A new approach to Spelljammer in 5e | Game Changer  

Which is your favorite spaceship and why is it the Thousand Sunny?

The amount of thought and work that you put into every video must be immense. Thank you

Spelljammer was probably the worst book in all of 5e. I’m glad there are fans who’re willing to do want the devs weren’t, make ship combat interesting.

Ship (Regular, not spell) combat has been a huge point of interest to me. I tend to lean towards the separate combat system. But this is interesting. The most important part of any system is making sure everyone can do something.

I, personally, have never liked the vibe of spelljammer and the space ship combat stuff, not my cup of tea. That being said, I still sat through this entire video because your ideas are phenomenal and the amount of work that you put into these videos is truly astounding. ON TOP of the fantastic video you're always releasing content for completely free that are supplements that i would actually pay for. Hands down one of the best D&D advice channels out there, keep up the astounding work. Absolutely worth the channel membership cost.

You are a space-hero, that deserve all the space-likes!

I just started DM’ing a spacejammer campaign and I wasn’t happy with how it handles space combat. I never realized how horrific it was until you did the number crunching. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing Space Unjammed, it’s perfect for what we’re looking for! You’re a hero!

Holy heck. I think I'm now either making a Traveler campaign for DnD or shamelessly remaking my old unfinished ideas of ship building system into something like this.

Well timed video for me! About to start a space pirate adventure and was looking for rules. Was going to adapt Limithron's Rules for Naval Combat or the Naval Code, but wasn't terribly satisfied by the idea of most people spending their turns giving advantage to doing whatever the captain said.

This is a great video. I've kind of incorporated a little bit of both worlds. Onboard the ship I have two turrets and an arcane cannon. For my more martial classes I brewed up some gundam style fighters. The pilot is also the captain and they get to move the ship and can give one a command to one of the other players and the player can take that action (allowing them to effect the battlefield a bit more than just piloting. Lastly we have the engineer that controls the power systems, they have the ability to direct power to parts of the ship such as weapon systems, shields, or engines.

Cool ideas. I think you can actually mix the two flavours with half the characters using the ship and half flying into the fray on the own. Sadly this doesn't solve this for actually maritime settings, but you could enhance these with flying mounts or sea horses, maybe even small boats. Or you go for just 1-3 rounds of manouvering and gunning, after which either a vessel tries to break the engagement and flees or it comes to a boarding action. I for one think that having the option of one party actually escaping, so that apprehending them is more of an investigation than a direct chase, makes for a nice change of pace. Its not very dnd like, from what I can tell, but well maybe this is worth exploring and a gap to address

I am in fact, easily entertained by pretty pictures, take my like.

...Huh. This is really cool! I ran something similar through sheer coincidence in Descent into Avernus - it was preceded by Waterdeep Dragon Heist, and the players were a little invested in the mansion they got, so by shenanigans I had it teleported to hell and converted into a mobile-home-slash-tank for them to find - and yeah, pretty quickly found that big vehicles vs big vehicles gets a bit boring. I ended up giving both the players and opponents smaller motorcycles to zoom around with, but I didn't think to make the big vehicles _themselves_ more interesting and specialized. I wish I'd had a chance to see this video back then!

this is SO great. i can’t even begin to explain the leaps and bounds better this is than the 5e spelljammer source books put out by wizards. thank you for your service, truly!

This is absolutely perfect timing! We had a session 0 last weekend where we made characters and came up with roughly how they know each other/meet each other. I'm preparing to run a Spelljammer campaign right now and we'll prob start in 1 or 2 weeks most so this is perfect since I really.. didn't like how ship combat sounded haha I'll take some liberties with stuff in the book anyways but this is so helpful. I was just gonna steal ship combat from other 5e ship combat systems but this is really helpful^^

Thank you! A thousand times THANK YOU for fixing Spelljammer 5e ❤

I used your supplement when I ran Spelljammer, I really enjoyed it, mainly the additional ship options. But I most definitely prefer it when Starship combat is like a "game mode" or a "subsystem" that plays around and feels different than a normal combat, I also have experienced that 5e players struggle with subsystems because every challenge seems so insignificant with how DC works that they just want to jump and do stuff themselves, even in a pirate/sea campaign they tried to do that. The negative part about Starfinder starship combat (which I really like), is that some rules are overcomplicated, some things are a high DC roll for a minor advantage, some other things require you to re-read them on the go if you don't memorize a long wall of text. Appreciate the video and great work!

