If you’re new to Spelljammer, you may want to take a look at the excellent review Ancient History and Frank Trollman did of The Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook: http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?p=475807 or possibly my review of the Spelljammer boxed set: https://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=57118
There were four Spelljammer boxed sets released: the primary boxed set which introduced the concepts and basic mechanics, the War Captain’s Companion which included many more ships and more detailed space battle rules, and then two boxed sets that strongly focused on setting details: The Astromundi Cluster and The Legend of Spelljammer. These two boxed sets served to flesh out the details of the Spelljammer setting, albeit in very different ways. Astromundi provides you a “Spelljammer-native” crystal sphere, where everyone spelljams and spelljamming is central to the culture and politics of every group that lives there, whereas Legend takes you onboard the great big flying McGuffin that is the Good Ship Spelljammer. Astromundi takes place in an entire crystal sphere and contains billions of inhabitants; Legend focuses on a few thousand individuals in an area that is, at best, the size of a large town.
For this review, we’ll be looking at The Astromundi Cluster. The meat of the boxed set is three books: the 32-page Astrogator’s Guide for PCs and DMs to familiarize themselves with the basic facts of the setting, the 64-page Adventures in the Shattered Sphere which is a DM-only book that contains adventure ideas, including the two big overarching metaplots and smaller side plots, and the 96-page Celestial Almanac full of places to go and people to kill. There’s a poster that shows you a map of one of the major trading posts in the sphere, along with a map of one of the crystal citadels so you can get a grasp on just how FUCKHUEG the damn things are, and 24 8x11 cardstock sheets showing you images of inhabitants, ships, planets and their moons, and some quick references to imports & exports, encounter tables, etc.
I’m going to (try to) be more relaxed in this review than I was in my prior one. There’s no stated goal for the product in the introduction we find in The Astrogator’s Guide but I’m still going to try to keep two key questions in mind:
1) Do what extent are the concepts in the product coherent, with themselves and in regards to other concepts in the Spelljammer setting?
2) To what extent do the provided game mechanics support those concepts within the framework of AD&D 2e?
We’ll start with The Astrogator’s Guide since it’s both the shortest of the three and also pretty obviously where they intend for you to start.
The bottom of this page starts a series of black boxes that are snippets of conversation with a merchant captain who is introducing you to the sphere. They’re flavorful and fine for what they are. The next few pages finish up the introduction and reveal the following basic facts:The Introduction wrote: You hold in your hands the keys to some of spelljamming's greatest mysteries. Are all neogi necessarily evil? What do the Arcane really want? Do the illithids have a home world?
The answers to all of these questions and many more lie within the bounds of the secluded Astromundi Cluster. Long-sought answers lie here to be uncovered by brave explorers, as well as treasures no groundling could imagine. But be forewarned: the Cluster is not a forgiving place. Ships that enter Clusterspace sometimes never leave, unable to escape from a crystal sphere that was more than willing to let them in. Travelers whisper tales of numerous undead and ever-present slave ships. Some speak of golden hell-Barges, great ships manned by tanar'ri warriors.
In this box you'll find the following books: The Astrogator's Guide (which you have in your hands), Adventures in the Shattered Sphere, and The Celestial Almanac. In addition to these books there are two posters: a Planetary Display of the Cluster, and a cutaway display of a crystal citadel and Highport. You'll also find 24 cards with pictures and descriptions of new ships, Lunar Displays, pictures of important races and other useful information. Some of the cards are intended to be used as visual aids for the players, so feel free to flash these around.
The Astrogator's Guide is the only part of this set that should be used by the players directly. Chapter One covers the basics of the Astromundi Cluster and its various races. A basic history of the sphere, and its politics, major powers, and overall physical characteristics are provided. All of this information is known to Clusterborn characters, but PCs from other spheres will have to learn it through experience. Information in this chapter is very broad and vague, allowing players to draw their own conclusions.
Chapter Two of The Astrogator's Guide details the special rules that will be needed for play in the Astromundi. You'll find information on the different character races within the Cluster, and how their isolation from outside influences has made them different from "typical" individuals of their kind. This chapter also contains guidelines for generating Clusterborn PCs and covers the deities worshiped in the Astromundi Cluster. This section details the basics of life in the Shattered Sphere, and should be read thoroughly to avoid confusion later on.
