Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-07: "The Solar Sortie" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I ran The Solar Sortie at Tier 1-2, using the four-player adjustment.  It's a short and very straightforward scenario that could be good for new players, but the plotting is weak and the encounters are mediocre at best.  It's definitely playable and there's a few fun elements, but on the whole I'd rank it near the bottom of the list.

SPOILERS

Historia-7, faction leader of the Dataphiles, provides the usual briefing this time around, and it's an interesting one: The Starfinder Society's data archives have been compromised!  It turns out that Historia-7's predecessor had been investigating several corporations prior to the Scoured Stars Incident, but now all of that data is missing.  However, a hacker identified in a previous scenario (Ceren from "The Commencement") has provided the SFS with links leading to one of the mysteriously-omitted corporations: Arch Energy.  Arch Energy is a manufacturer of solar batteries and has their corporate HQ and research laboratories aboard a space station named Brilliance that orbits the sun.  Historia-7 says a straight infiltration of Brilliance to find out what Arch Energy is really all about is doomed to fail because security is too tight, but that she's identified a weak link: the CEO's drug-addled son, Envar.  The PCs are to travel to Brilliance and manipulate Envar into helping them gain access to the CEO's computer.  The premise has an interesting tie-in to the Scoured Stars Incident meta-plot, and I'm looking forward to learning more.

On the way to Brilliance, the PCs are expected to disguise themselves as participants in gladiatorial combat games that Envar sponsors aboard the station.  Oddly, the PCs are allowed to use a Computers skill check instead of Disguise to make their fake identities, which renders the latter skill rather superfluous.  There is a nice bonus if one or more of the PCs have a particular boon from an earlier scenario ("Abadar Annoyance" from # 1-02), and I hope we continue to see plenty of occasions where these come into play.

Once the PCs arrive on Brilliance, they're ushered into an arena for a battle against a monster called a Crest-Eater.  I frankly found the idea of blood-sports taking place in an otherwise normal corporate HQ rather odd, even if the CEO's son sponsors them.  It'd be like if Google had dog-fighting matches in the lobby of their HQ.  There is a nice little add-on that the PCs are expected to show off in the arena prior to the battle to gain Envar's interest, but the battle itself is pretty average because, although it looks cool, the Arena flip-mat doesn't actually provide much in the way of interesting terrain features for the PCs to take advantage of.

Win or lose, Envar approaches the PCs after the match and offers them a tour of Brilliance.  I had fun role-playing him as a drug-addled stoner, and the scenario provides some fun descriptions of various hallucinations that he might have.  He takes the PCs first to a nearby bar for a drink, and this is when the second encounter occurs.  A ysoki drug-dealer named Razor, accompanied by two vesk bodyguards (something already becoming a meme in Starfinder), plans to rough Envar up for falling behind on his payments for the transdimensional pesh she provides him.  Although my PCs ended up with the classic "laser gun and grenade battle in the middle of a bar" result, I liked how the scenario provided a couple of other good ways the situation could be resolved: paying off Razor, bluffing her that the money was on the way, or taking up her offer to resolve things through a battle of strength (arm-wrestling her goons) or wits (playing a video game).  It's good encounter design to provide options.  It is a bit ironic that the PCs are standing up for Envar only so they can completely take advantage of him later!

After the bar incident, Envar takes the PCs up to an observatory.  In a really forced scripted event, he then spouts something about wanting to play a computer game before accidentally lowering the observatory's solar shielding, which just so coincidentally lets two feral "solar elementals" manifest.  It's obviously combat just for the sake of combat.  One of the odd things about the scenario is that Envar isn't given any stats at all, even though he's often placed directly in harm's way (from Razor and her goons, from the solar elementals, etc.).  I guess the GM can just hand-wave that he survives no matter what, but many players will assume he needs to be protected, healed, etc.  In addition, some (more unscrupulous) Starfinders may decide to get Envar's cooperation through more nefarious tactics, and, again, not having his stats hinders options (say, if the PCs decide to steal his keycard, intimidate him into taking them directly to the computer they need, charming him, etc.).  And in another forced bit, Envar insists the PCs search the lab and nearby storage room and take anything they like (a.k.a., loot must be dropped somewhere!).

After the observatory, Envar takes the PCs to his mother's office.  The PCs can either hack into the computer or simply yank out its data module, with the latter option setting off an alarm.  Not much really hinges on the choice, as, either way, they'll make it off Brilliance with the information they need.  The only way it could matter is that if the PCs pulled off the entire infiltration flawlessly (avoiding multiple opportunities for guards to pierce their disguises; noticing and avoiding an alarm trap on the door to the CEO's office; and hacking into the computer without any failures) they get to skip the final encounter of the scenario: an attack by two fighter starships.  I think most groups will trigger this encounter, but it's nice to see at least the possibility of it being avoided and I think it's a good twist that the space combat occurs at the end of the scenario unlike all previous ones where it has happened near the beginning or middle.  The encounter itself was interesting at first for my group because the fighter's missile batteries could actually do some damage; however, once the PCs realized their ship was faster than the fighters, they simply decided to flee.  I imagine this was an oversight by the writer and developer, and it put me in a tough spot as the GM.  Fleeing without consequences trivializes the encounter, but if the goal is to escape with the data that Historia-7 wants, what point is there in battling the fighters?

Once back on Absalom Station, the conclusion is better than in many other SFS scenarios.  Historia-7 realizes there's a corporate conspiracy to hide the truth about the Scoured Stars Incident, and to unravel it she (and the PCs) are going to have to take Zigvigix up on his invitation to attend a Star Sugar Heartlove!! concert!  It's a fun ending.

Overall though, I found The Solar Sortie pedestrian.  It's as railroad-y as it gets, with the PCs following Envar by the coattails from encounter to encounter.  The gladiatorial combat and fight against the solar elementals were examples of poor plotting, and the starship combat at the end, although a fun idea in theory, failed due to a mechanics oversight.  I guess, in its favor, I can say that the scenario is a very short one to run (on par with "Fugitive on the Red Planet") and that it's pretty easy both RP and combat-wise.  It might be a scenario to use for players new to gaming or to Starfinder, but otherwise it's not a good reflection of the type of story-telling that could be achieved with this system and this fictional setting.