Yesterday i checked this chanel to see if you posted a new video and here it is,

So one of the things i added to my ship combat in D&D that I highly recommend for any mage-heavy party: Spellcannons. Essentially these are ship-bound spell augmentors, the primary function of them being to boost the range of any spell you cast into them to one worthy of ship-to-ship combat. (My personal homebrew boosts the range to 10x the normal range, but I'm generous and I think 5x might be more balanced if a little less fun) with more powerful versions of spellcannons doing things like adding permanent metamagic effects or boosting the level of the spell cast through it. These things do so much to add interest to space combat for both NPCs and PCs: mages can now summon monsters onto the decks of the enemy ship, cast hazards like flaming sphere onto the weapons platforms (or helm) of the enemy ship... it essentially re-incorporates all the possibilities that mages provide to D&D combat back into starship combat, which adds a lot more interest. (And yeah, I know this is spellcaster exclusive stuff and they have a lot of privilages already, but I'm working on that other thing, too)

Really well done. I appreciate your deep level of insight into how the game works, and the effort you put in to translate your ideas into a clear and high quality video without excess rambling. Thank you for creating something that looks like it may save Spelljammer for my group.

I have been homebrewing a system for myself based a lot around FTL, this gives 3 modes of combat: Boarding via teleporters, Dogfights between solo ships, and improved ship-to-ship combat. In ship-to-ship combat each stat gets mapped to a role, Dex-driver, Str&Int Guns, Wis Shields, Con Engineering and Cha Captain. Each role can have multiple people in it and get advantage on roles but makes your ship bigger and slower but my party found it very fun to design their own ship on a hexmap that I converted to a drawing

Wow! This is great! Now I'm more interested playing Spell Jammer with this Homebrew. This just gave me some inspiration for my Sea Pirates campaign. I'm going to use the same ship battle concept but with Aquatic animals and steam punk engines as single space fighters while still using big ship battles. Thank you very much for creating this!

This is just perfect! I was just going to do some prep for spelljammer!

Love this so much cause space jammer was such a fun and cool concept to me and when I got the books it was so bland and disappointing but now with this I feel a lot more confident eventually running this.

This is a great way of handling things because it makes every player directly involved in combat and it gives the players FLIGHT combat too, which is just massively fun.

My first planned change to the main rules is increasing ship and creature speed in Wildspace x10 so the ships actually move about properly on the scaled Battlemat. That way they get proper tactical movement, can duck in and out of cover etc rather than moving half a ships length per turn in a crawl. Next I want to make the weapon use connected to character abilities. So the player aiming who has good shooting skills with an arrow is good with the weapon. But I want that with the loader too, so each player involved with the weapon makes a roll, strength to load and something undecided (perhaps a choice of Int or Wis) for the one pulling the firing lever for the timing of the shot. A good roll gives advantage to the shot, a bad disadvantage and of course one of each cancels the other out. Though perhaps I’ll make one instead give a refill to damage instead… still considering that. That way the pilot makes the movement choices and everyone on the weapons makes a roll that matters to the attacks success or failure. And each comes from the stats of the character. The barbarian with their high strength is now making a strength roll to lift that boulder onto the mangonel fast or pulling back the powerful string of the ballista, the rogue with their high dex is aiming up that shot etc. And for bards, well sea shanties have a practical use in keeping timing and coordination with physical tasks and bardic inspiration could be given to help those weapon rolls and maybe I’d have those go into a pool per weapon where any in the weapon crew could use it. Those are my current thoughts.

Thank you so much!! It's unpopularity explains why I was able to order the new box set (for my daughter) so cheaply (under $50 including shipping). This saves me sending it back and hunting down old 2e sets cus she and her friends only began playing under 5e, and they seem happy enough with it. (I learned under OAD&D back in 1980.)

