What if your Spelljammer crew manages to go to uncharted parts of the Cosmos like say you enter The Crimson Sphere of Athasspace by getting past the Black Gulf or The Grey? Or you reach Eberron's Siberspace by getting past the Ring of Siberys? What interactions could ensue?
I was thinking that maybe your party and another group are hired by a Dohwar cartel to investigate a potential trade route only to potentially become stranded in Athasspace or Siberspace. If you're entering the Crimson Sphere you have to brave the horrors of the Black Gulf to enter, you can choose to turn back if you want or keep pushing forward until you either die or finally get through, then you have to deal with the harsh system of Athasspace with it's pirates descended from stranded invaders and the Void Wardens to deal with as well and to get out you either go back through the Black Gulf again or try going through the Grey to get back out. If you're going to Eberron then instead of dealing with magical darkness and shadowy monsters you're dodging asteroids and meteors to get in and when/if you get there you'll be viewed as a public spectacle and get mentioned all over the newspapers then there will be a similar conundrum with getting back out.
In Athasspace I suspect worlds like Yrim and At-ur to be inhabited by creatures like Gammaroids, Xorns, Earth Elementals, Rock Cacti, Galeb Duhr, Bulettes and Earth Drakes while on the moon of Xin'Chil the giant insects could be Ankhegs, Umber Hulks, Kanks, Flail Snails, Giant Praying Mantises, Giant Dragonflies, Monstrous Scorpions, Megapedes, Giant Spiders and Giant Beetles that can be killed for materials while the creatures made by the degenerate Xixchil tribes on that world could be similar to Flesh Golems or the Composite creatures from Weird Wars while the monstrous plant-life could be, Bloodgrass, Rock Cacti, Thorn Slingers, Mantraps, Twig Blights, Shambling Mounds, Hunting Cacti, Zombie Plants and Giant Sundews. The creatures of planet Xoyog could be fishlike flying aliens, native Floater variants, Gossamers, Cloud Ray variants and reskinned Ixzan or Ixitxachitl which are hunted by the stranded Hadozee community. The Doomdock and the Fallen Forge can also be places to search for equipment and materials, maybe the Doomdock has a salvageable ship? The moon, Doshvaar probably has Monkeys, Su-monsters, Flying Monkeys, Microraptors, Velociraptors and Archaeopteryx in it's jungles.
I would imagine the volcanic moon, Asafrum to be inhabited by effreti, azer, lavaworms, fire drakes, fire elementals, magma drakes and magma elementals, besides the cannibalistic headhunters. Maybe some Xorns scavenging what’s left from the destroyed mines too. I also imagined the poisonous gas moon, Ta'ajr to be inhabited by legless flying drakes with similar traits to Green Dragons from other settings while the Great Reptiles of the moon, Hejin are Dinosaurs.
But if you went to Eberron there's Gith, Buommans and maybe a few Fazes in the Astral Space around the planet. While the only celestial bodies surrounding Eberron are it's moons which may or may not be inhabited by creatures from the realms they're associated with and Ethergaunts inhabit the Ethereal Plane. You can also use the suggestions provided in the link.
There can be yet other uncharted systems you could visit such as the ones which are home to the Grim Hollow, Drakkenheim or Exandria settings.
And just for fun here's a Crystal Sphere I came up with on my own:
A multi-climate earth-body planet inhabited by humans that worship the Mesoamerican Gods(see Deities and Demigods), giants, dinosaurs, giant creatures and dragons of the chromatic and metallic varieties, sea serpents (see Bigby's Glory of Giants and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons). It's orbited by a multi-climate moon inhabited by oozes.
A dangerous earth-body planet with poison clouds and acid pools with forests, jungles, swamps and marshland inhabited by Black and Green Dragons along with Kobolds that mimic the Roman Empire (see Flee, Mortals!).
A desert earth-body planet inhabited by ettercaps with an agrarian culture with steeders and cow-like beetles as well as apts, banths, thoats, calots, white apes and orluks which inhabit it's arid planes (see the original D&D Underworld & Wilderness Adventures booklet along with this link: SAVE OR DIE!: Interlude 2: Warriors of Mars - The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature).
A massive air-body planet with strong winds that is devoid of life.
A Uranus-like air-body planet with a poisonous atmosphere.
For obscure dinosaurs like Microraptor see Dr. Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs.
