Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-33: "Data Breach" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Data Breach is a perfectly unremarkable scenario.  There's nothing distinctively bad about it, but nor is there anything particularly memorable about it.  It's a very simple, straightforward scenario that, with a few adjustments, could be the sort of thing that appears in a Starfinder starter box.  Even taken as an instalment in a long-running story arc, the scenario only advances that plot in a very formal sense that will have very little relevance to the players at the table.  Instead of stars, I would rate this with a shrug and a "meh."

SPOILERS

Data Breach continues the "conspiracy" storyline begun in # 1-07 (The Solar Sortie) and # 1-14 (Star Sugar Heartlove!!!).  A shadowy cabal hacked into the Starfinder Society's computers and deleted information that may have averted the Scoured Stars catastrophe.  Now, Historia-7 is on their digital trail and trying to figure out the identities of the conspirators and why they targeted the Society.  In the briefing for this scenario, Historia-7 explains that an agent of the conspiracy named Hira Lanzio (captured by the PCs in # 1-14) has finally revealed some useful information.  The conspiracy has a heavily-shielded data storage center in a bunker on Verces.  Historia-7 wants the PCs to interrogate Lanzio for any other useful information before travelling to the bunker and extracting whatever data is secured there.  The scenario asks the GM to role-play Historia-7 slightly differently (presaging something revealed in a future scenario), but the differences are so subtle that I think most groups will just chalk it up to different GMs portraying the same NPC differently.

The interrogation encounter with Lanzio is set up well.  It makes intelligent use of boons and skill checks, while explicitly making it clear that a "torture the prisoner" idea is not on.  Depending on how persuasive they are, the Starfinders might learn from Lanzio that the data vault has only automated defences.

Verces is a really cool planet, but the PCs won't get any of its flavour (apart from the cool cover art) as their hand-waved trip has them arriving directly at the data vault.  The rest of the scenario is your classic "high-tech dungeon crawl" that proceeds room by room with traps, secret doors, and enemies before reaching a (digital) treasure room.  There is a *lot* for characters with skill in Computers and Engineering to do in this scenario.  I'd say it's a chance for such characters to shine, but frankly those are overused and overpowered skills in Starfinder so I don't really think more time in the spotlight for them is necessary.  Encounters include the usual security robots (with a cool add-on that they can magnetically disarm weapons at range!), magically-created constructs (which are apparently supposed to be fascinating to the Starfinders), a nasty "incineration tunnel" trap, and then a big showdown against a cool looking "Core Defender Robot".  This last battle takes place while the PCs are trying to download the information they need from the central computer system.  Hacker PCs will enjoy the multiple layers and countermeasures the computer has, and I like that there is a self-destruct countdown situation that could be started.  If memory serves, when I played it one of the other PCs had an Operative that was, of course, good at pretty much every skill and trampled all of the hacking DCs.

And that's pretty much it.  Assuming the PCs succeed, they'll have a huge cache of data to take back to Historia-7, but they won't learn anything about the conspiracy in the scenario itself (apart from, potentially, a reference to Lao Shu Po--the ysoki goddess of spies and thieves).  This is becoming a recurring problem in SFS scenarios--having the PCs do something potentially very exciting but then providing no details or information on exactly what they've discovered.  It turns a scenario goal into a classic MacGuffin.  I do have to note that one of the boons (providing a discount on pharmaceuticals) was a home run for my drug-addled Solarion PC.

As I said at the beginning, there's nothing really wrong with Data Breach.  It provides some opportunity for role-playing, some skill challenges, and some combats.  It just falls flat to me, and is quintessentially inessential.