Starfinder Flip-Mat: "Spaceport" [RPG]

 I've used each side of the Spaceport flip-mat a couple of times while GMing Starfinder Society scenarios.  One side is a big runway for large ships to take off and land.  Looking closely, I really like how it has been laid out.  There's an adjoining road for maintenance vehicles and luggage carts (just like an airport would have), drones flittering about, and staircases to separate launch/hangar bays for smaller ships.  It's a good location to have a long-range blaster fight, something Starfinder encounters don't actually do that often in published adventures.  The other side of the flip-mat is the futuristic equivalent of an airport terminal.  The layout of seats next to the gate desks will be familiar to anyone who travels, and there are the other things one might expect: a cafe, public infosphere kiosks, display screens presumably showing departures and arrives, and toilets.  I like the holographic display in the center of the mat, as it adds just enough "future" to distinguish things from a real airport.  For both sides, one of the things that works well for Spaceport is the sense that every airport (spaceport) is the same, so you can reuse these without damaging the verisimilitude of your game.  Both sides have an excellent, clear design, and are certainly fit for purpose.

Starfinder: "Near Space" [RPG]

After Pact Worlds was released, the next logical gazetteer-style hardcover for Starfinder was Near Space.  Like the other Starfinder hardcovers, this one is pricey—a $ 40 cover price for just 158 pages of content.  It’s certainly an attractive book, however, with lots of great interior art and maps.   And speaking of art, you can’t go wrong with that cover—Obazaya tearing off a rocket launcher from an armored vehicle is pretty impressive!

The book starts with brief introduction, “Welcome to Near Space”, that provides a useful reminder that saying a planet is in “Near Space” doesn’t mean it’s close in any geographical (astronomical) sense to any other planet, only that there’s a sufficient collection of Drift beacons to make it a relatively brief hyperspace jump away.  The rest of the introduction is an overview of the book’s four chapters: “The Veskarium”, “Worlds of Near Space”, “Starships”, and “Player Options”.

Chapter 1, “The Veskarium” (56 pages) is the longest section of the book.  Starfinder team, we need to talk about the Veskarium.  It is, quite canonically, a ruthless imperialist and expansionist military junta that committed genocide on its homeworld before invading and subjugating the native peoples of every other planet in its solar system.  It then tried to do the same to the Pact Worlds.  So why have I played multiple Starfinder Society scenarios where the PCs help the Veskarium (including by killing pahtra rebels in one!) and Near Space glosses over any moral or political implications of the Pact Worlds being allied with such an empire?  In a sort of “dark and gritty”, morally ambiguous setting, having adventures in the Veskarium could be great storytelling—but to give it the same Disney treatment as the rest of the Starfinder setting just strikes me as a design team that hasn’t thought things through carefully.  Anyway, ranting aside, this book devotes four to six pages to each of the eight planets of the Veskarium plus the mobile super battlestation called Conqueror’s Forge.  The section provides a real deep dive into Vesk culture, which is really useful even if not necessarily containing a lot of surprises. The history of the Veskarium is interesting, and the section talks about the organisation of its military, economy, and more.  I really appreciated how much setting lore was integrated from previous Alien Archives and Adventure Path volumes, and loved the little shout-out to Nakonechkin Salvage from the Free RPG Day adventures.  There are a lot of adventure hooks here, and I’ve already seen some of them form the premise for Starfinder Society adventures.

Chapter 2, “Worlds of Near Space” (42 pages) covers twenty different planets, each with a two-page spread.  I took notes on every planet, but it’d be a bit crazy for me to go through each one here.  I’ll call out some of my favourites, though.  Daegox 4 is a prison planet, something really useful if you need to plan a “great escape” or “jail break” adventure.  On Daimalko, you could have a whole campaign dealing with the colossal monster apocalypse.  Embroi is the homeworld of the embri and is secretly ruled by devils—good thing my embri character, Speaker for the Dead, doesn’t know!  The Gideron Authority and the Marixah Republic were introduced in SFS scenarios, and it’s great to see them integrated here.  Helfen-Thel has thousands of magical portals going to who-know’s-where, and exploring some of them could be the premise for a nice campaign formed by unrelated adventures.  I’ve used the university planet of Pabaq in a campaign before, and had an adventure on Phoskar (home to giants).  It’s a really nice selection of planets, with tons of adventure hooks and intriguing bits to unpack, and I’m pretty sure there’s something for pretty much everyone in the collection.

Chapter 3, “Starships” (12 pages) is the shortest section of the book.  It includes some new starship options like a cloaking field (for non-combat use only) and a ramming prow (that does disappointingly little damage).  The Gideron Authority, Szandite Collective, and Veskarium each receive a couple of pages of new ships.  The Veskarium flagship Conqueror of Worlds receives a full stat-block.

The artwork is a bit rough in spots in Chapter 4, “Player Options” (34 pages).  The section starts with a single page of options for each of the following races: damais, embri, ghorans, hobgoblins, ijtikris, osharus, pahtras, skittermanders, and vesk.  Some of the options, such as the feats, aren’t race-restricted.  Everything looks reasonably balanced, though some are just too minor to be even worth taking.  Five new character themes are introduced: bureaucrat, giantblood (I like “hurl debris”), prisoner, quartermaster, and stormrunner.  Of the five new archetypes (assassin, battle leader, commando, doshko specialist, and mediator), I thought the assassin was interesting but that the save DCs were *really* low, and the battle commander was excellent.  Next, there are six pages of new weapons, shields, and armor.  Nothing stood out to me, for better or worse.  The book ends with a couple of pages of spells—one of them, defrex harness, seems overpowered.

And that’s Near Space.  The production quality is high, the artwork is generally really good, and the writing is strong.  Although pricey given its limited page count, it’s a pretty good book overall.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Belkzen, Hold of the Orc Hordes" [RPG]

 I read Belkzen, Hold of the Orc Hordes just in case my players in Curse of the Crimson Throne happened to visit the area.  They didn’t really (magic is a wonderful thing), but that’s okay—it’s a good book anyway!  As a product in Paizo’s Campaign Setting line, the book is 64 pages long, has high-quality glossy paper, and is in full colour.  As the title indicates, it covers Belkzen, rugged region east of Varisia inhabited primarily by various orc tribes.  If you have an interest in orcs or are just looking for a dangerous place to set an adventure, this could be the book for you.

I’m not a huge fan of the cover—it’s cool, but also confusing and I had to look at it multiple times before realising the orc is mounted on an armored rhinocerous-type creature.  This art is reproduced on the inside back-cover sans text.  The inside front cover is a beautiful map of Belkzen.  It’s done in a “realistic” in-game style apart from the place-name captions.  The inside of the book is divided into three sections of unequal length.  The interior artwork is strong, and the book is laid out well.

