Spelljammer What classic Spelljammer sources are worth getting?

[Tonguez]

Rock of Braal is a must have
Space Lairs gives a selection of different sites to explore

unfortunately Spelljammer didnt have many good adventures of its own (so better to steal ideas from other games). Maybe Goblins Return and its follow ups (which introduces the Scro)

The Astromundi Cluster was an attempt to create a stand-alone setting for Spelljammer, but came too late for fuller development.

 

[see]

Realmspace is fine if you ignore most of the fluff like that and just use the info on the various planets and such.

I personally didn't think any of the expanded planetary writeups in Realmspace actually improved on the short ones on pp.93-95 of the original Spelljammer boxed set's Lorebook of the Void.

And in several cases, I felt it made things rather worse. For example, I didn't care for Realmspace's idea of what to do with Selune as a society. Similarly, making it so that spelljammers couldn't land on Chandos made the place useless in a Spelljammer game; why would you do that in a Spelljammer supplement? And I didn't particularly like the H'Catha MacGuffin, and I really didn't like the associated transformation of Large Luigi from an example of an oddball mutant beholder making his way in the world (per the mention of him in the Beholder entry on page 70 of the Lorebook of the Void) to a result of that MacGuffin's apotheosis (who for some reason is wasting his time tending bar instead of using his great gifts from his transformation to actually, you know, achieve something).

 

[Jer]

I'll give a thumbs up to Rock of Bral as well - there are a lot of ideas to steal from it, and all of them won't show up in the setting book. And the main boxed set has a lot of good stuff in it - including lots of pretty ship pictures - that can be of use and is good for inspirational material.

I think a lot of the Spelljammer accessories are good for inspirational material, but be aware that a lot of it suffers from a Star Wars/Star Trek problem of trying to summarize entire worlds in a few pages. With that in mind I like all of the various *space books (Greyspace, Krynnspace and Realmspace - probably in that order), Practical Planetology and (to a lesser degree) Crystal Spheres. All of them have ideas for planets/systems that you can rip off when you need a planet for an adventure. (Don't get me wrong - I think they all also have problems, but if you're mining them for ideas they all have their uses.)

I'm less likely to recommend the Astromundi Cluster than a lot of other folks - it always felt to me that it failed at one of the key conceits of the Spelljammer setting, in that the premise is that it's a closed off sphere and once you're in it you can't get back out. If you ignore that and just use it for its pieces I still don't personally like the pieces as much as the other supplements above - it's a more cohesive setting, so the pieces are harder to break apart and use independently IMO. And while it's an individual taste thing, I don't particularly like the setting as presented and wouldn't run a game in it (It also has an origin for Mind Flayers that IMO is not great and I'm glad that everyone has decided to pretend it doesn't exist).

Also I'm going to put in a plug for a non-Spelljammer D&D book that I think would be useful to look at if you can get your hands on it - The Plane Above from 4e. I've been re-reading it recently for an epic-level side game I'm running for a couple of my players and there's a lot of good stuff in there about the Astral Sea that might be inspirational too (and lots more pretty pictures of ships to use as well).

 

[Weiley31]

Since the Astral Sea is a big focus, the book called The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea would probably be a good choice. It's a 4E book, but you can pretty much jack what you want for it. Probably the main Planescape 2E book as well since your Spelljammer can come across Sigil in a likely event during your Jamming.

 

[Weiley31]

Also Manual of the Planes for both 3.0/3.5 and 4E (Astral Sea is also mentioned in it as well) are also some good choices as well.

 

[Weiley31]

Also: if you're gonna be encountering Mind Flayers and their Nautiloids, then I think the 3.5 Lords of Madness book is a solid choice. It's pretty much about Aberrations along with Mind Flayers, but I can see alot of stuff being used in a Spelljammer campaign.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

If you want to supply a bunch of whimsy to the invention of societies and places that live in Wildspace and through out the Astral Sea, I recommend the recent setting agnostic Skycrawl, this is the official site.

 

[overgeeked]

If you want to supply a bunch of whimsy to the invention of societies and places that live in Wildspace and through out the Astral Sea, I recommend the recent setting agnostic Skycrawl, this is the official site.

And if you want more wild and weird inspirations to draw from, check out Planar Compass, Upwind, and Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

just to add (cause I agree with most) I liked the adventure box set for the spelljammer herself

 

[Alzrius]

The Astromundi Cluster was an attempt to create a stand-alone setting for Spelljammer, but came too late for fuller development.

That one was always a real shame. The boxed set wanted to do something that should have been obvious from the beginning: make a space-faring setting that was limited to a single crystal sphere (i.e. solar system), cutting off the wider universe in order to create a scope that was narrower, but more focused. It wasn't a bad idea, but the execution was...well, it could have been better.