In my early days of getting into tabletop RPGs, I was struck by artwork from Space 1889 and then soon after for Spelljammer.  Of course, I’d also enjoyed concepts from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and others, so the idea of fantastical sailing vessels traveling through the ether (or whatever word was used for the nonexistent substance that allows folks to breath in the void between worlds) was a great fit for me.  While Space 1889 still fascinates me, and one day I do intend to bring it to the table, even if not quite in the form that has been published, Spelljammer was, in the way much of TSR’s output was, disappointing.  In trying to shoehorn in much of their lore, wonky conception of mechanics, and to sanitize and “Disneyfy” it the way TSR did in that era (and WoTC does today), they created a setting that just doesn’t live up to the promise of the artwork.  Well, here comes SkyCrawl to fill in the void and deliver on those promises.

Aaron A. Reed’s SkyCrawl is, essentially, a plug-in system, or I think I’ve seen it described as a cap system.  Whatever your game of choice might be, whether it be any given variation of D&D, or if you’re using something Powered by the Apocalypse or Basic Role-Playing or whatever, you can plug this system in and use it to take your PCs out into some wild adventures in the “strange skies.”  Though this system does use some elements of PbtA games, those elements are self-contained within the system and won’t really affect anything else you might be using.

SkyCrawl posits a realm where various lands float in an eternal sky, and folks travel between them by ship, rocket, or wing.  The details are largely up to you, with plenty of tool kits to help you craft lands (a blanket term for things you might encounter in the sky), peoples, and ships, and how to use them.  Travel between lands is very tricky and potentially dangerous, but also full of adventure and limitless possibilities.

Inside you’ll find a great deal of playable material.  A system for harvesting resources, a system for creating strange people to populate your sky, a system for travel between lands, a system for creating those lands, a system for making the vessels that ply the sky, and a system for fighting battles with those ships.

If you like the idea of taking your PCs off their safe and familiar world and thrusting them into a strange and marvelous, endless sky, you should definitely take a look at this book.  I recently reread the early volumes of the comic series Meridian, and this would be a perfect system for recreating that setting.  And with the recent disappointment folks felt with WotC’s handling of Spelljammer, it might be worth checking out this book, which is a fraction of the price.  I definitely hope to bring it to my table and will be using the toolkits right away.  The charts for crafting folk should be useful right away.

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