The “Belkzen Gazetteer” (24 pages) starts with a history of the region and a useful timeline.  The writers have done their homework, as it encapsulates material from previous campaign books, adventures, etc.  Each of the various areas of Belkzen are then covered in a 3-4 page spread, and it quickly becomes clear that Belkzen is a region, not a nation-state, as warring orc tribes hold their territories fiercely.  The section includes coverage of the Blood Plains (with some great Shoanti flavour), the Conquered Lands (from Giantslayer?; the hanging Peacock fortress of Sech Nevali is really cool!), Smokespur (lots of mysterious places and megafauna—now I want to do an all-orc campaign to explore it), Urgir (the “capital” of Belkzen), and Whisperfall (a borderland haunted by dragons; Freedom Town is interesting).  Perhaps most useful to GMs preparing for their PCs to visit Belkzen is a sidebar on what it takes to do so safely (a tribal token or joining an established caravan).

“Adventuring in Belkzen” (28 pages) begins with coverage of orc deities—each gets about a half-page of coverage.  Although they’re all Chaotic Evil, I found them really interesting to read about, and I imagine this is probably the only place to find so much information on them (the general books on gods in the Inner Sea tend to short-change the racial pantheons).  Next up, the numerous orc tribes in Belkzen receive a brief overview of a couple of paragraphs each.  Some real attention has been paid to established canon here, with references to Eando Kline, the oft-forgotten NPC Guide, and more.  Readers interested in how orcs do war will enjoy the pages on orc siege engines (compatible with the rules from Ultimate Combat).  Probably the bulk of the section is taken up with an overview of adventure sites (about half a page or so for each).  There are some really interesting places here—the Battle of Lost Hope (a bridge miraculously guarded by a Paladin of Iomedae), The Sleeper (the capital of the Runelord of Gluttony!), and the Flood Road (with important information on the Flood Truce, an annual event that brings the warring orc tribes together).

Last up is the Bestiary (10 pages).  It has random encounter tables for each area, provides four new animal companions for the pet lovers, and introduces some new monsters (a couple of which, the “burning child” and the “floodslain” template, are pretty neat).

Overall, this is an excellent product, and I can’t think of anything substantive to complain about.  If the topic piques your interest, it’s definitely worth the purchase.

Pathfinder Legends—Curse of the Crimson Throne #3: Escape from Old Korvosa [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS
 
This third instalment of the Pathfinder Legends audio version of Curse of the Crimson Throne comes close to meeting the strong expectations set by the first two.  It’s an impressively faithful adaptation of the written version of the AP.  Off-hand, I can’t even think of anything major that has been left out, though perhaps some artistic liberties were taken with the climax.  The voice acting remains strong.  There’s perhaps less humor in this one than in previous ones and a couple of confusing scenes, but the overall plot is well-handled through some excellent exposition.  I probably understand a crucial sequence of background events better from listening to this CD than I did reading and running the adventure!

 
Like all of these Pathfinder Legends audio stories, the running time is relatively short (about an hour and a half).  I got the physical two-CD format and, as with the previous ones, the paper insert has a nice spread of the Iconic heroes.
 
SPOILERS!
 
In this version of Escape from Old Korvosa, the four main Iconics (Valeros, Ezren, Merisiel, and Harsk) have spent several weeks moving from inn to inn to stay one step ahead of the Queen’s agents.  Kyra, who has been helping Ishani Dhatri address lingering illnesses from blood veil, arrives with the startling news that she witnessed Queen Ileosa impossibly survive an assassination attempt from Marcus Endrin—clearly, she has powers no ordinary human could possess.  Kyra’s description is very vivid and handled well, and she also mentions Togomor and the Queen’s new crown.
 
The rest of the story plays out fairly similarly to that in the written adventure.  The PCs go to Vencarlo Orisini’s academy in Old Korvosa to find it burned to the ground, survive a sudden attack by Red Mantis assassins while looking for him in his house, encounter the foppish (but funny) Amin Jalento to get a lead that Vencarlo may be with “Sebastian” (not Salvatore, for some reason) Scream, hear from Glorio Arkona that Scream is probably with the “Emperor of Old Korvosa”, rescue Scream and learn about that the castle’s seneschal (Neolandus) is still alive, and return to Arkona’s palace looking for him and Vencarlo—only to be thrown into the Vivified Labyrinth underneath.  The climax falls into cliché territory, with Glorio ordering the sphinx Sivit to kill his rakhasa sister Vimanda, only for the PCs to then free the magically-enslaved creature which promptly turns and devours Glorio himself.  I think I prefer the written ending, which has the characters faced with the dilemma of choosing which of the siblings to support, with repercussions that can echo throughout the rest of the adventure.
 
Throughout the audio version, we’re treated to scenes of a demonic creature apparently spying on the Iconics and manipulating them for his own ends.  This turns out to be Bahor (Glorio’s alter ego); I found it intrusive rather than compelling, but I *loved* the idea of Glorio giving the heroes “House Arkona badges” ostensibly to ease their passage throughout Old Korvosa only to use those badges for his magical scrying attempts.  I didn’t think the Bahor/Vimanda rivalry was particularly well-portrayed.  I also found the Iconics’ time in the labyrinth confusing, and I imagine listeners who weren’t familiar with the plot would be even worse off.
 
Perhaps my favourite part of the adventure was the representation of Laori Vaus.  Not only is she (somewhat creepily) hilarious, but the audio version draws a compelling connection between her and Merisiel, as both are Forlorn elves who experienced the short lifespans of humans around them.  Merisiel deals with her pain by continually running away, while Laori embraced the pain through worshipping Zon-Kuthon.  It actually explains a lot about Laori’s background and personality that I just couldn’t quite get a grip on in the written version.  Other things I enjoyed include Valeros’ enthusiasm for Blood Pig (it does sound really fun as long as you don’t think about the fate of the pig), Scream’s exposition (it’s not only 100% canon, but so much more coherent than what I was able to role-play), and the nice lead-in to Chapter Four.
 
All in all, I can’t say it’s a *perfect* audio version of the adventure, but it’s pretty good.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-19: "Truth Keepers" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS
 
I played Truth Keepers via play-by-post some months ago.  Some of the core gameplay is very similar to that of a lot of other Starfinder Society scenarios in that it has the space equivalent of a dungeon crawl.  On the other hand, there’s at least one really fun, perhaps even unique, element to the scenario that I loved.  The underlying story is an interesting one.  As for the repeatable nature, I would say the first half of the scenario showcases this well, but the second half of the scenario doesn’t.  All in all, it’s a really good, but not great, adventure.

 
SPOILERS!
 
My favourite part of Truth Keepers, and what makes it stand out from every other PFS and SFS scenario I’ve played or run, is that it doesn’t start with a briefing.  Instead, as I’ve often advocated, it departs from the conventional format and tries something different.  The PCs begin in a bar on Absalom Station called Seeker’s Respite.  The idea is that this is a favourite spot for Starfinders between missions to socialise with their fellow agents.  Adding such a location to the setting makes the idea of the Starfinder Society seem more “real,” and is surely a place that can be utilised in future stories.  The scenario provides an interesting bartender for the place (a witchwyrd) and several different brief role-playing/skill check scenes (only a few of which are used in each run) to get the PCs socialising.  In a fun addition, two of the scenes involve NPCs who were the “losing” candidates in the election for First Seeker in # 2-07 Four for the First (glad to see they haven’t been forgotten!).
 
