Introduction
Spelljammer was one of the most imaginative and original campaign settings ever produced for (A)D&D. Unfortunately it suffered from various inconsistencies and design mistakes from the very beginning. This and the lack of a specific setting spelled its doom. Many of its aspects leave one with the feeling that once the idea had been created, the execution was seriously rushed, with the usual results. The designers did not even pause to create a common core to work from, with unfortunate results. Mists of the Void will start out doing precisely that.
What is Spelljammer?
Swashbuckling and sorcery. Ships sailing the endless void. Solar systems enclosed in crystal spheres floating in the world ocean. Spelljammer is the world of fantasy space, were daring adventurers, pirates and foul monsters sail the void with and without ships. It is the campaign, were characters dare the adventures of space for great reward or unsung doom in the endless void and world ocean. Spelljammer is about strange cultures, complex diplomacy and high intrigue - and adventure, all depending on your ideas and style.
Mists of the Void uses the rules of the 3. edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. You need the Player's Handbook to use any of this. As a Dungeon Master You also need the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual to use this resource.
Submission Guidelines
It should be obvious, that Mists of the Void is massive project that could do well with other people's input. I know that some of the guidelines are a little harsh, but this is my site, so I decide what gets posted. Most things will probably go with a little editing to make the text coherent with the style and atmosphere of the rest of the material. Considering the quality standard of most creative submissions of the Spelljammer online community there should usually be little problems, unless you break the (really simple) rules.
Formal Rules
The first rule is using a common format like txt, html, or rtf. Keep the formatting simple and easy to convert, otherwise squishing it into the format of this site might be too much work for me. (I have a few other things to do. ;) Avoid formats that cannot be easily edited like pdf or postscript. Use arj or (win)zip to compress files before sending them to me. I get more than a hundred e-mails a day and uncompressed text will only serve to slow down things more than necessary. (Yes I am still dependent on a modem.) Make any text easily readable, both in format and style.
There are "mailto:" links everywhere. If your browser is properly configured it should not be a problem, otherwise write an e-mail to larsloher(at)compuserve(dot)de. Submit any artwork using jpeg or gif format, whichever is more appropriate to the picture in question. Write a mail warning me before sending something large or you might get a somewhat angry reply. ;)
Content Rules
Any submissions have to be consistent with the rest of the material, particularly the basic rules. If you have locations and ships that do not fit into the two provided settings, they will be provided as resources for Story Masters willing to create their own settings. Having a few building blocks makes things a lot easier than starting completely from scratch.
As far as this site is concerned I am your friendly neighbourhood tyrant. ;) Essentially it boils down to the fact that I say what goes and what does not, so keep your own resource for material I reject. ;) Basically there are several options, but your work will only be rejected, if I seriously dislike it. Otherwise it will come up sometime either almost directly or after several revisions. If I edit more than format and a few words, I will send back the article to the author for approval to make sure I did not spoil something done on purpose or miss some of its meaning.
Finally there a few things you are not allowed to do on Geocities, but this should not normally be an issue for submissions to this site, but one never knows what ideas people come up with. I will also reject (or recommend how to fit it in) material contradicting what has already been set up. We do not want to go there again, right? If you think you can improve some material, so that it works better than the original version, ask me before you start working!
Finally I keep the right to create printable versions of the contents of this site to be published either as pdf or level 2 postscript via this web address, so Dungeon Masters have a handy reference at home to use in a playing session, after all I guess leading a rpg with a notebook computer is not all that great.