Roll4 Review: Black Vines of Night
Welcome to a new year with our first review of 2021. Get ready for the void, as we travel among the stars in the Black Vines of Night adventure review!
The Black Vines of Night Review
This adventure is a 30-page full-color PDF available on DM’s Guild. It has the traditional D&D aesthetic, with appropriate layout. This adventure, created by J. S. Duncan for the 2020 RPG Writer’s Workshop, takes place in the Realmspace from the Spelljammer campaign setting.
To be honest, I was completely unaware of this setting. I had quite a bit of learning about Spelljammer before jumping into this adventure. Anyone who is familiar with this setting will likely feel right at home. If you’re not, be ready for a bit of learning, because there is a ton of background lore.
The Plot
The party in one way or the other ends up on the planet of Glyth without a working ship (called Spelljammers), and must choose to ally with one of three NPC’s locked in deadly combat in order to escape the planet’s surface. That NPC will help the characters travel to the asteroid known as Haven, where a disturbing level of psionic interference has been detected, completely blocking teleportation.
The adventure itself is pretty short, taking 6 pages in total. It’s strength comes from it’s tempo. Keeping a good balance between combat and social encounters, with a logical flow from one event to the next. There won’t be much time for the characters to stand around.
However, the key feature to this adventure is the NPC at the beginning of the module. Depending on which one decides to ally yourself with, there will be different events, outcomes, and rewards depending on the players actions. This adventure could be played three different times, with different NPC’s giving the module an entirely different feel each time.
Appendixes & Thoughts
The remaining parts of this adventure are taken by the additional appendixes. There are 4 magic items, 3 full-color maps, a plethora of creature and NPC statblocks, and stats for different types of Spelljammers. It also comes with the new playable race of the Oortling.
This adventure is a great introduction to the spelljammer setting, and great grab for any fan of cosmic horror. It’s also a great sandbox one-shot adventure for high-level characters, something that is rarer than low-level adventures. You can get Black Vines of Night on DM’s Guild for $2.99.
I’ve heard of Spelljammer but like you never played it, how well does the setting fit into D&D? Is it easy enough to pick up?
Canonically, it is a part of Forgotten Realms, but it definitely feels a bit different. The Sci Fi spin to spelljammer may be off-putting for some campaigns.
There is a lot to dive into for Spelljammer, but luckily it’s pretty well laid out in a few WIKIs.