Suddenly, there’s an explosion and the sound of gunfire outside!  Rushing out to the street, the PCs see a Starfinder Society cargo escort team under attack from several unknown assailants.  Once the PCs intervene to save the day (with the help of one of three randomly-chosen NPC agents), Venture-Captain Naiaj contacts them and explains what’s going on.  The attackers were members of a secret society in the Veskarium called the Keepers of the Lie—a group that believe the “Gap” is a hoax or conspiracy, and that there was never anything before it. The attack the PCs witnessed was just a distraction, as the Keepers have actually succeeded in stealing a (randomly determined) recently acquired, pre-Gap magical artifact from a docked SFS vessel.  As the Keepers have already made it into the Drift, Naiaj says she’s sending the PCs to Vesk Prime to track them down before they can figure out how to destroy it (magical artifacts being pretty much indestructible by definition, after all).  In an interesting addition, if there are four or fewer PCs in the group, Naiaj assigns the NPC that helped the group in the battle to come with them for the duration of the scenario.   It all comes together nicely to make the scenario start out with a bang instead of the conventional “sit through some exposition” opening for scenarios.  Free idea to Paizo writers: have a SFS scenario start in media res as the PCs’ ship is crash-landing on an unknown planet; the scenario can skip the mission briefing altogether, since the mission is obvious: survive until rescue!
 
The journey through the drift is uneventful, apart from a little tidbit referencing the brass dragon Zafeldrin of Triaxus from a memorable past scenario.  When the PCs’ starship arrives on Vesk Prime, there are some meaningless skill checks to get through security and then they meet Paxel, the memorable vesk commander of the Veskarium’s Division of Disloyal Organizations.  The repeatable nature of the scenario works well here, as Paxel presents the group with a randomised selection of leads (3 out of a group of 6) for tracking down the Keepers of the Lie.  Each of these leads involves some role-playing and a few skill checks, and the scenario does an excellent job incorporating and expanding on what we know about Vesk Prime and the organisational structure of the Veskarium.  I particularly liked the “skitteracracy” (skittermander bureaucracy) in one of the investigations.  Again, there are little bits of previous SFS lore dropped into the scenario, such as one of the NPCs being the pawnbroker Julzakama’s cousin; Truth Keepers was obviously written by someone who paid attention to previous stories!  The PCs need to return to Paxel after completing each of the three leads, and at one point they’re ambushed by Keeper of the Lie agents.
 
Although the first part of the scenario is really innovative, the second half is pretty pedestrian.  The leads point to an “abandoned military research station” that the Keepers of the Lie are holed up in.  This is the Starfinder equivalent of a dungeon crawl (just trudging through a complex instead of a cave network).  There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but it’s fairly forgettable (and the randomised elements here are just the different mix of Keeper agents that are encountered).  As an aside, I wish the awkward treasure drops could be avoided—they’re really not necessary and always appear forced.  Once the PCs reach the final room and fight off some more Keeper agents, they’ll find the purely Macguffin artifact and can head home.
 
I wish the second half of Truth Keepers could have been as strong as the first half.  I do appreciate the attention to setting detail and past SFS adventures.  I’m not confident it succeeds entirely as a repeatable scenario.  Overall, the scenario mixes some really clever elements with some uninspired choices, but I’d say it’s still worth playing.

Pathfinder Player Companion: "Blood of the Beast" [RPG]

 When the Advanced Race Guide came out, the number of playable races in Pathfinder suddenly increased substantially.  There’s an argument to be made that perhaps it was too much, too fast, with some of the new races competing (stats-wise) more than favourably with the classic Core Rulebook races.  I frankly get tired of seeing nagaji bloodragers and kitsune swashbucklers, but I guess that’s neither here nor there.  The value in Blood of the Beast is that it grounds these new races into the Golarion campaign setting, adding some  information about where they come from and how they’re perceived.  For GMs and players interested in a cohesive view of the setting, the promise is an important one.  As with all of these Player Companions, of course, there’s plenty of crunchy new options for character building as well.  The races covered here are catfolk, gripplis, kitsune, nagaji, ratfolk, tengus, and vanaras.

I really like the concept for the cover art, though the actual execution is a bit too cartoony for my tastes.  The inside front cover is a zoomed-out map of the Inner Sea with coloured highlighting showing where the various races covered in the book originate.  I think it’s too zoomed-out to be of a lot of real use though.  The inside back cover is the cover art minus any text.

After a page for the table of contents, we then get a two-page introduction.  There’s a new trait for each race covered in the book.  Some of the traits are fine, but some are of the generic “+1 to a skill and it’s a class skill” type that are really just space-fillers and list-lengtheners. 

Each of the seven races then get a four-page long entry with a brief overview, some favoured class options,  an archetype or two, and often other options like new feats or spells.  Although many of these new options are flavoured as tied to a particular race, most don’t actually have being a member of that race as a prerequisite to taking them.  I’ll go through each of these entries briefly.

Catfolk get a few new archetypes, including the Prowler at World’s End for bloodragers (giving them medium spirits), the Ravenous Hunter for inquisitors (a specialist demon-fighter with an oracle revelation), and the Serendipity Shaman for shamans (gets some new hexes—one of them, Tweak the Odds, is really good!).  There are some new, forgettable feats, and a new natural course for wildsoul vigilantes called “feline.”  Of the new spells, bit of luck is really powerful since it can be used before or after the results of a die roll have been revealed (which is rather unusual).

The new favoured class bonuses for gripplis are interesting, and I really like a cool new archetype for mediums called the Fiend Keeper—it specializes in containing an evil spirit.  The other archetypes are the Poison Darter for rangers and the odd War Painter for skalds.  There are also some new feats and spells, but nothing that jumped out at me.

Kitsune get some alternate racial traits, new advanced versatile performances for bards and skalds, and a new archetype, the Nine-Tailed Heir for sorcerers (great artwork here!).  There are some new feats for shapeshifters, a really clever new spell called contagious suggestion, and some new vigilante talents (I like the one called “obscurity”—it’s basically the opposite of renown).

For Nagaji, there are new naga bloodlines for bloodragers and sorcerers.  There’s a new cavalier archetype called First Mother’s Fang, which is a sort of governor/general concept; it’s pretty good in broadening the knowledge skills available to cavaliers, and who doesn’t want to ride around on a giant snake?  There’s also some new mesmerist tricks and spells.

