Ok so, its release day for Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, "a thrilling space-based adventure setting" for the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. I have to admit that I rode the hype train for this one. I've been watching videos, reading articles, and generally planning for my next game using some of these rules. And now that I have it... I think that its good but a bit lacking in a few areas. I'll get to my criticisms, but first...
The New Hotness
So Spelljammer is a collection of three 64 page books; Astral Adventurer's Guide, Boo's Astral Menagerie, and Light of Xaryxis.
The Astral Adventurer's Guide contains the new character backgrounds, player races, spells, magic items, and Spelljammer Vessels. The Astral Adventurer's Guide also contains rules for traversing, survival, and ship to ship combat in Wildspace and the Astral Sea. Lastly, the book has information on The Rock of Bral, a city and spaceport built on an asteroid.
"But what about new creatures?", I hear you ask. Don't worry Boo's Astral Menagerie has got you covered. The second book contains over 50 new creatures. From the Aartuk, a race of warrior plants shaped like a starfish, to the Zodar, a floating biped encased in an obsidian exoskeleton that can warp reality, there is something for everybody, and a few that are for nobody... like Space Clowns...
"How about for me, the dungeon master who likes to run modules or use them for inspiration?" Well for that there is the Light of Xaryxis, a fifth to eighth level adventure divided into twelve parts. From the adventure summery,
"This story revolves around the characters’ efforts to save their home world from an attack by an empire of astral elves. The attack is underway when the adventure begins. After taking refuge aboard a spelljamming vessel, the characters head for the stars to discover who is responsible for the attack and how they can save their world."
The adventure was inspired by Flash Gordon, both the 1930s comic serials and the 1980 film. It's meant to be campy, over-the-top, and each chapter concludes with a cliffhanger.
The Review
Alright, I'm only going to review Alstral Adventurer's Guide for now. The others will require more time to go over. I'll start with character options that were added. They added six races;
Astral Elf, elves that live on the Astral Plane
Autognome, a mechanical gnomes built by rock gnomes
Giff, humanoid hippos with a mastery of firearms
Hadozee, a race simian beings with gliding membranes
Plasmoid, an ooze that can play at being humanoid
Thri-kreen, a telepathic, four armed mantis beings
The races are fun. The options that they provide will allow for a multitude of different playstyles. You can really see what the new design philosophy is for races going forward. It removes some of the obvious race/class combos, and allows you to play what you want without restrictions. But since that subverts tropes, some people don't like it. To each their own.
The two new backgrounds are Astral Drifter and Wildspacer. So the interesting thing about each of these backgrounds is that each comes with their own feat. Astral Drifter gets the Magic Initiate (Cleric) and the Wildspacer gets Toughness. The Astral Drifter also get Longevity, you are 20d6 year older than look due to time spent in the Astral Sea, and Divine Contact, which means you met a god in passing. Both are traits pretty cool. But the Wildspacer... oh the Wildspacer...
So WotC made a background with a feat that EVERY character benefits from. I will also ask you, when given the choice between Wildspacer and ANY other background, why wouldn't you take Wildspacer? Now, I like this idea of having feats being part of the background. Honestly I think that WotC should errata all the backgrounds and add feats to all of them. My opinion, no one else's.
Lastly, the two spells and three magic items are... there...
The two spells are Air Bubble, a 2nd spell which gives you a 24 hour bubble of air to breath, and Create Spelljammer Helm, a 5th level spell which uses a 5000gp Crystal rod to make a chair a Spelljammer Helm.
As far as the magic items, one of them is the aforementioned Spelljammer Helm, which needed for a Spelljammer vessels to move through Wildspace and the Astral Sea. The Wildspace Orrery is a mini solar system projector, its neat. The last magic is the Fish Suit, which is a space suit that gives you swim speed in water and a fly speed in no gravity.
The Opinion
So I feel that for a setting about traversing the cosmos, there should be more stuff and spells. I think that there is a full 64 page book missing from the set. An book containing the classes native to Wildspace and the Astral Plane, fabulous magic weapons and armor, fantastic spells, and expanded firearm rules needed for the Giff to come into their own. Its a solid starting point, but I do feel that it lacks something.
But what do you think? Am I just complaining because I didn't get enough toys for the money I spent, let me know in the comments. Until next time!