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Designed by: Stormcrow Dreamscapes (Can Uzmen)
The 5e Spelljammer release was notoriously truncated, leaving us with some star-sized holes for spacey content. Spelljammer: Micro Dungeons of Wildspace adds five mini-dungeons, ranging from levels three to 10, themed around Spelljammer settings and creatures.
“Micro” isn’t just a cute descriptor — these dungeons are tiny, encompassing between four and seven rooms, and about one to two pages. “Lair” is a more common term to describe smaller dungeons themed around a single monster or monster faction.
I love lairs as easy drop-in dungeons and side quests, and that’s exactly what you get here. Though be warned: these dungeons are very combat-heavy and story-light.
“Adrift & Mad God-Makers” (level 3) features a half-destroyed turtle shell as a space vessel, crewed by Kuo-Toa.
It’s an awesome idea for a spaceship, and the tiny dungeon features secret waterways, spawning pools, a giant lightning eel, and a captured Derro who has been forced to pilot the “ship.” It’s also a clever way to bring non-Spelljammer creatures into that setting.
“Deep Into the Rocks” (level 4) is the simplest of the micro dungeons. A cave in an asteroid holds an Asteroid Spider (and a bunch of webs). The Asteroid Spider is from one of the designer’s previous monster books, Dwellers of Wildspace.
Three of the five lairs feature creatures from these third-party releases, while only one (the Vampirates in “The Obsidian Zirggurat”) are actually creatures from the 5e Spelljammer monster book, Boo’s Astral Menagerie. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and all the new creature statblocks are included here. But I would’ve liked to see more creatures from BAM used in a Spelljammer dungeon book.
“The Obsidian Ziggurat” (level 6) is crawling with Vampirates. The pyramid-shaped spaceship also holds minotaur skeletons, and a captured solar dragon wyrmling. Like the other lairs, nearly every room includes a hostile creature. These are incredibly combat-heavy dungeons, with the occasional trap, secret door, or rescuable NPC. It’s a little overkill, especially within such tiny spaces.
“The Distress Signal” (level 8) is the classic creepy derelict spaceship that I was hoping to see. But there’s a twist. Instead of the usual undead or xenomorph-like aliens, the ship is full of rebellious constructs. It may be an excuse to use creatures from another of the designer’s previous monster releases (Candlekeep and Strixhaven Bestiary), but I enjoyed the unique setting and creature theme.
Finally there’s “The Outpost of the Metal Savages” (level 10), which features a Scro outpost on a forest moon. Could you simply replace the Scro with Orcs and set the outpost in a forested area on Faerun? Heck yes! Even the spaceship dungeons could be easily transposed to a terrestrial setting.
This dungeon gets points for including a stealthy section for getting past the palisades, guards, and owlbear pen. Though once inside the inner outpost, it’s a standard room-to-room slug fest.
The dungeon lairs are all solid ideas, easy to run, and surprisingly easy to drop-in even to non-Spelljammer settings. And the maps!
Each lair features a full color, detailed battle map. The product includes a .zip file with gridded and non-gridded versions, and resolutions big enough to use on a VTT. Huge thumbs up!
On the other hand, these side quest dungeons contain almost zero story or context. I’m not expecting paragraphs of background information or even named NPCs, but at least an epilogue that includes some kind of reward would be nice.
Pros:
- Five drop-in mini-dungeons designed for Spelljammer campaigns, but easily fit anywhere.
- Proper spaceship dungeon crawls!
- Nine new monster statblocks (from designer’s previous releases).
- Each adventure includes a full color battle map (gridded and non-gridded versions).
Cons:
- The dungeons are overly reliant on combat encounters.
- Needs more story and context (at least an epilogue!).
The Verdict: Micro Dungeons of Wildspace provides several combat-heavy and immersive monster lairs that can be easily dropped into any campaign.
A review copy of “Spelljammer: Micro Dungeons of Wildspace” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 