Races are great 👍 

And so are the monster 

Special shout out to the artists 10 out of 10

But they forgot the SETTING of Spelljammer only one location described (you can buy the nearly 100 pages 2ed book on DMsguild) and no Gazetteer of Realmspace (again you can buy the 2ed on DMsguild) there is 2 spheres described in the adventure but not greatly

I won't be preordering again, its like they forgot to put useful information about the setting in the SETTING book 

I thought the whole point of giving us a path to the stars was for us to make our own destinations....  

But yeah, they don't need to reprint the stuff from second edition, just grab the pdf off of DMs Guild

Quote from Mindseye >>

I thought the whole point of giving us a path to the stars was for us to make our own destination 

 

It's a setting book without a setting though... I don't have time as DM to create a whole Sphere and the Planets. Nor should I have to buy old content if I've paid $90 AUD for books... I just expect Realmspace at the very least 

Quote from FiresOfMel >>

Quote from Mindseye >>

I thought the whole point of giving us a path to the stars was for us to make our own destination 

 

It's a setting book without a setting though... I don't have time as DM to create a whole Sphere and the Planets. Nor should I have to buy old content if I've paid $90 AUD for books... I just expect Realmspace at the very least 

 That’s honestly understandable, the books definitely do need more meat to them.  However I do like all of the content currently available for it so even though it’s not the friendliest product for a new DM I’d definitely say I’m glad I bought it.

We've been waiting for this for a long time.  I"ve been promising my party a spelljammer adventure in 5e for a while now, and then the sourcebook showed up as a future item and we started to get pumped.  It's finally out and we can create the characters for our epic adventure.  The players are all playing giff, but we changed their features from rhinoceros-like to porcine.  Yes, at the request of my players I am DMing Pigs in Space...

I like a lot of the content so far but I'm honestly surprised--and disappointed--by the digital price point. It's priced 67% higher than the other books, many of which have more content. The physical price point makes more sense; hardback binding for three books is pricier, the dm screen, etc.

As a player and DM who learned the game on Planescape and Spelljammer, I find myself disappointed in the very little Lore and Setting information that these books, like many recent books, have to offer. While I don't mind drawing on years of accumulated knowledge to supply my players with a rich and varied adventure along the streets of Sigil or the eddies of the Astral Sea I think that that lack of information makes it difficult for newer DMs and players to really step into and use the information it does supply. It seems restrictive especially to those who either lack the time to create their own creations or the resources to go back and buy digital copies of the original books from 2e. The lack of this kind of flavor material seems to be one of the biggest failings of 5e.

Saddens me to say this–espescially in the case of such a beloved setting–but I was a fool to have purchased these books thinking we were actually going to get something of substantial value to improve our game experience. I will not discredit any of the illustrators or subordinate designers who have crafted an extremely good-looking product, alas it is one without the proper depth.

First off, I have to mention how this FEELS like a total cash-grab on the consumers' part considering what we've gotten. I mean, 50 bucks (digital) for the same page-count as XGTE?! Now a poster map, DM-screen, and the fact that the physical version is comprised of three separate hardcovers with thicker pages makes sense for an increased price, and one can understand how the increased production cost would also require a bump in the digital price as well, but not 20 whole dollars extra for what should have been a 34.99$ or 39.99$ pricetag (and beyond users don't even get the dm screen).

Moving on to the meat of the matter, what can be collectively called the "Space Rules" of these books are severely lacking. It's not like there isn't inspiration out there, with the original 2e Spelljammer books containing more and clearer rules than these books do, I've seen homebrew adaptations of old spelljammer handled better than this. Once again, reading these books gives the impression; "Here's 50%, you do the rest". Like, EVERYTHING that was written on making your own Wildspace System can be shortened to "idk, do whatever and maybe take some inspiration from the two systems in the adventure", which by the way barely have a single page of description each. There is also no mention of how long it generally takes to leave a planet to the point where you can use "Spelljamming Speed" (Fast TraveL / FTL mode). If you use the rules of gravity planes and air envelopes, using a ship's normal movement would take WEEKS to leave a planet, but then we have this neat rule only mentioned in the Spelljamming Helm magic item description where you can activate FTL if you are more than 1 mile away from any other 1+ ton objects but only when you are in space. Any DM with a brain would use the latter rule, but it is extremely unclear. I can go on, but I'll end with one more example where, according to these books, actual SPACESHIPS move at the speed of a light ******* jog and there are NO SHIP ACTIONS WHATSOEVER, so you can't even dash or do any of the like (each of the ship speeds should have at least been doubled or scaled with caster level imo), and there are no upgrades, no unique types of spelljamming helms or nothing.

