Mistspace - Pondering a Spelljammer crossover

[The Dark]

There's also a canon example of a (mostly) Hotel California sphere in Spelljammer, since the Astromundi Cluster can only be departed by living ships. If a DM were so inclined, "Ravenspace" could appear to be a similar sphere with some mysterious requirement for departure that nobody's able to figure out (because it doesn't actually exist).

[Big Mac]

The whole thing with connectivity is a key part of Spelljammer. You could do a "Mistspace" that does not have it, but you would essentially be creating an isolated system.

I think that this is one of the fundamental tensions that would need to be addressed in any coordinated crossover: Just as connectivity is a key part of Spelljammer, isolation is a key part of Ravenloft. That haunted house isn't scary if you can just leave. Darklords can close the borders of their domains. Escape from the Land of Mists itself is almost impossible.

As a long-time Ravenloft DM who has only dabbled in Spelljammer, creating an isolated system feels to me like an advantage, not a drawback. Others' mileage, of course, may vary.

By nature of RL, any "connectivity" in a SJ cluster would have to be fake... just like the rules of spelljammer would be simulations at best, fascimilies to trick you into thinking you aren't in the Demiplane of Dread. Though, as with this whole Matrix analogy, quirks would eventually happen and this "crystal sphere" would gradually feel more and more off the more you pried. I think it can work though.

Apologies for the slow reply. I didn't see a notification for this.

You are both right. This definitely is a your mileage may vary thing. It does depend on if someone wants to make a part of Ravenloft that pretends to be crystal spheres or a crystal sphere based around one or more worlds that has connections to Ravenloft. (I think that both types of crossovers would be possible.)

I've recently been looking through the Spelljammer canon to see what worlds exist and there are a couple of fairly useless crystal spheres that have a "this crystal sphere used to have multiple inhabited planets, but something happened and all the worlds have now been destroyed" aspect to them.

One of those was Darkspace, where the third planet was called Verin and the rest of the worlds have no canon names. That is from SJA3 Crystal Spheres and a vampire arrived from Realmspace and messed up the civilisation on Verin by not killing his victims and creating so many vampire spawn that they started to kill all the mortals and destroy their own food supply. The vampire then slept for ages to wait out the chaos, and when he woke up all the mortals had been killed or turned into vampire spawn and most of the vampire spawn had killed each other (in an attempt to feed). But there is zero explanation for why the sun would fade out and nine planet would all blow up and become asteroids.

Personally I think that an intact "Verinspace" would be more interesting than a destroyed Darkspace. So you could create a nine-planet crystal sphere, where the entire planetary system has been archived by The Mists of Ravenloft, in a similar way to the way that locations in Mystara get archived in The Hollow World.

If you went down this route then you get a Verinspace that has not been real for hundreds of years, presumably with the mortal humans constantly fighting off an undead invasion that is turning all of their friends and loved ones into vampire spawn. And, in the unlikely event that any of the people in Verinspace realise they are in an entire crystal sphere that has been consumed by Ravenloft and they escape from the Mists, they would arrive in Darkspace which would be full of asteroids with undead living on them. So that would not seem like much of an escape, as the illusion in Ravenloft would appear to be nicer.

The main problem there is that the write up for Verin and it's people was fairly weak. (They had no faith, so no Priests. And there was no mention of wizards. And there didn't seem to be anything happening on the other planets.) So it might be better to make up something new from scratch.

(I believe someone has already made a Ravenloft Domain based on this, so you could maybe grab that stuff and expand it.)

[Big Mac]

There's also a canon example of a (mostly) Hotel California sphere in Spelljammer, since the Astromundi Cluster can only be departed by living ships. If a DM were so inclined, "Ravenspace" could appear to be a similar sphere with some mysterious requirement for departure that nobody's able to figure out (because it doesn't actually exist).

That is a very interesting idea.

One of the meta-plots of The Astromundi Cluster is that there is a faction trying to shunt the entire crystal sphere to the lower planes. But that could easily be rebooted into a meta-plot where someone is slowly absorbing Clusterspace into the Domain of Dread instead.

And a Mistspace that is horror-themed, but actually on the Material Plane would work well if there was something going on with the crystal sphere that blocked most ships from leaving. The Clusterspace thing of needing a living ship to get out is one way to go, but if you look at how keys to get between planes in Planescape work, the living ship thing could be just one type of mechanism for getting out of a "Hotel California sphere" and other mechanisms could be created which would lock in a Prime Material Darklord but allow other people to get out somehow.

[Lucius]

(I believe someone has already made a Ravenloft Domain based on this, so you could maybe grab that stuff and expand it.)

Yes, we included Verin in our supplement "The Dread Space", with T´laan as its darklord.

[doctornecrotic]

(I believe someone has already made a Ravenloft Domain based on this, so you could maybe grab that stuff and expand it.)

Yes, we included Verin in our supplement "The Dread Space", with T´laan as its darklord.

Quoth the Raven had an iteration as well as part of a "lost domains" article. Plus, "Tower Darkspace" is a domain I created, where T'laan stews in nihilism as he faces constant defeat and his ambitions continue to crumble more and more. So, that makes three incarnations... at least.

[edised]

I have put forth my idea
Perceval O’Bibottom presents himself as a Giff to look up to, a leader of giff, the vary model of a officer. this is a lie, he is a scheming coward, selfish ladder climber that caused his superiors to die and his company to be stranded in hostile jungle with savage elves that he made mortal enemies of. Now marooned from there Spelljammer crashing, thay struggle for survival in unfamiliar terrain. Percy is the only one that figured out they can not die since the crash (oh they feel pain but won’t die from wounds, disease, hunger, thirst) now they must deal with the unquiet dead as well as the elves. He is envious of others accomplishments, he feels he deserves command, but unlike his late superior he does not inspire loyalty or love, he shows little care for his men. He stole something sacred from the elves (it was an idol to the goddess of death) as his captain was negotiating with them, setting a fire and claiming the elves had betrayed them to seize command.

Ronny was a normal human who traveled a-lot. He was rather dull and unimpressive but good at office work. Had a family he wishes he spent more time with, and dreams he wishes he fallowed. So it may be forgiven when the space clowns captured him he begged for his life he offered them other people to take. The clowns were interested so they agreed shaking hands (he only felt a little burn on his palm, never seeing the mark). He sold out others, and he soon realized the clowns where not done with him, he was there informant for conducting raids. He had to do this multiple times and he started to like it. He sent them after his competitors and rivals. The mists came as he met the clowns. He blacked out and awoke in a strange land, the colors to bright ( and why was that tree pink and smell like suger) the music to loud and people every ware. It seemed like a festival, a circus, a carnival, a jamboree, a maskgrade, and he was dressed as a fool, but the paint won’t come off. he was some kind of space clown now with the ability to turn others into his kind, but he has mostly the same personality which makes being a leader of clowns hard. The people of this land are vary fun loving, artistic, passionate and entertainment is big. They will take any excuse to throw a party or dress up.

[doctornecrotic]

While this wouldn't be until mid next year earliest, Wildspace Fanzine is considering on doing a horror issue. Part of this is to test interest in a Mistspace netbook, which several Wildspace writers are interested in. Night_Druid and Raeken on The Piazza/Wildspace Team have already expressed interest. So, this could prove viable at some point soon.