The quality of your videos are stunning! Also, thanks for all the advices ^^

Thank you for such a paradigm-shifting take on ship combat! I made some personal tweaks and playtested the result and it worked so much better than my previous attempts at ship to ship combat.

The Jeff bit killed me. Great reference to those who know.

That's really cool. I am planning a air world (the party is traveling through an air portal) and they are going to be taking a flying ship to an enemy location. I am expecting they will all remain on the ship so the battle will basically be them trying to fend off enemy as they board but I need something for the cannons and if the party tries to shoot down the incoming fire drakes who will be dropping in the bad guys. I'm gonna have to incorporate this somehow.

Wow thanks for this, I've been pawing over the ship rules for ages try to fix so many issues - I'm going to try this out.

I'm definitely using this but reskin for Airships, normal ships, and the like! This will work amazingly for fun combat when traveling on the hex map of the world I'm making and expanded as I plan on doing lots of traveling, encounters, and whatnot

I'm amazed at the amount of helpful info and resources in every video! Thank you so much!

Good stuff! demonstrating again how flexible the 5e system can be. :)

THIS IS SO GOOD

Love your ideas and the amount of effort you put into your videos/ supplements is humbling. Wonderful work.

I was planning spelljammer adventure even before 5e spelljammer books were announced and i was reading 2E rules. Then it was announced and i was happy like little kid ... and then i found out how incompetently it was done and i was sad like hell it's good that old sources will never go away since they can be still found online and it's pretty amazing that this has so many community rules DM can piece from

Thank you for making what I was working on, only faster and better. You're awesome.

What a brilliant solution!! I'll be adapting it to ship combat on the sea for my pirate campaign - using giant sharks with frickin ballistae on their heads as mounts!!

AWESOME Video!! Thank you for the work!

I ain't going into Spelljammer stuff directly, but Spelljammer lore is tied to a decent chunk of my current homebrew work, and somewhere in the far future I had debated a mini Spelljammer-esque combat scenario involving an airship and some old-school Spelljammer units known as Spirit warriors sieging a castle. These rules will be quite useful if I ever reach that part for inspirations I'm sure!

You literally released this when I needed it most! 😭😭 Thank you! Now I don't have to rely on the bad spelljammer rules to dictate combat for my players new flying fortress

Great Video! Love that idea and might adapt it at some point!

Little did you kniw Trek, i had already liked the video before you asked me to.

I was looking at my Spelljammer books yesterday: what timing! Another great video!

You are one of the channels I look forward to seeing on my feed. As someone who DMed their first game in 2006, your videos have taken my games to a whole new level. Thank you so much for the work you put in.

I'm really looking forward to trying this system myself! Thank you!

This is so freaking cool. Thank you for sharing it

Your content is so cool, thank you! 💖

This is excellent stuff! And I'm not just saying that because it's similar to how I've been trying to improve Spelljammer for my players 😋 I'll def be incorporating some of this into my game. Thank you for all the hard work!

I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE YOU i wish I had money to be a channel member, but I don't 😢 I'll make sure to share your channel to everyone I know tho

Thank you for doing this! I’ve been playing Spelljammer for a few weeks now and I’ve found the space combat to be lacking. I’m gonna test out your supplement this afternoon!

you know, i once had an idea about making an entire rpg system around this, until i learned about starfinder, anyways, i love every thing you do!

Excellent as ever, love your work.

I am 100% utilizing the Unjammer, thank you so so much!

this video single-handedly made me interested in spelljammer ngl

Great video! Looking forward to the next one

Literally in the middle of a spelljammer campaign atm and this couldn't have come at a better time! Thank you so much!

wow, this is incredible!! Exactly what I was looking for for my next campaign ;)

Fantastic content as always. Keep it up

Great vid! This makes me actually want to play spelljammer now!

Finally found a ship combat guide that feels intuitive and sensible, amazing video!

