Spelljammer Light of Xaryxis Experiences?

[Hexmage-EN]

I'm planning to run Light of Xaryxis. I'm already aware of several issues with the adventure and have been planning modifications (which I would have done anyway), but I'm curious to see others' experiences either playing in or running the adventure.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

For what it's worth, I've started it twice and haven't gotten very far in either of them before the games fell apart. The reasons are varied and not because I couldn't bang it into shape (it does take a bit of banging).

It has an "episode of the week" design that I think is a neat idea... but is very hard to pull off at the table. Reaching the written cliff-hanger ending at the actual end of your session is very tricky to pull-off. This is why I think it's too railroad-y: Not because the story is too linear (it's that too, but that can work fine for players that want to have the main thrust of the story told to them, and only want to make choices as to how they get there) - it's that you have to force the session itself along to a particular ending point, on time (if you have a quitting time).

This is assuming that you want to achieve that goal. I recommend throwing it out if it becomes a burden (which it almost definitely will).

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I figured I'd just make up new cliffhangers as appropriate and get rid of some (the one with the githyanki knight on a red dragon approaching only for the next section to begin with her just asking "seen any mindflayers?" before leaving is just baffling; I'd rather the githyanki actually be interested in joining up against the Xaryxians).

How far did you get each time, out of curiosity? Were there any points along the way that especially seemed like problem areas? I'm already planning on making extensive changes (such as omitting Commander Krux altogether and making the Second Wind Fel Ardra's ship).

 

[John R Davis]

The adventure is awful. Managed to run it to the end, because I'm a sad completetist.
The rest of the set was quite nice.
Sold it for a decent price.

 

[Mort]

I figured I'd just make up new cliffhangers as appropriate and get rid of some (the one with the githyanki knight on a red dragon approaching only for the next section to begin with her just asking "seen any mindflayers?" before leaving is just baffling; I'd rather the githyanki actually be interested in joining up against the Xaryxians).

How far did you get each time, out of curiosity? Were there any points along the way that especially seemed like problem areas? I'm already planning on making extensive changes (such as omitting Commander Krux altogether and making the Second Wind Fel Ardra's ship).

My group is about 2/3rds of the way through (should be starting chapter 8 next session).

The group blew through the suggested end points very fast. Unless I put in a lot of filler, they will likely complete the entire adventure next session or so (so 3, 4 hour sessions, 4 at the most). When they hit the Rock of Bral I actually had a whole bunch of side stuff prepared just in case they chose to explore, but they just barreled right through on a linear path.

Commodore Krux was actually a hit with the group. They had an absolute blast that he was soused (drunk) for several encounters after they met him (a drunk with a big gun can be played for laughs, with the right group).

They're just getting to the Mercane encounter, and I'm trying to decide how I want to run it. 3 fights in a row with nothing else in between might lead to encounter fatigue.

I'm curious about the ending. As presented it seems either too anticlimactic and removed (

Spoiler

an NPC sacrifices themselves to save the PCs system

or too dour considering the mostly light/fun from the rest of the adventure (

Spoiler

a PC sacrifices themselves

). The first one seems too random and the second annoying because the group has already expressed interest in Spelljammer past this adventure.

 

[darjr]

I’ve run it three times now.

The last two recently finishing. I’ll come back later and spoiler block but as far as the adventure goes I had a great time and the ending was epic for both. Note it’s in discount at Amazon, $40.

 

[jasper]

Embrace the looney tunes. I bought the Queen sound track of Flash Gordon and would cue it as needed.

 

[majorarcana02]

My group has been loving it, even the player who is highly critical of most WotC adventures. We started with Spelljammer Academy (I switched the big bad of Academy to be Hastain instead of Vocath) and then picked up with Light of Xaryxis. When they reached the Rock of Bral, I gave them all a giant poster map of Bral from the 2e set, and let them explore a little before going to meet up with Krux. It drove home that this was a big, new, unfamiliar place and my players had a lot of fun poring over the map and deciding where to go shopping. They also had a lot of fun interacting with Large Luigi. While I wouldn't say that we play up the silliness, we've had a more lighthearted tone than our last campaign (Rise of the Runelords converted to 5e) and my players have embraced the whimsical elements. I think it can be a lot of fun for the right group, but it's not going to appeal to everyone.

 

[Vael]

I'm midway into the adventure, running it fairly out of box, currently in Chapter 4. I've found that we actually hit the cliffhangers reasonably well, the last session was the first miss, because we were shopping and exploring the Rock of Bral. Mind you, we are playing over Discord, and generally don't have the longest sessions. My PCs are a mix of Spelljammers and Dragonlance characters ... the spelljammers had a "marooned on Krynn" backstory.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

How has the ending been received? IMO it seems tonally inconsistent with the rest of the adventure so I'm considering changing it, but I'm curious to see if it's gone over well for others.