What is Spelljammer? D&D Adventures in Space | Spelljammer 5e Explained 

How does this Spelljammer setting sound to you? What do you want to know? 💜 Become a Patron: www.patreon.com/thedungeoncoach

I’m always intrigued with ship or vehicle combat in general. The best way I’ve seen it handled so far is giving players basically a whole new class/job for that vehicle. Then give them features and abilities they can use, and even level up in. Look at Pulsar: Lost Colony and you get a good idea of what each job can do to assist overall.

I have an opposite point of view. Dnd in space can be a bit strange but really fun, a bit like treasure planet. A campaign with interplanar travels doesn't need spelljammers, you can go through portals and gates. And I'm really not a fan of multiverse in dnd.

Dungeon Coach, I wish there had been a coach like you when I was in high school.

I think the stars in the sky are supposed to be distant crystal spheres, so maybe they aren't exactly invisible but like difficult to find

I have a similar concept regarding a multiverse for my worlds, where those worlds are contained in obsidian spheres of various sizes, and however the sphere is handled affect the universe in it. One of those worlds, Anneo, works alongside an axis around which a disc turns, but that axis is actually a string that went through the sphere as to make a necklace.

Do I wanna play it?!? Put me in the game. Thanks for unlocking my creativity in this video.

Your thing about it being an extension of the planes goes amazingly with the campaign setting I've been homebrewing. I'm excited!

Hype to eventually see some more planes stuff! Those were always my favorite things from ya!

Thanks for the explanation! I really like the use of "Deep Astral", it clarifies a lot of things for me. I was quite confused before because I had heard that Spelljammers travel to other "worlds" / settings (ex: Eberron, Dragonlance, etc), but I had also heard that they travel through the Astral Sea (which I assumed to be another name for the Astral Plane). I was aware that the outer planes exist within the Astral Plane and that each "world" has its own set of planes that are different from the other "worlds" (Eberron's Plane of Dreams for example-- which the Kalashtar are connected to-- does not appear on the Great Wheel Cosmology of Faerun which you refer to a bunch in the video). Your "Deep Astral" term helped clarify how Spelljammers can in fact do *both* things. Perhaps the phrase "Astral Sea" is meant to be the same as your "Deep Astral"-- whereas the Astral Plane is the "shallow" end? Given how much of the stuff in this video is based on older editions I am very interested to see the follow-up video once you've had a chance to read the book(s)! I'm looking forward to seeing how your conception changes as a result.

Ever since Spelljammer was announced for 5th Edition, I've been super hyped for it and love the enthusiasm you share! I've been struggling for a few days now on how I can incorporate some of these elements into my homebrew world and this crash course solved all my problems! Your explanation on how this all fits together is honestly fantastic! You've definitely made a fan out of me! Keep up the great work and can't wait to see more! :D

Eagerly awaited this one!

I'm actually quite excited for spell jammers, I was not around for Dragonlance but I'm interested in hearing a description for it just like this.

looking forward to more of your take on spelljammer!

Just to give a brief insight check into Spelljammer for the newbies... That D&D cosmology hart that he put up is representative of the Crystal Sphere of the Forgotten Realms setting, or the Realmspace. In Spelljammer 2E, that was represented as PLANETS AND MOONS in Realmspace. ...fun fact, there's "thin air" in "space" while inside the Crystal Spheres, so if you have a spell or Item to breathe air underwater or through poison...you didn't suffer any ill effects! ...fun, fun fact, the centre of gravity in "space" is the heaviest object...so if that's your spelljammer, you could walk around the hull of your ship and not fall off. On the matter of Illithids/Mindflayers... actually, they come from a place called "Clusterspace", or "The Cluster", and thats their home universe. Every other mindflayer in every other setting, is essentially an Illithid whose Spelljammer crashed or got stranded somewhere, and they took up residence. ...so, basically, Illithids are invading aliens in every other setting! Also, there use to be something called the Phlogiston... it was the Currents between Crystal Spheres/Universes. It was HIGHLY explosive to Fire, so a common strategy against Illithid raiders was to rig a barrel with explosive material, and a time-delayed Fireball spell...best way to do this was via a summoned monster, with Feats allowing you to cast through your companion. ...sure, it would destroy the creature, but you could use a Rat for this. ...anyway, I heard that WotC removed the Phlogiston and the Crystal Spheres... but now that you know about them, home-brew them into your game! Enjoy!

