Spelljammer Academy and Light of Xaryxis Campaign Guide

I'm running Spelljammer Academy and Light of Xaryxis for both of my gaming groups. I'm using Sly Flourish's session 0 template he created for his Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign to prepare. I'm going to post these prep notes for others to use. I'll update them as I run the campaign with things I learn. I'm also using SlyFlourish's safety tools. 

Campaign Theme

You’ve applied to and been accepted by the Spelljammer Academy! In this campaign you will join the academy, pass their assessments, and traverse the stars on missions. Finally, when Faerun comes under siege from an empire in faraway Wildspace, the heroes must find the assailants and save the Realms!

Seven Truths About Spelljamming

• Each world sits inside a Wildspace that connects it to the Astral Sea, and the Astral Sea connects the Wildspaces of different worlds together. When you leave Faerun, you enter Realmspace, and can then travel the Astral Sea to Krynnspace, the Wildspace surrounding the world of Krynn and home to the Dragonlance setting.
• Wildspace and the Astral Sea can be traversed using ships known as Spelljammers. Piloting such a ship requires a spellcaster attuned to the ship’s spelljamming helm.
• There are many different kinds of Spelljammers – some look like normal galleons, some are shaped like creatures like wasps and turtles, and many have even stranger shapes!
• When a creature or object leaves a world and enters Wildspace, an envelope of breathable air forms around it and lasts until it is depleted. The smaller the object, the more quickly the air will be depleted!
• The power of thought drives travel in the Astral Sea. The higher your intelligence, the faster you traverse the expanse, and thinking of your destination is enough to get you there without a map.
• The Rock of Bral is a city built on an asteroid. Its cosmopolitan but somewhat lawless, with adventurers, merchants, and space pirates all rubbing elbows.
• When a god dies, its petrified remains float out in the Astral Sea. Some have entire civilizations built atop them. 

Spelljammer Academy

Spelljammer Academy was established by the famed former adventurer Mirt the Merciless to protect the Realms from threats from Wildspace. Adventurers from across the Realms and other worlds seek to join the academy for both prestige and exciting adventures. The Academy is located well off the coast on Chult on the remote island of Nimbral. 

Your character in the world

Your character begins at first level. You can choose any published class or race. Your character will join with companions to explore the stars. It is important you have at least one spellcaster amongst the group to operate spelljamming helms.

Additionally, your character should answer the following question: How did they learn about the Spelljammer Academy?

• Did they learn of it from a secret organization they are affiliated with, such as the Harpers or the Zhentarim?
• Did they hear about it from a patron? Maybe a well-traveled wizard, a connected noble, or even a vision from their patron?
• Did they hail from somewhere outside Realmspace, and hear tells of the Academy while visiting the Rock of Bral?

Safety Tools

Lines. This game will not contain physical violence towards children, unwanted sexual contact, animal abuse or cruelty, party-initiated torture, inter-party violence, or inter-party betrayal. 
Veils. Cannibalism, mental assault, ritual sacrifice, kidnapping, consensual sex, enemy-initiated torture, or parasitic invasion will be “veiled” off-screen. 
If at any time you don’t feel comfortable with the content or direction of the game, say “pause for a second” in voice chat and we will stop the game and address your concerns.

Review of Princes of the Apocalypse

Summary

Princes of the Apocalypse is the second 5e super adventure. The main adventure starts at 3rd level, but there is good side content to deal with the first two levels as well. The adventure will take characters up to 14th level. It is themed around the Princes of Elemental Evil, and is something of a spiritual successor to the Temple of Elemental Evil. The characters deal with a conspiracy in Red Larch and then start searching for a missing delegation. This leads them to four outposts built atop an ancient dwarven civilization. As the characters explore the outposts, they face reprisals from the elemental cults. Eventually they get to four elemental fanes beneath the outposts, where they must defeat the cult leaders to prevent them from summoning the four princes of elemental evil.

The Good

• The side treks towards the end of the book tend to be quite good, and would be useful to drop in many campaigns.
• The Weeping Colossus is the one dungeon that seemed like it would be very fun to run.
• The hand symbols for the different cults is a good touch.
• The adventure idea behind Red Larch (a crooked cabal of superstitious town leaders being taken advantage of by the cultists) is good and has a of potential.
• I will definitely steal the water cultists for use in a future pirate campaign.

The Bad

• Chock full of uninspiring dungeon crawls. I would only run one of the eight dungeons in this adventure. They are mostly just uninspiring and bland collections of repetitive rooms and encounters. I found myself skimming a lot of the descriptions.
• The adventure tries to be a sandbox in terms of how you tackle the dungeons, but mostly its directionless and hard to run. I didn’t have a good sense of how to connect the dungeons together, when characters should do what, or even what was required to do that.
• The final confrontations at the elemental portals seem like they would feel very repetitive to play. The key is always throwing the weapon into the portal - it would be good if that was varied more.
• The guidance on actually running the conspiracy in Red Larch is disjointed and spread out. As a DM you would need to prep a lot to run it well.

The OK

• The leaders of the respective cults are fine. None of them seem like they would stand out expect maybe the guy with the claw hand.
• Using the delegation as a hook is a fairly good idea, since it gives characters a reason to keep going back into the dungeons. As a DM you would want to find ways to tie characters to the NPCs that are deepest in the dungeon, to give the characters motivation.
• The guidance to tying the adventure to other setting was fine, but it felt like a lot of shoe horning for everywhere but Greyhawk. I’d rather that space be used on aids to help run the adventure in the Realms, where I would guess the vast majority of people actually run the adventure.
• The second chapter is basically a mini setting for the Dessarin Valley. Add setting info into the adventures is a early 5e thing. As a Realms fan I enjoy it, but it feels like one of the more generic sections of the Realms to detail. Its also not nearly as useful as the Realms information presented in Storm King’s Thunder, which is really useful for adventures that travel the North.

Final Thoughts

I would not run this adventure. Unlike Storm King’s Thunder, for example, there just isn’t enough good here to build out a full adventure without a lot of filler. However, I would happily steal several things (the Red Larch conspiracy, the water cultists, and Weeping Colossus) and stick them in another campaign. Without running it I am not sure how the elemental princes would feel in play, but those are really useful high level enemies that could be re-used as well. Overall, I’d rate this as the weakest of the 5e adventures I have read or played.