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.