Published systems aren’t really “uncharted”. They may be difficult to reach but in the sense that they are known worlds ( ie published by WOtC) they aren’t uncharted. In that sense even third party published worlds aren’t uncharted. Try reading Heinlein’s Number of the Beast for a great take on this. For a truly “uncharted” world your going to have to homebrew it from the ground up.
What I meant was that they're isolated from the rest of the Multiverse. So, to other settings they're uncharted. Also, the planetary system of the World that is home to Drakkenheim hasn't been explored in detail.
Well I think Hadozee could already fit the bill for Sentient Apes or maybe a reskinned homebrew and they could live in Ewok-style villages in the trees feeding on fruit.
I think you missed my point(s): 1) all published realms you’ve purchased are charted ( including any third party worlds you’ve purchased) 2) uncharted worlds don’t exist yet in in your universe ( or mine) . They have to be either purchased ( and possibly modified) or homebrewed before they can be discovered and “charted”. 3) one of the best “cociets” for this that I have come across is from Heinlein’s book Number of the Beast. It was written back when extra dimensions of the universe were first being posited and the number folks were talking about was 6. With the conceit being that that allowed for 6 to the 6th power to the 6th power of possible universes and each one was a fictional world to the others or a mirror of each other with slight differences ( like a missing letter V). So you could pretty much define the world you wanted and then go find it or a very close analog. Same thing with spelljammer - if you can imagine it, you.can homebrew it and “charted” it into your campaign.
I'm not referring to those I was referring to the concept for a Crystal Sphere I described at the bottom. Also, even then the Crystal Spheres of the D&D settings I've listed above haven't been explored in Spelljammer.
The giants and dinos sounds sort of cool. Keep in mind that the original Spelljammer was a 2e product that extended into 3e so any world created and published in 4e/5e wouldn’t be “charted” in those products. Another thing to consider is that the 2e crystal spheres are not present in the 5e rewrite. All the other problems that occur trying to get to places like Athas (Dark Sun) would still be present. Also, they intentionally placed some worlds, (Dark Sun, the dragon campaign world) out of (easy) reach because they had very different rules that didn’t work well with the regular rules.
What if your Spelljammer crew manages to go to uncharted parts of the Cosmos like say you enter The Crimson Sphere of Athasspace by getting past the Black Gulf or The Grey? Or you reach Eberron's Siberspace by getting past the Ring of Siberys? What interactions could ensue?
f0345a64-8293-4f80-b92f-0570b62dce92 (athas.org)
Dragonmarks: Spelljammer in Eberron | Keith Baker’s Blog (keith-baker.com)
I was thinking that maybe your party and another group are hired by a Dohwar cartel to investigate a potential trade route only to potentially become stranded in Athasspace or Siberspace. If you're entering the Crimson Sphere you have to brave the horrors of the Black Gulf to enter, you can choose to turn back if you want or keep pushing forward until you either die or finally get through, then you have to deal with the harsh system of Athasspace with it's pirates descended from stranded invaders and the Void Wardens to deal with as well and to get out you either go back through the Black Gulf again or try going through the Grey to get back out. If you're going to Eberron then instead of dealing with magical darkness and shadowy monsters you're dodging asteroids and meteors to get in and when/if you get there you'll be viewed as a public spectacle and get mentioned all over the newspapers then there will be a similar conundrum with getting back out.
In Athasspace I suspect worlds like Yrim and At-ur to be inhabited by creatures like Gammaroids, Xorns, Earth Elementals, Rock Cacti, Galeb Duhr, Bulettes and Earth Drakes while on the moon of Xin'Chil the giant insects could be Ankhegs, Umber Hulks, Kanks, Flail Snails, Giant Praying Mantises, Giant Dragonflies, Monstrous Scorpions, Megapedes, Giant Spiders and Giant Beetles that can be killed for materials while the creatures made by the degenerate Xixchil tribes on that world could be similar to Flesh Golems or the Composite creatures from Weird Wars while the monstrous plant-life could be, Bloodgrass, Rock Cacti, Thorn Slingers, Mantraps, Twig Blights, Shambling Mounds, Hunting Cacti, Zombie Plants and Giant Sundews. The creatures of planet Xoyog could be fishlike flying aliens, native Floater variants, Gossamers, Cloud Ray variants and reskinned Ixzan or Ixitxachitl which are hunted by the stranded Hadozee community. The Doomdock and the Fallen Forge can also be places to search for equipment and materials, maybe the Doomdock has a salvageable ship? The moon, Doshvaar probably has Monkeys, Su-monsters, Flying Monkeys, Microraptors, Velociraptors and Archaeopteryx in it's jungles.
