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Spelljammer
''Spelljammer'' is a campaign setting originally published for the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (2nd edition) role-playing game, which features a fantastic (as opposed to scientific) outer space environment. Subsequent editions have included ''Spelljammer'' content; a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 5th edition setting update released on August 16, 2022. ''Spelljammer'' introduced into the ''AD&D'' universe a comprehensive system of fantasy astrophysics, including the Ptolemaic concept of crystal spheres. Crystal spheres may contain multiple worlds and are navigable using ships equipped with "spelljamming helms". Ships powered by spelljamming helms are capable of flying into not only the sky but into space. With their own fields of gravity and atmosphere, the ships have open decks and tend not to resemble the spaceships of science fiction, but instead look more like galleons, animals, birds, fish or even more wildly fantastic shapes. The ''Spelljammer'' setting is designed to allow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro) since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game ''Chainmail'' serving as the initial rule system. ''D&D'' publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre. ''D&D'' departs from traditional wargaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as the game's referee and storyteller, while maintaining the setting in which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Material Plane
The planes of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game constitute the multiverse in which the game takes place. Each plane is a universe with its own rules with regard to gravity, geography, magic and morality. There have been various official cosmologies over the course of the different editions of the game; these cosmologies describe the structure of the standard ''Dungeons & Dragons'' multiverse. The concept of the Inner, Ethereal, Prime Material, Astral, and Outer Planes was introduced in the earliest versions of ''Dungeons & Dragons''; at the time there were only four Inner Planes and no set number of Outer Planes. This later evolved into what became known as the Great Wheel cosmology. The 4th Edition of the game shifted to the World Axis cosmology. The 5th Edition brought back a new version of the Great Wheel cosmology which includes aspects of World Axis model. In addition, some ''Dungeons & Dragons'' settings have cosmologies that are very different from the "stand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Grubb
Jeff Grubb (born August 27, 1957) is an author who writes novels, short stories, and comics and a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the ''Dragonlance'' campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the '' Forgotten Realms'' setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include '' The Finder's Stone Trilogy'', the '' Spelljammer'' and ''Jakandor'' campaign settings, and contributions to ''Dragonlance'' and the computer game ''Guild Wars Nightfall'' (2006). Personal life Grubb was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He met Kate Novak in high school, and married her in 1983. His first year of employment involved work with air pollution control devices. Beginnings in role-playing games Grubb became a wargaming enthusiast during his high school years. He started to play Avalon Hill wargames including ''PanzerBlitz'' and ''Blitzkrieg'', and the SPI game, ''Frigate''. As a freshman, he attended the campus war-gaming club and was introduced t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TSR, Inc
TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for ''D&D'', a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so founded the new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. ''Dungeons & Dragons'' is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With the popular ''D&D'' as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wizards Of The Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidiary of Hasbro, which acquired the company in 1999. During a February 2021 reorganization at Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast became the lead part of the new "Wizards & Digital" division. Originally a role-playing game publisher, the company originated and popularized the collectible card game genre with '' Magic: The Gathering'' in the mid-1990s. It also acquired the popular ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game by buying TSR and increased its success by publishing the licensed '' Pokémon Trading Card Game''. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington, part of the Seattle metropolitan area. Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numero ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American "Wild West", where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them — distinguishing it from Neo-Victorianism — and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technologies may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the '' Voyages extraordinaires'', a series of bestselling adventure novels including '' Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (1864), '' Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (1870), and ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' (1872). His novels, always well documented, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time. In addition to his novels, he wrote numerous plays, short stories, autobiographical accounts, poetry, songs and scientific, artistic and literary studies. His work has been adapted for film and television since the beginning of cinema, as well as for comic books, theater, opera, music and video games. Verne is considered to be an important author in France and most of Europe, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Chinese, Maya, and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas. In the past, astronomy included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planetary Romance
Planetary romance is a subgenre of science fiction in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Some planetary romances take place against the background of a future culture where travel between worlds by spaceship is commonplace; others, particularly the earliest examples of the genre, do not, and invoke flying carpets, astral projection, or other methods of getting between planets. In either case, it is the planetside adventures which are the focus of the story, not the mode of travel. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' mentions two caveats as to the usage of the term. First, while the setting may be in an alien world, if "the nature or description of this world has little bearing on the story being told," as in ''A Case of Conscience'', then the book is not a planetary romance. Second, hard science fiction tales are excluded from this category, where an alien p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phlogiston Theory
The phlogiston theory is a superseded scientific theory that postulated the existence of a fire-like element called phlogiston () contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''burning up''), from (''flame''). The idea was first proposed in 1667 by Johann Joachim Becher and later put together more formally by Georg Ernst Stahl. Phlogiston theory attempted to explain chemical processes such as combustion and rusting, now collectively known as oxidation. It was challenged by the concomitant weight increase, and was abandoned before the end of the 18th century following experiments by Antoine Lavoisier and others. Phlogiston theory led to experiments which ultimately concluded with the discovery of oxygen. Theory Phlogiston theory states that ''phlogisticated'' substances contain phlogiston and that they ''dephlogisticate'' when burned, releasing stored phlogiston which is absorbed by the air. Growing plants then absor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forgotten Realms
''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the ''D&D'' game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations (including the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game to use graphics), comic books, and an upcoming film. Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. The premise is that, long ago, planet Earth and the world of the F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
