Spelljammer® in my world is rather simple. It operates on the same basic premise as that of the TSR™ (now WOTC™) version, namely that each ship, asteroid, etc. that is inhabitable has a sort of magically created bubble that keeps an atmosphere inside. If there will be a large amount of oxygen breathers to the volume of atmosphere, there must be a means of supplying breathable air. This is generally done by creating an always open dimension door to either the elemental plane of air or to the prime material plane. The pseudoplane of mist could be used as well, giving the world a misty atmosphere, or steam for that matter.

Ships' propulsion systems are of two sorts. The first and more primitive system is to create a gust ball, a sphere with a permanent gust of wind cast on it which will blow into a system of sails on the ship.

The second variety of propulsion systems are much more complex. They consist of directly applied force to the ship itself, perhaps similar to a flying carpet's magic. Yet another, much more rare variety is a variation on the teleport spell. This is very powerful magic to make this available. The spell to do a Jump I is 10th level, Jump II is 11th, and so on. Each degree of Jump determines how far that the ship can go. The distance jumped increases exponentially with each improvement. Thus, jump II has 4 times the distance as jump I and jump III has 9 times as much distance. There is no theorhetical limit to the number of jump levels, limited only by the level of the spellcaster.

Ships are often aided in manuverability and in ability to land from space by the use of

Lithell Birch, a wood that renders wood around it not only unaffected by gravity, but effectively decreases its mass as well, making it much more manuverable. This is a rather recent development in the progression of space travel in general.

The world of which Asterland is a part is orbitted by two moons and a rather random asteroid field. One of the moons, Lunelle, is inhabitable, and a rather secret pilgramage is taking place to go to "the promised land." As of yet, there are few inhabitants. The place has been kept mostly secret by the mages that erected their permanent residence there. They travelled there by means of teleport spells for many years. Small towns already exist on this planet Lunelle, which are high in magic due to the fact that the world was first settled by mages, a sort of almost vacation destination resort having created. Lunelle is a mostly forest world, oceans covering less than one half of the surface of the moon.

The world has very irregular seasons, due to the fact that the world rotates on an axis which rotates very slowly due to its porous interior, through which lava flows and has tides. The center of the world itself is hollow from about one third inwards toward the crust, the second third being porous caves and caverns, many of which are channels for the flow of magma. The world tends to be fairly warm with snow storms that wander its surface. The atmosphere has a pink tint to it rather than blue. Sunrises and sunsets are brilliant purple and maroon.

Many asteroids, or "floaters" in the lingo of the populus, have small populations. A new branch of magic off of the druid class has sprung up. They turn these often rocky, uninhabitable asteroids into homes of the wealthy, often including a private air source, vegetation, and often animal life. Some of the asteroids are as small as a mile across with others being up to fifty miles in diameter. Gravity is also installed as well as a shield against other asteroids banging into them. These Druids, more specifically named Genesis Druids, or simply Growers, are not too common and charge a small fortune for their services.

All in all, the world is a place for adventure and ripe for discovery. Many of its inhabitants are retired wizards and very wealthy people in general.

Gunpowder is just beginning to get off the ground. There is a balancing force, though. My world is set on the remains of a post holocaust world hundreds of years later. The radiation caused the monsters to be formed. The mannish races arrived after the radiation had settled down in Spelljammer type ships. The only locals that are aware of the real history of the world are the Seekers of Knowledge, descendents of those that hid out during the period of radiation and survived, and are humans. They regulate the evolution of technology, hating it for what it did to their world. Regulation usually involves killing the party that develops a new device before it can become commonplace or placing a permanent forget over that section of his mind dealing with the operation of the device. They try not to interfere where magic is concerned, as they have nothing against it.

