Review: Spelljammer is for losers, D&D’s campaign fails repeatedly

The movies are full of heroes that fail. The good guys are often beaten up and captured before being able to win the last confrontation against the villains. This helps increase the tension. That’s harder to do in a game of Dungeons & DragonsPlayers expect to win each fight, unless they are extremely lucky with their dice. These writers are the authors of Spelljammer – Adventures in Space The box set attempts to break that mold with an adventure film where failure can be just as much fun as success.

Inspire by 1980’s pulp science-fiction film Flash Gordon, Light of Xaryxis This is a space opera in which the players have to save their home from an evil elven Empire. Players will have to recruit allies, including an alcoholic, anthropomorphic, and rebel princess as well as a vampire pirate. Many of the creatures in this game are showcased through splashes and gladiatorial combats. Boo’s Astral Menagerie.

It is intended for level 8 and above characters. The story can be divided into 11 chapters. To add to the pulp-adventure tone, each chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Each chapter also begins with a summary of the events so far. Often those cliffhangers will be the appearance of a nasty foe that the players won’t actually end up fighting. While your table might get wise to the deception, they’ll still be rewarded by some goofy humor or a different sort of challenge.

Most D&D adventures are balanced very carefully so that the players are likely to succeed at fights and skill checks required to move the plot forward. You don’t want the story cut short because the player characters are killed in a fight or can’t get the information they need. There are many challenges that you can face. Light of Xaryxis comes with text on what happens if the players fail — and those setbacks often have extremely entertaining results.

Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon

Do you lose an early battle against the astral Elf? They’ll take you captive, and the Dungeon Master is encouraged to throw in an extra ship-to-ship combat where the chaos will give the players a chance to escape. A battle against an organic ship with the ability to disable another craft’s spelljamming helm, the device that lets them cruise through space, is likely to leave the players stranded. They can still make it as planned if they are lucky enough to be able to save themselves from the attacks. They must figure out how they can wrangle space whales in order to reach their destination if their ship gets destroyed. To get a vampirate Captain to support your cause, you need to talk to him. He’ll help you no matter what your persuasion check is, but if you fail you have to call him admiral and adhere to his pirate code.

These suggestions help change the nature of conflict in the game, keeping players from feeling too bad about a fight that didn’t go their way and keeping the DM from needing to fudge dice or come up with some other way to bail the players out on the fly. Light of XaryxisFailing is just part of the narrative. There’s even a suggestion for using a starlight apparition, a ghost devoted to helping someone complete a task they couldn’t fulfill in life, to deliver key information or aid if the players lose one of their NPC companions and need a little help.

Light of Xaryxis isn’t perfect — the ending involves a deus ex machina and the results of your characters’ coalition building are underwhelming — but it’s an excellent introduction to Spelljammer’s rules and tone. You will see a lot of different creatures, sometimes in a very funny way. For example, a brain-collecting Neh-thalggu pretending that he is a pirate. Beautiful art is featured throughout the book as well as the remainder of the box set. It includes portraits of important NPCs, and large-scale full-page photos showing key fights and locations.

Image from Hydro74/Wizards of the Coast

There are many opportunities for you to practice the relatively simple rules of combat ship-to–ship that have been laid out in the Adventure. Astral Adventurer’s Guide. Unlike Starfinder Or the Star Wars role-playing game, Spelljammer doesn’t give lots of new actions players can take on a ship. The book explicitly says that players typically shouldn’t both use their vessel’s weaponry adn their own powers and weapons. To move the ship, a spellcaster could play the role of a spelljammer. Light of Xaryxis You can also ask NPCs for help, as casters are more effective at destroying enemies from close range. These rules break down the distance between ships into four simple bands, ranging from too far away to interact to close enough for you to board. This is where the fight will likely begin.

It Astral Adventurer’s Guide You have many options to increase your potential for success. Spelljammer Adventure beyond Light of Xaryxis. There are rules for creating characters who are native to the Astral Sea like mechanical gnomes and the amoeba-like plasmoids along with new backgrounds like the wildspacer, which is effectively a D&D version of The Expanse’s Belters. This book contains many details about the Rock of Bral. It is a pitiful hive of villainy and scum that was briefly visited in Light of Xaryxis There are many hooks to make your next adventure even more exciting.

You can start at level 5. Light of Xaryxis a great way to take your D&D in a wild new direction. Also, you could easily mix together Spelljammer Journeys through the Radiant CitadelBy moving the Radiant Citadel to the Astral Sea from the EtherealPlane. However your adventures in space start and wherever they take you, you’d benefit from embracing the spirit of the pulpy source material and not being afraid to take big risks. Failure can make for a great story.

Spelljammer – Adventures in Space It is available now. Hydro74 created the special art cover for Hydro74, but it is not available in your neighborhood gaming store. However, you can find the standard edition at most major retailers such as Amazon. Digital versions are available for the D&D Beyond toolset, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds.

Spelljammer Adventures in Space Wizards of the Coast provided a copy of the book to review. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products sold via affiliate links. Here are some links to help you find. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.