I would imagine the volcanic moon, Asafrum to be inhabited by effreti, azer, lavaworms, fire drakes, fire elementals, magma drakes and magma elementals, besides the cannibalistic headhunters. Maybe some Xorns scavenging what’s left from the destroyed mines too. I also imagined the poisonous gas moon, Ta'ajr to be inhabited by legless flying drakes with similar traits to Green Dragons from other settings while the Great Reptiles of the moon, Hejin are Dinosaurs.
But if you went to Eberron there's Gith, Buommans and maybe a few Fazes in the Astral Space around the planet. While the only celestial bodies surrounding Eberron are it's moons which may or may not be inhabited by creatures from the realms they're associated with and Ethergaunts inhabit the Ethereal Plane. You can also use the suggestions provided in the link.
There can be yet other uncharted systems you could visit such as the ones which are home to the Grim Hollow, Drakkenheim or Exandria settings.
And just for fun here's a Crystal Sphere I came up with on my own:
A multi-climate earth-body planet inhabited by humans that worship the Mesoamerican Gods(see Deities and Demigods), giants, dinosaurs, giant creatures and dragons of the chromatic and metallic varieties, sea serpents (see Bigby's Glory of Giants and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons). It's orbited by a multi-climate moon inhabited by oozes.
A dangerous earth-body planet with poison clouds and acid pools with forests, jungles, swamps and marshland inhabited by Black and Green Dragons along with Kobolds that mimic the Roman Empire (see Flee, Mortals!).
A desert earth-body planet inhabited by ettercaps with an agrarian culture with steeders and cow-like beetles as well as apts, banths, thoats, calots, white apes and orluks which inhabit it's arid planes (see the original D&D Underworld & Wilderness Adventures booklet along with this link: SAVE OR DIE!: Interlude 2: Warriors of Mars - The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature).
For obscure dinosaurs like Microraptor see Dr. Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs.
For adapting monsters from previous editions use this link: How To Make 5e Statblocks for 1e Monsterss In DnD
Published systems aren’t really “uncharted”. They may be difficult to reach but in the sense that they are known worlds ( ie published by WOtC) they aren’t uncharted. In that sense even third party published worlds aren’t uncharted. Try reading Heinlein’s Number of the Beast for a great take on this. For a truly “uncharted” world your going to have to homebrew it from the ground up.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
What I meant was that they're isolated from the rest of the Multiverse. So, to other settings they're uncharted. Also, the planetary system of the World that is home to Drakkenheim hasn't been explored in detail.
What if you visit a planet that's inhabited by Dinosaurs and Sentient Apes?
Then you have to homebrew the world
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Well I think Hadozee could already fit the bill for Sentient Apes or maybe a reskinned homebrew and they could live in Ewok-style villages in the trees feeding on fruit.
You want sentient apes try the hairless ones
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
No, humans are boring.
Unless I make them oompa loompas?
Anyways, what did you think of the original Wild Space system I came up with?
I think you missed my point(s):
1) all published realms you’ve purchased are charted ( including any third party worlds you’ve purchased)
2) uncharted worlds don’t exist yet in in your universe ( or mine) . They have to be either purchased ( and possibly modified) or homebrewed before they can be discovered and “charted”.
3) one of the best “cociets” for this that I have come across is from Heinlein’s book Number of the Beast. It was written back when extra dimensions of the universe were first being posited and the number folks were talking about was 6. With the conceit being that that allowed for 6 to the 6th power to the 6th power of possible universes and each one was a fictional world to the others or a mirror of each other with slight differences ( like a missing letter V). So you could pretty much define the world you wanted and then go find it or a very close analog. Same thing with spelljammer - if you can imagine it, you.can homebrew it and “charted” it into your campaign.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I'm not referring to those I was referring to the concept for a Crystal Sphere I described at the bottom. Also, even then the Crystal Spheres of the D&D settings I've listed above haven't been explored in Spelljammer.
The one with the planet of Giants and Dinosaurs.
The giants and dinos sounds sort of cool. Keep in mind that the original Spelljammer was a 2e product that extended into 3e so any world created and published in 4e/5e wouldn’t be “charted” in those products. Another thing to consider is that the 2e crystal spheres are not present in the 5e rewrite. All the other problems that occur trying to get to places like Athas (Dark Sun) would still be present. Also, they intentionally placed some worlds, (Dark Sun, the dragon campaign world) out of (easy) reach because they had very different rules that didn’t work well with the regular rules.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.