Coming from a GM who has extensive experience in Shadowrun (and other sneaky type games), this is probably the first true Starfinder scenario that feels like a Shadowrun-ish scenario.
Why is that important for me to say that? Simple, though going to go ‘vague’ descriptions when I talk about this scenario, so not to spoil.
One, this scenario should never be ran cold, as it does require a lot of ‘sandbox’ at the beginning for the GM to allow the Players to walk through the steps to figure things out on how to actually ‘do’ the scenario, and running cold will likely not allow the GM to think and see all the ways you can help—or throw fun/amusing/problematic wrenches into their plans.
Two, you have to have players who want to think on how to set up something like an Oceans 11 type of plans. If you have those two things down…the scenario runs well.
Three, the GM should be willing to let things go ‘off the rails’ for a little, and be able to semi-makeup quick DCs for things….which the writer did give lots of ‘generic’ DC numbers to quickly use, though sometimes not in the exact order or placement when the Players think of using those skills in planning.
I would love to see more of these scenarios. They allow players who don’t like the typical formulaic scenarios (i.e. 1-4 quick skill checks to find out things/influence, then 3 fights and a trap), to shine.
This scenario has some of that…the last part of this scenario felt like it could honestly have been a 2nd scenario almost…but you have to have something or the Obozaya’s of the game to enjoy.
Too long, don't care about analysis review:
All in all, this would have made a decent PFS dungeon crawl. That being said, it was not what I was at all expecting with how the 3 sentence blurb about the scenario was going on about politics and such. And me bringing a diplomatic operative…..not as much fun as it could have been.
For people who love combat (space or otherwise) this was a good scenario. It had a few new rules/mechanics in the space combat that I actually thought was great.
Now for the full review….there be spoilers ahead.
There be real spoilers ahead, beware.:
Ranking Story 2/5
I won’t exactly call it a political scenario. There was literally no politic/diplomacy involved. Sorry…the only real politics was the 'oh you are in our “space territory", prepared to be boarded or destroyed'. And if you beat the enemy vessel the 'oh, you won, but we will be back' trope.
I would honestly give it a lower ranking on story (probably a true 2), but I did like the bit about the previous empire that the ruins we were exploring. Too bad that by the time that started to get interested, I realized that it was a “standard” dungeon crawl.
Setting 2/5
I give this above markings due to the background about the previous empire. Though the only reason we knew this was thanks to one PC luckily having the correct language, along with a lot of very high perception and/or computers checks. As I mentioned in Story above, I did like the background information and the little we figured out about the 2 warring star systems.
Role-play-ability 1/5
Only RP I felt was the initial Venture Captain data dump about the mission, and the very little with the on planet mechanic. And with the GM running it—who I probably consider one of the top 5 GM’s I have played with in years—doing the best he could, this still only hit a 1. There was no real dialog with any of the “baddies” either in the hanger, or in the ruins.
Combat 5/5
If I could do it, I would probably give this a 6 out of 5 because of the amount of combats. 1 Ship combat, 1 “puzzle” combat, 2 “normal” combats and a boss fight. That is a LOT to put in a 4-5 hour game session. People have said this runs long…and it does. Out of all the fights, I would consider the ship combat and the puzzle combat being the highlights. Big Spoilers….photon stress bands + an enemy ship that rams=AWESOME. And the computer gremlins….that was fun. The rest I could have done without. The whole ruin area, if it wasn’t looking around, it was combat. And as I mentioned, it could have been a PFS dungeon crawl in feel.
Done a few PFS reviews (probably should do more with the lack of free time I have), but this is my first SFS review. I will promise myself to get SFS reviews done though!
Too long, don't care about analysis review:
This scenario....it is what I was hoping SFS would be. A mystery that included exploration of ruins, talking to a new species, and just a LITTLE combat. It pulled all the strings I want in a scenario. A scenario for people who like puzzles (but not those "do this as a player so that you are pretending to be your character manipulating a Rubiks cube, more a mystery), not a scenario for people who are "shoot first, kill everything, THEN Loot the bodies".
