Written by: Zachary Velcoff
Between and beyond the solar systems of Wildspace lies the silvery void of the Astral Sea, a place of stars and planar portals, where spelljammer vessels sail past the floating corpses of long-dead deities. Here, rival mob bosses vie for control of a city atop an asteroid, githyanki and mind flayers wage a war that spans worlds, and a fleet of astral elves seeks to plunder the very life force of alien worlds. Spelljammer is a setting of creatures hostile and bizarre: psionic neogi space pirates, ravenous and titanic astral dreadnoughts, and miniature giant space hamsters.
The Spelljammer setting was first published in 1989 for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, and has appeared in every edition of the game since. The latest release in this setting was the three-book box set, Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, which contained Boo’s Astral Menagerie, a monster manual; Astral Adventurer’s Guide, a setting dossier; and Light of Xaryxis, an adventure module for levels 5-9.
Spelljammer's 5th Edition release was marred by controversy over racially offensive material. Wizards of the Coast apologized for–and released errata–in an attempt to correct their depiction of the hadozee, which drew parallels to real-world racism against Black people, notably in the contexts of minstrelsy and false justifications for slavery. If you want to run an antiracist table (you should) and are planning to run a campaign in this setting, you should be cognizant of this and proactive in your work to remove it from your Spelljammer games.
Once you lose the racist material, space pirates is a pretty cool concept for a game. If you’re still keen on running Spelljammer, be it Light of Xaryxis, an older module, or a homebrew campaign in the spacefaring setting, you’re going to want some battlemaps. Here, without further ado, are the Top 10 Battlemaps for Spelljammer.
Airships!
It wouldn’t be Spelljammer without Spelljammers, the vessels that ply the void of Wildspace and the Astral Sea. While any of the airships in Czepeku’s Airships! would make an excellent Spelljammer, the Spelljammer Deck and Spelljammer Hull variants are uniquely well-suited to the setting.
Airships! Pt. 2
What’s this? More airships? Czepeku’s second airship release has even more airships for use in your Spelljammer game, including flying restaurants, shops, and bars!
Airships! Pt. 3
Surprise, more airships! Czepeku’s third airships release has still more flying vessels for your Spelljammer campaign, including flying jails and medics, tunnel boring machines, and various utility vehicles. There are even mail ships for your favorite interdimensional postal service.
Wizard Prison Pt. 1
The Rock of Bral is far from the only asteroid in the Astral Sea. Most, of course, are uninhabited. Some might be mined for valuable minerals. Others still may be home–or prison–to unimaginable power. The Original variants of Czepeku’s Wizard Prison Pt. 1 are perfect for an asteroid with a dark secret. And if you’re just looking for a plain old asteroid, you can always use the Natural variants.
The Crystal Veil
You thought we’d finally be moving on from airships? You thought wrong! Czepeku's Crystal Veil is a highly detailed five-level airship, released just 15 days after Adventures in Space was published. With variants for different sail colors (and a couple obligatory massacre options), the Crystal Veil is ideal for your party's personal ship, a floating base of operations that can take them through Wildspace and beyond.
Airship Port
With all these airships floating around, you’re going to need somewhere to park them. With a verdant, stately terminal, and berths for airships of all shapes and sizes, the Spelljammer variant of Czepeku’s Airship Port is perfect for the docks of the Rock of Bral, or for anywhere else your players might wish to harbor.
Hangar Bay
After a perilous battle with a mind flayer nautiloid, a neogi nightspider, or an astral elf star moth, your players’ vessel might need repairs. The Space No Ships variant of Czepeku’s Hangar Bay makes for a perfect Spelljammer garage for your players to conduct repairs or–if they don’t yet have an airship of their own–to steal one.
Astral Plane
As your players traverse the Astral Plane, they may come across the floating, petrified corpse of a long-dead god. These macabre sites may be home to eldritch resources, to ancient treasures, and to the aberrant parasites who guard them. Should your players disembark from their Spelljammer to explore such a corpse, set their exploration on Czepeku's Astral Plane. There are so many suitable variants for this map, from the Original, to Asteroids, Deep Space, and more.
Celestial Realm
Deep in the Astral Sea churn colorful portals, gateways to other planes of the multiverse. Whether your players are seeking to travel to another plane, attempting to stop an extraplanar incursion, or are being pulled toward such a portal against their will, Czepeku’s Celestial Realm is a great map for one of these color pools. The version you’ll use may depend on what plane the portal leads to, but the Portal and Warp variants are particularly fitting.
Void Dragon Lair
You might use one of the epic variants of this map for a scene of high drama: Supernova, Planetary Collision, or Blackhole. For a multi-phase encounter, you can transition from the Space Egg to the Hatching variant, then to the Original, and last, to the Angered variant. Or, if your players are simply navigating an asteroid belt in their airship, there's always the Astral variant. Regardless, Czepeku's Void Dragon Lair makes for an awe-inspiring backdrop to a climactic moment in your Spelljammer campaign.
Looking for more Spelljammer maps? Search for the "astral" tag on Czepeku.com, and you'll find several of the maps mentioned in this list, plus many, many more!