What if your party was fighting mindflayers and crash their Nautiloid Spelljammer only to discover you crash landed on the outskirts of a small town in the United States. The mindflayers however escaped with some of their minions and are planning to take over the town in order to rebuild their ship. Or you could make a more fantasy oriented story on Mars with creatures from the John Carter series (see the original D&D Underworld & Wilderness Adventures booklet)? Maybe you could wind up on a fictionalised Venus as it's portrayed in the Carson Napier series? Hell, maybe you can stumble upon Yuggoth within the Asteroid belt and encounter the Mi-Go (see oldschool D&D Deities and Demigods)?
We know from the 80s cartoon (which is definitely Forgotten Realms canon given they keep popping up in the PHB and the Honour Among Thieves film) that the Earth exists in the same multiverse as the various D&D settings so there's nothing stopping a Spelljammer ship travelling there except the DM's imagination
We know from the 80s cartoon (which is definitely Forgotten Realms canon given they keep popping up in the PHB and the Honour Among Thieves film) that the Earth exists in the same multiverse as the various D&D settings so there's nothing stopping a Spelljammer ship travelling there except the DM's imagination
Well, they originally showed up in a World with four Suns simply referred to as The Realm. I also think they've been to the world of Greyhawk besides The Forgotten Realms. So, that would mean they've been to 3 realms in total.
Or, the Dungeon Master could simply rule that the solar system with the planet Earth (and Mars, Venus and so on) is either sealed off from any contact (the campaign setting known as Dark Sun is said to be one such sealed off system) or that Earth is far beyond the travel range of your spell jamming ship (assuming that your ship does not have a living treant embedded in the ship's hull to recycle the ship's air).
We know from the 80s cartoon (which is definitely Forgotten Realms canon given they keep popping up in the PHB and the Honour Among Thieves film) that the Earth exists in the same multiverse as the various D&D settings so there's nothing stopping a Spelljammer ship travelling there except the DM's imagination
Fun fact: there are actually multiple versions of that party; the one we see in the cartoon was stuck in greyhawk, there was another version that died at some point in the past (there is a stained glass commemorating them in BG2) and then the one from the movie.
From reading the source book 'Eberron: Rising from the Last War", I would suggest that the campaign setting of Eberron is also sealed off from the rest of Wild Space.
The crystal spheres do not exist in the same way 5e onward(novels aren't canon), so I'd say that while the Eberron setting is RESISTANT to external influence, it is not IMPERMEABLE.
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DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
The crystal spheres do not exist in the same way 5e onward(novels aren't canon), so I'd say that while the Eberron setting is RESISTANT to external influence, it is not IMPERMEABLE.
The book that I referenced was not a novel, it is one of the source books for the Eberron campaign setting. Whether a novel set in any campaign world ought to be considered as canon or not, is a question best posed to the design team at Wizards. If you and the players in your group want to raid and pillage the Greyhawk world, and the Dark Sun world, and the Faerun world, and the Eberron world, and the Al Qadim world and not be visited by Cthuhlu, Mordenkainen, Fizban and Elminster in turn, is your choice. I prefer to not disturb too many of the neighbors as otherwise my spell jamming ship might be targeted by a surface to air gadget from either Eberron, Halruaa or the USA.
Question: Could a spelljammer visit modern Earth? Answer: sure, nothing in the lore says it can’t. Further- you don’t even need spelljammer - Forgotten realms and Greyhawk lore has Archmages ( Elminster and Mordenkainen) meeting regularly here on Earth as “neutral territory”. DM manifested portals sec have been used many times - in both directions. I have an old PC (now an NPC) that literally is me - transported to a DM’s world for rules lawyering to much. Later he was in a campaign where the other party members visited me here to get my help getting things they needed to as they jumped times and worlds. Made for quite an nteresting campaign..
Question: Could a spelljammer visit modern Earth? Answer: sure, nothing in the lore says it can’t. Further- you don’t even need spelljammer - Forgotten realms and Greyhawk lore has Archmages ( Elminster and Mordenkainen) meeting regularly here on Earth as “neutral territory”. DM manifested portals sec have been used many times - in both directions. I have an old PC (now an NPC) that literally is me - transported to a DM’s world for rules lawyering to much. Later he was in a campaign where the other party members visited me here to get my help getting things they needed to as they jumped times and worlds. Made for quite an nteresting campaign..