It also helped that CanisDirus ran it. His ability to prep, and tell a good story helped, especially when we go slightly off script :-)
With that said, semi spoiler (and longer review) below under the spoiler tag.
Now for full review::
Ranking
Story 5/5
At first I thought the story was going to be straight forward. Kinda a partial "first contact" scenario with most of the hard part done--i.e. trying to communicate. When we landed (which BTW luckily we had not space combat--none of us were pilots, though some of us had decent piloting scores) safely, we were met by a Coral type creatures. Since we all were more interested to learn about them, we decided to follow their lead (which we found out helped in game, great writing for the writer for that).
The story seemed to be kinda what we were expecting...a new race wanting protectorate status because of the distance it is from anywhere deemed "safe", and an unusual power/item source of their tech. What we didn't expect was the actual history involved in how this power source was first seen as, and how it developed, and now how it was being mined into extinction (again, great writing!). After looking at a few of the places that the local exploration team looked at, we went right into an area our Triune priest was designed for. We were able to activate <3 (less than 3....heart references were made...) and the priest and my augmented nuar were going to have none of this, and worried that they would kill/steal <3 smuggled him out (again...great writing on actually figuring people would want to do that).
As we started to get worried that the government (and possibly our exploration copaxi "allies") seemed to be doing some kind of cover up, we were starting to wonder what all was being held. We kinda figured out about 90% of the "what happened" by the time we befriended our copaxi ally and it revealed itself and told the rest that we hadn't figured out.
All in all...it had a story that was gripping, and well thought out.
Setting 5/5
As a bit of the Story above explained, it had a setting that was gripping, and because of the GM and his storytelling abilities, was gripping enough for us to understand what currently was happening, and even the history of the planet in less than 5 hours.
This scenario had a slight feeling of a Stargate SG-1 episode, where the team went into a bunker thinking they were going to help this one side against what they were told was the bad side, when in truth the whole thing wasn't as clear as it was made out to be, and the side they were helping was actually more in the wrong....I need to go back to watching the episodes to remember exactly which it is.
Role-play-ability 5/5
Again, Story above kinda showed that it had this in spades. Lots of talking, and a lot of "explore your environment" and "talk to the locals" to try to understand what is happening. And also THANK YOU for having at least one "encounter" you could intimidate/bluff/diplomacy yourself out of. Shoot first and loot the bodies is not the way to do things in SFS I feel.
Combat 3.5/5
This is low, because I know that it is not a combat type scenario, but had to put some of those in. I am thinking that SFS is starting to get a little into the trope of "lets used mindless undead as a combat encounter" rut. That part of the fight was not really explained "why" there were undead there, and felt a bit staged for the "shoot first and ask questions later" player base. The other main combat (giant crab...and I am glad I wasn't at the table with our Mystic of Urgathoa who wants to eat any new unusual non sentient) had a little fun.
One thing I would have to say is that I know it is a new system, but I do feel some of the fight encounters are not challenging enough. Especially with a 5-6 player table with multiple different sub-tiers present. Action economy is better, and less clunky than PF, but 1 big bad vs. 3-4 players can be challenging, but usually 1 big bad vs. 5-6 players isn't. This is something that I am certain the developers will continue to adjust to make things more challenging.
And again, thank you for having a "combat encounter" you could talk your way out of...sentient creatures shouldn't be always fight first.
Over all. I give a 5/5 for this scenario--even with the lower combat issue. This is because it was a scenario I wanted...lower combat with a great story. I haven't ran it yet (will be doing so sometime soonish), but I can also see a decent amount of prep for the roleplaying and telling of the history/story to keep the players engaged.
Played this a couple of nights ago, and I can say this....this scenario doesn't pull punches.
