I no longer remember when, exactly, I first heard about the Spelljammer campaign setting. I do know that the instant I first encountered the various stories and reports about the thing, I knew I wanted it.
Too bad it was out of print.
In point of fact, near as I can figure, I've spent five years searching for a copy. I combed every bargain bin I bumped into. I lost bidding war after bidding war on eBay. I searched through Amazon.com's out-of-print service. Finally, at the beginning of this year, I won the prize at last.
When it comes to reviewing something that you've been seeking for so long, the first question you should ask yourself is this: does it meet my expectations?
With Spelljammer, I'd have to say the answer is yes.
Assuming it's still complete and in fairly good condition, a Spelljammer set contains the following: two 96-page books (Concordance of Arcane Space and Lorebook of the Void), four poster maps (the first two detailing, respectively, a legendary vessel called the Spelljammer and an asteroid city called the Rock of Bral; the other maps are really play aids - a "planetary display chart" used for detailing solar systems and a "tactical combat chart" for battles among the stars), and a number of reference and counter cards, including deckplans for some of the most common spelljamming vessels, counters representing planets and such for use with the display chart, and still more counters representing various ships, intended for use with the combat shart. The set usually also includes plastic stands used to hold the ship counters upright. It's worth noting that there are not enough stands for all the ship counters - which I found somewhat vexing. But then again, I suppose it's unlikely that you'd need to employ all the counters at once.
The Concordance of Arcane Space contains most of the rules. This incredible little book covers spacefaring both within the various crystal spheres and within the phlogiston (every solar system in the Spelljammer setting is contained within a sphere of crystal that separates its normal space - or "wildspace" - from the gas-filled "phlogiston" beyond.), combat in space, new rules for magic (among other things, priests may or may not be able to contact their gods in the various crystal spheres and can't do it at all in the phlogiston, any spells involving access to other planes don't work in the phlogiston, and *anything* involving fire - especially fireballs - is incredibly dangerous outside the bounds of a sphere) and so forth. The system is really quite simple and a joy to explore.
The Lorebook of the Void focuses more on setting information, describing life in space, delving briefly into the solar systems of the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Dragonlance settings, and describing a number of new monsters. It also provides descriptions of the more common spelljamming vessels and details the planetary description format. This too is a gripping read.
All in all, I found the books quite entertaining and often fascinating. The folks at TSR outdid themselves here, reinventing or ignoring the laws of physics to create a truly amazing fantasy universe. One gripe, however: too much information was contained in sidebars that continued over multiple pages. I often found that I had to finish one or more chapters and then go back to read through the sidebars in order to avoid getting off track.
The posters are also fairly good. I was somewhat disappointed in the Spelljammer map, which really didn't provide much information of use - a couple paragraphs on the nature of the vessel, a bird's-eye view and a smaller side view made up the entire contents of the poster. No labelled regions, no map key. The map detailing the Rock of Bral was far superior, though only 27 areas were marked. The tactical map and planetary display chart, for their part, aren't terribly interesting to look at but are sure to come in handy.
The ship deckplans are simply wonderful. Each is two sided, the front featuring a full-color picture of the ship and a summary of the vessel's capabilities, and the back featuring a full map and key. I was somewhat irritated by the fact that TSR chose to stick some duplicate deckplans in the set (I double-checked: the duplicates were supposed to be there) rather than include additional plans - but then I realized that the missing ships were either too large for an effective map or so small that a map wouldn't matter. And I suppose it might be useful to have extra cards to share with my players.
The ship counters weren't amazing, but they were pretty good. The scale seemed a bit off in places, but that's about it. As for the planet counters, well, they're not terribly interesting but they serve their purpose well.
So all in all, I'd say the Spelljammer set is worth it. If you've been looking for it for a while, as I had been before my recent success, my advice is to keep up the fight. And if you haven't considered searching for it yet - you might want to.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)