Resources to run Spelljammer today

tl;dr: since it looks like we are keeping the same aesthetic, re-use our old Spelljammer stuff, what was old is new again!

If you want something to whet your appetite while waiting for August here are resources to get your space-swashbuckling campaign off the ground today. The quick hack for Spelljammer is 'do a ship-based campaign, but in space' - we can break this down into 'what are my tricks for doing ship based campaigns well' and 'how do I generate interesting 'space' themed stuff'

All logos from Wizards, used to illustrate relation

The simplest version is hand-wave the travel, describe how the party arrive at their destinations in Wildspace and then get straight to the space-themed encounter table.

If you want to do this, I compiled links to online encounter tables from original Spelljammer.

More advanced, to make it feel really different to, say, a planar campaign or space-travel with a teleporting mage needs us to to two things:
1. Get the ship right
2. Wrap the campaign around it

Review: Burgs & Baliffs by Paolo Greco

tl:dr; a content-packed zine, lots of useful things in here with a nice urban theme.

Recommended on most lists of 'what to get for gaming off Lulu' Burgs & Bailiffs by Paolo Greco is a 'zine full of articles on the European Middle Ages written specifically for roleplaying game use. With articles on justice, tournament, warfare, cities, illness and medicine Burgs & Bailiffs will bring a more historical feeling to your game.

Burgs & Baliffs, POD from Lulu

First impression - at €4 the zine is a steal - shipping will kill you if you order them on their own but next time you go anywhere near Lulu, throw this in on top, you will not be disappointed.

Shiny TTRPG links #65

Another great week of links from around the internet. More can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.

A Culinary Journey from Ten-Towns to Calimport!

Knock Three Times on Weaver.skepti.ch

Combined Encounter Checks & Tables Using d% on Marcia’s Blog On a spacey theme given this weeks announcement of new Spelljammer:
130 Weird Treasures From Across The Spheres on The Cosmic Orrery
Baroque Science Fantasy God Generator (Part 1: Appearance) on Lizardman Diaries
d100 Events on a 5 Year Exploration Mission on Elfmaids & Octopi
Solar System Recap (So Far) on From the Sorcerer's Skull
Which could combine with "Space Angel" on Land of Nod

Ulflandia Campaign: Introduction and Overview by The Man With A Hammer - great to see NOD hex-crawls hit the table!

Harbinger Games returns with Common Elements of Epic Adventures

Thoughts on new Spelljammer announcement

New Spelljammer has been announced and it also came with the release of "Monstrous Compendium Vol 1 Spelljammer Creatures" on D&D Beyond from which we can glean a little about what we are likely to get. First off there is mention of Wildspace and the Astral Sea so it looks like we are seeing a swap out of phlogiston between the crystal spheres for the Astral. Not too unhappy about that, not going to miss the phlogiston.

Looking back on 'things people say they loved about Spelljammer' from campaigns back in the day we can ask does it look like we will get these things from this new edition?

Positive things appearing in discussions:
1. Easy to integrate into settings
2. Cool ships
3. Weird Aliens
4. Vast and weird setting
5. Space-swashbuckling atmosphere

So as a first look, we can refer to the Wizkids ship scale minis as to what we might be getting. That they have all these ship scale figures for tactical combat strongly implies we'll get some ship combat system? Reskin of the systems from Ghosts of Saltmarsh? We can also get a good sense of the aesthetic we will be getting.

Player choice of unusual races within D&D classes

Poking about for new datasets I found a favoured class/race pick set and saw a weird pattern. It looks like certain class/race combos are so favoured it resembles the old 'race as a class' set up.

When you do a heatmap of top 30 class race combos they mostly cluster in the 'big races' with a few outliers. These are some of the stereotypes you may have encountered - half-orc barbarian, dragonborn paladin, firbolg druid. Note the numbers are not important, the distribution of the colours - clustered at the top - is the message here.

Shiny TTRPG links #64

New links from about the internet on this Easter holiday Monday. More can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.

Awkward Turtle has created A Traveler's Guide to the Echelon Forest - "a system agnostic die drop forest crawl"

The Implied Setting of Original Dungeons & Dragons is Post Collapse on Grumpy Wizard

@goatmansgoblet tweets a Jousting subsystem idea

The Viridian Scroll writes ZineQuest 3: Roughly One Year Later

ZINE MONTH 2022 POST-MORTEM on Uncanny Spheres

Eldritch Fields gives us a retrospective: d10 popular posts on this blog...

Adapting Punnet Squares for Treasure on Mindstorm

d100 - Why is Garlic so Stinking Expensive? on d4 Caltrops - also helpful for generating miscellaneous local troubles.

d40 Fantasy Overland Region Generator (Travail Saga) on The Lizard Man Diaries

d20 Treasures of the Ancient Giants

Awkward treasures, scaled to giants. The theme here is things so big, ostentatious and impractical they would impress even the titans of yore with the resources squandered in creating them.


1. A jewelled flowering hedge, life-sized, with blossoms of gem and leaves of jade. Waist high to a storm giant ~ 2m. 11850 gp
2. Amethyst wall panels, slabs mounted 2 meters off the ground running 4 meters up to the ceiling. Est. 25000 gp per panel removed intact.
3. A whole fossil sea scorpion, approx 1.5 meters long, with 2/3 of the shell in opal. 7000 gp, more to appropriate collector.
4. A mercury necklace studded with diamonds, mounted on a stand of eternal ice to keep it solid. 2500 gp for the necklage, 1500 gp for the stand.
5. A hair pin, that could serve as a short-sword for humans, with a pommel of a black pearl the size of a fist. 1250 gp.
6. A charm chain, with strange items threaded onto a braided rope of gold and silver. 5400 gp.
7. A cunning folding box and bag of stiff hide, containing some coins. Folds one way to be a box, folds another way to be a bag. Can be moved by a pack animal in bag form. 12500 gp.
8. Bejewelled head-band that could serve as a belt for a human. 700 gp.
9. The capstone of the window arch is a magnificent diamond the size of a shoebox cut to fill the room with rainbows when the sun shines. 1500 gp.
10. A carved model of a legendary building, perfect in detail within and without, with the stellar coordinates of where the building was etched in the base. 250 gp.
11. A shield, the size of a dining table, inlaid with precious metals tell the tales of its one time owner. 1250 gp.
12. A carved table for giants with golden feet. Each foot is carved like an eagles claw, approx half a meter in diameter. 250 gp per foot.
13. Firepans of precious stone, set in stands of iron, approx 3 meters tall. 750 gp each.
14. A decorative table that is a cube of solid silver, 4 meters per side. 440000 gp.
15. Giant sized precious metal utensils. These could be easily used as improvised weapons. 250 gp each, 12 place settings with 8 utensils each present.
16. Jigsaw of valuable woods, many now extinct or from off-plane. Each piece is edged with gold. It makes an image of a woodland picnic. 5000 gp.
17. Table with a map of the world set into the top, each nation made of precious stones from that land. These realms are all long gone now. 6250 gp
18. A drug bottle with a spoon sticking down from the cap. Two doses of giant-appropriate snuff still remain within. 350 gp for the bottle, contents priceless.
19. Perfectly sealed ancient liquor bottle. The contents are a legendary and lost-but-for-this brew. 7250 gp to right collector, 150 gp in any bar.
20. A cloak of gold and silver thread. Sized for a cloud giant, incredibly heavy. Suitable for enchanting, currently non-magical. 3350 gp