Too long, don't care about analysis review:
I was in the same game as Matt Proctor if you want to see the party breakdown and read his review.
Great story, great location descriptions, powerful encounters. Good game for people who like story, fights and searching. If you are a combat monkey and only that, maybe not a game for you...or at least not you and 5 other combat monkeys only. Need some skills, and a good head on the players for thinking sometimes out of the box.
GM's do a lot of prep work for this scenario. It is a must.
Now for full review:
Ranking
Story 5/5
As a player I am always happy to see something that came up in earlier (and a VERY early at that) scenario come back. Glad to hear that some boons that people might have collected over the years (though rarely if at all possible to be on the same character based off of years between them) are useful. The GM that ran this scenario pulled off the creepy atmosphere of the whole scenario well, and kept us anticipating what might happen if we made a mistake. At the same time, he kept us going forward without feeling like we were being shoved into that area. He did in both in character descriptions and as a GM talking to players how some unusual mechanics work. I would highly recommend any GM who runs this scenario look into all the history of other scenarios that are referenced in this, for story line and backstory when your characters go off script. I think we were all as players happy that our GM did the extra prep on that.
Setting 5/5
This is real spoilery. I haven't done much with the Occult adventures mindscape and such...so I was semi clueless on that, but the GM did a very nice job on getting us to realize what it is and how to interact with it. As part of the Story, it explained a lot. Also, I love bringing things in from other settings (Iron Gods baddies for example, or the Cthulhu mythos feel).
Role-play-ability 5/5
There is a LOT of role play potential in 2 or 3 encounters. Some with the players in one encounter, another has role play with something that I never thought I would be meeting in an encounter.
Combat 4.75/5
Okay, one thing I do have an slight issue with was mentioned in another review....having a bunch of CR 3 or so mooks there just to attempt to get people to have to roll 4 different fortitude saves in the first round to hopefully take out party members via nausea or sickened is a bit of a chump move, but at least it was in theme of what was happening in the game. It might have been better to have that be built into the scenario itself, or maybe something that the other baddies that were real threats set off. The rest of the fights though were challenging (one VERY much so that we mostly kept from being worse...could have had a TPK if a diplomacy roll was a little lower), and fun.
Over all, I give a 5/5 for this scenario. With the caveat that if as a GM you are going to run this, do a LOT of preparation, and be willing to read a few back scenarios and THEN be willing to explain in mechanic terms how things work. You can not go into this scenario only semi prepared. That will only lead to frustration on the players part, and likely irritation and anger about this scenario.
I would like to state at the start that this is probably not a scenario to run at a con or other time limited event. 5 hours is probably the absolute minimum you need...probably closer to 6.
With that said, I played it at a con. The GM who ran it probably was one of the best GM's I know to run this, and I could tell the strain on him. This is a scenario I think that could use a "sub-GM"...kinda like how I think EotT 1, in one scenario really could use one. Just to track turns, effects going on and mooks.
Rankings
Story 5/5
Honestly, the backstory on this one is pretty great. It pulls information from other scenarios (I know this because as GM I have ran a couple that get referenced in this). Also, I love the whole Pharaoh of Plagues idea....and it went well with the Osirion history.
Setting 5/5
It was set in Osirion. Probably one of my top 3 locations for games to be set--as long as they do a good job with the story of what and why it is being set in the region.
Role-play-ability 4.5/5
There is a lot...more than a lot of scenarios. Some I didn't partake in (I was "guarding" in case of something for the other players), but there were areas even my skill light samurai was able to have fun role playing in.
Combat 5+/5
As I mentioned above...a GM who runs this will have to do a LOT of planning. A lot of things to track. The fights I was in were either over before they started (only because of good thinking and use of powers that were pretty epic), or were tough and a true challenge. We played down, and there were a few points I was certain we were going to lose.
First off...I want to say thank you for having more to do in Tian Xia. I think there needs to be more scenarios/modules/quests in this part of the world.