In Chapter Three, new equipment and ship types are presented. This section contains important new tools for the wandering adventurer, from line-casters to crystal ships.
The second book, Adventures in the Shattered Sphere, describes how to set up and maintain a campaign based in Clusterspace. Book Two covers all the details on integrating outside characters into the Astromundi Cluster. You'll also find interesting adventure themes and locales, and ideas for longand short-term goals for your campaign. Most importantly, the secret goals of the many factions in the Shattered Sphere will be revealed.
The third book, The Celestial Almanac, examines the physical characteristics of the Astromundi Cluster, including the secrets of successful trade and piracy and an overview of the Cluster's economy. The heart of the Almanac is devoted to detailed descriptions of the many ports, cities, and asteroids that make up the Cluster.
Now, read the books, study the maps a bit and prepare to 'jam into adventures the likes of which you've never seen. For the intrepid explorer, the greatest adventures await!
- - The Astromundi Cluster is very old (Why is it called a cluster? That’s never really explained.)
- - It used to have inhabited planets, much like other spheres
- - Two of them smacked into each other, causing predictable chaos and a huge number of asteroids scattered everywhere, while the cores of the two planets merged and formed a second sun that orbits the primary sun
- - Running low on space on the single remaining planet, called Astromundi, horrible wars began, with humans often purging nonhumans
- - Nonhumans unleashed a magical curse on humans in retaliation, which lead to a sudden rise in human birth defects. Said deformed children were treated with compassion and understanding healed with strong magic left to die; those that survived eventually fled underground and became their own civilization, focused on being butthurt about how humans had treated them
- - To aid their war efforts, humans began experimenting with ancient forbidden magics best left shunned, because this could never under any forseeable circumstances backfire
- - The dwarves said “fuck this” (presumably in dwarven) and migrated to the many asteroids which now filled the sphere, where they could be dwarfy in peace
- - The elves, sick of human bullshit and dwarven self-absorption, said, “fuck it, I’m out!” (presumably in elvish) and by and large left the sphere altogether
- - The underground mutants plotted and schemed, increased their mystic powers, murmured darkly among themselves, found a mutant space Jesus to pray to, and (presumably) posted on Elliot Rodgers fandom forums
- - The Unbidden, a fun-loving bunch of tanar’ri, were summoned by reckless human magics (bet you saw that coming!) and proceeded to burn cities, butcher populations, and recklessly litter
- - The mutants, unaware of what was going on above them, decided to make their move against the surface dwelling humans. Imagine their surprise to find tanar’ri already busily shoving their former bullies into hell-lockers!
- - The mutants, cheated of their chance to punch the guy who kicked sand in their face earlier revenge themselves on those who had driven them underground, cried out to their new mutant space Jesus friend, who promptly WHOOSHED his mutant worshippers to an uninhabited moon in the cluster, and then shattered the planet Astromundi “like bad crockery”
- - Tanar’ri were put on DOUBLE SECRET PROBABTION and beaten with space Jesus’ banhammer, so that they’d never be able to access the crystal sphere again.
- - Gradually, other races began re-entering the crystal sphere, and they noticed a new feature: entering was as easy as ever, but leaving the crystal sphere seemed to be impossible, except for the elves because they’re a bunch of goddamn skinny-assed mary-sue tree-fuckers
- - As civilization began to re-assert itself, the neogi arrived and found that they couldn’t get away with nearly as many shenanigans as they were used to, since their “EEL-SPIDERS COMING FROM SPACE-SPIDERS COMING FROM SPACE!” shtick was far less novel in a sphere where people had been spellljamming for thousands of years. Ultimately, neogi weaseled themselves into the role of neutral traders, and managed to make other factions dependent, to various degrees, on the resources they provided
- - The Arcane arrive, and choose one human faction, the Antilans, to turn into their sugar babies. They give the Antilans numerous secrets, including the power of Sun Magic, which allows the Antilans to spelljam with ships far larger than would normally be allowed by the magic of spelljamming. The Antilan Sun Mages become the dominant power of the sphere, rivaled only by the sneaky illithids, with whom they fight several wars before the neogi are able to “encourage” everyone to come to a truce via threats of trade sanctions and piracy