Light of Xaryxis - Spelljammer: Adventures in Space Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots of full colour art. The scenes are space + sailing vessels. There are some more sci-fi looking ship designs too, though more fantasy in layout. Resembling insects or creatures. It gives the book it’s own subject matter, and it looks great.

• The setting work is particularly good. The ships, the layouts, the locations. I just wish there was more.

• Spelljammer is back! Whoo!

• The abandoned spelljammer encounter in particular is good.

• Tear away map, and hard cover map.

Could Go Either Way

• It’s shorter than previous adventures. Though page length doesn’t always translate to being useful, or quality.

Cons

• The MSRP is higher then previous sets. Probably because of all of the hard cover elements in the set.
  

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

Introduction

I’ve been crying for a new setting for a while. Planescape. Spelljammer. Well, here we have Spelljammer. For those who aren’t aware, it’s a science fantasy style setting. While there are some more advanced looking ships that evoke feelings of Star Wars, there are also literally ships sailing through space. As in they actually have sails. After seeing how the set looks, I was excited to get into it. Did it meet my expectations? Well, let’s find out!

The Adventure

New Player Options

Not really anything in the way of new weapons. That said, some firearms that were in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and seldom used are here in full force. It helps give the adventure its own feel. There’s not new classes here, which is to be expected. Generally speaking, I prefer if such big changes aren’t bolted on to an adventure. What it does have is some new playable races which tie into the settings. What’s also nice to see is that they are featured multiple times in the adventure. So a player who reads these while thinking of their character gets to see them in game, and they double as world building. Another example here are ships. It isn’t directly related to a class or character, but a ship in such adventures becomes their home base, and their literal home. So having so many options to choose from, with interior floor plans is very nice, and appreciated by players. I know mine did.

New Monsters

An entire book is dedicated to new monsters.

What You Need to Play

It’s business as usual here. The Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are referenced at the start of the adventure. These have become necesary, compared to earlier in the edition when the basic rules and/or SRD were enough. You could probably mostly get by with this one actually. But they no longer put in the effort to check. And naturally, as a new Dungeon Master any missing creatures would need to be created by you. Such a thing wouldn’t be too difficult, though possible still annoying, for an experienced Dungeon Master. But I wouldn’t recommend it for a new recruit.

The Adventure Itself

I have to come out and say this. In terms of page count, this is one of the thinner products that have been released in a while. This is despite the increase in price. This results in a more expensive but small page count product. I would prefer that adventures aim for 250-300 pages. Rime of the Frostmaiden hit this area of 300 pages. What’s the reason? Well, I think that some choices in terms of the quality and design did this. By having 3 hard cover books, a hard cover map, and a box, I think the cost of production was increased. This further bit into the adventure because of the emphasis on things like ships, locations, and worlds. I love those parts of the adventure. World building and setting is important for a D&D game, and campaign. However, 160 pages isn’t much for an adventure. And that includes all 3 of the books in this box. Just the adventure is about 60 pages. Low levels were sacrificed, with not even a short adventure to help players level. I wish there was more.

The adventure itself feels very Star Wars, or earlier science fantasy. Saving the world, space princesses, space elves, spaceships as in ships in space, cities in space, and more. It also has a big of Cthulu and that special D&D feel too. Mind flayers in space. Magic and spell casting. Fireballs being shot in space. It really does give it a unique feel. A fantasy planet feels like a space port. And space has its own special feeling. I think a setting should feel that way.

The characters we travel with have something to them. A vampirate captain. A wizard cartographer. A talking hippopotamus with a drinking problem, and a difficult past. And luckily, they come along for the ride and join the party for a significant amount of time. The ships have a character to them too. They look different, have full features maps, and even crews. To any good pirate story, a good crew is important. And as the adventure continues, the crew expands here. The villains...well, something more could have been done but I feel there is a fairly decent twist lined up. Though arguable predictable, I think the added complexity is a benefit and a good twist shouldn’t be able to be predicted by someone.

How are the encounters? Honestly, pretty good. That’s not to say every encounter is incredible. I’d ideally like even a small tactical map with something interesting to add to the encounter. I also like encounters that evolved over time. Reinforcements, crumbling terrain, an additional goal being present, etc. However, while there are some simple encounters here, there are also some standouts. One involving a mindflayer ship. Plot turn after turn occurs, leading to a pretty fun feeling encounter. And yes, I ran it. The other part of encounters, is that you’re on a ship. So there’s ship combat too. The ship combat has different parts of the ship we can target. Ships typically have some number of catapults or ballistae. You fire these at long range to do things like disable sails. And of course, boarding is an option too. It’s not too complex, but enough to give options while also keeping combat fast. Like many other aspects of combat, good location design makes the encounters better. Also, there’s some nuance about air envelopes and what happens when we fall overboard. We’re in space after all.

