I was wondering if anyone here has run or still runs a long term Spelljammer campaign that spends most of its time either on Oerth or in Greyspace. As a player I have gone through some short term Spelljammer adventures in or around Oerth, but never an ongoing Spelljammer campaign. I am thinking about drawing up a whole campaign centered around this and would love any advice or suggestions if you have them.
Here's some little snippets that might spark ideas... (Spelljammer is another of my pet obsessions - I collected hard copies of everything for that millieu back in the early 1990's, keeping notes for Greyhawk as I went.) First off, do you have access to SJR6 - Greyspace? There are tons of hooks and ideas in there that work for a campaign. (If not, let me know and I'll throw a few there out here for you to look over.)
I'm running on the premise that you would prefer to start such a campaign from Oerth, rather then one of the planets elsewhere in the crystal sphere. Based on that, from one of my note sets I have the following you might want to look at:
1. Zagyg has a small spelljamming ship stashed away which you can access from somewhere deep in Castle Greyhawk. (WGR1 - Greyhawk Ruins).
2. A larger spelljammer, the cuttle command Ultimate Victory armed with Greek fire projectors, crashed after a mutiny somewhere in the Sea of Dust. (Legend of Spelljammer boxed set, Book 2 – Ships and Captains)
3. Oerth lost a second sun known only as as "Anti-Liga" in its prehistory, likely to illithids using a device called the Sunslayer. (As an aside: If this is true, the illithids were likely testing the device - who knows, they might come back to finish the job.) (SJR6 - Greyspace and The Astromundi Cluster boxed set)
4. A small pirate fleet, The Black Company, works the entire crystal sphere. They tend to approach piracy as a business, using a minimum of destructive force and taking choicest bits of cargo or treasure. (SJR6 - Greyspace)
5. The main ports seeing spelljammer trade in the Flanaess include the Free City of Greyhawk (big surprise ), the Free City of Dyvers and the Free City of Irongate. Other lesser ports include Doraakaa (humanoid ships) and Highfolk (elven Imperial Navy ships). (SJR6 - Greyspace)
6.A fan made contribution here: A freebooter by the name of Bocephus Bilgewater is known to work out of the Free City of Greyhawk. A slightly fleshed out version of his stats, ship and crew, drawn from the old Greyhawk Fan Club's "Greyhawk Grimoire" text compliation follows:
*Bocephus’ thief abilities are not available until he achieves equal level as a fighter.
Items Dagger +3, scimitar of speed +5, light crossbow of heartseeking +1 (1d4+1, pierces heart on a natural 20), eye patch of seeing (treat as gem of seeing); vest of protection AC2 (treat as bracers of the same value), bag of holding, ring of water walking, potion of water breathing, spelljamming compass, sargasso detector, the Gray Mariner (standard squid ship fitted with a minor helm)
History
Born on the Rock of Bral, a Wildspace port in the Grinder. Bocephus’ mother was a barmaid and he never knew his father. The lad helped around the bar, which was tended by an enlightened beholder of the wisest mentality. The creature taught Bocephus a great deal in his youth, and it was at its prodding that he became a spelljamming captain.
Bocephus was seventeen when he bought his first ship, a damselfly. He got it secondhand from a friend and ferried passengers from Greyspace to Oerth. When he could afford it, Bocephus purchased a clipper ship. Business really picked up then, as he was able to haul profitable amounts of cargo.
Some time later, Bocephus hooked up with a group of adventurers, after purchasing his squid ship, the Gray Mariner. They hired him to spelljam them to different parts of Oerth, and then back to the Free City of Greyhawk. He has been working for them ever since.
Other Notes
Bocephus's crew for the Gray Mariner:
First Mate: Scallyway Magillicutti, fighter, human, level 7, hp 37, AL: LG
Helmsman: Spec Sterncastle, fighter, human, level 6, hp 36, AL: NG
Boatswain: Onndek Swiftrig, fighter, half-orc, level 5, hp 33, AL: NG
Cook: Barth Mascot, fighter, human, level 1, hp 10, AL: CG
Quartermaster: Elasia Tillerman, m-u (fathomer kit), human, level 3, hp 9, AL: LG
Lookout #1: Jeb Ravenhigh, dwarf, fighter, level 2, hp 18, AL: NG
Lookout #2: Cane Ankhroc, human, thief, level 6, hp 23, AL: NG
Sea Navigator: Jaxon Taylor, human, thief, level 3, hp 13, AL: CG
Greyspace Navigator: Ianilla Greenblade, wood elf, cleric (Celestian), level 4, hp 16, AL: NG
Master Armorer: Alehandra Smythson, ranger, half-elf, level 6, hp 45, AL: LG
Hope some of that is useful.
