Sura Dungeons{Dragons\Everything you know about space is wrong. Infinite space; stars as flam- ing spheres of super-heated plasma; movement through space as a balance of scientific forces, thrust providing accel- eration and maneuverability; scientific fact backing up natu- ral phenomena; life on other planets built along blocks of carbon or silicon elements. Forget all that. It’s wrong. You can get out of the atmosphere on the back of a roc; fly between the planets through a breathable ocean of air; sail between the crystal spheres that surround the in- habited worlds on a river of magical energy; encounter roving mind flayers and be- holders. The stars are living things in some areas, great bowls of fire in others, and pin- points of light painted inside a sphere in others. Welcome to the SPELLJAM- MER™ universe. It is a magical universe. The SPELLJAMMER sup- plement treats the AD&D® game world, with its magic, myriad races, and dimen- sional gates as the “real” world, and builds outward from there. This is a universe postulated on magica], not sci- entific, laws, There are univer- sal laws and they must be obeyed, but they are the laws of magic, not physics—the laws of Mordenkainen, Elmin- fECoy Ry aOR Yo) ster, and Fistandantilus rather than Galileo, Newton, and Ein- stein. They sometimes appear strange and random to us, who are accustomed to the work- ings of science. But to the characters who have lived .their entire lives in this envi- ronment, nothing could be more familiar and logical. This SPELLJUAMMER sup- plement extends the AD&D® 2nd Edition game into space, and does so without violating existing campaign material. This includes Greyhawk, the original ADGD game setting; Krynn, land of the Dragon- lances; Toril, home of the Forgotten Realms; and every individual campaign in exist- ence. Introducing this material in your campaign will work some changes, certainly. It will pro- duce an entertaining and far- ranging version of the AD&D game which can exist along- side the standing campaign, mixing with “earthbound” ad- ventures without overshadow- ing them. The text in this set is divided into two books: The Concor- dance of Arcane Space and The Lorebook of the Void. The Con- cordance (this book) should be read first. It lays out the rules for conducting AD&D games in space as well as the magical science behind space travel, the building and handling of space craft, new spells and items of equipment, and the “discovery” and creation of new worlds. The Lorebook of the Void discusses the races, monsters, and myriad other unusual things that can be en- countered “out there.” Full-color heavy sheets give deck plans and other details on the most common space- going ships. Finally, four maps are in- cluded in the SPELLJAMMER box. These include a full lay- out of the Spelljammmer, a huge, powerful ship of legend. It is the Flying Dutchman of the space lanes, the ultimate goal and dream of many a space pi- rate and adventurer, Also in- cluded is a map of a typical space citadel, the sort used as @ port and base by many differ- ent races; a hex grid and stand- up counters. for playing tac- tical space battles; and an overview map of typical solar systems and planetary orbits for diagramming new systems and tracking the planets in a campaign. eBaVvA £ H. Ships and crea ae talon) aeons bata me os oe emer ae res le1¢ Ay two horizontal axes, it is possible to stand an the “bottom” of the boat, facing the opposite direc- itlelomeer mes re aa lelleme emo Tet fom reels) eee ae fefre eae eC re). Tiel aS other on the bottom. The fact that this is not clels ee eae both human jand other sentient) mature and commen sense in space. The human nature part is the tendency ta want all things “‘right-side up” when working with them, and while space- born races deny any such similarity with the groundlings they are as much creatures of habit as their ancestors were. The more practical rea- son is what happens when two large bodies meet in space. The larger gravity plane takes over the smaller gravity plane, and its direction of “up” fate etre] Many of the details about fantasy space can be different from cam- paign to campaign and from world to world. All fantasy space, however, shares certain, universal basic prop- erties and capabilities. This allows ships to fly between the planets and to voyage between the crystal spheres. This chapter discusses the nature of wildspace and the many facets and intricacies of travel and adventure in this new arena. Space can be divided into two types: wildspace and the phlagisten. Wildspace is what comes to mind when we taik of “space.” It is the vast emptiness that lies between the plan- ets and the stars. Ali space inside a crystal shell is wildspace. It is mostly vacuum. (More correctly, most re- gions of wildspace are vacuum. But the cosmos is a big place and there are exceptions to almost every rule, as shall be shown later.) Wildspace is not truly a void, however, even though it is often referred to that way. The simple fact that there is “space”. rules out its being a true void. The phlogiston is a turbulent, un- stable, multicolored, fluorescent gas (cr gaslike medium) which fills the regions between the crystal spheres. Very little is known for certain about the phlogiston or this region. Every planetary system known is encased within a crystal sphere. Es- sentially, the crystal sphere keeps the wildspace in and the phlogisten out (this, of course, is a tremendous simplification, but it is easy to grasp). Like the phlogiston, crystal spheres are a great mystery; their ori- gins and substance are unknown. Within wildspace are the celestial bodies: planets, suns, moons, aste- roids, and a host of other items col- lectively lumped together under the heading “planetoids.” Most celestial bodies have an atmosphere of some sort although it is dangerous to as- sume that this is an inviolable rule. Celestial Bodies The celestial body that is most fa- miliar to typical player characters is their home planet, be it Krynn, Oerth, Torit. or any one of hundreds of others that populate the universe. Celestial bodies extend upward in size to that of the sun, and downward to the size of asteroids and plane- toids. The tremendous variety that is possible (and proven) in celestial bodies mandates that the only accu- rate definiticn for the term is any sig- nificantly large conglomeration of matter that is wheeling about in wild- space. In general, however, a celes- tial body is a planetary mass. Most have a regenerating atmosphere. Ce- lestial bodies can have any shape, though the most common is spheri- cal. Still, there are flat worlds, ellipti- cal worlds, cubic worlds, amorphous worlds, ring-shaped worlds, hollow worlds. Astronomers from Calim- shan have even theorized the exist- ence of a mGbius world. Celestial bodies usually, but not al- ways, have an atmosphere which is usually, but not always, breathable. The depth, or thickness, of the atmosphere is directly related to the size of the body. The larger the body, the deeper the atmosphere, Again, these are general rules and excep- tions abound. Voyagers may encoun- ter large worlds without atmospheres, small worlds with thick atmospheres, and otherwise habitable worlds with poisonous at- mospheres. Some celestial! bodies are aflame, fueled either by internal reactions or by significant access to the elemen- tal plane of fire. Such bodies are called suns and provide most of the heat and warmth for the celestial bodies within any particular crystal shell.