Again the maps are quite rudimentary (in fact they have been lifted almost unchanged from the 2E sourcebook line drawings), so I have remedied that with a nice new FREE full-colour battle map for your personal use! Is it any good? The adventure was quite “railroady”, but I guess this is in line with a training schedule so we’ll forgive them that.

This combat encounter is fun although it does use very simplified rules compared to the original Spelljammer ship combat rules, and as a result, I was left with quite a few questions which I’ll cover in the Tips section below in case you want to tweak it a little to address this. This second adventure continues the cadet's training program, taking them back into Wildspace (albeit simulated) where they face a mix of roleplay, skills-based encounters (for things such as navigation and traversing an asteroid field), and one climactic battle where the players are able to experience ship combat in Wildspace. This adventure runs on directly from the preceding one, and so if you have not played that it is recommended you go back and start there. “Trial by fire” is the second of the freebie adventures on D&D Beyond, designed for three to seven 2nd-level characters.

Download my free 🗺️maps here: take me to the maps.

To help DMs run this module, I also created a funky Squidship map - link below: If you are already an experienced Spelljammer from previous editions, you may want to customise this battle somewhat. We found a few areas could have done with more explanation and the Spelljammer ship combat was fun but perhaps a little simple. TL DR In a rush? The latest installment of Spelljamming was great fun to play as an introduction to exploring and fighting in Wildspace. If you are looking for one of the other adventures in this series please use the links below: The second Spelljammer Academy adventure is out and we play-tested it over the weekend! In this article we talk about our experience running the adventure, together with some tips for other DMs planning to run the module.

Spoiler alert! This article discusses the new Spelljammer adventure from WotC in detail, so any player cadets reading this may want to turn their ships now before we head into the depths of Wildspace spoiler territory.

Trials of Fire free