The ending...had me confused a bit. It said a creature must wear the ring, but one of the characters has a crawling claw. Doesn’t it count as a creature? That loophole doesn’t seem to be considered or explicitly rejected, so it kind of diminishes it a bit. That said, it’s an easy thing to fix I think. Just something to consider. For the ending to have appropriate weight, I think it should be clear why the item can’t be just thrown in, or why a crawling claw can’t be used. Or just tying it to a chicken, a rat, or a horse or something. It’s a small thing and rarely happens in this adventure. I just wish it was even better and avoided such issues.

The plot is decent, and even offers some interesting situations and twists. The majority of it though sends the party on their space ship from location to location. As they do so, they meet new characters, and often bring them along for their ride until the end. So it’s important to know that even though characters may stay in one place for some time, they’ll eventually leave and continue on their journey. A big part of the adventure is visiting and seeing new locations, so their home is their ship. Despite my confusion above, it really does offer a good ending for the campaign. A big ship battle, on foot stuff, the plot being resolved for the adventure. And even a big choice is offered. Though for many parties, I think it’s an obvious choice. I just wish it was longer, started earlier in terms of levels, had more ideas for random encounters or things found while drifting through space, and provided more ideas for what happens after the end of the adventure. In its current state, there’s not much to choose from either. If players had to visit to areas and could choose the order, that’d already be an improvement. A slight branching in other words. Further options would be if they wanted to stop and investigate things randomly found during their travels. Randomizing them would help with replay value. And lastly, even half a page of sample ideas of what the empire would try after the ending would be very helpful to new Dungeon Masters. Also, as it is, if the Dungeon Master wants to start at level 1, they’ll need a little mini-campaign to bring them up to level before they’d leave their world behind.

The Art and Book Build Quality

This is where the adventure really knocks it out of the part. The card cover map really looks and feels impressive. The hard cover box it comes in also helps to make the whole adventure feel expensive. From the art, to the multiple hard cover books. Normally, the set would come as one book with sections. Here, we have 3 different hard cover books dealing with each part of the adventure. There’s also a hard cover map. And, one of the books has a tear away map too. From a quality standpoint, it feels good. I think this affected the price, and the page count though. For more detail, see the adventure itself above.

The art itself is that style of science fantasy that makes me happy. Sailing ships in space. Vampirates. Yes, vampire space pirates. This means that even if the style isn’t my favourites, backgrounds are often interesting and even breathtaking. The maps are good. And there’s a good amount of art. I wish there was more photo real style art in it. A classic drawn ship with a beautiful background. But what we have here is good.

The quality here is mostly good too, in terms of condition and finish. The binding was good. The covers were good. There were a few seeming minor colour mistakes, but they were very minor. All in all, one of the better quality sets in that regard for me. The art was untouched, and the books were all as I expected them to be. Keep up the good work.

Price

The MSRP for this one is more than normal. I suspect it’s because of the multiple hard cover books, the hard cover map, and the hard cover box. In this way, it’s more like one of the gift sets. Well, that’s how it is I guess. And as always, there are sales if you can wait.

What I felt was Missing

It just needs more given the price tag I think. We don’t get an introductory adventure going from level 1 anymore here. The ending, while addressing the main conflict, sets up further conflict with the empire that are the antagonists of this adventure. I’d have liked to see a page or so of ideas to happen in the future. It’s amazing what kind of seemingly obvious ideas can be missed. I know I’m guilty of it as a Dungeon Master. Some settings books did this fairly well, such as Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.

I’d also love to see some more option sights, and encounters. We’re in a ship sailing through the stars. It should be a very free experience, with the ability to visit many places at the players’s will. Some way to allow players to maybe visit locations in the order they wish, with complications and optional ship disembarking would have been welcome. 

 

Ultimately I think it's mainly an adventure book. It's partially also sold as a Spelljammer book, but doesn't really do a lot there. We need a big full book just going over the setting itself to make people happy. Though I guess this could work as an introduction, as people dig up the older edition books that already exist.

Free Stuff

Nothing here really. Move along.