Way cool description! And when you mentioned Spelljammer ships possibly powered by torture, THAT put me in mind of Lolth sending her drow out aboard fleets of drow Spelljammers, enabling her to spread spread her web across the Multiverse.

We played a campaign back in 1989 that had Spelljammer adventure around it. I think our DM had a campaign going in the Forgotten Realms and the Bloodstone War in Vaasa area, and he made Spelljammer a part of the adventure as far i remember. I recall it as a very cool aspect, even i had to use my spells as Wizard to fuel the ship.

I hope you recorded this ahead of time. Happy Mother's Day to Dungeon Mom!

I can't wait to see more on all of this!

Thanks for the help friend!

I like thinking of the planes as a biscuit and you can pull layers (planes) off.

I enjoy your thoughts and explanation. Thanks for being awesome!

Before this video I had zero idea what Spelljammer was and was really not interested. Now though I'm getting excited! I love me some Gith 👍😊😊😊

I just enjoy the way your explain and how you look at D&D ... so happy that I subscribe to your channel.

It reall sounds like you're more a Planescape player than a Spell Jammer one, not that that's a bad thing! Personally Spell Jammer give me an excuse to travel to other settings and use those random one short smaller adventures that are in Radiant Citadel, Yawning Portal ect... and give my players a taste of all the different settings in between space adventure bits. It's a easier setting to to a adventure of the week style adventure.

I don't Jam Spells often, but when I do, it's with Counterspell.

9:30 Yeah definitely seems like they are aiming for a hybrid of 2nd edition and 4th edition for description of the Astral and Spelljamming.

Very helpful, thank you 🙏🐉😁

I love how you described spell jammer I was on the fence whether it would interest me but now I like it how yoh described it as traveling through planes and experiencing crazy new worlds sounds awesome

I can't wait to see your Homebrew take on Spelljammer ship combat. Because you were absolutely right, WotC completey flubbed it on the Ship to Ship combat rules.

I love the description and would love to hear some of your homebrews for multiversal travel and deep astral battles!

So of note is that the planes aren't different in other campaign settings. They are the unifying concept. So in that inner circle of the planes, where the prime is, there's multiple worlds floating in that. The old school, non-spelljamming, method for traveling from say Kryn to Faerun would be to do so by going to an outer plane first. This is a big reason why the City of Doors is important in the Planescape setting. Based on what I'm seeing on the new version the phlogistan is replaced by the astral sea. And the spelljammer ship, which used to exit a sphere into the phlogistan and sail to another sphere, will instead exit into the astral sea and fly through that to the next world. For deities, the phlogistan used to serve as a way to block their power, limiting their access to other spheres. This isn't really necessary with a followers required kind of mentality, but it's how they did it. I'm expecting that the concept will be that there are multiple prime planes instead of one prime plane with crystal spheres.

Can’t wait for a Dark Sun book to come out..

Treasure planet. That's all im getting from this vid.

How I understand Wildspace vs Astral sea vs Phlogiston. Wildspace Is the area of no oxygen space in a crystal sphere similar to what we think space is a dark empty void where you see stars planets and has no oxygen, This extends up to the edge of the crystal sphere which contains one solar system. Outside the Crystal sphere is the Phlogiston a rainbow sea that the crystal spheres float in. To get to another crystal sphere requires you to navigate the philologiston. Travel is usually measured in a couple months of space travel. Taking an entire spelljammer ship into the Astral sea seems to be unique only to the Gith races with specially designed ships that allow them to use their psychic powers to bring an entire ship into the astral sea and also to travel at spell jammer speeds hundreds of millions of miles per hour. IE Gith are the only race that can "cloak" there ships like star trek and emerge out of the Astral Sea as they please... plus the astral sea lets them ignore any solid objects in the material planes. They could literally fly there ships inside a hollow planet.