I love the new ratfolk archetypes, and might have to give one a try soon.  There’s the Opportunist for fighters (a really cool, skills-focused alchemist mix), the Scavenger for investigators (a gadget type of alchemist with a great feel), and the Swarm Monger for druids (which is pretty much what it sounds like).  There are several feats, all of which build off the Swarming special ability of ratfolk, and they’re quite good too.  The only “meh” thing in the entry is a new psychic discipline, Warp.

Tengus receive several new feats (I like Lovable Scoundrel) and spells, as well as several new archetypes.  Courser for swashbucklers makes for a super-mobile character, though they have to give up a lot.  The Jinx Witch for witches provides for some interesting abilities to absorb and expend spells (and has some great art).  The Red Tongue for skalds provides an odd mix of rogue talents.  I think a lot of writers just don’t know what to do with skalds, but I can’t blame them—I don’t know either.

I will always hold a special place in my heart for vanaras, since that’s the race of my favourite character (Goldcape) in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP I’ve been running for a couple of years now.  The race here gets some new alternate racial traits, including size changing, as well as the usual favored class options.  There are then several new Meditation feats, but none of them are worth it.  Fighters may be interested in the new advanced weapon training options.  There’s one new archetype, the Fortune-Finder for rangers—it’s frankly just kind of bland.  Unchained monks get some new style strikes and ki powers (with freedom of movement particularly great).  Last, there’s a new eidolon subtype for unchained summoners called Ancestor, but it’s not particularly interesting.

Pretty much every book in the Player Companion line is going to contain its share of filler mixed with some real gems of creativity.  I thought Blood of the Beast is better than many in the proportion of wheat to chaff.  I would have like more than just a couple of paragraphs on how each of the races fit into Golarion—remember, that’s the value-add of the books (along with the art), as all the new rules options will be immediately stripped out and placed on the Archives of Nethys. But all in all, this is a worthwhile book to buy.

Starfinder Adventure Path: "Dawn of Flame, Chapter 1: Fire Starters" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

A couple of years back, seeing my subscription to the Starfinder Adventure Path result in more and more issues on the shelf, I decided I better run one of them!  I went with Dawn of Flame because I was playing in a Dead Suns campaign, wanted to save the three-chapter APs like Signal of Screams, and didn't want to choose something too new because occasionally there are fun little references to previous APs in newer ones.  For this play-by-post campaign, I decided to go with the premise that the PCs were members of a scientific expedition from Near Space sent by a university consortium to research the Pact Worlds' sun (known as Mataras).  It was really fun selecting applicants through an "academic interview" process.  I mention all that only because one of the notable things about the first chapter of the AP, Fire Starters, is how little space it gives to adventure hooks--there are literally only a few sentences that amount to "it's up to the players how they got together and why they're here."  Sadly, gone are the days of the amazing AP Player's Guides that lured me to Pathfinder to begin with.

I was very excited to see James Sutter as the author of the first chapter's adventure--I've been a huge fan of his ever since his work on City of Strangers, the Kaer Maga supplement, and his novels are also excellent.  His work is edgy, original, and full of surprises.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Fire Starters comes off as almost intentionally pedestrian and generic.  The resulting adventure could have been set pretty much anywhere and has very little to do with the theme of the AP.  I understand that sometimes some groundwork has to be laid to get the PCs into the overall plot and that things like character development takes time, but Fire Starters is unfortunately eminently forgettable.  It just doesn't have any of the dramatic, amazing, memorable NPCs, encounters, or plot twists I expected Sutter to bring to the table.  There's nothing bad or wrong with it--it's perfectly competent.  Playing Fire Starters is like getting a PB&J when you were expecting a gourmet meal.

I will note the art design for the entire AP is excellent--the bold colours really pop, fit the theme perfectly, and lend the volumes an aesthetic very different than any of the other APs.  The interior artwork is fine, and the maps are really good.

Although I'll talk about the adventure in greater depth below, in this "No Spoilers" section I'll cover the five parts of the issue's back matter--a new starship, a gazetteer of a location, an essay on a religion, a bestiary section, and description of a new planet.

First up is the "Aurora Yellow Dwarf" class starship (inside front- and back-covers).  This Tier 3 starship is used by Sarenites to patrol the approach to the Burning Archipelago.    It's really just too big for a short-range patrol ship (it has multiple *huge* cargo holds, for example) and gives me the impression that the designer don't really have a sense for how specialised and cramped military vessels tend to be out of both budget and efficiency concerns.

Second is "Asanatown" (8 pages), a gazetteer of one of the "bubble-cities" of the Burning Archipelago (the network of cities orbiting the sun).  The place has a really interesting background as an enclave for lashunta who feel constant psychic stress while near the sun for some reason.  That gives the residents a sort of siege mentality and makes paranoia a real concern.  The entry is well-written with a lot to offer a GM who sets an adventure there.  I particularly liked the "Centre for Eschatological Research", the potential schism between the "Church of the Burning Mother" and mainstream Sarenites, and a comedian who's a reptoid.  I would quibble at the idea that a settlement of 5,000 allows for the purchase of tech level 20 items.  This entry also has some "crunch" in the form of three new psychic-themed feats ("Telepathic Spy" is neat--eavesdrop on mental communications!) and some new pieces of equipment.

Third is "The Church of Sarenrae" (8 pages), an entry that longtime Pathfinder players may think is unnecessary.  However, there's a lot of new information here about how the Goddess of the Sun is worshipped in Starfinder, especially in the Burning Archipelago.  For example, did you know the discovery of the Burning Archipelago was made by a Sarenite?  There's a good story here.  The centrality of the Radiant Cathedral to the faith is also important.  The section does briefly cover temples and worshippers beyond the Burning Archipelago (for example, the vesk call her Firescale), and ends with a couple of pages of new weapons and magic items for Sarenites--I particularly like the plasma scabbard.

This issue's "Alien Archives" (8 pages) has seven creature entries.  Most of them are simply the Starfinder versions of creatures known to Pathfinder players: azers, imps, variant elementals (ice, lightning, and magma), efreet, and ifrits.  The only truly original ones are "fire whales" (which have both creature and starship combat stats) and "rifti proteans".  I think the rifti proteans are really fun.  I don't like how one of the seven creatures has stats that are accessible only by reference to the adventure itself--I think it's better to have a strict separation to help avoid spoilers. Ifrits are given stats as a new playable race.  With a couple of exceptions, not an impressive section.

The "Codex of Worlds" (1 page) introduces Zeres, a watery world that has been turned into a planet-wide luxury resort.  Such places are a staple of space fantasy, and I'm happy to see one included here (though the addition of an adventure hook or two would have been nice).

SPOILERS!

The premise of the entire AP is that an invasion is brewing deep in Mataras.  In a background section for the GM, the adventure tells a really interesting story involving a mysterious entity from the Plane of Fire named Malikah (half-brother of Ragathiel) who has decided to expand her empire and reputation by establishing a permanent empire on the Material Plane--starting with the Pact Worlds' sun!  To that end, Malikah has charged an efreet named General Khaim with making preparations for war, and he's claimed an abandoned magical city deep in the sun as his headquarters and named it the Crucible.  But a peaceful species called the anassanois that also live deep in the sun have become aware of the invasion plans and have been sending vague psychic signals to warn the peoples of the Burning Archipelago.  For the telepathic lashuntas, these signals are received as a constant background noise of anxiety and fear.  All of this is just background, however, and the PCs won't learn any of it for several chapters of the AP.