This is... honestly how I thought it worked already, way cool love all of this

Ain't saying no to pretty pictures on my screen! As a sidenote, I'm glad to see that I've come to pretty much your own conclusions by GM'ing Vulcania sessions at conventions xD

Very well done!

Can't wait to combine this with the taming ideas i have for the Star Lancers i found in the free D&D Beyond Monstrous Compendium download

nice. keep up the good work!

I am running planescape right now, but one of my players loves the idea of spelljammer. I have been avoiding it because of the sheer amount of work required to make it fun based on the spelljammer books he gave me for my birthday as a hint. Now he is going to feel like it is his birthday when we go spelljamming between some of the planes! Thanks for creating this for us! By the way, would you consider adding prices on the magic items so groups could have a ‘pimp my ride’ spending session where they get to pick and really customise how they want their ship to function. Talk about player buy in! If not, what would be a good way to gauge prices for this stuff?

Appreciate this! Was looking at the SpaceFinger rules to replace the Spelljammed rules, and it really is a whole other game system, this is much improved!

Thanks for the book, my man! Looks great!

Nice work!

Great video as always! I've always wanted to try this out in my own eventual Spelljammer inspired game, and it's so nice having rules laid out as a foundation. I'm thinking about ever carrying these mechanics over to a more traditional nautical setting, replacing weavers with hippocamps or even sharks. A bit less familiar, but hopefully is sufficient enough to accommodate these rad mechanics

This is so good it makes me want to get the spelljammer books now that I can use your supplement to make it functional

Thank you very much!

You seem pretty interesting! liking and subscribing!

Great video! It would be nice to have a similar one but with normal ships on the sea!

It's an idea so good I can't believe everyone didn't think of it! HAVE THE CHARACTERS DO THE FIGHTING!!! (I've been running my own ship rules for a year, with longrange spell cannons and grapple ballista, and the players are kind of INDIFFERENT to ship battles) THANKYOU I LOVE THIS

Well I'm glad you put this video out before Im about to run my game

This is great!

Great ideas!

To be fair, on the ship health aspect, you could always have them immobilise the enemy ship before having it completely destroyed, like at half health the engine gives in

This is huge I just bought Spelljammer because I wanted to improve some of the aspects of the modules. This is extremely good for the Space Combat. Now if only I could find the perfect adventure for levels 1-5 for my players

Comment for engagement as I think your channel deserves to be up with major DnD creators

Why youtube didn't notify me? You're onr of the best dnd creators out there

Cool ideas; I’d love to hear how you’d tweak it for naval combat!

This is an insanely well thought out idea. Changing the perspective from star trek to Star Wars is the perfect comparison, and it looks fantastic

Awesome! I wonder what your take on non-space naval combat would be!

You are a legend omg!

Im going to finally be a player(yay) in a nautical campaign. I havent read any ghost of saltmarsh mechanics as id like the DM to pick and choose what they want to use and rsther learn only for the game rather than read everything. But with this supplement i definitely want to give a read. Seems phenomenal second tier for the nautical campaign. Go from pirates on the high seas to planar pirates.

Great video

Would really love a video on advice on running a pirate game from your personal experience?

Excellent stuff. I have a feeling my next campaign is gonna be pirates, but traditional seafaring as opposed to spacefaring. I look forward to using these same ideas and rules to make some awesome pirate battles!

Space for the space god!

Read through this, actually awesome ty! Pity this wasn't in the main book as I think it would have gone down really quite well :)

I’ll definitely be telling my players to roll space-initiative 😁

Great video. I suggest anyone interested look into the OG spelljammer resources. Mechanics aren't super useful as it's AD&D but the inspiration potential is through the roof

This sounds a lot like something I've been looking for! If I'm running D&D I want D&D-adjacent ship combat strongly connected to character stats and roles, and this seems to provide that. For running a campaign based on engaging tactical battles with a strong naval combat feel I'd instead just use a different system altogether.

Fantastic stuff, Spelljammer was indeed a disappointment. Thanks for the fresh thinking!

I use foundry for my maps, I'm super curious how you got a single map to have different measurement scales.