I like to think of it in such a way that the different universes, or crystal spheres are afloat in the astral sea.

Spelljammer back in 2e was not for the faint of heart. It was a love hate thing for those of us who played it. We loved the possibilities because treasure planet and other sci-fi, steam punkesque tropes. We did a star wars aesthetic at one point because we could, but some of the mechanics were cumbersome and we hated them. Planescapes was easier to work with and less math heavy in comparison.

6:00 ...Soooo...Like Space?.. ;p

I am all for this. I am not as interested in traveling between the Crystal Spheres of other offical settings, but I do like the idea of players traveling through the "Deep Astral" to other settings I have made over the years, or having a Treasure Planet style adventure I have been a fan of Spelljammers since 2e. I even made spelljammer ships already in my settings since I started using 5e, I just used them like you said to "sail" between the planes

I'd like to see more detailed Planescape-ish stuff (everyone else and his brother will cover the revamped SpellJammer topics). Esp. the differences between "layers" of the same plane. Going to the Beastlands for a little hunting, or to party with the Lillends? Did that portal put you on sunny Krigala? Foggy Brux? Or bring-your-Nightvision Karasuthra? ... Tired of playing Moon or High elves? Take a visit to Ysgard and check out the elves of Alfheim (if it's wintery, you might have to go spelunking a bit to find'em). In-depth Planar analyses.... help GM's flesh out their off-world campaigns better. AND... there's no reason not to spice up Outer Plane jaunts with a bit of SpellJammer fun. The Craft Spelljammer Helm feat (prereq: CWI) can turn any rickety barge into a levitating shipwreck...

Yes more please!!!!!

I wonder if they will keep Eberon seperate from the rest of the Spelljamming multiverse like they did last time. I really want to get one of the Eberon style Elemental powered airships to turn into a Spelljammer.

Since you brought up multiverse...my wife, a friend and I each have our own homebrew world that we all play in each others' campaigns. We have another friend that is also in each campaign that is running Curse of Strahd and each of the PCs in that campaign are from the homebrewed worlds we have made thus canonicalizing all of our homebrewed worlds existing in the same multiverse. The best part about it is that I was planning on this being a thing when I started my campaign 3 years before Strahd started.

Most DMs with less than 1000 hours of play are gonna be upside down. LMAO

I think a better way to explain the lore is: your adventuring world is probably a planet. With a spelljamming ship you can fly off the planet's atmosphere (or air pocket, as they are known in Spelljammer) into space. This space is just your normal, average understanding of space, with different solar systems, planets, asteroids, etc. (and weird fantasy physics) but it's called wildspace for one reason or another. Now, if you were to fly into the far edges of this universe, you would reach a hard impenetrable real actual barrier. This is the inside of a Crystal Sphere. Nothing can persumably break it or penetrate it, not gods, not demons, nobody knows what's it made out of, who made it and why. Essentially this is the end of the setting that you play. The spelljamming ship can, however, enter a portal that might appear somewhere on the inside of the sphere. Sometimes portals just appear there, some spells might be able to create or detect such portals. Through this portal the ship is transported to outside of the sphere, where there is Phlogiston. Outside this sphere the gods have no power. Different gods rule in different spheres, and in phlogiston, there are no gods. For some reason (crossover convinience) they fear it. Even the laws of physics might be different, in that different settings and spheres have different rules: your homebrew rules might only apply in your sphere. It wouldn't be canonically implausible to play 5e in one sphere, 2eAD&D in another and Pathfinder in yet another. The phlogiston is an infinite sea of highly flammable substance wherein the different crystal spheres bob around. There are phlogiston rivers that flow from one sphere to another that the ship might take to get to places, because even with the super fast spelljamming speed, the distances in phlogiston are really really really long. Also it is impossible to get phlogiston inside a crystal sphere. It just vanishes every time. All this is in Prime Material Plane, and to get out of PMP you need a planar portal, or other shifting or crossing or slipping place, and the planar stuff is really conceptual and weird and layered. The 5e release replaces phlog with astral sea, which implies that Prime Material exists as pockets that just literally float in astral plane, and I don't know how it effects the cosmology at large TL;DR: in 2e the Prime material plane is an infinite phlogiston sea with incalculable amount of crystal spheres. Inside such a sphere there is a whole universe called wildspace with stars and planets revolving around them and all that jazz. One of these planets might even have your homebrew world.