Thus balance is maintained. If you use a techno-weapon, you will attract the attention of the Seekers, who will take it from you and erase your memory of the entire event. The Seekers never reveal who they are, passing themselves off as other humans. Thus balance IS maintained. This is not meant to be a cheesy limitation or balance thing. I came up with the seekers long before introducing gunpowder or other renaissance things into my world. I believe in natural balance. Balance is definately necessary, but my gripe is when the control is too contrived. I hope that my version does not seem so.

The Worlds of Silkspace
Obera	High Tech (modern plus cybertechnology, limited space travel) Hard to reach with spelljammers, taking a year or more of travel to reach its path of revolution from Jera. Goods from Oberah are rare and go for a premium. They rival artifacts in technological advancement
Chillwind	Undead World (Ravenloft type) Vampires are the lords of this world and the restless dead their serfs. Adventures in chillwind tend to be made up of either high level adventurers or very short.
Jera	-Fantasy World (With developing spelljamming) -2 Moons Lunelle -Magic Rich Lunell is truly the retirement home of the rich and influential. It is a favorite spot for mages of high level. The lifestyle of its inhabitants tend to be rather spendy, most of them retired powerful wizards. Gart -Militaristic
Baripah	Desert World Asteroid Belt ('Driftrocks','floaters')
Shreeve	Early Technology (gunpowder, simple rockets, airplanes (no jets)) Mobsters, etc. Most technological wonders available on Greymalkin come from here. Its people are aware of other worlds in silkspace and travel there is common. Jera is often avoided for the fear of magic in Shreeve is at least as feared and respected as technology is on Jera. Jera is very magic rich, both because it is studied more there as well as the fact that Jera has very strong force lines running through it, the source of a mages power. Force lines in Shreeve are very weak and far apart. Most of the few mages on Shreeve are from Jera and live along force lines, concentrating at junctions of these, where magic is almost as strong as on Jera. They do quite well for themselves, though there is a lot of danger from religious fanatics which see all magic as witchcraft, an abomination against God.
Excell	Super Hero It is from an expidition to Excell that the Society for Freedom learned about magical augmentation of the body's abilities. Little trade is done with Excell due to the fear that most of the travellers of silk- space have of its inhabitants as well as the distance needed to travel to the world. Sustained voyages through silkspace are arduous and dan- gerous. Pirates sail the solar winds as well as tradeships and the silkspace near Excell is particularly infested with them, particularly its moon Xenica, which is populated mostly by pirates by now, who use it as a base due to its distance from patrol ships, which comb the vastness of silkspace for spacescum such as the pirates. Xenica (moon) Lush green planet of mostly rolling hills and a few rocky mountain ranges which crisscross its surface. It is about 1/2 ocean. It is a popular base for pirates, which resemble the pirates of earth (Yo ho ho! Hoist the jolly roger!).
Biteray	Gamma World type Little remains of the original population of Biteray. It has degenerated to mutants. It passes fairly clost to Jera, though it does not share atmosphere with it. It is particularly deadly to non-natives, which have little resistance to radiation or poison.

 

The Silkspace system is thick with stray gasses, which makes it impossible to see another of the worlds unless it is close enough, or 'in phase.' This also assumes that the world that you are on is not itself in a cloud region at the time. There are patches of nebula that share the same orbital pattern as the worlds that move in and out of the shadows of its cover. During such times as a world is under cover, the sky looks like curtains of northern lights, and the stars are not visible. During the times when a world passes close enough to share atmosphere with a neighboring planet, there are severe thunderings, lightnings, and storms. Chillwind's atmosphere is laden with lead and ash, and much sickness may occur during a passby with it. Biteray has radiation problems, but these will not cause health problems, since it is not in a position to share atmosphere. The skies between the worlds fill with ships when conjunctions of friendly worlds occur. The time of conjunction lasts about 2 weeks, enough time to leave before it happens, land on the world and trade, and get off again before it gets out of range or a spelljamming ship. If the window is missed, you will have to wait another six months for a passby again, give or take a week or two. This is ideal for multi-genre games, as it makes it possible to visit other types of worlds, but either limits your stay to about 2 weeks or makes it at least six months.