Ah yes, in the old Dragon magazine series, Ed Greenwood had a recurring column entitled 'Pages from the Mages' in which personalities like Elminster, Mordenkainen, Raistlin and various others would 'pop' into Ed's rural Canadian farm house to discuss matters arcane (and Ed was permitted to eavesdrop on their conversations, which is how he gathered the material for his column). Elminster is said to have a particular fondness for pecan praline ice cream. I enjoyed those columns and I shared my Dragon magazines with my gaming group.
The crystal spheres do not exist in the same way 5e onward(novels aren't canon), so I'd say that while the Eberron setting is RESISTANT to external influence, it is not IMPERMEABLE.
The book that I referenced was not a novel, it is one of the source books for the Eberron campaign setting. Whether a novel set in any campaign world ought to be considered as canon or not, is a question best posed to the design team at Wizards. If you and the players in your group want to raid and pillage the Greyhawk world, and the Dark Sun world, and the Faerun world, and the Eberron world, and the Al Qadim world and not be visited by Cthuhlu, Mordenkainen, Fizban and Elminster in turn, is your choice. I prefer to not disturb too many of the neighbors as otherwise my spell jamming ship might be targeted by a surface to air gadget from either Eberron, Halruaa or the USA.
Al-Qadim is on the same planet as the Forgotten Realms.
The crystal spheres do not exist in the same way 5e onward(novels aren't canon), so I'd say that while the Eberron setting is RESISTANT to external influence, it is not IMPERMEABLE.
The book that I referenced was not a novel, it is one of the source books for the Eberron campaign setting. Whether a novel set in any campaign world ought to be considered as canon or not, is a question best posed to the design team at Wizards. If you and the players in your group want to raid and pillage the Greyhawk world, and the Dark Sun world, and the Faerun world, and the Eberron world, and the Al Qadim world and not be visited by Cthuhlu, Mordenkainen, Fizban and Elminster in turn, is your choice. I prefer to not disturb too many of the neighbors as otherwise my spell jamming ship might be targeted by a surface to air gadget from either Eberron, Halruaa or the USA.
Al-Qadim is on the same planet as the Forgotten Realms.
Agreed.
But, even though Al-Qadim and Maztica are supposedly on the same planet as the Forgotten Realms, the distances between each campaign setting are supposed to be sufficiently vast so that PCs in one campaign setting can not easily travel from one setting to another.
For my BECMI/1E/2E hybrid game Earth is both its own alternate Prime and its own Crystal Sphere (we went with each sphere is its own alternate, so adapting 5E philosgen/astral was rather easy we dint change a thing. )
now Earth is as follows
Holy Roman Empire / Arthurian England /Renaissance France / Norse Vikings / Egyptian Pharaohs / Islamic Caliphates / Zhou & Ming Dynasties
As you can see it can quite a mix, it’s very low magic world, and burning at the stake happens to pcs……… oops
For my BECMI/1E/2E hybrid game Earth is both its own alternate Prime and its own Crystal Sphere (we went with each sphere is its own alternate, so adapting 5E philosgen/astral was rather easy we dint change a thing. )
now Earth is as follows
Holy Roman Empire / Arthurian England /Renaissance France / Norse Vikings / Egyptian Pharaohs / Islamic Caliphates / Zhou & Ming Dynasties
As you can see it can quite a mix, it’s very low magic world, and burning at the stake happens to pcs……… oops
Some of your campaign settings are incompatible with each other. The pharaohs of Egypt ceased to exist long before the Islamic caliphates and at one time, France was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Muslim faith is partly based upon the Jewish faith and partly based upon the Christian faith.
Some of your campaign settings are incompatible with each other. The pharaohs of Egypt ceased to exist long before the Islamic caliphates and at one time, France was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Muslim faith is partly based upon the Jewish faith and partly based upon the Christian faith.
We weren't going for historical accuracy. It was about using everything we could and throwing it in a melting pot and seeing what we came up with.
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What if your party was fighting mindflayers and crash their Nautiloid Spelljammer only to discover you crash landed on the outskirts of a small town in the United States. The mindflayers however escaped with some of their minions and are planning to take over the town in order to rebuild their ship. Or you could make a more fantasy oriented story on Mars with creatures from the John Carter series (see the original D&D Underworld & Wilderness Adventures booklet)? Maybe you could wind up on a fictionalised Venus as it's portrayed in the Carson Napier series? Hell, maybe you can stumble upon Yuggoth within the Asteroid belt and encounter the Mi-Go (see oldschool D&D Deities and Demigods)?
SAVE OR DIE!: Interlude 2: Warriors of Mars - The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature
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Yeah, all of those are good. You gonna run one of those or... ???
I wish!
I mean, go for it. If you're the DM and you're running Spelljammer then you can run any one of those scenarios. Or all of them.