I imagine it like how science explains the observable universe. Eventually there’s a universal horizon that we can’t see past, and the things we can see now won’t always be visible in a few thousand years. The question is what if there are other universes out there that have their own horizons, and their own worlds and adventures. And just like how we can’t see them from within our own, they can’t see us. So a spelljammer or other magic would be the only way to travel between realms like that.

Spelljammer as a high level set of story arcs. Dm: You finished this major story arc, your lvl12+ you are at your keep and the door knocks, you all answer the door. At door is a, well it looks like a dwarf, but there are 3 big differences 1 he is skinny, 2 he shows no signs of facial hair, and 3 his skin is blue. He says "good your all here." Picks up and slams his staff on the ground, and you all are covered in a golden light. Next thing you know you are standing on a platform, the space around the platfom is ...(describe the deep astral plane). The odd dwarf walks expecting you to follow as he is leading you to a giant arch way that reads "Unified Univers Union" with a sub sign that reads "Bounty Hunters Division". Story line you're the best of your universe, now you are needed to save another one.

I like the idea of Deity Reciprocity. It's there in your warlock/cleric contract for Deity A that when you enter Realm X, your patronage is transferred to Deity X for the duration. Any servant of Realm X that enters Realm A, is then under the patronage of Deity A for the duration. There's a limit to the total migration numbers though so that no more than 10% of Deity A's subjects may leave Realm A and no more than 5% of any other realm's subjects may enter a given Realm at one time. This it to prevent inter-realm conflict after the events of the Realm wars in the ancient past. The details of which have been mostly scrubbed to prevent re-offense in addition to the terms described above. Sorry player, your character has been placed in limbo upon the request to enter the portal to Realm X. We are at max capacity unless you can arrange for a transfer with the appropriate Deity exchange office. Estimated waiting time is 150 days...

You've explained very well! Esepcaly since you don't like sci-fi and maybe don't know the theories Spell jammer is based on.

20:04 "I would love to be able to make mechanics for spells to be able to go through (the crystal spheres) into other ones" There was this old 11th level spell i converted from older editions of the game to work with my homebrew spelljammer campaign called "Proctiv's Breach Crystal Sphere"

Deep Astral drinking game GO!

I believe that the 4e supplement "The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea", published in 2010, talks about the "Deep Astral" though, given the nature of the Astral Plane, I've always considered all of it as "Deep".

Personally one of my favorite things is when sci-fi space/tech gets merged with fantasy realities/magic. Makes for a unique fusion. It's one of the reason Marvel and DC is so popular. Wizards and scientists, different dimensions, gods, aliens, etc. Just look at Doctor Doom and how he wields both.

I enjoyed the video. I knew nothing of Spelljammer

I always thought of it like the movie treasure planet

In the old days the wizard had to keep casting levitate on the ships, thus Spelljammer.

I think Spelljammer is a cool concept but I don't think I want to do a space campaign...but maybe a guardians of the galaxy type theme I might be able to get behind haha

"Think a Pirate Ship not a Space Ship..." *Laughs in the big Mechanical Misquito*

PLEASE do a Dragonlance video when we get closer.