Summary

All in all, the material provided here is solid. The adventure is fun with nice encounters. A highlight is one occurring on a damaged mindflayer ship. Complication after complication occurs, which is advice I generally give for fun encounters. And the setting of spelljammer, a world ships flying through space in a science fantasy manner, is unique. It gives a specific science fantasy sailing through the stars feeling that nothing can really capture the same way in D&D. The production value of this set is also greatly improved. So what’s the catch? The price is higher, the page count is lower, and the adventure covers a smaller level range than normal. No introduction adventure either. Page count isn’t necessarily a show of quality, but more pages make it much easier to give more. So ideally I’d like to have both. Page count, and quality.

Other Stuff

• There’s a pretty serious typo on the ships. It references the wrong ship, which is actually the previous ship. Copy paste issue? They meant to replace it for the new ship, but left the section including referencing the wrong ship type.

• The ending needing a creature, but missing some obvious examples that would negate the sacrifice. Also, explaining why a certain vampirite captain wants to volunteer would help. Even if by subtext earlier in the adventure. Well, probably preferably through subtext.

Journeys through the Radiant Citadel Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots more full colour art.

• Lots of maps, even for the same adventure. So basically every important part of the adventure is mapped. I really like it.

• A wide level range.

• The adventures are more than just dungeon delves, and maps are provided for the other parts. There’s a chase or two, with tables provided. All of this combines to make really quite enjoyable adventures.

Could Go Either Way

• Not related to an existing property or area. Though the adventures can be set anywhere with suggestions for alternate locations.

• Compared to some other adventures, the framing device doesn’t really apply much. What this results in is that the adventures are easy to run as one-shots, or as side quests. But they don’t combine well into a story based campaign with what’s in the book. A little bit of work is needed to link them together. Without it, it’s more of an episodic TV show as opposed to an overarching season. Both are fine, but you need to know what you’re getting into.

• I kind of wish more effort was made to adjust the adventures for lower levels, and also for different sized parties. I’ve run one of the adventures twice, once as written, and once adjusted down for a party of new level 1 players. Clearly I liked the adventure to run it twice, and once to use it as an introduction for new players.

Cons

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

Introduction

In my opinion, there can never be too many adventures. Whether we run them as written, steal parts, steal maps, steal combat encounters, or are simply inspired by some part of them, it never hurts to have more options. So here we have another. Journeys through the Radiant Citadel is a new such adventure book for this edition of D&D. It follows the previous simplified spell rules, and like many previous adventure books it’s made up of multiple small adventures that are held together by the framing device of The Radiant Citadel, a hub with portals leading to its founding peoples. In general, I quite liked it. There were some adventures that I really enjoyed. So with that, let’s jump into the specifics.

The Adventure

New Player Options

There is not much here. Most of the new options simply deal with role-play options due to being born in the location the adventure takes place, or on the citadel itself. I think some effort to allow players to tie backgrounds to areas is important. In completely home brew campaigns we can easily add characters from the same lands, or even visit them. But when running pre-made content, often the opposite approach is needed. Describing the location and cultures, and watching as players willingly and happily add details about the world into their backstory. So such efforts are appreciated.

New Monsters

There’s a few here. Not an incredibly large amount, but what’s here is interesting. My favourite is the Soul Shaker from an early adventure. Of course it’s undead, but it’s perfect for a low level horror centred game, like for Halloween. So in general, it’s a good addition. Too many new creatures that are the same as we already have is a bad thing in my mind.

That said, they’ve continued their simplified stat cards in this book. Instead of providing spell slots and known spells, they just give 3 times a day or 1 time per day in the stat block. I’ve made my opinions known that I find this inferior, particularly where spellcasters are concerned. This is made worse by having way too low level spells provided for some challenge ratings, leading to an easy counterspell. However, the creatures in this book tend to be more monstrous. For a wizard, such simple rules are a problem. But for a ghost, or some special necrotically infused undead, it works just fine. And in fact, some previous monsters did have abilities they could only use once a day. So in summary, though I dislike the simplification this book manages to mostly avoid my main issues with it.

What You Need to Play

The Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are referenced at the start of the adventure. With the SRD, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide, it should be enough to run the adventure. But your players will be more limited. This is pretty standard these days.

