Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-39: "The Herald's War" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The Herald's War is an exciting, cinematic scenario that definitely evokes some big-action Star Wars vibes.  It serves well as a lead-in to the big capstone special (# 2-00: "Fate of the Scoured God") that provides a conclusion to the long-running Season 1 story-arc.  No one can complain that this one moves at too sedate a pace!  

SPOILERS

Major events are afoot when the briefing aboard a Starfinder battleship (with First Seekers Jadnura and Luwazi Elsebo) begins.  A full jinsul battle fleet, led by a commander named Hierarch Kraaton, has arrived in the Saruuq-Ruaan system to invade the Kreiholm Freehold!  The Kreiholm Freehold was introduced in # 1-29, and it's a federation of various alien cultures that fled the Scoured Stars.  As the Starfinder Society is assembling a fleet to strike deep in the Scoured Stars system to end the threat of the jinsul, they want the PCs to help turn back the invasion and persuade the Kreiholm to join an alliance to later take the offensive.

When the Starfinder fleet (and the PCs) emerge from the Drift, they arrive in the midst of a massive space battle!  Given their usual Pegasus or Drake, the PCs are charged with handling a pair of new jinsul starfighters that have proved especially problematic to contain.  This plays out as a 1 vs 2 starship combat, with a twist in that several hexes of the flip-mat represent dangerous zones of engagement between allied and jinsul battle cruisers--if the PCs' vessel enters one of these hexes, they risk taking damage.  I liked the concept here (making the battlefield more interesting), though when I played, we just stayed away from those threatened zones and they didn't really matter.  My views on starship combat in general are pretty well known (hate it!), but this one's probably a little better than most.

The jinsul fleet withdraws to regroup, allowing the PCs to undertake their next task: meeting with the Kreiholm Freehold council and persuading them to join a full alliance with the Starfinder Society.  This takes the form of the usual "persuade a certain number of NPCs by using various skill checks" system, but I liked how this one was handled.  There's no time (in-story) for everyone to chat with everyone, so each PC has to pick one council member and give it their best try.  That means no hiding between a party face, there's room for everyone to role-play, the process moves quickly, and everyone's contribution is valuable.  The various council members are given interesting personalities and a variety of skill checks are useful for each one.  The only thing I would have *really* liked here was a visual line-up of all five council members--instead, we only get a headshot of one and a recycled picture of another.  When dealing with all sorts of strange alien races, it's much better if the GM can point to which alien is talking and even set a PC's token to indicate who is talking to whom.

After the meeting, the PCs have a quick debriefing with Jadnura and Luwazi Elsebo to discuss strategy.  The plan is for the Starfinder fleet (hopefully aided by the Kreiholm fleet) to attack the nearby jinsul fleet and provide enough of a distraction for the PCs to board the jinsul flagship.  There, they need to effectively assassinate the jinsul fleet commander, Hierarch Kraaton.  The approach to the jinsul flagship is handled in a good way through several quick hazards (and associated skill checks)--though, to be honest, whether the PCs do well or poorly doesn't really impact the rest of the scenario very much.  

After landing in the flagship's hangar bay, the PCs then need to battle several jinsul engineers and a "praetorian" who has the cool ability to negate an envoy's improvisation abilities.  The mission is on a timer though (thirty in-game minutes), so afterwards the PCs need to figure the fastest but safest route to the bridge.  Three different options (and associated skill checks are presented), but, reading through, it really doesn't make much of a difference which is chosen.  Even if the PCs choose the slowest route and fail all the associated skill checks, they still arrive with 5 minutes to spare.  If PCs do really well and finish with at least 10 minutes to spare, I guess they could take a rest to recover some stamina, but that's about it.  One nice touch during the approach, hangar battle, and journey to the bridge is that the scenario provides all sorts of "radio chatter" to help describe what's going on with the huge space battle outside--with most of the different SFS venture-captains represented.  I thought it was a really fun way to help add to the drama and tension (if a GM remembers to use it!).

The big finish on the bridge of the jinsul ship is great.  My favourite moment was being genuinely shocked that after defeating the hierarch (who's no slouch!), his body becomes possessed by a divine herald Kadrical (Dhurus) for another (extremely nasty) fight!  It was a great "oh, crap" moment, and a good reminder that even when you think you've seen it all in PFS/SFS, the scenarios can still surprise you.  Assuming the PCs survive, they're able to depart the flagship and the Starfinder/Kreiholm fleet succeed in driving the jinsuls into a disorganized retreat.  A perfect lead-in to the events of # 2-00.

That would be the natural place to end the scenario, but instead there's more!  There's a long scene where Iteration-177 appears and confesses his secret: he's also one of the divine heralds of Kadrical, named Ailuros.  It's a cool reveal, and I have to give the writers and developers credit for nicely integrating several season-long threads (the jinsuls, the Kreiholm Freehold, Iteration-177, and more) into a satisfying story.  I might suggest the timing of Iteration-177's reveal isn't ideal (everyone thinks the scenario is over and is wrapping up), but the concept is sound.

Overall, although there are some flaws, this was a thrilling, well-done scenario.  It might be one I'll spend a carefully-hoarded replay on.