Spelljammer seems really freaking cool, and I love the monsters we've gotten in the first volume of the "Monstrous Compendium," suggesting we're getting a lot of very freaky aliens to encounter in our journeys across the stars.
One thing I noted when looking through these monsters is that some are described as profoundly huge - a gargantuan creature is anything that fits in a 20x20 foot space on a battle map, but it can be much larger than that as well. The Tarrasque, for instance, is described as 70 feet from head to tail.
And the three gargantuan creatures in the Monstrous Compendium are described as being much bigger than 20x20. The Asteroid Spider, for example, has a 30-foot diameter body and 30-foot legs, meaning that, with legs spread out, it could be 90 feet wide.
Thus, it seems pretty clear to me that some of these monsters are meant to be threats not just to a party of adventurers, but to an entire spelljamming ship.
This makes me wonder about how the game is going to handle ship combat. Clearly, part of the fantasy of Spelljammer is to have players fight in starship battles against other ships and giant space monsters.
But I think you always run the risk in such an endeavor of alienating players if the rules for ship combat are too different. Ideally, combat on or off their ship should feel like the same kind of gameplay, only perhaps giving more options when on your ship (such as firing ship-mounted weapons) and raising the stakes (you have to protect the terrain you're standing on, which is your ship).
I'm really hoping we can get a preview of some of the mechanics of ship mechanics, because they seem so central to Spelljammer as a campaign setting.
I'll admit this is fairly conservative, but the way I'd probably go about this is to have whoever in the party is attuned to the spelljamming helm (which seems to be treated like a magic item) will control the ship if they stay in the pilot's position. The rest of the party should be able to act as normal, fighting on the deck of the ship, but perhaps if the ship has things like cannons or other weapons, they might be able to use their action to fire that weapon if they get to its location on the deck.
Thematically, I think it makes perfect sense for ranged characters in particular to be able to use their normal abilities on the ship's deck (which has its own air pocket and gravity well, so it should work just like the deck of a normal ship, as seen in the announcement trailer). Indeed, the image I'm getting right now is of an Artillerist Artificer setting up their Eldritch Cannon(s) and firing a barrage at some monstrous Yggdrasti or the like.
But the ship, presumably, could have its own weapons that might be more effective against other ships or enormous targets. Or perhaps they're just there to give melee-based characters something to do in a naval engagement.
Part of the promise of Spelljammer is, of course, the opportunity to go to strange and alien places (and also to hop between D&D settings,) but I think that getting the feeling for the ships right will be really important.
I cannot wait to get my hands on these books.
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