8:28 a fix for the frustration of facing the portal to go into is to assume the portal is visible from 360 degrees, no matter which side you see the portal from, you see the portal as a portal.

Really really excited for spelljammer, first plot is to drop story's about a rumored treasure planet

I wonder if Grant Morrison is an old school Spelljammer player. His vision of the DCU looks very much like D&D's vision of their universe.

I had a few of the books..😮

I know my family would want to visit Arda...The Lord of the Rings world 😝

Interesting interpretation... Yet I still much preffer the old setting. Jumping the meta forward to justify un game the post 2ed changes could be genius if it's done right. To me, this new Spelljammer version will live or die on how they spin the setting changes narratively. There's lots of things to consider: the phlogiston was off limita to deities, the whole reason for Spelljammer helms to exist was to move through wildspace, so what now? Dwarves used forges because they couldn't do magic. As of 3rd ed they can. What do they use now? Arcanes had a monopoly of helm manufacture, but foundrys were old tech many knew how to make... There's artificers now that can make two Magic ítems a day from level 2... So how does that affect the economy of the setting? And thats kind of important, since no body spends a fortune in gold and magic to jump aboard a ship and risk horrible death ir there's no profit to be had. All these are important questions. If the new material gives good answers, then I'm in. If not... Well, I'll homebrew it myself and forget about it.

I’d love to also hear you talk about Planescape since they announced they’ll be releasing a setting booking during 2023

Realmspace is the solar system. The sphere is the planet.

Just to mess with you a bit here. If you consider the fact that our own universe is about 76 quintillion miles in diameter. Leaving this crystal sphere and turning around it would be so big that no point of reference would make it small enough to be anything but a barrier, if tou have the key to even see it. Like a great wall of shimmering force the expanse of the deep astral from your perspective.

Finally understanding Spelljammers correctly xDDD I think in a campaign i would lead, only Psychic characters or characters with psychic magic utilities would be able to see those force barriers and the ethereal plane aswell as the elemental chaos would be another kind of force barrier, that could only be seen with psychic abilities or utilities and right now where i'm writing this you mentioned psychics too xDD

You skipped out on exploration inside the crystal sphere. Spelljammer opens up the possibility that you can visit not only other nations, but entire other planets within the crystal sphere.

Now i kinda want a homebrew spell or ability list that constraints themselves on each god etc., instead of domains and pacts. Not as a replacement, but like your faction skills as a new kind of ability^^

I always thought of a Crystal Sphere like the slightly opaque sphere (air shield) surrounding the planet Druidia in Spaceballs

Spell jammer kinda reminds me of treasure planet

I just want content. Especially about upcoming books. I have heard of Spelljammer and know what it is about but not in detail. However I am a Dragonlance junkie!! It is my favorite book series (over 120 books on it) however o have never played it and very very excited about the upcoming book.

I would totally let the horizon walker Ranger portal detection ability Find the natural occurring portals in and out of places. kinda like a little sonar.

A fun idea is a plane of existence, where the party failed their first mission so in this plane we get to see what happened if they didn’t stop any of the major plot points and how that effects the world. Kinda It’s a Wonderful Life inspired but i think it could be fun

Sounds like Planescape is more your jam. Mine too. But I'm keeping an open mind. I have a ton of campaigns I want to do and spell jammer is mid-low interest. Games like this is much like starwars where planets are no different than a city on an island.

I strongly agree that the flogistan/crystal spheres was a better solution than “space” or “planets.” Conversely, I HATE the idea of severing a cleric from his deity as part of traveling between spheres because that invalidates a central part of the class. It’s one thing to say for a particular arc “there’s something about *this* sphere that interferes with your access to spells, but knowing the DM planned something that would sever me from my god would just make me not engage with religion in a Spelljammer game.

