





Forgotten Realms was originally intended to provide a place for 2e adventures, however with the heavy editing and playtesting which took place during the writing process, nobody really knew what the final ruleset was going to be, and they didn’t want to have Forgotten Realms on the back burner for two years, so in 1987 they began the process of releasing it.





Besides the Realms, people who didn’t want to invent their own worlds could play in Greyhawk, or Dragonlance, but the first true setting of the 2e era was a strange one. SPELLJAMMER! The Manual of the Planes had talked about linking worlds together, but this product was the result of a long and productive brainstorming session which took place at a restaurant with the intention of linking the worlds through space travel. What it became was much bigger than that! Space travel kind of took a back seat as the ideas produced a true setting that was unique to itself.





At the time, SPELLJAMMER was a huge flop with consumers. I remember walking into a Kaybee Toy Store in the mid-90’s and seeing a shopping cart full of Spelljammer box sets going for $5, I’d like to say that I’d picked it up, but I can’t. Spelljammer was way ahead of its time, few players bought into it, but today it is a huge cult hit that is actually still supported by an Official Website at spelljammer.org





Spelljammer is not Science Fiction in any way, the laws of physics and magic all hold true to high fantasy architypes; space ships are not designed to function realistically, they are powered by magic and the less one thinks about it, the healthier their mind will be.





Since the system contained lots of rules that were unique to it, and because Jeff Grubb was able to get enough solid information out of Dave Cook to sync it up with 2nd Edition rules, Spelljammer was able to get a release date in 1989 with product 1049: Adventures In Space Campaign Setting Boxset.





Buyers got two rulebooks, full color cards depicting a huge collection of fully mapped ships, a giant map of the Spelljammer craft itself, as well as a good collection of new monsters unique to the setting. It was one of those products that offered a bang for one’s buck, and with a cover price of only $15, you’d figure that Spelljammer would had sold like hotcakes! It of course didn’t. I think that the low price scared many people off, not to mention that many believed that it was a Science Fiction genre thing, but for this box specifically, you had people trying to learn the new 2e ruleset, and they just didn’t want to be distracted at this point by some weird space game.





My biggest problem with it was that it wasn’t labeled well. There were a total of 4 boxsets published, with no real labeling as to which one was the original, which would be this one, Adventures In Space . To me, that always sounded like it was a supplement, so I had no idea what to get. I’m the kind of DM who prefers to write my own supplemental material and adventures; when I buy into a setting, I want enough there to actually play with, without having to head right back to the store to get more information. Did SPELLJAMMER satisfy this requirement by giving us complete information? From looking over the material available on PDF format, I think that they did.













Buying into Spelljammer is expensive. Retailers shipped tons of unsold copies back to TSR and they were eventually destroyed, making them rare in today’s market and highly desired by collectors. Finding a complete copy of the setting on the used market is difficult, so prices are going to run higher. I rarely promote PDF play, but a DM’s got to do what a DM’s got to do, and in this case, it is cheaper to print off your own copy.





This is a neat and unique setting to have adventures in, it was one of those products that pushed the game forward (a bit too far forward at the time), but now that people are more willing to try new things, Spelljammer has finally found its market. At the time I would have graded this product as an F, I had no interest in it; this grade has improved, I now give the product a B+ I’m not sure how sturdy this one box is on its own, but as it pushed the game so hard, and it is so original with tons of adventure ideas and hooks at the DM’s disposal, I publicly take back all of the mean and unwarranted criticism that I had bestowed upon it in my early gaming days. Now I wish that I would have bought it, and I have a feeling that I’m not alone with this assessment.