Instead, from the PCs' perspective, the adventure starts in Part 1 with them witnessing a mysterious starship emerge from a portal near the sun, quickly followed by a massive "fire whale" that's attacking it.  The PCs are supposed to engage the fire whale in starship combat (it's a pushover at 1/2 CR); I tend to think starting a campaign with starship combat is a bad idea, but fortunately it's the last one the players will have to deal with for a few chapters.  The starship that was being chased ends up adrift, and the PCs are urged by the staff of a nearby space station to board it and investigate.  It's essentially the "explore the derelict ship" cliche with an interesting (though hard to justify story-wise) mix of encounters: a hesper in the engine room, a fun rifti protean, a magma elemental, and an azer soldier working for General Khaim (though the PCs won't learn this).  The azer is notable for wearing an allegiance collar, which is a decent plot device to keep the PCs from interrogating her--it disintegrates the wearer if they get captured.  The main overall campaign story tie-in is that the PCs will find a holographic recording on the bridge from an ifrit named Tash, which reveals only cryptic references to Khaim, a place called Noma, and hints that he stole the starship.  Mystery is good, but the whole thing might be too vague to really accomplish anything--I'm 99.9% sure, for example, that my players have completely forgotten about Tash as we continue on in Chapter 3.

Part 2 of the adventure has the PCs arriving in Asanatown (the bubble-city discussed in the "No Spoilers" section above).  The premise is that the PCs have met a scientist named Taeress who promises she knows someone with connections to the Deep Culture Institute, an organisation devoted to studying the secrets of the sun.  Taeress doesn't reveal right away that her "connection" is her ex-wife!  The ex-wife, Nib, is a ysoki far more willing to go out on a scientific limb than Taeress.  I really like this story element, as they're an endearing non-couple (who, with some intervention, might reunite!).  The adventure element comes around because Nib is actually in the hands of rebels who have just seized Asanatown in a coup!  The PCs need to extricate Nib (a known loudmouth) from the local police station, which is now in the hands of the rebels who call themselves the Sunrise Collective.  There are a couple of other encounters on the street that are handled well, as they provide both peaceful and violent ways to resolve them.  Even getting Nib sprung from jail can be handled through diplomacy, something my group managed.

Part 3 has the PCs trying to free Asanatown's city councillors who are being held hostage inside the central government building (on the premise that no one can leave the bubble-city until the security situation gets back to normal).  The Sunrise Collective has believable defensive tactics and there are a couple of clever elements, like a secret tunnel under the building that allows the PCs to maneuver unseen.  The encounters are also of the right difficulty level--my group teetered right on the edge of defeat before finally managing to beat the chapter boss.

As I mention above, there's nothing particular bad about the adventure.  It just feels a bit like stalling until the real adventure begins, as terrorists (in this chapter) and gangs (in the next chapter) are pretty common Starfinder villains.  There's a really subtle theme here that the players might pick up on in that the Sunrise Collective wanted to seize control of Asanatown in part because of their paranoia from the psychic background noise emanating from within the sun, but it's all too vague for any of it to really come together in a concrete way for the players.

On a general note, I found the lack of a Player's Guide problematic as the GM as well.  It was really hard to guess how much PCs should know about things like azers, ifrits, efreet, the Plane of Fire, the history of the Burning Archipelago, etc.  Similarly, although I manufactured my own adventure hook, the AP really needs to do a lot more to draw the PCs into the campaign.  

All in all, Fire Starters is not an auspicious beginning to the Dawn of Flame adventure path--but things can always get better!

Starfinder Society # 3-11: "Into the Veskarium" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

Into the Veskarium is such a slight, forgettable scenario, that a few months on from playing it I only have the vaguest recollection of it.  The scenario is a collection of four 1-hour quests that, as the title indicates, share the Veskarium as a setting.  I found two of them okay, but a third irritated me for its utter cartoonish pap (like something out of a kids tv show) while a fourth has really problematic moral implications (completely unexplored) for what the Starfinder Society is supposed to be.  Simply put, there's not a lot of  thought put into these quests, which is a pattern I've seen in a lot of Starfinder Society scenarios of late--we're a far cry from the depth of some of the later Pathfinder Society (first edition) scenarios.  Anyway, quests do have their purpose, but this collection was frankly just not very good.

SPOILERS!

Each of the quests involves visiting a different planet in the Veskarium, and they're tied together only by having the same Venture-Captain (Naiaj) providing instructions through a brief one-paragraph handout at the beginning of each one. The premise is that the Veskarium has agreed to cooperate with the Starfinder Society by making planets in the system available for archaeological exploration.

"Sunken Survey" takes place on the watery world of Vesk-2, home of the squid-like ijtikri.  The PCs are to accompany a local guide to a set of ruins.  However, the guide receives a message from a local farmer/old friend about escaped livestock called defrex.  Essentially, the PCs have to visit the ranch and find an escaped defrex.  This is done through some basic skill checks, and the whole thing has a simplistic, bright-and-shiny cartoon vibe.  The players don't actually get to experience any of the "survey of the ruins" because that's handled with a throwaway line in the conclusion; instead, all they get to do is help the rancher find the defrex so he can (let's face it) slit its throat and cut off its skin to sell.  No thanks!

"Quakes" takes place on the mining world of Vesk-4.  The premise to this one is interesting, as there's growing discontent between miners and archaeologists about whether dig sites will damage ancient ruins.  The PCs are called in to act as neutral arbiters as to whether a particular proposed dig site would or would not damage anything of archaeological value.  This requires the group to operate some scanners while under attack from "solenoid worms."  I thought this quest was fine, though one of the PCs better have some Engineering and Physical Science skill or the group is in trouble.

"Exosphere" starts in orbit around Vesk-5, with the PCs actually aboard a space station.  This quest *really* annoys me.  What happens is that a starship full of pahtra (cat-folk) rebels smuggling experimental weaponry is detected, and the PCs have to go kill them.  There's not the slightest reference in the scenario to how deeply, deeply wrong it would be to side with the Veskarium over the rebels in this instance--lest we forget, the Vesk literally committed genocide on their own homeworld (check Near Space if you don't believe me) and their imperalist/colonialist urges led them to invade and conquer every other planet in the system and place it under authoritarian military rule, including that of the pahtras'.  They tried to do the same thing to the Pact Worlds.  And yet, the Starfinder Society automatically sides with them over the rebels?  It's like choosing to give Emperor Palpatine a hand finding that Death Star button.  A fantastic scenario along these lines could be constructed with this basic premise, showing the Society morally compromised but pragmatically invested in learning what ancient secrets the Veskarium has to offer, and giving PCs some agency in deciding how to maneuver in a complex political and ethical situation.  But here, the vesk military leader says "jump" and all the PCs are supposed to obey implicitly, without any thought given whatsoever in the scenario to whether good-aligned PCs can refuse or even take the pahtras' side.  Oy!  (I'm obliged to add that this is the requisite starship combat quest, and my rants on Starfinder starship combat can be found elsewhere)

"Sanctuary" is set on Vesk-6 (the pahtra home world).  The PCs are asked to assist the local Cultural Alliance in recovering some key artifacts from a dig site after the previous team they sent has gone missing.  This quest was okay, with some interesting atmosphere (a powerful magnetic storm called the Shriek) and some cliched monsters (skeletons) that could actually pack a punch.