I also want to mention how ridiculous it is that the advertising for the set says "New spells and magic items for your party"..... Yeah, reading the book I was extremely disappointed to find a whole TWO SPELLS & THREE MAGIC ITEMS (which includes spelljamming helms as one of the items, which is a damn prerequisite, not an addition). Did ******* product lead start making this book when reactions came back during April Fools???

In the end I can only hope that WotC stops taking a piss and starts investing in their good content, because there's a lot to be found here, such as the monsters and the adventure seems inspired from what I've read. In short, there is good content here that can be used for great games, yet the DM must sadly provide a lot of home rulings to make it work in a reasonable fashion, as seems to be the trend of 5e since Xanathar's. 5/10 - Only purchase on a discount, if you're really passionate about spelljammer, and you're willing to fill the gaps.

I have been waiting for this for months! So excited!

I like the Plasmoids, their old AD&D lore paints them as being a fantasy counterpart to me, being loyal, hungry for adventure, and eating random stuff sounds interesting z

I do understand the increase in price for the physical copies of Spelljammer (seeing as it is three hard-cover books plus a DM screen), but why do you charge $20 more for a digital copy when the page count is less than most of the other books?

I personally love the set. The art is fantastic and the updates (astral sea as opposed to the phlogiston), in my opinion, are cooler than the old Spelljammer material and I grew up on that. The player options are fantastic, as well as the ships.

It doesn't bother me that spheres aren't really covered in this since all that information is easily found elsewhere. I have physical copies of the old Spelljammer books but its not like baseline information on these things isn't on a wiki or YouTube video. 

Nothing really needs to be home-brewed in other than spheres of your own making. Naval combat is covered in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Besides, a spelljamming helm basically just gives a ship a flying speed. All the unique spelljamming qualities are here in the set. Only one person flies the ship so the additional crew is there to run maintenance duties and fight.

Sure, there aren't many new spells or magic items but Spelljammer never had that much along those lines that were unique to it in the first place. In fact, I'm glad that I don't have to buy a separate supplement just for character options (looking at you 2nd edition Spelljammer's Handbook).

II have no real negative comments about the set that isn't nitpicking. I know my group will enjoy this, as will I.

Huge issues with the book, from OP background and races, weird ship repair mechanic, stupid speed movement for spelljammers (as you would need 26 days to exit atsmosphere of a a spherical planet 5,000 miles in diameter with the fastest ship), 2 spells ?

Astral Adventurer's Guide and Boo's Astral Menageries are extremelly short : a 40 minutes read for both of them (in details, both stats and lore). And the adventure Light of Xaryxis is quite short too and heavilly rail roaded.

They got rid of the Phlogiston, crystal sphere and so The actual Spelljammer and the broken sphere. Everything is in the astral sea now. They could have still included the astral plane by making the stars portals to the astral plane, and have the astral sea a more populated place, but keep the phlogiston.

Dwarf Forteresses are absent, as well as gnome spelljammer (they even say gnome never succeded at making them with giant hamster !), no Dreadnought or Man-o'-War either (not citing all the spelljammer fist edition ships too, and they are a lot)

Spelljamming helm is now 1 item that cost between 5000gp and 10000gp. Instead of the 100,000gp for minor helm and 250,000gp for a major helm. Illithid don't use psionic series or pool helm, but just regular helm. Beholder don't have an orbus just a room that act like a spelljammer helm for beholders only in their tyrant ships. Neogi don't have lifejammer or death helms. Obviously no Forge, gnomish helms or Furnace, or any spelljamming helm, their is only one type now.And Arcane (or mercane) are now just random magic item vendors instead of being the only original source of helms, the spell to create them is now availlable to every one who wants it when they level up.

The retconning of the Phlogiston and the price of a spelljamming helm, making it really easy, cheap and safe for players to go from setting to setting, which now is a casual thing instead of a long and hard journey.

The product is empty and unfinished. Excluding the bestiaries and mini-adventures of each release, Spelljammer only has 60 pages of supposed campaign setting content compared to Eberron's 301 or Ravenloft's 223 - and 31pages of that is a list of different types of spelljamming vessel. Subtract the 13 pages of new races, and we are left with a meager 16 pages of information on a setting - not enough, and what little is there feels either irrelevant or empty. The book's information on Wildspace settings - which will make up a solid half of a Spelljammer game - is a single paragraph that boils down to "figure it out on your own."

