Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-10: "Corporate Interests" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Corporate Interests helps answer a question that makes perfect sense (and that I had never really thought about before): where does the Starfinder Society get all of its money from?  This series of five Quests all have the PCs working as consultants for different corporations around the Pact Worlds to earn some coin for the Society.  Otherwise, the Quests are unrelated.  I ran the series via play-by-post at low subtier.  A couple of the Quests needed some more play-testing or another round of development, but a couple of the others had some nice elements.  I'd average them all together  as . . . average.

As an aside, it's interesting that the scenario only allows for the slotting of personal boons and no others.  I imagine that could create complications for some PCs.

SPOILERS!

Each Quest begins with a message, via handout, from Venture-Captain Naiaj explaining the group's goal.  Just as each Quest sees the PCs working for a different corporation, they each also take place in a different location in the Pact Worlds.  These corporations and settings don't necessarily get a lot of distinct flavour in the actual adventure (though, ironically, there's usually plenty in the GM-only background sections).  Taken as a package, they do offer a good mix of combat, role-playing, and *sigh* starship combat.

The first Quest is "AbadarCorp."  Having recruited an expert in the weapons trade from the Idari, AbadarCorp is concerned she may become a target "among dangerous groups."  The PCs are contracted to wait for the expert's arrival on an Absalom Station spaceliner and escort her to corporate HQ.  The Quest uses the fitting Spaceport flip-mat but is structured as a problematic mix of skills challenge and combat encounter.  The premise is that while they wait in the spaceport gate for the expert to arrive, the PCs begin to notice suspicious people lurking the crowd and have a certain number of rounds to use skills to sabotage their gear or lower their morale.  I imagine that the vast majority of groups would instinctively confront the threats immediately instead of tip-toeing around messing with their stuff, but that's not the assumption the Quest operates on.  After the (way too many) rounds to sabotage stuff has concluded, the expert arrives and then there's a big firefight in the spaceport.  We never get any information or background on who these "mercenaries" are or who they're working for or why exactly they see the expert as a problem.

The second Quest is "Frozen Trove".  Alert players may recognise the corporation's name from a memorable Season One scenario (# 1-19: To Conquer the Dragon).  This Quest has the PCs sent to infiltrate an isolated Frozen Trove research outpost in the Diaspora and steal computer files.  This one turned out to be really good.  Although the PCs could just barge in and handle things through some old-fashioned ultra-violence, they really can succeed without ever firing a shot if they're smart, a little deceitful, and a little stealthy.  It's nice to see that option supported, and I liked the Quest's lone NPC--a lonely research scientist named Karezen who just wants some to talk to and for his bosses to recognise his achievements.

The third Quest is "Resurgent Technologies".  A corporation based on Aballon, Resurgent Technologies has been conducting testing of a weapon prototype that incorporated summoning extraplanar creatures.  As one could surely predict, things went awry and one of the summoned creatures got loose and is now killing folks.  The SFS is contracted to do an investigation and track down the culprit, which turns out to be a "venedaemon", a daemon formed from evil souls killed by magic.  All I know: awesome artwork!  I remember the PCs had a surprising amount of trouble defeating it--probably because of its multiple resistances and immunities.  A solid Quest.

The fourth Quest is "Sanjaval Spaceflight Systems", the requisite starship combat Quest.  I actually kind of liked this one though.  The premise is that the PCs will be test pilots for a new starship design--a Remorhaz-class vessel.  The distinctive thing about the Remorhaz is that its heavy weaponry faces the rear of the ship, so you want foes to get behind you.  The Quest also has a fun twist.  The test combat against a drone starts with everything being simulated, but when the drone goes haywire and starts firing live weapons, the PCs won't realise it until they get hit for the first time--when their actual shields are down!  Taking actual hull damage certainly got my players' attention.

The fifth Quest is "Arabani Arms".  Here, the PCs need to test fire several new weapon designs on a range and then use some of them in combat against some battle robots.  The twist is that several of the weapon designs have hidden faults and malfunctions, some of which are positively harmful for the wielder.  I liked the premise, but I found in practice it dragged a little due to the need to fire each of the weapons five times and describe the results.

Overall, Corporate Interests is a solid but unspectacular package, and something to do on a rainy day (or while stuck in lockdown).