Jhaeman is Debbie Downer today, but there are plenty of Starfinder scenarios out there.  You don't have to play Into the Veskarium.  But if you do, remember who the good guys really are.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-23: "Tide of Morning" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

I ran Tide of Morning recently at low subtier via play-by-post.  It’s got to be one of the fastest and easiest (from a combat perspective) scenarios ever published for PFS—honestly, I think an average level 2 PC could solo it. The story is no great shakes, and doesn’t really add anything of value to the setting lore.  There is some opportunity for role-playing, which is always nice to see, but on the whole this is a slight, forgettable scenario whose only value is how quickly it can be completed if time is limited.

SPOILERS!

As is often the case for Season Zero scenarios, the PCs start in media res at sunset in the Verduran Forest in Andoran.  Via flashback, they receive instructions from the rarely-seen Venture-Captain Dennel Hamshanks (ha!).  Hamshanks explains that there’s a druid named Hemzel living in the forest who has sworn a blood feud toward Pathfinders, seeing them as nothing more than thieves.  I tend to think Hemzel probably had some grounds for that view.  Anyway, Hamshanks says Hemzel has recently come into possession of a magic orb called a lorestone that gives the possessor the knowledge of all the druids of the forest.  Hamshanks charges the PCs with visiting Hemzel’s hut and persuading the druid to turn over the lorestone.  I really don’t contemplate how this could be done without basically stealing from or killing Hemzel (given his well-established antagonism toward Pathfinders), but it’s a moot point—Hemzel is dead! 

The PCs learn this immediately after the “flashback briefing” as they’re standing outside Hemzel’s hut.  An invisible fey announces the news with a cackle, and charges another invisible fey with dealing with the PCs.  What’s happening here is that an evil fey (a quickling) named Cyflymder has always hated Hemzel and decided to strike.  Hemzel has just been murdered, his hut set on fire, and the lorestone stolen with plans to destroy it by exposing it to sunlight come dawn.  Cyflymder races away from the hut with the artifact, but has set another fey, an atomie named Gire, to deal with the PCs.  The scenario presents Gire as a very reluctant combatant and someone very willing to talk (and explain the whole backstory of the scenario) if the PCs manage to turn her over to their side.  The problem is that she literally has 2 hp, and isn’t likely to stay conscious for long once the battle begins! (invisibility could certainly stymie a lot of low-level groups, but my players cleverly used an animal companion’s scent ability to guess her location).  There’s also a CR 1 spider swarm to deal with, but a good burning hands or some alchemist’s fire takes care of it.

However the situation with Gire is resolved, the PCs then notice that the hut is on fire.  The idea here is that they race in, see Hemzel’s body, and have to find anything valuable (e.g., Hemzel’s journal that details what Cyflymder is going to do with the lorestone) while dealing with the spreading flames and another assassin that Cyflymder left behind, another invisible fey (an unseelie human warrior).  The hut is very small, so it amuses me that the scenario describes the spread of the fire all the way up to Round 18.  Anyway, my players had no difficulty dealing with the situation.

After exiting the hut, the next thing the PCs encounter is a band of gnomes loyal to Hemzel.  They’ll be hostile to the PCs at first (believing them to be Hemzel’s murderers), but won’t attack right away, thus giving the PCs a few rounds to use Diplomacy to win them over.  Assuming this is successful, the gnomes direct the group to where Cyflymder must be headed—a nearby druid circle where the lorestone can be destroyed.  The scenario doesn’t provide the GM a lot to work with when it comes to the role-playing here, so I imagine in most groups it’s going to go pretty quickly.

The big finale takes place at the druid circle.  There’s a whole story element about how the PCs will have to march all night to get to the druid circle before dawn, but the concept is handled poorly.  First, the scenario doesn’t say anything about whether the GM should apply the fatigue (for not sleeping) and forced marching rules (which can be pretty painful to low-level groups).  Second, it doesn’t really matter—even if the PCs don’t turn up until high noon, the convenient magic of the lorestone gives the PCs 10 rounds upon arrival to stop Cyflymder.  Sigh!

Anyway, once at the druid circle, the PCs need to cross a slick log bridge guarded by snare traps and small vipers.  Cyflymder himself will be (chorus!) invisible and will try to play keep-away with the lorestone as another 2 hp atomie ostensibly harasses the PCs.  I love that Cyflymder, the climactic boss of the scenario, only has 7 hp and does 1d4-1 damage.  It makes me giggle.  Though that could be too much coffee.  As I implied at the beginning of this review, the players would have to try *really* hard to mess up in this scenario!  The epilogue is of the “thanks agents, we’ll study this amazing artifact you discovered--see you later!” variety.

Although I considered giving this scenario one star out of five, I’m going to give it two because, hey—maybe you only have a couple of hours to game, maybe you’re running for kids and don’t want any character deaths, or maybe you just really think fey are cool.  If any of those things apply, Tide of Morning could be alright, I guess.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-09: "Bluerise Breakout" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

I ran Bluerise Breakout at low subtier for five players via play-by-post.  It has an interesting (perhaps even unique) concept.  Although there's not a lot of role-playing (especially after the beginning), there's also not a ton of combat.  It's a scenario that rewards groups that can think carefully and deliberately about how to proceed step-by-step to get themselves out of a difficult situation.  It's a challenging one to GM because it requires keeping track of multiple moving parts behind-the-scenes and paying very close attention to exactly where everyone is at all times.  The story has some nice connections to early SFS scenarios, and continues the Season Two metaplot.  Overall, it's not a scenario I have super strong feelings about--I'd just suggest going into it with an open mind.

SPOILERS!

Bluerise Breakout begins with the PCs being instructed by Venture-Captain Arvin that they need to run a simple fetch job to pick up a datastick from an AbadarCorp office in Bluerise Tower (Absalom Station's apparently semi-sovereign corporate building).  What Arvin doesn't know, because even he's out of the loop, is that Celita of the Dataphiles has arranged the pick-up of crucial information about a conspiracy she's been investigating for months (even years) involving corporate malfeasance, price-fixing in the pharmaceutical industry, corruption, and more.  The story here follows the subplot began in # 1-07 (The Solar Sortie) and  # 1-33 (Data Breach), and ties in cleverly to the very first SFS scenario, # 1-01 (The Commencement) because the hacker Ceren helped discover the information.  What even Celita doesn't know, however, is that Datch (the villain of Season Two) has long ago hacked into SFS computers and knows the information is about to leak--so she's prepared a very lethal plan to stop the datastick from ever leaving Bluerise Tower!

