Why?

The main reason is that I house-rule just about every retro-clone I try. It’s not that I don’t like the system at all, it’s just that I have a ‘kitchen sink’ mentality to what is included in games I run. For example, I love Spelljammer and Mystara. Both have flying airships and interplanetary travel. (Granted, you can only get to the moon in Mystara.) Looking at rules for aerial combat in various games, I rarely find any that are really straightforward that allow the player some diverse options. This generates a set of house rules for aerial combat. Once the rules for it are generated, I think about a class that specialized in it. That generates more house rules. Then I think about aerial travel over long distances, life on an aerial craft, fresh air for interplanetary travels, etc. More house rules and bolt-ons.

This is the way my first group played and I’ve never gotten far from it. You want lasers? Okay. Flintlocks and Aliens? No problem. A class of adventurers that use origami creatures to do its bidding? Sure, here’s the XP chart.

I came this close to calling the system “Pocket Dragons & Pomegranates”

I abhor combat that takes 30 minutes for an encounter. I value combat, but not the feeling that a group of me and my friends are wading through layers of rules and charts. It’s an element of the story. It could even be the focus of the story. Still, I award XP for good role-playing, treasure, innovative tactics, etc. Players wringing the rules for every ounce of advantage is just not for me, though I don’t penalize for it. I have to admit that a couple times, this type of play generated some very unusual play that was fun  for everyone.

The real reason, though, is that I want to put together all the things my first group and I did into one cohesive whole. It’s not easy, due in part to a lack of concern for contradiction. We just called it “gamer’s paradox” and let conflicting rules lie. This time, I don’t want a paradox, but I want largely cohesive system.

Having said all that, here’s an sketch of what I imagine the system to be:

• B/X and BECMI based with a mixture of M20, 1e and 2e.
• Simple mechanics with lots of charts.
• Build systems for new and existing classes, monsters, and races.
• Race and class are separated.
• Rules for adventuring in any locale (air, water, planes, ether, planets)

That says a lot, so here’s a few specifics in no particular order. No THAC0 despite my love for it. No 2e style kits, at least not intentionally. I hope to achieve so-called game balance by XP, not by making everyone equal in power. I don’t want to re-create a HERO system style build process for everything. I’ll use BAB like Basic Fantasy does. There will be an optional silver-based economy set of rules. Lots of creatures, but not at the cost of making them look like they were created in a random generator. Yes, psionics, but using what I believe to be a non-traditional system.

In short, it will be a kit and a rudimentary setting ready for use. Folks will be able to pick and choose what rules they want to use, and what rules they want to discard.

As an added bonus, I hope to use Dokuwiki and the bookcreator plugin to allow individual players to download a customized ruleset. The layout may not be perfect and there may be a couple odd page-breaks, but it should work.

The class generator is complete. The monster generator only creates low-level creatures so far. True to my old school roots, they live as spreadsheets at the moment.

Otherwise, I can only say that I am fully aware that this is largely a vanity project. I have no illusions of ‘energizing the OSR market’ or being the next LL. More than anything, it’s a labor of love for something I loved as a kid.

Stay tuned!

The thing is that no part of SpellJammer is or was Open Game Content. The d20 mini-game in Polyhedron 151 is great, but as stated on the first page, NOT open game content. 100% proprietary. Andy Collins’ site has references to material left out of the Polyhedron article, but all of that is also NOT open game content.

The name Spelljammer itself is a registered trademark of Wizards of the Coast. This post will not challenge that trademark. Other items of the setting are also trademarked and proprietary. I say this because SpellJammer cannot be used to reference the idea of magical spacefaring adventure despite the similarity in concepts.

As such, let me begin by saying I want to extend the M20 ruleset (including standard races and classes) to an extra planetary setting. The working title of this setting will be Aetherflow, abbreviated AF. I will attempt to write this from scratch using other M20 materials developed by others as well as my own ideas.