Are Your Spellbound by Spelljammer?

Spelljammer looks to be the Next Big Thing put out for Dungeons & Dragons 5e. They’ve been dripping out a lot of free content over the past few weeks, leading up to the release of the official source book, “Spelljammer: Adventures in Space.” I’m just curious to hear general thoughts about it. Are we excited about it? Indifferent?

I remember first being introduced to the original iteration of Spelljammer back in high school when I was part of a fairly regular gaming group. While fantasy fiction has always been my primary love, sci-fi has been a close second. This was seemingly the perfect marriage of the two.

Seeing the image of the magical pirate ship flying through outer space absolutely intrigued me. Alas, I never got to experience the Spelljammer universe then as the interest just wasn’t there among the other players around the table.

After that, honestly, I kinda forgot about it, that is until twenty-some years later. I was DMing the second campaign in my homebrew setting of Xenia, and while I was planning out an upcoming session for my players, Spelljammer suddenly popped in my head. And I ran with it.

Scouring the internet, I found the necessary rules and descriptions to put together a ship-to-ship battle in outer space as my players journeyed to the end of eternity…for reasons I cannot recall now.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun! The players too had a good time viewing combat in a fully 3-D space, strategizing what weapons to fire and when from their Spelljammer at those of the attacking baddies.

Now, that said, I don’t believe I am interested in a campaign fully set in the Spelljammer universe. But as a bizarre tangent in a campaign already flush with bizarre tangents, supernatural antagonists, time travel, an android from the future, and more? It added a hell of a lot of flavor for a session.

Will I be buying the Spelljammer sourcebook when it is released? I mean…probably? If nothing else, I always love the additional seasoning your characters and campaigns benefit from when you mix in creative new monsters, original new spells, curious magic items, and amazing new feats.

What are your thoughts on Spelljammer?