When the PCs arrive at Bluerise Tower, they're given a tour of the AbadarCorp floor by a cute brenneri named Bordle.  Bordle's a chatter-box, and players who listen closely will learn a lot about the security arrangements in place on the floor--something that will become very crucial very shortly.  The PCs have to turn over all of their weapons (or smuggle them in), something that makes perfect sense in this sort of situation (and I always like it when PCs have to improvise without their favourite toys).  As the PCs are talking to Director Ebaki about the datastick, suddenly the lights go out, screams are heard all around, and then everything is silent.  An exciting beginning!

What's happened is that Datch has hacked into the floor's security AI (Argent) and had it activate the shock grids of every computer terminal, instantly electrocuting almost everyone on the floor.  Simultaneously, Argent locked the exits, activated motion detectors, set robot guardians (cleverly named "Abadarmors") to patrol and kill intruders, and even released dangerous experimental "ferrofluid oozes" from containment.  The PCs are trapped, and getting themselves out of it won't be easy!

This is the bulk of the scenario, and it's where everything has to be articulated very carefully.  The players are given one map of the floor and the GM has a second map that shows the scope of all the motion detectors, the coverage of the shock grids (that Argent can activate if a PC steps on one), the starting locations of the Abadarmors (which patrol clockwise), etc.  The PCs need to move very carefully and deliberately to avoid Argent or the Abadarmors spotting them--because if they do get into a fight, they won't have any weapons to defend themselves with!  (It's a nice reward for solarians, spellcasters, natural-weapon warriors, and others that don't need manufactured weapons to fight with).  The GM needs to keep track of exactly where each PC is standing at every moment, the round-by-round movements of the Abadarmors and the oozes, and Director Ebaki's actions.  Fortunately for the PCs, they have a chance to get their weapons back if they head for the security office, and there's also a chance they can rescue Bordle (though they might get some radiation poisoning in the process).

Escaping the floor requires passage through a multi-part security trap called the Smoker and then fending off a surprise attack by assassins at the elevator.  My group had no trouble with the Smoker for some reason, but barely managed it past the assassins.  One PC died early in the scenario (from massive damage from a crit, if I recall correctly).  Anyway, it should be a harrowing experience but a good challenge is needed from time to time to keep things interesting.  Assuming the PCs survive and escape Bluerise Tower, a well-written epilogue should make them really hate Datch, which is a perfect result for this stage in the season's meta-plot.

Pathfinder Tales: "Nightblade" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

Nightblade is a standalone sequel to Liane Merciel’s earlier Pathfinder Tales book (Nightglass) and continues the story of Isiem, a wizard-priest of Zon-Kuthon who has rebelled against his faith and home country.  There are some great characters and descriptions in the novel, and it has a dark theme consonant with its subject matter.  I did find myself a bit bored by a very long sequence that amounted to the novel equivalent of a dungeon crawl, and it’s all in service to a Macguffin that’s not explained adequately and doesn’t seem to justify the costs involved in trying to obtain it.  All in all, I’d say Nightblade is a good novel, but not as near-perfect as its predecessor.

SPOILERS!

After the events of Nightglass, Isiem has had to flee Nidal and now resides in the Cheliax city of Pezzack.  There, he helps a band of rebels seeking to free the city from the subjugation of House Thrune.  Isiem is asked to join an expedition to find an ancient weapon to battle House Thrune called a nightblade—a weapon created by a legendary Nidalese wizard named Melandroth.  The expedition team includes a well-written Paladin of Iomedae named Kyril, some grudgingly accepted agents of the Aspis Consortium, and one of Isiem’s old frenemies named Ascaros.  This last character is great, and was introduced in the short story “Misery’s Mirror” (available for free on the Paizo website, and worth tracking down before reading this novel).  The problem that I referred to above is that we never get a good explanation for why a nightblade would be so important that it’s worth risking the lives of so many important figures in the rebellion, or (as we’ll see) have them teleport all the way to Molthune to try to find it.

Still, the first half of the book is great—excellent dialogue, some thought-provoking discussion on redemption, an exciting, well-described battle against the “Beast of the Backar Forest”, creepy “Splinter Men”, and more.  The second part of the book takes place in Fiendslair, which I think is a demi-plane, and it’s suitably dark and demonic—doors that are fleshy and alive and have to be hacked through each time one wishes to pass, for example.  The place is a labyrinth filled with all matter of threats, including monsters with the ability to take possession of intruders.  It’s not badly written, but it is a *long* sequence with little pay-off.  I don’t mind at all that the mission was an utter failure (that’s good Pathfinder!), but just that I never figured out what it was all about to begin with.  The epilogue is really well done.

Not every novel, even from a talented writer, is going to be a winner.  I’ve read enough from Liane Merciel that I’ll still eagerly look forward to whatever she comes up with next.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 5-21: "The Merchant's Wake" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I got to play The Merchant's Wake via play-by-post with my Groetus-worshipping, doomsaying, filth-encrusted oracle Makras Vekker (he was certainly not the right choice given the premise of the scenario, but I didn't know!).  The scenario is a substantive, well-written one with some real meat on the bones--I'd be surprised if many live groups didn't struggle to finish in the normal five-hour slot.  There's a lot of role-playing in this one, and the scenario provides the GM with plenty of support to make it manageable.  The action scenes are done well and fun to play (even if a tad on the easy side), and there's plenty of attention to setting lore.  Overall, I think it's a winner.

SPOILERS!

In a departure from the norm, The Merchant's Wake doesn't start with a briefing from a Venture-Captain.  Instead, the PCs are directed (by letter) to attend (as representatives of the Society) the wake for a woman named Zarmina Bahjari.  Zarmini was the mentor for an important PFS figure, Trade Prince Aaqir al'Hakam.  Many players will recognise al'Hakam from previous scenarios, and this one provides (the GM, at least) a lot of information about his personal background.  Zarmini hand-picked al'Hakam and set him on the path to his current position, and he loved her dearly.  There's a bit of fun to be had at the beginning about appropriate clothing for the characters to wear to a wake in Katheer (the capital of Qadira, a nation inspired by classical Arabian themes).  Makras was forcibly given a bath, if I recall!