With that said, here are my thoughts (TL:DR is at the bottom with rankings)
I have to say that I found this so far the most enjoyable set of quests I have ran (haven't played this set yet..but it just came out, so I am certain I will be playing it soon). The way the 5 quests are linked feels like a story line more than 5 individual quests, giving a good story for the players to feel they are participating in.
It is awesome that at level 1 it is replayable (so kinda an evergreen), and that the way gold is given out for the higher level characters is tiered per level.
My only slight issues is that since these are quests...it means players probably will know to go all out on the one "big bad" fight in each quest. So...that means that the fight can last 1 round--or less--depending on what kind of power the PC's have. Especially for the higher tier fight...if the fight only has 1 creature in it a level 5 character could easily one shot it before anybody else has a chance. But saying that....the lower tier fight could easily be challenging for a group of level 1's.
I got the chance to see how this set works for both tiers this weekend (ran a tier 4-5 with 4 level 5's and 2 level 4's, and a tier 1-2 with 5 level 1's (all squeaky new characters) and a single level 2. The tier 4-5 was mostly a cake walk for the fights--though with good roleplay and banter with NPC's and each other it seemed that it was fun for all at the table. The tier 1-2 a couple of fights got tricky as the players had little resources to heal and dice were cold for the PC's. Again, the roleplay was great.
Finally, this set of quests could easily be put into any other world besides Golarion (or with a bit of thinking/tinkering modify into a side quest in something like a Jade Regent one off/sidequest), with just a little modification. This point is something I consider a plus for scenarios/quests. If nothing else, it might give a creative jolt to come up with side quests in your campaign.
TL:DR So....with that said Rankings/Reasonings:
**Story 4.5/5 **
I thought it was well written, gave the players a reason to learn about this area of the world. Each quest was stitched together almost seamlessly to feel that the transition from one author to another wasn't there.
**Setting 4.5/5 **
This is probably my favorite part of Golarion, and I hope that there will be more adventures in the area. Probably the only thing I felt was missing was enough information to give to the players about Tian Xia. If the GM had to run this cold (or little prep) and didn't know much about the location, they could have problems with just the little information in the background/summary portions of this quest set. Since there were very little initial uses of "What does the players know" for skill rolls, the GM might have problems with some of the questions that could come up in a game session.
**Role-play-ability 4/5 **
One quest is ~90% combat, another is (or could be) 100% RP, the other 3 has a mix of combat, knowledge, skill usage and shows off the things that can happen in a PFS game.
**Combat 5/5 **
With an "unusual" fight in one quest (not saying which, but if you have played or ran this you will likely know which I am referencing), you can have players attempting to do things that they are not normally able to do or want to do. With that said, that fight was both times the most fun to run...with lots of craziness happening and players laughing at their (and opponents) antics. The other fights had a more typical combat feel about them, and for a GM being handed this set to run cold shouldn't cause any real issue for him/her to run.
I am writing this up as a player, not as a GM. I hope to run this sometime in the near future.
Overall 4.5/5:
This was a fun scenario with lots of skill and role playing. I highly enjoy those scenarios. I know that people who want to do a lot of killing might not like those, but this game looks like it can be done either way. Note: I played this online, and higher tier (with 4 player adjustment). I also played the scenario with Spaarky
Rankings:
Story 4.5/5:
Though I only played it, it looked like the scenario was well put together, with a good storyline and explanation of what you are supposed to do. I think the reason I didn’t give it a 5/5 is that a couple of areas felt a bit of a railroaded. But only slightly.
Setting 4.75/5:
Going up into Irrisen was very nice change of pace. Except for an adventure path I don’t think this part of the world has been explored much.
Role-play-ability 4.75/5:
Lots of good role-playing. As I mentioned above, a little felt a bit railroaded…but I think that is mainly so you can get more of the exposure of what Irrisen and their surrounding neighbors are going through.
