History TabletopGame / Spelljammer

''Spelljammer'' (released on November 1, 1989) is an ''Advanced TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting that adds up to D&D [[RecycledInSPACE in SPACE]]. It has a small but loyal following. Created during a dark era of ExecutiveMeddling (see [[Trivia/{{Spelljammer}} the Trivia page]] for details), it was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the StandardSciFiSetting in a fantasy RPG.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Lots of. See also the footnote on [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giant]] [[RecycledInSPACE Space]] [[FluffyTheTerrible Hamsters]] above.

[[SpaceSailing Flying ships]], called spelljammers (not to be confused with ''[[SpellMyNameWithAThe the]]'' ''Spelljammer'', a legendary ship miles in length) [[SpaceIsAnOcean traverse wildspace, the void within each sphere]], traveling from world to world (which always seem to support life no matter their distance from the sun). The ship picks up an "air envelope" when it leaves the atmosphere, so breathing is limited by the number of crew and the size of the ship, and gravity is always directed toward the deck from both above and below. And ''outside'' the crystal spheres (accessible through natural portals or transportation magic), lies the Phlogiston (or "the Flow"), a gaseous, highly incendiary substance that's all the colors of the rainbow and lets your ship travel at warp speed as long as you're in one of its currents.

* DefeatEqualsExplosion: From ''Lost Ships'', Tinkerers are comical-looking spherical creatures with 6 eyes and 4 arms (maybe distant cousins of beholders). They move around by expulsing gas, and if hit with a piercing weapon for too much damage, can explode violently from the gas they contain.

* TheEmperor: Vulkaran the Dark, overlord of the Vodoni Empire.

** The Spelljammer includes, amongst its assorted races and factions, a tower populated by the Shou, an Oriental human culture from TabletopGame/KaraTur who regard ''everyone'' who isn't a Shou as a simple-minded, barbaric gaijin. They're led by a mad magistrate who believes he is the captain of the Spelljammer and has total control over life and death over everyone (he doesn't, not outside the Shou tower, anyway), while his aide, who really runs things, is a secret member of the branch of the above-mentioned Xenos and is planning on getting them to wipe out all non-humans so that the Shou can then conquer/eradicate the non-Shou humans.

** Although, technically, this was supposed to refer almost exclusively to the Spelljammer itself, it is applicable in a much less interesting fashion to the Elven vessels, which are shaped from a living spacefaring plant.

* LotusEaterMachine: The Spelljammer, in a sense. Part of its protective elements is that it fills the air envelope it produces with [[CharmPerson arcane pheromones that subtly enchant those who set foot aboard it and inhale its air]]. The charm leaves their thought processes, nature, etc., fundamentally unaltered, but engenders a complete lack of a desire to leave the Spelljammer and a protectiveness that prompts them to fight off attackers or otherwise see to serious threats to the ship. Once removed from the Spelljammer's air envelope, this effect wears off in 2-12 hours. Of course, first you have to get them off, which is the tricky part.
* MacGuffinTitle: While a "spelljammer" is a generic name for a ship ([[IAmNotShazam among other things]]), the setting is named after ''the'' Spelljammer, a legendary, sentient ship that everyone in the setting dreams of finding and commanding. Whoever succeeds will gain unimaginable power.

* OneWordTitle: Also a {{Portmantitle}} because it's a compound word. MacGuffinTitle.

* ShroudedInMyth: The Spelljammer itself.