A DM wanting to run a Spelljammer campaign is at exactly the same place they were before the release - you're better off spending $10 to get the 2e supplement on DM's guild, which not only includes actual rules for navigating in space, ship-to-ship combat, and how to make your own Wildspace system, but also has actual named locations and setting information. I mean, this book doesn't even have a single reference to iconic aspects of the original AD&D Spelljammer - not one mention of THE Spelljammer, nor of the Astromundi Cluster, nor of the Vodoni Empire. The Rock of Bral, a location that had its own splatbook in 2e, gets five
pages of shallow material. Large Luigi, one of the most recognizable NPCs from the original, goes from having a backstory and unique character to "nice beholder who
knows a lot." In the bestiary (which has a noticeable amount of Dark Sun monsters), there's a full page on killer clowns, but not even a single mention of the scro.

This is Spelljammer in name and little else, and somehow fails to have less of a sense of identity than the Forgotten Realms. In fact, the core issue with this product is that rather than remake Spelljammer for 5e,
they decided to make a generic sci-fi setting with a thin coat of Spelljammer paint.

I'm used to these reboots not meeting expectations, but it's absolutely appalling that this costs more than any 5e release so far yet still fails to do the bare minimum. I'm worried about what they'll do to Planescape.

The TRUTH about Planar Travel - D&D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTrk7t7b0LQ

Quote from FiresOfMel >>

Quote from Mindseye >>

I thought the whole point of giving us a path to the stars was for us to make our own destination 

 

It's a setting book without a setting though... I don't have time as DM to create a whole Sphere and the Planets. Nor should I have to buy old content if I've paid $90 AUD for books... I just expect Realmspace at the very least 

It is VERY weird that Realmspace is outlined in the Academy adventure given out here, but not mentioned anywhere in the books, even when the Light campaign stops just shy of saying you started in Faerun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4tL_K9r8ps 

This video says it all, the worst DnD release to date. A pointless set of rules that really add nothing to the game. 

No ship to ship combat (run it like its a dungeon) really really vague rules about travelling through space, awful rules about repairing and maintaining ships. It's like Wizards did the sourcebook because they knew we wanted it, but decided that they didn't want the hassle of actually making it new and exciting. 

If this is the future of DnD releases then I have real concerns. 

Okay, finally got my books but I have a question:

the math to leave a planet seems off; it states that a 5,000 mile planet has roughly an air envelope/gravity of around 5,000. A ship can only travel at its given speed to escape this, so the Bombard moves at 4mph, meaning it would take it 40+ days to escape into Wildspace?!?!?!?

Am I missing something?

Earth is 3,958 miles with a breathable atmosphere roughly extending 7.5 miles. 

Also in SJ 2e it took turns not days, to leave a planet.

Quote from chibi_grazzt >>

Okay, finally got my books but I have a question:

the math to leave a planet seems off; it states that a 5,000 mile planet has roughly an air envelope/gravity of around 5,000. A ship can only travel at its given speed to escape this, so the Bombard moves at 4mph, meaning it would take it 40+ days to escape into Wildspace?!?!?!?

Am I missing something?

Earth is 3,958 miles with a breathable atmosphere roughly extending 7.5 miles. 

Also in SJ 2e it took turns not days, to leave a planet.

 Nope your not missing anything, the rules for space travel are non-existent, you have paid for a book that basically says "make it up as you go along we can't be bothered" It also handwaves the rules that stop a Jammer from travelling at hyperspeed (I think it is 1 ton of mass within 1 mile pulls a ship out of it) and is inconsistant with the rules about the amount of breathable air and what happens as it starts to run out. 

Quote from Bilfon >>

Quote from FiresOfMel >>

Quote from Mindseye >>

I thought the whole point of giving us a path to the stars was for us to make our own destination 

 

It's a setting book without a setting though... I don't have time as DM to create a whole Sphere and the Planets. Nor should I have to buy old content if I've paid $90 AUD for books... I just expect Realmspace at the very least 

 That’s honestly understandable, the books definitely do need more meat to them.  However I do like all of the content currently available for it so even though it’s not the friendliest product for a new DM I’d definitely say I’m glad I bought it.

 Agreed, I could have done without the adventure and been given more sustainable information. More equipment, additional archetypes/domains/oaths. Just more. I'm okay with coming up with my own locations. I played Spelljammer some back in the early 90s and wasn't a real big fan, but I've grown as a player and DM. So, I thought I would give this newest incarnation of the setting a new day in court. I'm underwhelmed. What's in there is useful, just need more is all. I'm planning a Pirates of the Caribbean/Treasure Planet scoundrel type of story, we'll see what happens.