Space… the final planar frontier. In space, no one can hear you cast fireball. To boldly go where no gnome has gone before. Yes, Spelljammer: Adventures in Space is coming, and we thought we’d cast off, into the big black, and explore some of the possibilities of adventures in space. Three, two, one… teleport!

What is Spelljammer: Adventures in Space

To answer that question, we have a neat little promo video from Dungeons & Dragons’ own Trystan Falcone and Chris Perkins. But first, here’s the announcement trailer:

Got that? It’s basically Guardians of the Galaxy, with magic and ships instead of lasers and starships. Spelljammer is the name of one such ship, not some kind of arcane hacker (which would be an awesome character class, by the way).

Speaking of ships, Wizkids announced a slew of miniatures for Spelljammer, including some great dragons. I’d grab a few of these for my Undersea campaign, though I’m not so sure I’d want to get a bunch of asteroid minis. Maybe X-Wing players will love them?

Your Adventures in Space

Space is fascinating, and, when you add a touch of magic, anything is possible. Let’s get you ready for your own magical adventures in space — in the world of Spelljammer, Starfinder, or any other system or campaign setting.

All through May we’ll be hosting the RPG Blog Carnival with the theme “Magic Adventures in Space”. RPG bloggers from across the realms will bring ideas, stories, experiences, and mechanics, then post them in the comments below. At the end of the month, I’ll do a roundup of the articles, so you’ll have a meteor storm of ideas for when Spelljammer finally… ahem… launches.

Here are some ideas of things we might see, or you can use them to inspire your own homebrew campaign:

1. Magic Mechs. The world can never have enough clockwork creatures, especially ridable ones.
2. Space Pirates. Guardians of the Galaxy but with magic. They’re outlaws who do good, or maybe they’re mercenaries just out to make a few space credits to repair their ship. These NPCs (or pregenerated characters) could be valuable allies or irritating foes.
3. Space Faring Ships. We’ve already got rules for ship movement and combat, but we could always use more unique vessels. How about The Flying Duchman in space, a space snail with a helm built into its shell, 6-man boarding torpedoes for breaching ships,  an ooze space vessel made of more gooey ooze, or a sentient clockwork ship?
4. Sci-Fantasy Weapons. Stun guns, laser swords, cannons that fire miniature black holes, EMP magic that stuns clockwork creatures… Sci-Fi is full of unique equipment that could get a fresh take if magic replaced science.
5. New Races and Monsters. I’m hoping we’ll see some unique creations, or some re-imaginings of creatures we know and love from other Sci-Fi properties. A playable Genestealer, anyone?

Be sure to check back here, throughout May, to see what new content has been posted, in the comments.

Star Foxes – New Spelljammer Race

Star Foxes are lithe creatures with incredible cunning. They are an opportunistic race that has crossed the stars in search of wealth and personal glory. They are expert manipulators and slippery adversaries.

Star Fox Traits

Your star fox character is nimble and cunning, yet frail.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Wisdom and Charisma score increases by 1.

Ability Score Penalty. Your Constitution score decreases by 2.

Age. Star Foxes mature a few years before humans. They live to about 80 years of age.

Alignment. Most star foxes are neutral, though their motivation to survive and thrive at all costs often drives them towards evil and chaos.

Size. Star foxes are smaller than gnomes, seldom topping 4 feet. They average around 40 pounds. Your size is Small.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. Your race has voyaged across the stars and through the darkness of space, and as such you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Cowering Survivalist. You can take the Dodge action as a reaction to a melee attack from a creature you can see, but you have disadvantage on your own melee attacks until the end of your next turn when you do so.

Deep Cunning. You can add your Wisdom bonus to Charisma checks you make to influence other humanoids. You don’t gain this bonus if the creature is hostile towards you.

Safe in Shadow. You have advantage on Stealth checks. You lose this ability in areas of bright light unless you have advantage from some other trait, feature, or effect.

More Starjammer Inspiration

Need even more Starjammer in your life? DriveThru RPG has a wealth of digital and print-on-demand Starjammer books, mostly from Dungeons & Dragons 2e.

Till next time, see you planetside!