Spelljammer

[matanthunder]

The Arcane (14' tall blue humanoid planetary merchants) have the bragging rights to most the the helm sales but don't have a monopoly on it. (They appear to have procured the rights to helm technology by allowing their homeworld to be destroyed; the nature of the bargain were left vague, but they are merchants afterall).

The beholders use their eye powers to jam, the people of Kara-Tur use their Ki power to maneuver their massive ships, the dwarves use artifact furnaces, the necromancers have a Life Force Draining furnace, etc... let your imagination run wild on this one.

You really should ebay a copy if you can afford it. Make sure you get the hex maps, ship counters, & ship cards as they help out greatly. The box set also has two basic books. Just be careful & make sure it is all there. The maps & counters help you visualize the encounters in two dimensions even though they happen in 3 dimensions.

Later

[theyeti1775]

For 3d'ing it, we always used stacking poker chips.

Yeti

[matanthunder]

Wow nice touch really.

Do you use each chip as a certain number of feet & do you use different color chips for above an below a certain plane???

Later

[theyeti1775]

matanthunder said:

Wow nice touch really.

Do you use each chip as a certain number of feet & do you use different color chips for above an below a certain plane???

Later

White signifyed 25ft measurements.
Red = Above zero
Blue = Below zero

Yeti

[DM=DisputeMediator]

theyeti1775 said:

dm4disputemediator said:

Ahh, so you would be the one to answer my question then: How exactly do Spelljammers open the portals? (new question: What exactly is a "Helm?") (And if my understanding about these "portals" is correct, they are actual openings, and not magically teleporting "gateway" type portals, am I right? Sorry...another question. ) 3 questions then...

Portals = Doorways
Per 2e rules and fluff only the Arcane (race) new the secret to crafting Helms (Major & Minor). Very few mages were able ever to understand the secrets of them. Those that did, and the Arcane found out, the Arcane moved to eliminate the competition in their monopoly.

Hope that helps.

Yeti

Sorry, friend. But could you define "doorways?" Is it as simple as a doorway you would walk through to get into your house, or does it involve some type of "magical" transport?

[matanthunder]

Yeti I don't mean to cut in but please let me take a stab at it if you can allow it this one time.

The door that Yeti alluded to is acutally a gate-like portal miles across. (Spell jamming speeds are huge (I think they exceed light speed) and the portal has to be large to allow entry at speed.

The shell is thin but is miles thick (in my opinion too) and even though the transition is fast these door/gates are time sensitive events. A number of accidents have happened to ships trying to follow other ships through a gate they didn't control, and a number of untimely deaths have occured!! ;D

The gate is circular and makes entry into different shells possible. The Phlogiston stops at the shells outer shell.

Later

[DM=DisputeMediator]

spinagon said:

Note that portals as discussed here are merely simple doors allowing passage from one side of a crystal shell to the other. They are not gates and they do not allow transit between dimensions. Magic that relies on other planes or other dimensions is notoriously unreliable when cast in close proximity to a crystal shell.

Spinagon wrote the above under the Planescape thread as a part of a larger post on Crystal Spheres and Phlogiston. (pg. 2 of the thread)

So, what I'm getting is that these portals are 'miles-long,' magically induced, but non-magical in structural nature. In effect, if someone with a long enough arm (just for the sake of argument...I know that that would have to be one loooong arm. ), but someone with a long enough arm could just reach on through when the "door" was open, and have undergone nothing magical in nature. Basically, it's just plain old empty space in there (until it closes, of course). That's what I've been trying to ask, but haven't quite expressed my question thoroughly enough, I don't think.

[theyeti1775]

Really depends on the DM's interpertation of the event. And how they treat the structure of the Sphere itself. Some Crystal Spheres the inside of the Sphere is habitable.


Yeti

[DM=DisputeMediator]

You mean the "wildspace?"

[theyeti1775]

dm4disputemediator said:

You mean the "wildspace?"

Technically Wildspace is the space inbetween worlds.
The shere isn't and is at the same time. Many groundling would consider it as such, but those that live there wouldn't.

Yeti

[straal]

Geessh I'm such a spelljammer noob. Love the game though

[DM=DisputeMediator]

So, there are actually "colonies" of civilizations inside some of the spheres? Sweet!

[matanthunder]

;D

Then you have things like Wizshades the liches of space. Truely the bane of a magic rich party. Add to this the occasion blighter that has been caught in the flow too long the "Survivor". Nice touchs from the Spelljammer monster compendiums.

One of my real favorite monsters is the Andeloid though. The monster absorbs and assimilates other creatures (up to 22 hd limit). I even thought up a nice monster to link with it out of the Fiend Folio monster compendium "The Peltrast". It is a symbiot & you could have an andeloid symbiot. Now where is that nasty beholder to absorb. Eye stalk powers anyone??

How about for that nasty space pirate arch villian that is vexing your PC's!!

Later

;D

[DM=DisputeMediator]

Yeah...deepspawn are kinda' useful in that way, too.

[matanthunder]

;D

The Deepspawn is a personal favorite of mine. With it you could have it eat the andeloid symbiot and the Deepspawn could spawn a number of servant spawn that are exactly like it.

Later