Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon FAQ
Judged purely on number of questions per page written, it’s safe to say that nothing I’ve ever written has spawned as much interest as the Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon D20 mini-game in Polyhedron Magazine. Below I’ve collected some of the more common questions and answers for your perusal. If you don't see your question answered here, send it to spidermoon@andycollins.net!
Q: What is Spelljammer?
A: Spelljammer is an AD&D campaign setting written by Jeff Grubb and published by TSR in the 1980s. It had a reasonably successful run of products over several years, but never really caught on as a full-blown runaway hit.
Q: What is Shadow of the Spider Moon, and where can I find it?
A: Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon is a D20 mini-game presented in Polyhedron issue #151 (also known as Dungeon issue #92). While not truly a fully fleshed-out campaign setting, the Spider Moon game gives you the basics of a solar system in which to play a Spelljammer-based game.
Q: Why did you decide to revise the Spelljammer game?
A: See my "Why Spelljammer?" page.
Q: Why did you leave out the crystal spheres and the phlogiston?
A: I wasn’t interested in recreating a multi-system universe (nor did I have the space even if I had wanted to), so there wasn’t any need to describe what was “between” the solar systems. If you plan to add the Spider Moon system to your ongoing Spelljammer game, it’s easy enough to incorporate these elements from the previous version of the game.
Q: What is the system called?
A: Whatever you want to call it. Since the inhabitants don’t know (or don’t care) about the existence of other populated systems, they have no need to differentiate their home solar system from any “others” (much like we don’t bother naming our home system—it’s just “the solar system”). I suppose “Pyresystem,” named after the solar body, works well enough.
Q: Where are the giff, neogi, and other classic Spelljammer races?
A: Because page count was such a significant issue, we couldn’t really afford to add new monsters or PC races that weren’t already covered in the core books. Shadow of the Spider Moon is designed so that all you need to create characters is the Player’s Handbook, so the core races in that book get the star treatment. That said, there’s no reason why you couldn’t incorporate your favorite classic Spelljammer race into the game. Perhaps the neogi live deep in the unexplored bowels of the Spider Moon, and have only begun encountering the vile dark elves. The giff might be native to one of the worlds already described, or perhaps they’re another visitor to the system (like the illithids).
New: Check out these guidelines on incorporating classic Spelljammer elements into your Shadow of the Spider Moon game.
Q: Why did you give the neogi’s ships to the drow?
A: The visual concept of spider-shaped vessels was so powerful that we couldn’t bear to leave it out of the game. Since the neogi weren’t going to be a core element of the setting, we had to put the ships in the hands of another race, and the spider-worshiping drow seemed a natural choice.
Q: How do psionics fit into the Spider Moon game?
A: Quite easily, actually. Since it’s written to use only the core D&D rules, the game doesn’t really address the presence (or lack) of psionics-wielding characters. However, since the illithids are naturally psionic, incorporating the rules from the Psionics Handbook seems a natural. Psionics should probably be most prevalent among half-orcs—as products of illithid breeding programs, it seems likely that a fair number might have the psionic “gene” activated—and dwarves, who would use the power against their would-be conquerors.
Note that the game assumes that psionics is not the equivalent of spellcasting for the purposes of powering a spelljammer helm (that’s why the illithids use lifejammers). If you change this, you might consider eliminating lifejammer helms from your game.
Q: How much does a spelljamming vessel cost?
A: Pricing spelljamming vessels is a little tricky, since many of them “aren’t for sale.” Still, here are some reasonable estimates: tradesman 6,000 gp; hammership 20,000 gp; archelon 60,000 gp; warbird 10,000 gp; arrowing 30,000 gp; armada 90,000 gp; wreckship 1,000 gp; spinneret 5,000 gp; deathspider 40,000 gp; great mother 75,000 gp; boreworm 3,000 gp; nautiloid 30,000 gp; dreadnaught 120,000 gp. Prices don’t include helms, weapons, or any other materials or supplies.
Q: There are a lot of mysteries posed in the Spider Moon game: the ruins on the inner worlds, the fall of the yuan-ti, the destruction of the gnome homeworld, and the origin of the colony ship of humans captured by the illithids, to name a few. Are you going to explore any of these?
A: That depends on the size and scope of any potential future re-examinations of the Spider Moon game. Sadly, I don’t have the time to devote significant energy to writing a lot of new material (unless someone’s interested in paying me for it), so many of these mysteries may have to go unanswered. I have a pretty good idea in my head as to how all these fit together (or don’t), but I don’t have a good format to present that information…yet.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t answer them yourself in your game. Maybe the yuan-ti themselves were the result of a far earlier breeding program by the illithids. Maybe the ruins are those of the arcane, a race of blue-skinned giants first described in the Spelljammer setting and later reintroduced (and renamed the mercane) in the Manual of the Planes, who left the system eons ago to travel the spaceways. Maybe the gnome world crashed into an enormous asteroid piloted by a suicidal formian queen. It’s your game, and you can make up any answers you’d like.