Editing Spelljammer (section)

{{short description|Dungeons & Dragons fictional campaign setting}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox game
|title      = Spelljammer
|image      = SpelljammerLogo 1.jpg<!-- FAIR USE of SpelljammerLogo 1.jpg: see image description page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SpelljammerLogo_1.jpg for rationale -->
|caption    = The ''Spelljammer'' logo
|designer   = [[Jeff Grubb]]
|publisher  = [[TSR, Inc.]]<br>[[Wizards of the Coast]]
|date       = {{Start date and age|1989|11|01|df=no}}
|genre      = [[Fantasy]] [[Tabletop role-playing game]]
|system     = {{unbulleted list
|''[[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition|Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition]]''
|''[[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition|Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition]]''
|''[[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition|Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition]]''
|''[[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition|Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]]''}}
}}
'''''Spelljammer''''' is a [[campaign setting]] originally published for the ''[[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]]'' ([[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition|2nd edition]]) [[role-playing game]], which features a [[fantasy|fantastic]] (as opposed to [[science|scientific]]) [[outer space]] environment. Subsequent editions have included ''Spelljammer'' content; a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' [[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition|5th edition]] setting update was released on August 16, 2022.

''Spelljammer'' introduced into the ''AD&D'' universe a comprehensive system of fantasy [[astrophysics]], including the [[Ptolemaic system|Ptolemaic]] concept of crystal [[celestial spheres]]. Crystal spheres may contain multiple worlds and are navigable using ships equipped with "spelljamming helms". Ships powered by spelljamming helms are capable of flying into not only the sky but into [[space]]. With their own fields of [[gravity]] and [[celestial body atmosphere|atmosphere]], the ships have open decks and tend not to resemble the [[Spacecraft|spaceship]]s of [[science fiction]], but instead look more like [[galleon]]s, animals, birds, fish or even more wildly fantastic shapes.

The ''Spelljammer'' setting is designed to allow the usual [[sword and sorcery]] adventures of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' to take place within the framework of outer space tropes. Flying ships travel through the vast expanses of interplanetary space, visiting moons and planets and other stellar objects.

Like the [[Planescape]] setting, ''Spelljammer'' unifies most of the other AD&D settings and provides a canonical method for allowing characters from one setting (such as [[Dragonlance]]) to travel to another (such as the [[Forgotten Realms]]). However, unlike Planescape, it keeps all of the action on the [[Prime Material Plane]] and uses the crystal spheres, and the [[Phlogiston theory|"phlogiston"]] between them, to form natural barriers between otherwise incompatible settings. Though the [[cosmology]] is derived largely from the [[Ptolemaic system]] of [[astronomy]], many of the ideas owe much to the works of [[Jules Verne]] and his contemporaries, and to related games and fiction with a [[steampunk]] or [[planetary romance]] flavor. A strong [[Age of Sail]] flavor is also present.