Definitely start out small and plan one of those to start. If that goes well then certainly write out another.
What's stopping you?
We know from the 80s cartoon (which is definitely Forgotten Realms canon given they keep popping up in the PHB and the Honour Among Thieves film) that the Earth exists in the same multiverse as the various D&D settings so there's nothing stopping a Spelljammer ship travelling there except the DM's imagination
I heard that in the lore a Spelljammer visited Earth during The Renaissance.
Well, they originally showed up in a World with four Suns simply referred to as The Realm. I also think they've been to the world of Greyhawk besides The Forgotten Realms. So, that would mean they've been to 3 realms in total.
Or, the Dungeon Master could simply rule that the solar system with the planet Earth (and Mars, Venus and so on) is either sealed off from any contact (the campaign setting known as Dark Sun is said to be one such sealed off system) or that Earth is far beyond the travel range of your spell jamming ship (assuming that your ship does not have a living treant embedded in the ship's hull to recycle the ship's air).
Fun fact: there are actually multiple versions of that party; the one we see in the cartoon was stuck in greyhawk, there was another version that died at some point in the past (there is a stained glass commemorating them in BG2) and then the one from the movie.
From reading the source book 'Eberron: Rising from the Last War", I would suggest that the campaign setting of Eberron is also sealed off from the rest of Wild Space.
The crystal spheres do not exist in the same way 5e onward(novels aren't canon), so I'd say that while the Eberron setting is RESISTANT to external influence, it is not IMPERMEABLE.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
The book that I referenced was not a novel, it is one of the source books for the Eberron campaign setting. Whether a novel set in any campaign world ought to be considered as canon or not, is a question best posed to the design team at Wizards. If you and the players in your group want to raid and pillage the Greyhawk world, and the Dark Sun world, and the Faerun world, and the Eberron world, and the Al Qadim world and not be visited by Cthuhlu, Mordenkainen, Fizban and Elminster in turn, is your choice. I prefer to not disturb too many of the neighbors as otherwise my spell jamming ship might be targeted by a surface to air gadget from either Eberron, Halruaa or the USA.
And I was pointing out how the lore had changed even w/o the novels.
In previous editions, there was ZERO way to enter Eberron, Eurth, Krynn & several places. Now there is.
The novels bit was for anyone who wanted to bring those up, not calling E:RftLW a novel itself.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Question: Could a spelljammer visit modern Earth?
Answer: sure, nothing in the lore says it can’t.
Further- you don’t even need spelljammer - Forgotten realms and Greyhawk lore has Archmages ( Elminster and Mordenkainen) meeting regularly here on Earth as “neutral territory”.
DM manifested portals sec have been used many times - in both directions. I have an old PC (now an NPC) that literally is me - transported to a DM’s world for rules lawyering to much. Later he was in a campaign where the other party members visited me here to get my help getting things they needed to as they jumped times and worlds. Made for quite an nteresting campaign..
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Ah yes, in the old Dragon magazine series, Ed Greenwood had a recurring column entitled 'Pages from the Mages' in which personalities like Elminster, Mordenkainen, Raistlin and various others would 'pop' into Ed's rural Canadian farm house to discuss matters arcane (and Ed was permitted to eavesdrop on their conversations, which is how he gathered the material for his column). Elminster is said to have a particular fondness for pecan praline ice cream. I enjoyed those columns and I shared my Dragon magazines with my gaming group.
Al-Qadim is on the same planet as the Forgotten Realms.
Agreed.
But, even though Al-Qadim and Maztica are supposedly on the same planet as the Forgotten Realms, the distances between each campaign setting are supposed to be sufficiently vast so that PCs in one campaign setting can not easily travel from one setting to another.
For my BECMI/1E/2E hybrid game Earth is both its own alternate Prime and its own Crystal Sphere (we went with each sphere is its own alternate, so adapting 5E philosgen/astral was rather easy we dint change a thing. )
now Earth is as follows
Holy Roman Empire / Arthurian England /Renaissance France / Norse Vikings / Egyptian Pharaohs / Islamic Caliphates / Zhou & Ming Dynasties
As you can see it can quite a mix, it’s very low magic world, and burning at the stake happens to pcs……… oops
Some of your campaign settings are incompatible with each other. The pharaohs of Egypt ceased to exist long before the Islamic caliphates and at one time, France was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Muslim faith is partly based upon the Jewish faith and partly based upon the Christian faith.
We weren't going for historical accuracy. It was about using everything we could and throwing it in a melting pot and seeing what we came up with.