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SJ-DC-DD-09 The Huangfu Heist

From

Jason Koh, Darryl Ho

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$4.99

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A glitzy Wildspace gala on a glamorous pleasure cruise,
a dozen priceless relics, and one chance to steal it all.
Are you in, or out?

An Audacious Four-Hour Heist for Tier 2 Characters. Optimized for APL 8.
Content Warning: Alcohol, Fantasy Violence, Gambling, Tobacco Use

Get your disguise kits and thieves’ tools ready, as ENNIE Award winning author Jason Koh and ENNIE nominee Darryl Ho reunite to mastermind a space caper so good it’s criminal! The Huangfu hold the final key to the Monad’s millennium-old mystery, and YOU have ONE chance to steal it. Can you pull it off? Episode 9 of Ad Astra. This lovingly crafted homage to Hong Kong action cinema and Chinese fantasy fiction is designed to be played using Theater of the Mind, and supplemented by tasteful handouts in art deco style. Depending on the characters and their decisions, multiple endings are possible.
Ad Astra is a series of loosely connected Spelljammer adventures for D&D Adventurers League.

Traverse the stars in an ancient, arcane locomotive, and experience fresh takes on the spacefaring genre written and produced by bestselling Dungeon Masters Guild authors and international talents from the Dungeon Designers Discord community. Uncover the secrets of the Monad, explore unique and unconventional worlds, and unravel a mystery that spans a millennium!
This product includes: a 106-page adventure with multiple endings and ways to play custom handouts to help get your players prepped for the perfect heist appendices full of helpful tips and advice to get the most out of this adventure custom images for selected NPCs standard and printer-friendly PDFs

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Sean V February 24, 2024 3:26 pm UTC

PURCHASER

What happened to SJ-DC-DD-10?

Hunter S December 20, 2023 4:12 am UTC

PURCHASER

Reading the preview I noticed that it says spells can't be cast while in wildspace. I just want to check on this and if it is in fact the case that the party can't use spells at all for the heist? If so, how does this effect parties that are heavily caster-based? I have a feeling it will alienate half the table if they can't use 90% of their skills. The preview doesn't go into that chapter, so I can't tell if you have a way to deal with this situation or they are just out of luck.

Jason K December 20, 2023 5:24 am UTC

PURCHASER

There are multiple ways for spellcasters to circumvent the safeguards and shine, and it's part of what goes into heist planning and preparation. You should play to find out!

Robert A February 06, 2024 7:33 pm UTC

PURCHASER

This really hampered my table. They were so concerned about it that it slowed play and they focused on that single aspect. There are so many options on things they could have done, but they were so concerned about the Spellcasting ban that it overwhelmed everything.
I am absolutely not a fan of outright bans on character features like familiars, spells and such. It is a shame, because other than that huge downside, this is one of the best sandbox type adventures I’ve seen for Adventure’s league. There is so much choice and flexibility the players can explore. Unfortunately, the whole spell thing is such a major nerf for so many characters that almost all of the party’s efforts went towards only that. The players with spellcasters found it much less enjoyable than the other adventures in the series.
They did find some work around, but just didn’t enjoy it as much. They spent so much time worried that they’d be nullified.

Hunter S February 09, 2024 9:15 pm UTC

PURCHASER

My characters immediately all focused on this as a major objective during the planning phase - they spent almost all the time trying to track down and steal the item they needed to counteract the spellcasting - that went fine, but it ate up a lot of our time, honestly the whole adventure was great - but we simply ran out of time since we were trying to do it in a 4-5 hour time window. That is part on me for not just moving them along fast enough - but they all wanted to do different things around town to prep for the ship - in the end the time on the ship had to be cut way short and we just narrated the ending. This module needs to be 2 sessions to be run as a traditional heist - otherwise, use the recommended changes for the the option to steal the item before it gets on the ship.

Martine Brandt L February 10, 2024 6:05 am UTC

CREATOR

Thank you both so much for the feedback! We realize players have experienced adventures that are written to punish spellcasters. Even if this one isn't, we wanted to address the issue, so we have added a section to the sidebar on page 13 in the updated version. Hopefully, this will make future runs smoother!

Also great to hear how well it went. I can certainly see that this adventure can run long or be well suited for a double session.

Jason K February 10, 2024 6:40 am UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks for being a fan of this series! Your feedback is important to us.

Every design choice is intentional and deliberate, and spellcasters have just as many chances to be the stars of the show as their martial counterparts, given adequate preparation, some clever decision making, and the DM playing along!

In our latest update, I have provided additional guidance under the Heist Mechanics & Storytelling Tips section with suggestions pertaining to spells and spellcasters, and how DMs can make such runs smoother. Don't forget that you are empowered to improvise opportunities beyond what is listed (including through the use of Flashbacks) and to work with them in the spirit of the heist narrative to overcome the ban. There is no greater accomplishment than pulling off a magical vanishing act when the Huangfu least expect it after all!

Also, don't be afraid to keep players on track by having NPCs they meet suggest specific tasks. While this means you may not get to enjoy...See more

Hunter S February 13, 2024 5:47 am UTC

PURCHASER

Yes - my players had a lot of fun coming up with an idea to negotiate to do a Magic show as entertainment before the auction and use that as a cover to make certain things disappear/get swapped - it was pretty entertaining.