Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace

Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace is a role-playing game developed by Cybertech and published by (SSI) in 1992 for the. It is an adaptation of the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons setting Spelljammer.

An Amiga port was planned and development started, but was then abandoned long before completion stage.

Gameplay
Spelljammer is the name of an campaign setting.

Pirates of Realmspace is the title of this adventure.

Spelljammer
The Spelljammer setting was released in 1989. The basic idea was to give players the means to transfer Dungeons & Dragons characters between different settings.

Spelljammer allows to fly between three different planetary systems that host three different D&D worlds:, , and. A fourth system, called Clusterspace, is exclusive to the Spelljammer setting. Each planetary system is encased in a Ptolemaic crystal sphere, and such spheres are immersed in a colorful and luminescent medium called "Phlogiston" or "the Flow". Stars are small holes in the crystal spheres, from where the phlogiston burns in and flying ships can move out. The spelljamming ships require a magical spelljamming helm to fly in the "wildspace" between planets and a more powerful helm to fly in the phlogiston between different planetary systems. "Spelljammer" is actually the name of a mythical, living ship similar to a huge manta ray that hosts a whole city on its back.

Official support for the Spelljammer setting was discontinued in 1994, when the Planescape setting replaced it as a means to connect different D&D settings.

If Planescape is the successor of Spelljammer, then Planescape: Torment can be considered the sequel to Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace.


 * FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: Why does Spelljammer connects three D&D settings only? Al-Qadim is set on the same world of the Forgotten Realms; this adds one. ' and Blackmoor were incompatible because they used the Basic D&D rules. were considered incompatible with any High Fantasy setting. Birthright, Planescape, ' and the rest were released after Spelljammer was discontinued.

Pirates of Realmspace
Pirates of Realmspace is limited in scope with respect to both the Spelljammer setting and games of the same age.

It is very easy to establish direct comparison between this game and Space Rogue, released three years earlier. In both games, the character starts without a definite mission, and can trade goods between ports, thus earning money that can be used to enhance the ship, and therefore become able to successful carry out space combat missions.

Still, the older game delivers a more immersive and realistic experience to the player:
 * In Space Rogue, the player can travel between eight planetary systems and visit a dozen space stations. In Pirates of Realmspace, the ship is vinculated to a single planetary system (the Spelljammer setting included three more) and can visit just six ports.
 * In Space Rogue, when the ship lands, the character gets off and literally walks the corridors and rooms of the space stations. In Pirates of Realmspace, every city consists of a series of menus and almost static pictures.
 * In Space Rogue, space combat is three-dimensional and newtonian: the ship can move forward and back, turn left and right, go up and down, and even turn on itself while moving in another direction. In Pirates of Realmspace, it is two-dimensional: the ship can only move forward and back, left and right, like a small boat bound to the sea surface.

For these reasons, if Pirates of Realmspace was set in the sea off the coast of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms, it would have been the same game (maybe titled "Pirates of the Sword Coast").