I haven't read it yet.
Is it time sensitive such that deviations will cause the adventure to fail?
It isn't really time sensitive in my opinion. There is a false sense of urgency. You know, in a James Bond movie, whenever there is a ticking clock, nobody thinks for a second that, irrespective of what happens to Bond, he'll fail to disarm the doomsday mechanism. This is exactly the same here. The PC's homeworld is attacked by vampiric vines that will suck the thermal energy out of it to repower the bad guy's homeworld's star. The PCs are leaving their homeworld at the beginning of the campaign, so they won't have insight on what is happening there. Sure, if they do nothing and start embarking on something totally different, it is expected that their homeworld will be sucked dry and all life will die out (because of radiation poisoning linked to the loss of the magnetic field, I guess, it isn't very clear as to why and why so quickly the homeworld will become extinct). So there is an urgency, but it's a relative urgency, since nothing will affect the outcome: the last moment to save the PCs' homeworld will be... the last chapter of the campaign.
Deviation are very unlikely. The characters (and their homeworld) will certainly discover the spelljamming universe during chapter 1. They are totally ignorant of anything that could make them want to wander elsewhere outside of the plotted path and the DM is really advised to keep the characters in line. Session are scheduled by chapter of the adventure...
This is railroady. Pushing the PCs to the same place no matter what they choose means that their decisions ultimately don't matter.
Sometimes it's handled well. If the characters fail at a spacebattle, instead of going to their destination, they are taken prisonners and encounters from another chapter can be repurposed to happen here so the PCs have opportunity to escape. Sometimes it's more heavy-handed: the climatic fight of chapter as exactly zero impact. If they players are defeated, the bad guy proceeds to execute them, and a last-minute action allow them to act; If the players win, the person they sided for decide that they have outlived their utility and proceed to execute them... That's horrible because it deprives the characters of the achievement (especially as a deus ex mechina provides them with the solution to the campaign).
Also, what happens if they fail at the very end. With the world on the line, how do they fail forward?
If they did really fail (ie, the guards execute them after a failed fight AGAIN despite them being able to nova), I guess the character's world will be destroy. If they win this fight, they have to choose between: (a) letting their world be consumed as intended [the adventure hints at them rushing back home to tell everyone to evacuate somehow] (b) destroying the vampiric star (and all life in the star system). So, it's either let billions of theirs die or genocide billions of civilians from the enemy's worlld. Because their emperor at some time decided to enact the vampiric seed as a last ditch solution to save his people.
Honestly I'd feel better if the players said "NO". Let's try to redirect the seeds to a warm, yet uninhabited world so both the PC's and the elves's world can keep living. And come back as heroes of both worlds (with this solution carefully hinted during the campaign, possibly reliant of having succeeded more than not (aka "unlocking the true ending"). The actual solution is... unpalatable as is. At least, I'd make the character understand that they did exactly the same choice as the original Bad Guy when he doomed other worlds to save his.
And the sacrifice? I read the adventure more as "A NPC will step forward for the suicide mission", not really "the character will have to understand it's guaranteed death, and sacrifice one of them... unless really they don't want to." Honestly, there are enough people in the FR to have someone True Resurrect them after that: sending a quick diplomatic mission to their homeworld to ensure this life insurance would be the easy way out. Nobody will resurrect the NPC, though.
This I don't have a problem with. There could be 3 other threats to the world and a birthday party in Sigil that keep the big boys busy. I always assume other issues have their attention and just don't worry about it. The PCs are all that stand between.
The way the cataclysm is presented, it would be difficult to imagine zero interference. Or even hint of action. A significant world's metropolis is wiped during chapter 1, with the expectation that other suffered the same fate as vines fell randomly...
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