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NO SPOILERS
Dreaming of the Future is a linked series of four Quests and is
one of the few Starfinder Society scenarios with the Repeatable tag. I ran it at low tier for a mixture of three
experienced players and two players new to the game. Although I think it was great to see some
long-time members of the Paizo community get a chance to write for the company,
unfortunately I wasn’t very impressed with the results. Although there are some exceptions, for the
most part the Quests are underwritten and lack the flavour and encounter
creativity that I was hoping to see.
It’s okay, and because it runs short, it could be a good way to
introduce new players to the game if they’ll need extra time to figure out
basic rules. But otherwise, I’d give
this a pass or do one of the better introductory scenarios like The Commencement.
SPOILERS
The backstory behind Dreaming of the Future is that the
Starfinder Society has long relied upon mystical means of research to help
develop their goals and mission planning.
One of these mystical means is a Liavaran Dreamer, a sort of off-shoot
of the Barathu of Bretheda (floating sentient telepathic jellyfish-like
creatures). The Dreamer, “Whisperer of
Solar Winds”, often has visions that it relates through cryptic tales. If the tales are interpreted properly, they
often lead to important discoveries. In
this series of Quests, the PCs are sent by Venture-Captain Arvin (whose
personality still hasn’t been developed yet) to recover three stone tablets on
three different worlds that, once combined, form a map leading to an ancient
mausoleum of a former Dreamer; and inside that mausoleum, relics can be taken
which will augment the abilities of the current Dreamer. I never thought about while prepping or
running the session, but I’ve just realized the SFS is going to engage in what
is (despite its description) some tomb-robbing!
One of the criticisms I’ve had of other Starfinder Society
scenarios is too much “telling, not showing.”
The concept of the Liavaran Dreamers is a really interesting and
evocative one; wouldn’t it be cool for the PCs to actually meet one? And get a chance to interpret its visions
themselves, perhaps with the aid of some skill checks if they get stuck? Similarly, jumping to the very end, the
relics the PCs are sent to retrieve have nothing particularly interesting or
exciting attached to them—they’re just “strangely shaped bottles and cryptic
devices.” The PCs can’t find anything
else out about them, why they’ll help the Dreamer, etc. In other words, they’re a MacGuffin purely for
the sake of a MacGuffin, and RPG storytelling has evolved past that.
Anyway, on to the Quests.
Quest # 1, “Megaplex” has the PCs going to the Towershadow
Megaplex on Aballon (the planet of constructs called anacites). The PCs are told that the Dreamer’s first
vision requires them to find “some form of artificial or partially artificial
life, likely an anacite or android, on the run from legal woes.” That’s all they have to go on—searching a
city of countless thousands (or millions?) of constructs to pinpoint one “on
the run from legal woes” who has the tablet?
The Quest doesn’t provide any info on how this search would
realistically work; it just list a few skill checks PCs can make in what
essentially boils down to “ask around or Google it.” Gamers are used to the necessity of the
suspension of disbelief, but this came across as just lazy writing and I was a
bit embarrassed to run it as a GM.
In any event (whether they succeed or fail on those skill
checks!), the PCs will find the fellow with the tablet, an android from Verces
named Latrecis. Latrecis discovered his
employer, a nightclub owner named Karelite Bogdin, was trafficking in illegal
android smuggling. But before Latrecis
could act, his boss framed him for a murder and he had to go on the run; he
stole the tablet from Latrecis as a sort of insurance policy. However, like real-world insurance companies,
coverage is never as much as you’d like: Bogdin has sent thugs after Latrecis,
and they stole the one piece of evidence that Latrecis had to prove his
innocence (this whole sequence of events is weird, but the PCs thankfully will
learn little of it). So, in order to get
the tablet, the PCs have to deal with the thugs that are menacing
Latrecis. This requires the classic
“boss and two minions” battle on a cramped flip-mat. It’s rather forgettable.
The second Quest, “River Rat”, has the PCs being sent to the
Diaspora (a massive asteroid belt with a variety of inhabitants). I found (running these in order) that little
was done to tie the Quests together smoothly, and I had to improve some
connective tissue. This Quest is all
about a starship battle against a ship of ysoki pirate/salvagers that have
taken over a dwarven outpost. There’s
the possibility for some role-playing with the captain of the other ship before
the battle, which I appreciated and tried to make the most of even though it
can’t change the fact that combat is inevitable. The starship combat itself is ship vs. ship
with some asteroids scattered around, with the big gimmick being that the
ysokis have hidden some gun turrets on a couple of the asteroids. This could have been a cool surprise for the
PCs, but it’s very easy to find and then (automatically) disable them, so they
never got used in my game. Apart from
that, the starship combat itself was of the type that I had hoped the devs were
moving away from: a “pew-pew” slog of pea-shooters where the PCs' ship clearly
outmatches the enemy ship and there’s no real threat. It’s just a matter of playing the rounds out
and waiting for the rolls to confirm what everyone knows.
The third Quest, “Bad Chameleon”, ended up being more fun
that I thought it would be. The PCs have
to infiltrate a nightclub (run by Latrecis’ employer from the first Quest) to
steal a third piece of tablet from a safe.
What’s supposed to happen is that the PCs get into the nightclub, chat
with some bartenders and patrons, and then sneak through an alarmed door to
where they can pop the safe and get the tablet.
Then, on the way out, Bogdin (an augmented verthani) and his two vesk
bodyguards (SFS trope!) try to stop the PCs from leaving. Hilariously though, the PCs I ran this for
were uniformly terrible at Deception and Stealth and just could not make it
through to the room with the safe without being repeatedly obstructed by the
regular guards on duty. So after about
45 minutes (real-time), they decided to just wait until Bogdin showed up to try
to trick/force him into giving them the tablet.
It made for a surprising and fun conclusion. Also, I have to give props to the flip-mat
used for the scenario—it fit the needs of the mission quite well.
As written, my favourite of the Quests is the fourth one:
“Nightmare.” It has a very evocative
(and creative) setting and a suitably atmospheric tone to match. The PCs are sent to Preahan, one of the
“shepherd moons” of Liavara. But Preahan
is no ordinary moon: it has low gravity, an atmosphere of methane, and an inner
core of liquid methane. So the PCs have
some interesting and difficult skill checks to make as they descend into the
core of the moon to find the mausoleum.
Inside, a “nightmare dragon” pretends to be the guardian of the relics
and this was a solid story choice: it fooled my PCs, and the guardian’s later
sneak attack was a surprising twist. The
battle was suitably difficult as well (including a PC death, something I’ve
never seen during a Quest!). My only
complaint about this Quest was, as I mentioned previously that the relics were
so poorly described and inconsequential.
When PCs do a lot of work on a fetch quest, make it cool for them when
they succeed.
All in all, Dreaming of the Future is a mixed
bag. Hopefully, it’ll serve as good
practice for the writers and developers, and we’ll see stronger storytelling
next time around.
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