Spelljammer Light of Xaryxis - Running parts as unrelated mini-adventures?

[Tari Templar]

I was hoping to run some kind of gallivanting, crossworlds (maybe spelljamming-type) adventure for a group at some point in the foreseeable future, and reviews of Light of Xaryxis caught my eye. I hadn't taken the plunge of buying it yet and was wondering if it was worthwhile investing time in trying to get out of it what I want.

The idea of a campaign being fairly linear is okay with me in this case. And I like what I've heard about the premise and some of the individual sessions (exposing them to specific locale-types in Planescape). But...

The thing that always sounded kind of awkward or contrived to me was the transition from one locale/scenario/encounter to the next. And any time I've been a player in a world-threatening campaign, it felt to us like we really had to stay directly on track and not do any side-quest-type activities or personal pursuits because time was of the essence.

I wondered if it might be possible to avoid this by having some of the earlier sessions be part of a more casual campaign of trade and/or exploration of the specified locales. And only springing the crisis on them later on, once they've had some experience spelljamming (e.g. after a few sessions of voyaging, they return to their world of origin to find the crisis taking place).

Would the types of session-plans this campaign contains lend themselves to this idea?
Or would it take a lot of reworking to treat, say, the Mindflayer ship or Rock of Bral locations, as independent mini-adventures?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I wondered if it might be possible to avoid this by having some of the earlier sessions be part of a more casual campaign of trade and/or exploration of the specified locales.

This is just how any Adventure Path should be run. Books have a limited page count, so they have to focus on one main plotline. The DM and players are expected to flesh it out with digressions.

 

[Tari Templar]

This is just how any Adventure Path should be run. Books have a limited page count, so they have to focus on one main plotline. The DM and players are expected to flesh it out with digressions.

I guess I'm wondering more if the nature of some of the constituent adventures themselves would work on their own separated from the main plotline. Or if they're so intrinsically tied to the overarching plot, that they'd be difficult to divorce from it and still make sense.

 

[Burnside]

There are chapters that absolutely can be cannibalized out of the context of the main campaign, but imo more than half of the chapters only make sense as part of the overarching plot.

There are stand-alone Spelljammer adventures available on DMsGuild that would support what you’re trying to do.

 

[Tari Templar]

There are stand-alone Spelljammer adventures available on DMsGuild that would support what you’re trying to do.

Are there any stand-alone Spelljammer adventures you'd personally recommend in particular?

 

[Burnside]

Are there any stand-alone Spelljammer adventures you'd personally recommend in particular?

Three recommendations:

Spelljammer: Encounters in Wildspace
Spelljammer: Encounters in Wildspace - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
6 short adventures and a bunch of additional encounters

A Space Hamster's Guide to Spelljammer
A Space Hamster's Guide to Spelljammer - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
The 5E Spelljammer boxed set basically doesn't even bother to attempt to make ship-to-ship combat rules. This book does.

Tessa Presents 45 Maps for Spelljammer and Light of Xaryxis​

Tessa Presents 45 Maps for Spelljammer and Light of Xaryxis - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
Provides maps for areas and encounters in Light of Xaryxis that don't get maps in the book. Also, just generally good maps for Spelljammer

If you can find a second-hand one, the Beadle & Grimm Spelljammer set also includes additional encounters and mini-adventures.
This also looks interesting, and at PWYW, why not?
Horror of Nospace - A Spelljammer Adventure - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

 

[Tari Templar]

Three recommendations:

Spelljammer: Encounters in Wildspace
Spelljammer: Encounters in Wildspace - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
6 short adventures and a bunch of additional encounters

A Space Hamster's Guide to Spelljammer
A Space Hamster's Guide to Spelljammer - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
The 5E Spelljammer boxed set basically doesn't even bother to attempt to make ship-to-ship combat rules. This book does.

Tessa Presents 45 Maps for Spelljammer and Light of Xaryxis​

Tessa Presents 45 Maps for Spelljammer and Light of Xaryxis - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
Provides maps for areas and encounters in Light of Xaryxis that don't get maps in the book. Also, just generally good maps for Spelljammer

If you can find a second-hand one, the Beadle & Grimm Spelljammer set also includes additional encounters and mini-adventures.
This also looks interesting, and at PWYW, why not?
Horror of Nospace - A Spelljammer Adventure - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Sounds useful. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Parmandur]

I guess I'm wondering more if the nature of some of the constituent adventures themselves would work on their own separated from the main plotline. Or if they're so intrinsically tied to the overarching plot, that they'd be difficult to divorce from it and still make sense.

Chris Perkins always designs his stuff explicitly for this purpose, if not even primarily for this. Light of Xaryxis is a very good example, too.