Spelljammer encounter tables

As an exercise in sparing myself work I wanted to see what could be rapidly pulled together from online sources to build out an Aerial / Spelljammer encounter list. My first thought was r/d100 which had a partial (25/100) list: Airship/Spelljammer Encounters

Next two glorious antiques were revealed - what appears to be a compilation of encounters from the old Spelljammer products and a revised version of the same. These are great and comprehensive but a little light on the flavour for what I was hoping.

Searching a little more gives a few articles and lists with a couple of ideas each:
Pirates and encounter ideas for Spelljammer
Random encounters at spelljamming speed
Fun & weird encounters for a spelljammer 5e environment

All in all, quite good - until I found the mother-lode. An excellent article on Obsidian Portal with a couple of 'encounter type' randomisers that were exactly what I felt was missing. Using these to put a context around something like the Compiled or Revised table has the potential for vast possibilites.

To finish this out, I thought to broaden the pure Wildspace tables by folding in some possible in-atmosphere encounters for bookending interplanetary journeys with magical weather and non-Spelljamming aerial encounters (via Wayback Machine).

With a little dice rolling we get a quintet of encounters; first using the Obsidian Portal article to get a 'type' and then using the Revised encounter tables to establish what is present - e.g. if a ship and a settlement implied, rolling up a random ship and the race of the settlement. If conflict is ongoing, roll up two ships and so on.


Number 1: A tumbling shard of light emitting crystal from the Elemental Plane of Radiance has a swarm of Feesu around it
(from prompts Combat, Magic, Another Plane, Moderate, Space Beasts (Wildspace), Common, Feesu(6-48)


Number 2: A dwelling of efreet, observing the constellations of this most special place to them. Not very interested in treating with minor mortals but if amused, impressed may hand off gifts.
(from prompts Trinket or Treasure, Magic, Settlement, Difficult, Space Phenomena , Flame Rings)


Number 3: A scro mantis-ship is defending a settlement against an Elven Armada. This is a last ditch holding action to delay pursuit of other ships that have escaped, the Mantis is outclassed and out gunned but it is maneuvering to ram and attempt a last ditch boarding action.
(from prompts Ongoing Conflict, Spelljammer, A Spelljammer ship, Moderate, , Planetoids , Planetoid with Atmosphere, uncommon ship type, Mantis (Scro), very rare, Armada (elfs)


Number 4: A shattered ancient dwarven citadel tumbles through space, requires some minor navigation checks, has been picked over by looters but can reveal some information about the old system in books held within it
(from prompts Harmless Encounter, Magic, A Spelljammer ship, Simple, Space Debris , Debris Fields , Uncommon , Citadel)


Number 5: Elven party scouting a location for possible re-occupation of abandoned forward settlement; will attempt to aggressively drive off the players to prevent them from looting the place.
(from prompts Ongoing Conflict, Spelljammer, Settlement, Moderate, Planetoids , Dead Floating Rock , Uncommon , Radiant Ship, Common settlers, Elf)

Note these are the work of few moments and so quite generic. If I was running this properly, I would tune or create my own 'things encountered' list that would reflect what is likely to be in the local Wildspace (what space-faring nations, planetary objects, etc). Mostly I think this demonstrates the level of easily accessible random encounter tables out there - quite good but may need some pre-game attention to fit cleanly into your game.

Edited to update broken link to revised encounter tables 18/5/22.