The bulk of the scenario takes place at the luxurious mansion in Katheer where the wake will be held.  After the PCs pay their respects to al'Hakam, another reason for their being sent is revealed.  Although family members would be culturally forbidden from doing business at a wake, al'Hakam knows several other influential merchants will be attending--and wants the PCs to help him make contacts to expand his trade network.  This plays out as the PCs attempting to earn "Influence Points" with the five different merchants available through the use of social skills and (hopefully) some quality role-playing.  This sort of situation will be familiar to most PFS/SFS players, but it's done really well in The Merchant's Wake.  Each of the NPCs has artwork, a thorough description of motivations and personality (for the GM to work with), interesting relationships with the other merchants, and a way that additional favour can be curried with them by handling a little task or errand (like planting something embarrassing on a rival).  Two of the merchants, Temel Passad (a prophet of Kalistrade) and Metella Rauger (a dwarf from the Five Kinds Mountains) hate each other, and the PCs will probably be forced to pick a side (they first appear in # 5-01).  Another merchant, Jakti al'Alwar (an inquisitor of Sarenrae) may seem unimportant at first, but he actually has murder on his mind, as the PCs may soon learn.  Anyway, it's a model for how these sorts of social influence challenges should be handled.  The GM just needs to keep a close eye on the clock to make sure it doesn't consume too much game-time.

After some general mingling, a cleric of Pharasma named Umut begins the formal funereal ceremony while standing over a bier bearing the shrouded body of Zarmina.  But what nobody knows is that Umut was actually murdered on her way to Katheer and replaced by a cleric of Urgathoa, the goddess of disease and the undead!  After "Umut" finishes her invocations and leaves, Zarmina arises as a mummy and attacks!  It's a fun surprise and way to start an encounter, even though I don't imagine it will be a challenging one for the PCs.

After dealing with the body, al'Hakam asks the PCs to make sure the grounds are otherwise secure.  While they're dealing this, they'll receive notes from one of the merchants that they influenced the most, asking for them to negotiate a deal with al'Hakam.  But while this is going on, al'Alwar has his assassins attack one of those merchants!  Now, the exact reasons for this aren't clear to me--al'Hakam is a Sarenite, a member of the Cult of the Dawnflower, and for some reason believes two of the other merchants are enemies of the Cult--but it's not clear why.  And as the target is screaming for aid, to add to the drama, waves of zombies from a nearby cemetery (animated by the Urgathoan) begin to assault the building!  In a clever use of modified Chase rules, the PCs need to speedily overcome the obstacles of the zombies to stop the assassination--the longer it takes the PCs to intervene, the more likely it is that the assassin is successful.  I thought it was a well-done sequence.

The last phase of the scenario is when the PCs are sent to the cemetery to figure out what's going on.  It's there that the disguised Urgathoan will either lure the PCs into a trap or be discovered for who she really is.  She may be accompanied by some skeletons, but the PCs will still likely outnumber their foes (a common problem in PFS) and win handily.  There's then some information a GM can use to craft the epilogue depending on what happened with the various merchants.

I thought The Merchant's Wake did a nice job sprinkling the heavy role-playing with some exciting doses of action.  It's definitely one worth running or playing, just as long as adequate time is set aside.  It confirms my suspicion that no matter where Pathfinder Society agents go--the opera, a coronation, or even a wake--trouble is sure to follow!

Starfinder Society Scenario # 3-09: "Freeing the Herd" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

Frozen Ambitions: Freeing the Herd is part of a mini-arc of scenarios in Season Three.  I played it via play-by-post with my lashunta witchwarper, Madrigal Zern.  R.I.P., Madrigal (she got killed due to provoking an attack of opportunity while at zero RP that ended up as a critical hit!).  Anyway, I thought this scenario was fine if a little too simplistic.  I imagine it’s a fast one to run, and perhaps a good one to use for new players (or by new GMs).  As an aside, this is the first Season Three scenario I’ve played, and I really dig the new design (encounter blocks at the back, pictures all on one page for easy printing, etc.). 

SPOILERS! 

I really like how the scenario starts.  The PCs are accompanying First Seeker Ehu Hadif on a tour of Near Space planets (which I’m guessing is a theme in Season Three) when a distress call comes in.  The signal is from a retired Starfinder named Colrid, who’s an old friend of the First Seeker.  Colrid is a dromada (sapient herd creatures who are often hunted for their meat) and says he and the Star Treader herd took refuge on a planet named Zrulik-3 but are now being attacked.  The PCs mission: get to Zrulik-3 and find out what’s going on!  It’s a nice change of pace from the more sedate, exposition-packed briefings that are usually a predicate to Drift travel that begin most Starfinder Society scenarios.  The whole situation screams “trap” to me (and did even moreso for my paranoid PC)—what are the odds that an old friend of the First Seeker would be sending a distress message in exactly the part of the galaxy where his ship is travelling?  Oddly though, the scenario doesn’t have the First Seeker contemplate this possibility at all, which makes me think he’s a bit dim-witted.

The PCs take a shuttle to Zrulik-3 and land a couple of kilometers from where the signal is coming from (true to SFS trope, that’s where the nearest clearing large enough to accommodate the shuttle is—how large are these shuttles?).  Anyway, the PCs need to make a couple of skill checks to navigate the dense forest, but the checks are significant because they determine whether an impending encounter will take place at night and with the PCs fatigued.  The battle is against “zrulicats” (depicted on the cover), which are a pretty bland generic “space jungle cat”. 

When the PCs get to where the signal is coming from, they’ll meet Colrid and learn what led to the distress call.  Several members of his herd have gone mysteriously missing in recent weeks.  The PCs are encouraged to talk to witnesses among the herd, and in another common SFS trope, getting people to talk can’t be handled with simple social skills but must be done through other means: one of the dromadas, for example, likes magic, so the PCs need to make a Mysticism or Sleight of Hand check to convince her to share her story.  From a gameplay perspective, I get that the scenario writers want to find a use for different skills, but I find this method a very clunky and transparent way to do it.  One of the NPCs gives the group directions to a cave she heard screaming from.  Why they won’t share this crucial information without a Survival or Life Science check “to provide planting advice” boggles the mind.

The rest of the scenario takes place in the “cave”, which is actually a secret laboratory run by a nuar (minotaur) scientist named Nraall.  Nraall has taken a commission from the ruler of Vesk-8 to experiment with a substance called shimmerstone and discover a use for it. (I assume this background ties into the other “Frozen Ambitions” scenarios.)  Nraall has been using shimmerstone to experiment on local fauna, including zrulicats and kidnapped dromada.  From the PCs’ perspective, they start at Room B1 and need to traverse in order to Room B6 where the boss is.  It’s not a total generic dungeon crawl, however, as some of the potential foes in the lab can be evaded or interacted with.   There’s a couple of cute little details, and Nraall herself is depicted with some really neat artwork.  Once she’s defeated, the captive dromadas can be rescued and returned to the village.  There’s a nice (and surprisingly long) epilogue, and the PCs should feel well-rewarded for their efforts.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with Frozen Ambitions: Freeing the Herd.  It just strikes me a bit as “RPG Lite” in its utter ingenuousness and lack of complexity.  As a whole, I think Starfinder would do well to add some more three-dimensional (flaws included) characters, along with stories that are a little less black and white.