Spelljammer confirmed with a new D&D campaign book due out this August

Spelljammer is returning to Dungeons & Dragons. This setting combines high fantasy with space travel. Wizards of the Coast announced the setting’s return Thursday during the D&D Direct streaming presentation. The three-volume set, titled Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, comes packaged in its own slipcase, and includes a double-sided map and a Dungeon Master’s Screen. Pre-orders appear to be live now on Amazon with a list price of $69.99. August is the release date. 16.

Spelljammer was first introduced in 1989, also as a boxed set titled Spelljammer: Adventures in Space written by Jeff Grubb. It was originally published by TSR. Physical copies are still available through a partnership with OneBookShelf.

The setting’s name comes from the eponymous starships. These are large flying craft controlled by wizards. You can see one in action in the teaser trailer above. Spelljammers look like elegant, open-decked vessels with distinctive, wing-like sails used to travel through space, through the air of terrestrial planets, and even between different planes of existence. They have been connected to the various settings in the D&D multiverse including Eberron and The Forgotten Realms.

The Astral Adventurer’s Guide . is the first volume in Spelljammer : Adventures in Space . Wizards says it contains everything DMs need to run a campaign as well as six new options for playable characters — specifically all six of the races included in recently released playtest materials. That includes the industrious autognome, the bipedal hippo-like giff, the primate-like hadozee, the oozy plasmoids, astral elves, and the insectile thri-kreen.

The second book is titled Boo’s Astral Menagerie, named after the eponymous miniature giant space hamster from the original Baldur’s Gate video game. This is where the strangest part begins: The setting now features evil space clowns and vampirates as well as sentient comets and space dragons.

The final book in the series is Light of Xaryxis .. Set in Wildspace in the Astral Sea, it includes 12 episodes, each of which end in a cliffhanger. It’s not known at this time what levels characters will start or finish the adventure at.

This slipcase-packed collection is not the first Wizards have released. Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse was released as part of a three-volume set earlier this year. The books included with Spelljammer: Adventures in Space are, however, much slimmer at just 64 pages each. Previously released hardcover materials for 5th edition D&D are generally well in excess of 250 pages each.