Combat 3.5/5:
If you want to murder-hobo your way through, I am guessing this could also be a good fight scenario…though since we seemed to talk our way out of at least 2-3 possible fights, the ones we did get into were tough, but not substantially. If we had went down the murder-hobo route, I am certain the combat and role-play-ability rankings would have been reversed.
Finally, I would love to see more of these types of scenarios (help gain allies and gain friends), and I would like to see more from this author.
Long and short, I thought this might be as good as Way of the Kirin, but that was likely because I thought the fights would go over better. So, maybe this is one of those scenarios that would be better if the group was only 4-5 people, and the group was of level to play up. The first two fights would likely have been harder at least.
Spoiler:
The team I had was six players with 3 pregens, all at level 3-4, so they played down, but with 3 pregens I was hoping it would be at least a little challenge. The first fight the players did a run around on the three bad guys and was able to basically destroy with little issues--though the bad guys do hit like a ton of bricks (if they hit). Second fight was easily dealt with--needed to have more HP. I was hopeful that with the third fight that she would get a couple of good spells off, but no avail. Last fight was just a mop up action with the only saving grace was me getting flanking and a critical on one person....sigh.
Ranking
Story 2.5/5
I thought the set up was great, and we had some GOOD roleplaying trying to get into the building. From there it went from great to okay, with about 1/2 the group disappointed with the "obvious" plot hook at the end.
Setting 3.5/5
I love Riddleport, and I think the briefing room and setting was awesome. And the description of where the group was going was also awesome. I think there should have been more things to do above the lair than was in the scenario.
Role-play-ability 4/5
We did have a lot of roleplaying getting into the building, and a little with the intro and ending, but in the middle was more ehh.
Combat 1.5/5
With 3 pregens, and 3 normal builds I thought the fights would at least have presented a challenge, but the group basically waltzed through them all. I think the last fight did the most damage (but not anything super special) and the first fight being the 2nd most. Compared to Way of the Kirin, the fights were sub-optimal.
To be fair, this was my first 7-11 in PFS. So take what I say with that in mind. I am going to attempt to get through this without any major spoilers (or even minors if I can veil them enough).
I did prepare this scenario pretty well, and planned how each of the 2 "guaranteed" fights I thought were going to be played out—either if the players played up or played down in this scenario. So I knew the special powers of both types pretty well and knew how to play them "smart".
In doing so, I think the first fight inside took over 1.25 hours...and still 1/2 of the baddies "fled" to be able to be used at the end of the scenario—which never materialized.
The 2nd fight TBH I think the party (who played up) just didn't have enough "power" to take the baddies without being completely decimated. Thankfully two of the players were able to flee into another area and were able to at least complete the mission.
I had to call the game because of time (missing out on the optional and last end problem), depriving the players of almost ½ the gold.
Ranking
Story 4/5
I thought it was well written, and explained enough to be interesting. Didn’t get a 5 star because I think the beginning briefing could/should have gone deeper into Thassalonia lore. Some people haven’t played/read things like Rise of the Runelords.
Setting 4/5
A good setting, and I thought decently well described, but loses a star for the same as above.
Role-play-ability 4.5/5
Two encounters have LOTS of RP, which if prepped are a LOT of fun…though I wish there was some way to talk out of one of the two fights I mentioned above. I am all about good RP trumping a forced encounter.
Combat 5/5 +
If you GM this you HAVE to read and plan tactics. That makes this game…if you don’t realize the baddies powers and what you can do with it, the players could walk right through them instead of being forced to fight within an inch of their lives.
Atticus
Tatsurion
Arsene
Caractaus
Jean-Paul Gendarmerie
Erenkar
Nasir Mahdi
Owlbert
Sandaal Gearhart
Sibearys
Touvix
Duke Caboom
Elazar
Akioh
Orran Waldo Hawkes
Cordell
Mak O'Knife
Emdee Medbot