part 6 
Strange heroes, strange adventures"
by Roger E. Moore.(c)1997
Rating:***

Not quite as useful as the previous two installments, this basically 
describes how the Undermountain: Stardock can be adapted to have a 
larger Wildspace component.  All in all a useful article, still.  It 
should be noted that this article, like the article in Polyhedron 
#125, advocates placing the Rock of Bral in the Tears of Selune.  But 
the context is a campaign example, and is clearly not intended to 
establish that as a canon location of the Rock.

Polyhedron #151 "Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon"
By Andy Collins (c)2002
Rating:**

Billed as a Spelljammer setting for d20 this 'mini-setting' is a 
dismal failure written by people who seemed to dislike much of 
Spelljammer.  But it still provides a new sphere with an involved 
history and good planet writes, some new ships, and some rules for 3e 
players that should help with conversion.  In other words, like most 
Spelljammer material there is lots of good stuff buried in the dreck 
and the articles are ripe for cannibalization.  Get it if it's cheap, 
or if you play 3e.