Starfinder Module: "Junker's Delight" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

There’s a lot to really love about Junker’s Delight, a standalone adventure designed for 1-st level characters.  It is a model on how to write an adventure to support a first-time or relatively new GM because it includes several sidebars explaining tricky concepts and creatures get full stat-blocks (with included explanations of special abilities).  A GM won’t have to flip through six books to understand what a creature can do!  The setting (a massive scrapyard and the community that has grown around it) is interesting and memorable.  The layout and art design (borders, fonts, etc.) supports the feel of the adventure, and the individual pieces of artwork are top-notch.  (the pencil-sketch combat maps are a bit odd, but not problematic)  I played Junker’s Delight in a game run by my 11-year-old son, and the experience was like night and day compared to when he’s had to interpret adventures written for experienced adult GMs.  An RPG can only thrive if GMs are willing to run it, and this is the sort of product Paizo should try to get into as many hands as possible.  In short, it’s a perfect introduction to the game.

In the rest of this non-spoilery section, I’ll cover the book’s back matter. 

First up is “Khefak Depot” (four pages), a gazetteer of the settlement featured in the adventure.  As gazetteers go, it’s okay, but probably needed to be longer and more detailed if Khefak Depot is intended to serve as a potential “homebase” for the PCs beyond the end of the adventure.  It could also have better integrated the scrap-theme.  There are a few cool bits, like a tourist-trap called Necroplace (where visitors can simulate being undead), an ominous NPC called the Water Dealer (one could certainly generate some adventure hooks relating to him), and another themed resort called Thassilon (I wasn’t sure if any mention of it survived the Gap!).

Second is “Adventure Toolbox” (ten pages), a real grab-bag of material.  It begins with a few ways the PCs could have come together for the adventure (I thought they were pretty ordinary, but serviceable).  Next up is junk-themed gear.  I really like the idea of wrist-mounted garbage-disposal blades!  Some of the higher level items get stupid in both price and concept (an artefact of the system’s insistence that all weapons and armor have multiple types situated within a formula).  Scavenging a garbage disposal mechanism from a scrapyard for a weapon at Level 1 is cool; spending 170,000 credits for a Level 16 version is just goofy.  Along with junk-themed gear, we also get some junk-themed spells.  The spell junk armor is particularly nice for a character intending to “make do with what’s around” (like my penny-pincher, Nixxer).  A new archetype, the junkomancer, is included.  It’s a nice idea, but honestly probably not worth it for the vast majority of builds.  Three new creatures are included: a drift phantom (forgettable), a junk golem (good), and a thastertoad (forgettable).  And last, there’s two brief one-paragraph long suggestions on how the GM can continue the fun after the adventure proper is over.

SPOILERS!

Okay, let’s get into the adventure!  It’s divided into three parts.

Part 1 (“Pest Control”) starts with the PCs arriving at Khefak Depot and quickly intervening (presumably) in an alleyway shakedown of a ysoki named Riddle by a street gang named the True Warriors.  After running off the toughs, the PCs learn that Riddle operates a junk shop and, in thanks for saving her, offers them a reward and even jobs.  It’s a strong opening and will get the players involved in the action immediately, which I think is important for new players especially. 

Riddle’s job for the PCs is to investigate the disappearance of an android historian named Vari-13.  Vari-13 came into Riddle’s shop looking for a piece of salvage that they claimed could “change the galaxy.”  Assuming the PCs agree to the job, the adventure then has an abstract system of skill checks to find different clues.  I thought this bit could have been done better, as it requires a GM to improv in-story reasons the PCs are finding these clues, and improv isn’t necessarily an easy skill for a beginner GM.  In any event, the clues will lead the PCs to area of the vast scrapyards around Khefak Depot called the Caryards (full of wrecked starships).  The PCs need to navigate a bit of a maze and fend off some khefaks (big scorpion-like predators) and junk-related hazards before finding Vari-13 hiding in a trailer.

The android explains that they’ve been looking for a lost science research vessel named the Stellar Flare, believing that the crew discovered a way to draw power directly from the Drift that could be used to support entire energy infrastructures.  With some work, the PCs are able to use the data that they’ve obtained to triangulate a likely position for the Stellar Flare—deeper in the scrapyards.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this review, a lot has been done to support a new GM here.  There are sidebars specifically devoted to the first fight, how to divide XP afterward, how to handle radiation (though it doesn’t mention that poisons impact HP), how to level up characters, and more.  Although khefaks appear in a volume of the Alien Archive, the GM doesn’t have to look up their stats—instead, the adventure itself gives a full write-up and even explains what concepts like “mindless” mean.  I think it’s bound to make a difference in making the adventure easier to run.

Part 2 (“The Last Scrap War”)  begins with probably my favourite piece of artwork from the book: a goblin picking his nose while his ally looks on in embarrassment.  In this part of the adventure, the PCs realise that the Stellar Flare is in an area of the scrapyard contested by two rival gangs: the Trashhunters (goblins) and the Unbroods (ikeshtis).  Fortunately, one member of each group has struck up an unlikely friendship together, and the PCs can get them to help out.  They’re a really funny duo.  There’s a multi-part fetch quest in this section as the PCs need to assemble parts of an EMP key that will allow entry into the force-shielded starship.  In true cinematic style, just as the PCs get what they need, both rival groups converge and threaten to unleash war on each other, with the PCs caught in the middle!  This bit could indeed be a real challenge for low-level characters, but hopefully victims will just get knocked out and not killed.  Useful sidebars (on things like spell gems—complicated!, how broken items work, how Aid Another works, etc.) continue to appear.

Part 3 (“Flare Out”) has the PCs investigating the interior of the Stellar Flare.  Exploring the inside of a dangerous starship is a Starfinder staple (the equivalent of a dungeon crawl).  The real challenge here is the inclusion of two “driftdeads” (incorporeal undead)—unless the party has the right tools, fighting incorporeal creatures can quickly become a losing proposition.  There is a very handy sidebar for the GM on how incorporeal creatures work, but it probably would have been better to save the concept (and the escalated threat level) for a future adventure.  The fun and original bit in Part 3 is that after taking control of the ship, the PCs realise they’re about to be invaded!  The leader of the True Warrior gang and their minions are on the way, and the PCs need to set up traps and obstacles to slow them down.  A lot of creativity can be brought into play here, but there’s a simple system provided for the GM to adjudicate things without getting overwhelmed.  A lot of RPGs have the PCs as the aggressors, so it’s fun to switch things around and have them be the defenders for once.

The adventure has a brief conclusion (Vari-13 will need to take some time to sift the data form the Stellar Flare, so no galaxy-changing discoveries right away!) that leaves the PCs in a good position to continue on with a homebrew adventure around Khefak Depot or transition to another published adventure.

Newbie-friendly products are a great way to grow a game, but even as an experienced player I thought the story was strong.  All in all, I had a blast with Junker’s Delight, and I bet you will too.