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NO SPOILERS
I think it’s safe to say you’ve never played anything quite
like Star
Sugar Heartlove!!! before. It’s
a really clever, light-hearted scenario that has a memorable climax players
won’t soon forget. I ran this at Subtier
3-4 (with the four-player adjustment) and found that, although it was probably
too easy and had a couple of technical flaws, the storyline was so much fun
that any flaws could be overlooked.
Admittedly, it won’t be to everyone’s taste and I wouldn’t want every
scenario to be like this, but I’m really glad to see Starfinder Society trying
out the wide-variety of tones available in the setting. This one alternated between hilarious and
beautifully bittersweet, something I can’t think of adventures doing
before. Try it so you know what
everyone’s talking about!
SPOILERS
The gist of Star Sugar Heartlove!!! is that the
PCs are attending a massive concert by the “sugar-pop” band Strawberry Machine
Cake. When a secret agent working for a
malevolent conspiracy linked to the Scoured Stars incident uploads a computer
virus to kill everyone at the concert, it’s up to the PCs to uncover what’s
going on before, in a dramatic finale, taking the stage to do battle with a
holographic transforming mecha!
The scenario starts with something I’ve asked for in
previous reviews, and I’m glad to see implemented here: a briefing that’s more
than the run-of-the-mill info dump. The
PCs are on board a shuttle headed towards Songbird Station, the asteroid-temple
devoted to Shelyn where the concert will take place, along with faction leaders
Historia-7 and Zigvigix whose budding . . . something has been developing
subtly for several scenarios now.
Zigvigix is stoked about the concert and exited that the PCs are there
to enjoy it with him, especially since too many of the friends he originally
invited have disappeared within the Scoured Stars system. When Zigvigix heads into the shuttle’s
cockpit to make final preparations, Historia-7 lets the PCs in on her ulterior
motive for coming on the journey. She’s
identified one member of the conspiracy linked to the Scoured Stars debacle and
has tracked him to the concert. Because
the conspirator, a man named Hira Lanzio, will be without his security
entourage, it’s the perfect opportunity to kidnap him and pump him for
information! Historia-7 doesn’t want
Zigvigix to know about the secret mission, and only if the PCs press will she
reveal that he’s been suffering from degenerative injuries and really shouldn’t
be in the field at all. It’s all a
really nicely done progression of subplots that rewards people who have been
following along with the scenarios in order from the beginning.
When the PCs get into the concert hall itself, their search
for Lanzio is structured in a really interesting way. In essence, there are six mini non-combat
encounters that they can experience, each of which might just be a fun
role-playing opportunity, a chance to earn a boon, or a chance to get
information about Lanzio’s whereabouts.
My favourites include a couple of vesk teenagers who are outwardly
haters of Strawberry Machine Cake (because they think hating whatever is
popular makes them cooler) but secretly love the band; an “uber-fan” who has
every piece of SMC merchandise except for the one thing a PC might have and trade them (a great
pay-off of an earlier boon); and, perhaps my favourite, a security guard whose job is so completely
redundant that he's depressed because of it. The idea with this last part is that the
guard’s job is to check concert patrons for weapons and ask them to turn them
over; but he has no legal authority to search or detain anyone, and is
routinely ignored. To further his
misery, there’s a magical field that prevents lethal violence being done within
the concert hall, so even if he does collect any weapons, it’s probably
unnecessary. And finally, he has merciful fusion seals to give out--but
because of the magical field already in place, they won’t do anything! (and even
if they did, they can be turned off and on easily!) GMs who play the guard as the saddest sad sack
in the world should have a good time.
(the one bit about this that I’m not sure was intentional or not is
that, by the book, fusion seals take 24 hours to activate; there’s a big debate
in the forums and I think clarification is necessary; if they don’t even
activate in time for the concert to start, then the guard’s job is even more
hilariously useless.) Anyway, these
little encounters should end up with the PCs getting two crucial bits of
information: Lanzio’s address (in the residential section of Songbird Station)
and the fact that the station’s reactor cores are glitching and need to be
stabilized or the concert might have to be cancelled.
The take-down of Lanzio is pretty easy, as he’s a low-level
Envoy guarded by one (or two) security robots.
The PCs will probably be at full health and outnumber him and his
entourage. There’s a bit of drama with
him setting his computer to self-destruct and the PCs trying to stop the
countdown in time (which, oddly, allows for Engineering, Computers, or Mysticism skill checks to stop), but
unless they’re really negligent at adventuring, they shouldn’t have any
trouble. Lanzio doesn’t say much, but
does admit to putting a magical virus in the reactor core.
PCs investigating the reactor core (before or after encountering
Lanzio) discover that it’s infested with hespers. Hespers are fey who congregate near major
power sources for motives that are as mysterious and alien as their origins;
sometimes they help maintain and improve the sources, but sometimes they’ve been
known to sabotage them to cause drama.
This was an interesting encounter because the PCs could easily assume
the hespers are to blame for the reactor glitches and go in guns blazing, and,
even if they don’t, the hespers may try to mess with them in an ultimately
non-harmful way (through their “mutating touch”) that might be interpreted
as hostile by the PCs. Through either
violence, diplomacy, or (in my PCs’ case) distraction and speed, the
Starfinders have to extract a sample of the alien virus so that Historia-7 can
analyse it and figure out what’s going on.
I liked that the encounter had multiple ways of resolution.
Once Historia-7 has information from Lanzio and a sample of
the virus from the reactor, she realizes that Songbird Station is under threat
and will have to be evacuated unless a plan (so crazy it might just work!) can
be implemented: using Strawberry Machine Cake’s holographic concert projectors,
she can temporarily give the magical virus physical form on stage so that the
PCs can battle it! It’s really
technobabble hogwash, of course, but plot-wise it succeeds in setting up a
great final encounter. First, so as not
to alarm the audience, the PCs have to dress up in costumes appropriate for SMC
“background performers”: the four choices are hilarious (like a heavy metal
one, a glam one, etc.) and it was really fun to imagine each PC dressed up in
their choice. Once on stage, Historia-7
makes the virus manifest, but it takes the form of a massive mecha that can
transform into a freaking (pink) tank!
My one regret is that I didn’t have it transform into tank mode because
it would have been tactically disadvantageous.
The PCs’ chosen costumes given them particular bonuses in certain rounds
depending on what riffs SMC is playing, which adds to the effect. This, more than any other scenario I can
think of, is one in which the GM should find some good music to play during the
final encounter. (BabyMetal’s “Chocolate”
was a consensus favourite on the forums, and I agree.)
Assuming the PCs are successful, they’ll each get a chance
for the spotlight and a shout-out while on stage. Holograms of Zigvigix’s missing friends are
displayed, and there’s a really well-written wistfulness to the moment. I don’t know what’s going to happen next in
the storyline, and I’m invested in finding out! Overall, there are a couple of nit-picky things that could
have been improved (like the whole fusion seal confusion) but I wouldn’t let it
detract from an awesome experience. If
your players don’t get a kick out of this scenario, they are made of stone.
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