Creating Your Own Wildspace System - Article 1

Creating Your Own Wildspace System - Article 1

The Spelljammer box set came out recently and I thought it would be a good idea to create some form of Wildspace system generation guide.

This guide will span multiple articles (maybe 4 or 5) and I’ll post another article after they are all done with links to each of the articles (and possibly a PDF download).

Here are the contents of this article with links to each section:

Table of Contents

• Habitable or Not?
• Your Wildest Imagination
• Naming your Wildspace System
• First Coming Into a Wildspace System
• System Composition
• Central Star
  • Central Body Table
• Next time: Planet Creation

Habitable or Not?

Your Wildest Imagination

In the below sections, and the rest of the articles to come, take everything as a suggestion. If you feel something doesn’t fit within your game, then change it. If you want to pick and choose which options to use for your Wildspace system, then do so instead of rolling.

Your imagination is the limit! You can even use these tables as templates for your own tables.

Let’s take the below table as an example:

This table consists of potential planet compositions (I.E. what the planet is made of).

What if you think it would be fun to have a planet made of bubblegum? Do it! You can insert items into these tables as you think of alternatives.

If things listed in these tables don’t fit your vision, look around you and see if you can find inspiration. Look to images of space and other artist renditions of planets and solar systems. There is no limit to what you can create.

Naming your Wildspace System

Wildspace systems have been generally named after their most prominent planet/campaign setting. Krynnspace (Krynn) for the Dragonlance setting, Greyspace (Greyhawk) for the Greyhawk setting, Realmspace (Abeir-Toril) for the Forgotten Realms setting, and so on.

We’ll get into planetary creation in a later blog post, however it’s good to have a general idea for a name as you develop the system. You can always change the name at any time.

There’s no set science for creating a name for a system. You could use an online name generator, pick a name randomly from a book, or create something with your own mind. Just make sure to add “space” at the end, or don’t if you feel it doesn’t fit!

Below is a table to get you started using the Fantasy Name Generator website.

First Coming Into a Wildspace System

Entering a Wildspace system for the first time provides you with many avenues for quests, foreshadowing, or setting the scene.

In this first moment, we’re thinking about the system as a whole (even if it’s only used for a scene or two). You’ll want to have a general idea of what you want this system to be or to be used for.

For example, is this Wildspace system fraught with wars? If so, maybe there’s a ferocious battle between fleets of spelljamming ships near a planet. The flash of laser cannons, spells exploding on the sides of ships, and debris littering the battlefield can be seen.

Perhaps there is more of an air of mystery to this system. There’s a secret that is being hidden here that the players must uncover. In that case, your players might come across a space station. The space station seems to be abandoned, and the only evidence you can find of previous inhabitants is a short message logged on the computer systems of the station.

As a DM, work with your players to see what overall themes they would like to see. And if you’re a player, talk with your DM if you want to add in certain themes or ideas. At the end of the day, both the DM and the players should be having a good time.

Below is a table of possible events that could happen as the party enters into a new wildspace system. Use this as a hook into a quest, something to guide players to a planet, as a way to let your players know how dangerous or peaceful a system is, and much more.

System Composition

At this point, we are starting to zoom in closer to our Wildspace system. We don’t need to know exactly what each celestial body (planets/star/etc) is made out of. We just want to get an idea of how many of them there are. I’ll go over creating a central star in the next section, and planets in the next article.

You could place as many planets, etc, as you want in your Wildspace system. However, too many planets can be distracting. Aside from that, more planets means more content for the DM to prepare. Keeping your planets to a manageable number is ideal.

However, don’t let this stop you from using more planets for a dramatic effect. It’s possible that you could have a system with 20 planets, and all but one is habitable due to apocalyptic wars between warring factions.

Side note: I also can’t physically stop you from making a 20 planet system with different, vibrant cultures on each. So you do you!

As a suggestion, start by rolling either a d4 or d6 to see how many planets are in your Wildspace system. If you don’t like the number, you can always reroll!

Central Star

This is the centerpiece of our Wildspace system. It is what all the other celestial bodies rotate around.

What lies at the center of your Wildspace system can determine how habitable the planets surrounding it are. If you have a black hole at the center of your system, it’s not going to emit heat throughout the system. Instead, you’d have fairly frigid and desolate planets. That is unless there were magical or other means sustaining life on those planets.

I’ve taken a lot of the below types from actual types of stars. You can look them up on Wikepedia to get a sense of what effects they might have on your Wildspace system.

Get an idea of how your central star/celestial body works and how that influences life and other things within the system. I’ve provided some examples/inspiration below!

Central Body Table

Next time: Planet Creation