Spelljammer, Game Design, & Your Group

Wizards of the Coast does not determine your fun. This is a sentiment that I've heard Mike Shea (aka Slyflourish) share multiple times. I wanted to start today's post with it because it informs much of what I will be saying today. 

Where is this coming from?

I recently read an article entitled "Spelljammed", by Graeme Barber (which is a very good read, by the way) on the recommendation of Sam, the Educational DM. In the article, Graeme lays out the main problems with Spelljammer from a game design and thematic perspective. The main issues presented were:

• The supplement lacked sound mechanics, with an example of the lack of rules for things like ship-to-ship combat.
• The setting had serious tonal inconsistencies: some aspects being campy while others were heavy & deadly serious.
• The "facts" of the setting had a serious lack of impact on / coherency in the other settings.
• The lore was inconsistent or contradictory.

I'm not here to argue any of these points. From a game design perspective, all of these issues are real issues. So, I'm not here to argue that these points are not valid. In fact, they're very good points. Spelljammer was a mess! It also wasn't that popular, honestly.

Validity vs. Relevance: Different games for different people

Graeme notes in his article that TSR had serious problems with world building and cooperation. I would say that it was more a problem with not being sure how to be all things to all gamers. Today, we implicitly understand that there are different types of gamers and by extension different types of tables, I run three different games from my house. 

My Waterdeep Dragon Heist, made up of parents & kids is decidedly in the dramatic / role-play-heavy / Critical Role style. These kids are all about dramatic / comedic moments, epic story, and world building. 

My Saltmarsh / Scarlet Citadel game is all adults and is much more of an old-school, crunch-heavy dungeon-crawl group with a large focus on mechanics. We're likely switching to Old School Essentials soon. 

My Dragon of Icespire Peak group is just discovering the game and are enjoying both parts but really loving exploration more than anything. 

I've been playing D&D since I got the old BECMI Black Box on Christmas of 1991. I loved every aspect of D&D and continued to expand my appreciation of all it had to offer as I met new friends that played in new ways. I never assumed that Jake and Dave were doing it right while Rob, Jeff, and Jim had it all wrong. The power of great settings like Spelljammer, Planescape, and Dark Sun was not their ability to provide unique mechanical experiences but more-so the delivery of inspiration to build epic stories around. Let's be honest, most of us even today haven't actually read more than a 10th of the material on our TTRPG Shelf. Also we tend to focus on that which excites us. I've read almost every Planescape Boxed set and supplement cover to cover because of the lore and the immersion created by the style in which they were written. Others can't stand that but can't put down mechanics-heavy books like D&D Hardcore Mode or Xtreme Dungeon Mastery. Those books are a struggle for me to even start, even though the ideas seem interesting.

My point is, we dungeon masters don't necessarily read everything. I don't even own the 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. If I suddenly find my party in ship to ship combat along the Sword Coast or in wildspace or I find I need to run a Wrestlemania-style cage match with Bullywugs in the Mere of Dead Men, I do what most of us do. I make up what works at the time. No advanced rules system necessary. 

My Table / My Game

I backed Old School Essentials to get the Boxed Set because I like some old school play. I also pre-ordered the special edition Hydro74 Spelljammer set from my FLGS, because I love some wacky spacefaring role playing hijinks and I'm a sucker for Hydro74 as a graphic design nerd. I will likely run both for different groups and both will have great fun despite the wild differences between the two. Granted, I don't love or even like everything Wizards puts out. Neither will you. If you don't like Spelljammer, that's fine. I don't like Ravenloft or the Feywild, but I'm not going to state that they're implicitly bad settings. 

How do you want to do this?

This game belongs to you and your players. No one is going to criticize your take on Spelljammer, whether it's campy gnomes hunting giant space hamsters or ruthless Neogi threatening the freedom of the galaxy or ignoring it altogether.