 

The Adventure Itself

As previously mentioned, this book is composed of multiple largely disconnected adventures. They go up in level the further you read, and they are loosely held together by The Radiant Citadel, which lends its name to the title. It’s a sanctuary that links to the homes of the founding peoples through portals. It was once lost, and then rediscovered and resettled. However, some of the original founding groups remain missing. And generally, each portal links to an adventure of a given level. The need to do so, short of being part of a Star Gate like group on the Citadel, isn’t that well defined and would require some fleshing out by the Dungeon Master if run as a campaign. It is particularly sparse even when compared to some recent adventures. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to be more episodic. Some people like that setup, and it can be easier to have players miss sessions when there’s self contained chunks. Of course, some can be run as one-shots, mini-campaigns, or side quests. However, be aware going into it that this book is like that. And combining it into a campaign will require a bit of Dungeon Master work to create an overarching narrative and reason to visit each place.

Each adventure takes place in it’s own location. These are separated by portals, and allows for vastly different settings and even cultures to populate each place. As a result, each has its own flavour, and the locations themselves tend to have their own character. That makes each a breath of fresh air. What makes this book particularly good when it comes to maps, is that there are often adventures that occur in multiple places. In addition, these adventures are often more than a single location dungeon delve. There is role-play, mystery, exploration, chase rules being used, and even multiple locations. What this book does particularly well, and I’ll go into more depth below when discussing the art, is that it provides maps for multiple locations that feature in an adventure. Anywhere that combat occurs I think benefits from even a simple map. It allows tactics and locations to be used, and having these considered by professions can be a great help to new players. It’s also often important to keeping an adventure from feeling stale. 

 

My favourite adventure is probably the second one. It fits all of my usual hallmarks. Undead creature bad guy called a Soul Shaker. One of the reasons I like this guy so much, is because it has some abilities that make it perfect for manipulating people and helping in setting up the adventure. Small amount of mystery, kick started by strange behaviour in the opening. It's really well done. The main antagonist is creepy in the way that undead should be. There are side characters, and each one adds to the adventure and builds towards a satisfying ending. They are helpful, and the adventure also can get them out of the scene before the finale. This both helps to build the suspense, but also to make it the job of the party alone. And there is a great bitter sweet feeling throughout. It really feels like a good complete adventure. I ran it for a new group this Halloween, and it was a blast. I do wish there was a lower level variant. I guess I'll do that myself later. But really, I was surprised and really enjoyed it.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art continues to maintain it’s quality in this book as well. From the cover, to the internals, the style remains consistent and there’s quite a bit of art. This extends to maps as well. What makes this adventure particularly good when it comes to maps, is that there are often adventures that occur in multiple places. For both places, maps are provided. I think in general pre-made adventures should strive to give as many maps as possible, particularly where combat encounters are concerned. Simply having a list of enemies isn’t nearly as interesting as also have interesting tactics for them to use, and this tends to demand a good location. I do wish there were more realistic style landscape art though. Many of the locations, and the Radiant Citadel itself are just begging for it.

Price

Same as always.

What I felt was Missing

The main thing I felt was missing was more effort on the connective tissue to turn these adventures into a campaign. Maybe not the best campaign, but at least something. It also feels like a missed Planescape opportunity. It’s a better known location, and I can’t help but feel that it could serve as the setting for these adventures. Though I’d still appreciate effort to tie them in together into a campaign even in this case.

I also hope they can come up with a standard language to describe quest rewards. Sometimes they mention reward amounts of currency at the end which are bigger, or smaller than what was promised. Did the party get ripped off? Did they add a bonus? Is the bonus on top of the previous amount? It shouldn’t be so hard, and some consistent language would go a long way.

When preparing notes, I often write a few lines that may come up during play. They help describe each character, and also some plot points I may want to tie together during play. And having them ready to consult helps me more naturally bring them up during play, and also not forget them. I wouldn’t mind 3-5 quotes for important characters that can be dropped right in, or used to get a good impression of the character. It’s a little different than traits, bonds, and flaws. But for me, those often serve a similar purpose.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

Summary

So here we are. Another book of adventures. Each one handles a level range, and is connected together through a hub world of sorts. In general, I think the adventures are solid, and they do a good job of providing lots of maps, and lots of opportunity for role-playing. Not much effort is put into combining them into a campaign, so it’s more of an episodic TV show of old. Part of me also wonders if they missed a chance for this to take place in Sigil from the Planescape setting. Though in general, if you need these sorts of adventures I think it’s a good choice. They are varied, they cover a wide level range, and the new casting rules don’t get in the way.