_________________ <div>Braggi, Swain and Varlet at Large<br /></div>
Yeah, I have everything made for Spelljammer (as well as owning almost every module, book, etc. for Greyhawk), because I am a fiend when it comes to 1st and 2nd edition AD&D. You're right, there are tons of adventure hooks in Greyspace and in the Rock of Bral as well, and I have already started to incorporate those into the campaign I'm working on. I'm also tracking all the other hooks you mentioned, my favorite being the ship from Greyhawk Ruins, which was quite a surprise when I stumbled upon it as a player years ago. Thanks for reminding me about the others though, I'll have to dig through all my books and make sure I use them if where I can. I am also looking for more specific suggestions and tips for running a Spelljamming campaign from Oerth (pacing of the adventures, how much to throw at newer players since Spelljammer can be a lot higher level than some campaigns, and generally how DMs have dealt with their PCs, particularly on long voyages off planet, just to name a few. Thanks Braggi!
I posted a speculative timeline of Greyspace here. That forum is really good for Spelljammer fans in general, and I recommend you ask for advice from the regulars over there.
Roger Moore goes over the Spelljammer products in his Revised Greyhawk Campaign index. noting any Greyhawk references. He also indexed some Dungeon adventures linked to Spelljammer and Greyhawk.
Additionally there's an article in an old 2E Dragon which describes a Spelljammer merchant company out of Greyhawk:
Dragon #199, p.48
Campaign Journal: The Black Pegasus Trading Co., by David Montgomery and Jim Milner
A society of Spelljamming merchants, based in Oerth
I admit I'm rather torn when it comes to spelljammer. I like the idea well enough and have run a number of spelljamming adventures, but to me spelljamming just doesn't seem to fit well with the rest of Greyhawk. This is a matter of personal taste only. The optimum for me would be for both to coexist, but separately, with only the rare crossover between the two.
I hope to someday come up with some means of making this happen to my satisfaction, but until I do I'll probably be ignoring spelljammer altogether. Which is a pity.
I can't TELL you how thrilled I was to see "spelljammer" on the front page of Canonfire! Whee!!
Back when I was a much younger man, a new DM, and had that all-too-typical desire o include everything that I could find in print from TSR, I put a Spelljammer campaign together. There are a lot of people that alaways complain about having SciFi mixed in with fantasy. but, within my experience, that's just not the case.
If done well, Spelljammer doesn't feel anything like SciFi. The best advice that I could give is to not let things get too SciFi. Keep it D&D. Swords and Scorcery in space. It's not about laser blasters and robots and radars ... granted, we can go from planet to planet, but in this setting, it's little different than being abl to travel nation to nation on Oerth. It's just that there are more interesting things to see.
Keep your players on their toes. Show them things that they've never seen before. Change it up ... give monsters a new look. Surprise them with a template, change a creature's name, put a twist on the familiar. Make things that they don't reconiz. A race of small bipedal creatures descended from the monstrous amphibians of the ocean may look a lot different, but you can still use the Kobold stats for them. Keep it fresh.
One of the best things I ever found was described in The Adventure Begins.
The Adventure Begins wrote:
Snagtooth Shipbuilding (W4) does a low-key business with some spelljamming ships that strongly resemble normal sailing ships. These craft touch down in the Nyr Dyv or Woolly Bay, then sail along the Selintan to Greyhawk to quietly off-load cargo and take on new shipments. Nonhuman crew stay below decks in port. Fionor Clawhand knows all about wildspace, but he pretends to know nothing on the topic. He has some enemies in the spelljamming trade and looks forward to taking revenge on them. Brack Snagtooth genuinely knows nothing about spelljammers and doesn't care about it.
This was one of the most important things to me ... keeping it low-key, and making it so that PCs can come bak down to Oerth if the need/want to. GH isn't about having flying saucers all over the place, and the Spelljammers IMO shouldbe very much like regular ships that happen to have an interesting helm aboard. that's why I say stay out of SciFi ... Spelljammer is so much different than just plain ol' SciFi, it should have characteristcs all it's own. _________________ Owner and Lead Admin: https://greyhawkonline.com<div>Editor-in-Chief of the Oerth Journal: https://greyhawkonline.com/oerthjournal</div><div>Visit my professional art gallery: https://wkristophnolen.daportfolio.com</div>
I agree with you Icarus, whenever I have dealt with Spelljammer before I have focused on the sword and sorcery aspect of Spelljammer instead of its possible Sci-Fi elements. I plan on doing the same in the campaign I am working on. I think of Spelljammer being a lot like a sea based campaign, with naval style battles and long, dangerous trips over uncertain seas (or in this case wildspace). I don't plan on introducing Spelljammer ships to the general public on Oerth, I think a Greyhawk/Spelljammer campaign works best when those things are kept low key. Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming.
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