Practical Planetology by Nigel D

Accessory' Practical Planetology by Nigel D. Findley TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 2 Nubis .37 The Geonomicon 2 Unusual or "Non-Standard" Worlds .40 Earth Bodies 4 Nivil .40 Comporellon 4 Torus ..44 Falx 7 Plata ..46 Armistice 10 Radole 13 Appendix: New Monsters. ,.51 Bodi 16 Dragon, Mithril .51 Fire Bodies 20 Azer ,53 Ignia 20 Flame Swallow .54 Garrash 22 Gyre ,55 Water Bodies 25 Imbul .56 Thalassa 25 Holbag ,57 Charon 27 Scawer, Sky .59 Barbuda 30 Steelback beetle .60 Air Bodies 33 Strangler .61 Alabeth 33 Zat ,63 SampleCREDIT fileS Design: Nigel D. Findley Illustrations: Mark Nelson, Editing: John A. Nephew John Statema Cover Art: Paul Jaquays Jim Holloway Cartography: Steve Beck Typography: Design Partners ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, DRAGONLANCE, FORGOTTEN REALMS, and WORLD OF GREYHAWK are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. SPELLJAMMER and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc. and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the book and hobby trade in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. This module is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR Inc. °1991 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. POB756 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva, Cambridge CB1 3LB WI 53147 USA United Kingdom ISBN 1-56076-134-2 $9.95 U.S. £3.50 U.K. 9328XXX1501 Captain Trevis Pelor stood on the bridge of his Squidship, in the book, there were probably thousands that weren't the Far Star, gazing at the planet below him. From space, included. That was why every copy of the Geonomicon he'd the vast majority of earth-worlds looked the same: white- ever seen had dozens of blank pages bound into it before swirled blue marbles. It was impossible to tell them apart, the back cover - so each captain could write down really. From up here, the only features visible were the information about the worlds he or she had explored that cloud patterns, and of course they changed. Sometimes he weren't included in the concordance. So far, Trevis had could see through gaps in the clouds, make out a section of expanded his own copy with the addition of twelve worlds. coastline here, an arc of a bay there. But it was almost Soon to be thirteen... never enough to recognize the shape of a land mass. The world below him wasn't in the Geonomicon; to his Trevis remembered his first trip into space, and his knowledge, it had never been visited by any ship - until now. surprise that his own planet didn't look like the globe that Once more, he'd have the chance to write down knowledge had taken pride of place in his old teacher's study. That that, possibly, had never been acquired before. When he globe had shown all the land masses and seas in detail. His eventually returned to his home, or to another world with a first view of his home world had been just like this: a major spelljamming civilization, he'd have his own additions wondrous blue-white work of art, showing none of the transcribed to a master version of the Geonomicon, to be details of what lay below the clouds. included in all future copies of the great book. And he'd have Certainly, Trevis had met travellers who'd claimed to be his own name added to the list of contributors - all the great able to pick out the shape of continents and oceans from explorers of the void - on the fly leaf. the subtle distortions they caused in the clouds that But that was for the future. Now it was time to investigate passed above them. But he himself didn't have that skill the globe that hung before him! and - if the truth be known - he considered such claims to "Take us down," Captain Trevis Pelor ordered. be foundationless boasts. Welcome back to the SPELLJAMMER™ universe! What all this meant was that he had to trust the star charts Practical Planetology is an accessory for the AD&D® that his navigator used - trust them implicitly. Looking at a SPELLJAMMER™ game system. It provides the DM with world from this distance, there was no way based on vision ready-made planets for use when the players are exploring alone to tell if the planet was, say, Falx or Toril, Gaia or the cosmos. These can be dropped into adventures when Oerth. Luckily, however, the charts had always proved the PCs have decided to visit a new world that the DM correct - so far. hasn't had time to fully detail. Alternatively, any of these There was another consequence, of course. In the case of worlds can form the basis for a fully-developed an unexplored world, or one that wasn't included in the SPELLJAMMER™ adventure. great book, the Geonomicon, that he kept in his cabinSample, file there was no way of knowing what the world was actually The planets described herein run the gamut from earth like under its shrouding of clouds. bodies - more or less like our own planet, but usually with The Geonomicon, what a great work that was! A collection one or two twists - through fire, water and air bodies, right of details on almost four score worlds. Of course, four score the way through to "exotic" locales like diskworlds and was merely a drop in the ocean compared to the number of torus-worlds. The majority of them have some twist or planetary bodies in the universe. For every world described quirk that makes them unique. The Geonomicon The Geonomicon is a large book and adventuring on worlds other than containing details on 80 or so worlds Oerth, Toril and Krynn. Entries in the that have been explored by various Geonomicon will generally mirror the adventurers. Copies of the book are entires in Practical Planetology. Of rare, and extremely costly: 20,000 gp course, DMs are encouraged to include would be a minimum price for this some misrepresentations or out-and-out work. DMs can introduce the lies in the information they pass on to Geonomicon—or perhaps excerpts their layers, just so the PCs don't know from it—into their own campaigns as a everything and so they'll have some way to stimulate players into visiting surprises in store. Each section contains the following basic information: world. Unexpectedly, the players decide to explore the fire Overall Data: Size, temperature, atmosphere, gravity, world. The DM can then flip to this books chapter on fire length of day, etc. If appropriate, this includes a map on the worlds, pick an appropriate one, and thus have important fold-out mapsheet, usuallusing ywhat' s known as Samplethe informatio file n ready instantly. "Eckert Equal Area Projection" (for cartophiles). Such Practical Planetology can also be used as an idea maps aren't usually relevant in the case of air worlds, water sourcebook. DMs can read through the entire book for worlds or fire worlds. adventure ideas, or to stimulate their imaginations when Continents: An overview of the major land masses, they have to create worlds of their own. including geophysical data where appropriate, such as volcanic or tectonic activity. Conventions life Forms: A brief discussion of the native flora and fauna. Guide to the Groundlings: A more detailed discussion of The majority of the material presented here is potentially the most developed species on the planet, including available, in one form or another, to PCs in the attitude to and knowledge of spelljamming. SPELLJAMMER™ universe. Those sections which deal Other Issues: Specific details unique to the world in specifically with rule-related issues are contained in question, including gravity on a torus world, weather brackets [like this]. patterns on a ring planet, navigation on/in a cluster world, Except where the form of the planet requires it, no and so forth mention is made of the length of a planet's year. This is, of Adventure Hooks: These are short "story starters" from course, dependent on the distance of the planet from its which DMs can build detailed adventures. primary. Including such information would restrict the Each world is named, but other details - such as the usefulness of this product (as, for example, when a DM crystal sphere containing the world and its orbital position needs a planet a long way from its primary - and hence around its primary - are not included. This is so that with an extremely long year - and the only appropriate individual DMs can place the worlds wherever they see fit. planet in this book has a very short year). Lengths of For example, a DM has designed a planetary system with seasons depend on the length of the year, and hence are an earth body - detailed, because that's where the DM not given either. expects the major adventure to take place - and a fire lava. In the high mountain ranges, the larger peaks are Introduction often the source of great rivers of lava that gouge out While earth worlds are by no means the most common massive valleys on their way to the oceans. Visitors have planets in Wildspace - that distinction would have to fall to described "waterfalls", almost a mile high, of liquid fire. air worlds - they are the ones most familiar to, and most Inevitably, however, when others have arrived to confirm visited by, adventurers.

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