In second edition spelljammer the neogi and mind flayers had a helm called lifejammers

About the portals I would think of it more as a set location/s on each universe and they may not be alavlibe all the time like once every dacade. Or random like think the bramuda triangle mysteries and how you can sail/fly though it most or the time but seemly randomly you can't or it could be a set point but incedbly dangrous to navgate... Or you need a person who has speical skills/ traits to go though it. It's a great plot device and makes for interesting potal locations.

Damn this sounds so interesting. I'd make central hubs and stations within the Astral sea. Each portal leading to the different realms have ports where you can dock and interact with people. As far as power sources, I'd think of multiple sources depending on ship size and make. Maybe,like stated, necromancer souls as a source, maybe sacrifices, maybe there's an operator who uses their spell slots. Maybe crystals that need charging or some halo AI type shit where someone either uses their Astral self or sacrifices themselves for science and is used to navigate the ship. There's so much I'd like to experiment with. Maybe use van richten guide and the up coming radiant citadel as supplements. I like that multiverse idea. I wabt to dm so bad and this and strixhaven make me want to try stuff.

Screams, blood and souls. Sounds like warhammer.

Please do the Gith!

I resisted going into 5e until I found out they released Spelljammer.

Would spelljammer be good if i create multiple worlds/campaigns and i was wanted to tie them together. Each world had different gods , but there is a over arch of cosmic gods that send out sparks to create different worlds and elevate beings to be gods of their own worlds. Just felt this be a good way to tie it all together .

💜💜💜

I run my games in Eberron and IF I were to run something like this I’d just make it like Treasure Planet.

The Crystal speheres remind me of the worlds in Kingdom Hearts. When I run spelljammer I’m definitely gonna describe the astral sea as similar to the kingdom hearts 3 open space between worlds and their ships are gonna look like the gummi ships 😂

Instead of deep space, once you hit the port cloud in real terms, you hit the astral sea

Instead of Astral Sea and Deep Astral. I use the Terms Astral sea and Astral Space. Same Concept just a different name.

I'm very concerned the spelljammer ship stats will be basically what we see in Ghosts of the Saltmarsh. Having a 500 hp ship that is 130ft long and 20ft long as a moving batttlemap is really hard to handle, it is kinda setup so that you run normal DND rules on the ships while the ships are moving. IE pitched mass combat between two moving battlemaps. Maybe do something this ridiculous once per campaign because of the difficulty of running this. As for something that could happen at anytime as a random encounter flying through space. I don't think so. Then of course there is the issue, how fast can the party casters or even archer can blow up an enemy ship while backed up by your own ballista and catapults. 500 hp is not to much when you think about it in mid game and later.

I want to hear more bout this for sho

So, each crystal sphere has it's own Hells, Abyss, Feywild, etc.? Or are they shared? If they are different, would Asmodeus, for example, be like different avatars for each sphere? Or more like parallel world counterpart?

Did you talk to your buddy MrRhexx before this video? They have 3 videos on this from 2 years about the previous state.

I always imagined a Crystal Sphere as more of an analogue for a whole solar system rather than a single planet. It's sort of real in some way, stars are surrounded by a bubble of stellar wind ending in the heliopause.

All I know is some people are going to call their ship the velociraptor and half of them are going to be because dinosaurs

1:30 'Or something?!?!?! How dare you sir! THE Spelljammer was essential to the original lore! I command you go an investigate this and produce a proper video detailing all the information on it! Good day sir! I said good day sir!!

So... Adventure Zone C1?

So how many ships are deep in our astrals?

I don't like the idea of referring to the star systems as universes or just planets. I prefer the way that Spelljammer was already laid out: Star Systems in Chrystal Spheres floating in the Phlogiston. I don't yet like the idea of entirely replacing the Phlogiston with the Astral Sea. But, in games I play in or run, I'll be fine if Spelljamming works in both the Astral Sea and the Phlogiston or if the Crystal Spheres are bobbing in the Astral Sea. Obviously, your campaign will differ too greatly, so I'd probably not be interested in that, but if what's you like, then it's what you like ;) Of course, the design and writing on this new product could wow me like the original did and I might change my mind.