Now members of the Starfinder Society and piloting their very own ship, the heroes head to the planet Castrovel, home of some of the best universities in the Pact Worlds, to research the clues they found on the mysterious asteroid called the Drift Rock. On Castrovel, the adventurers' findings point them toward an ancient elven temple-city called the Temple of the Twelve, lost deep within Castrovel's teeming wilderness. But in addition to the dangerous flora and fauna of the jungle, the heroes must contend with two other factions—the exiled Corpse Fleet of Eox and the Cult of the Devourer—who are also interested in the asteroid's secrets and have their own plans for the ancient alien technology behind it, if they can find it first!
This volume of Starfinder Adventure Path continues the Dead Suns Adventure Path and includes:
"Temple of the Twelve," a Starfinder adventure for 3rd-level characters, by John Compton.
A gazetteer of the wild planet of Castrovel, by John Compton and James L. Sutter.
Details on the destructive Cult of the Devourer, including a new mystic connection and new cult gear, by Owen K.C. Stephens.
An archive of strange new alien creatures, by John Compton, Jason Keeley, and Robert G. McCreary.
Statistics and deck plans for a new starship, by John Compton, plus details on a moon whose planet disappeared into a black hole in the Codex of Worlds, by Jason Keeley.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-976-9
The Dead Suns Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (1.7 MB PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I disagree with a lot of the negative reviews here, I had a blast running this for my party and they had a lot of fun as well! The book starts with a fun and potentially hilarious social section. My party in particular had a lot of fun engaging in a debate with a condescending university professor.
After this a short mystery helps set the scene before the players embark on a fun jungle adventure filled with exciting encounters and terrifying monsters.
All in all, this book makes for a great introduction to the planet Castrovel.
My least favorite AP of all the ones released by Paizo as of October 1st, 2021.
There's too much Pathfinder in this AP in my opinion - if the plot of this was having to time travel to the Mwangi Expanse in 2nd edition I don't think anyone would notice, except for the space-armor you're wearing.
The whole point of going there on foot is because there's a no fly zone over that entire continent -- but there are no mechanisms for enforcing this. Furthermore, the Starship Operations Manual gives you tools for drop pods so a particularly ornery group could say "Alright, we'll air-drop to the target and get closer, within one day's travel based on satellite recon. Now what?"
I think the AP could have benefitted more from interfacing with the vehicle rules and making it a motorized caravan rather than expecting you to stomp through on foot. That probably would have interacted better with the more modern setting.
At the time it was probably a good AP but it's just aged poorly. Which is unfortunate because despite that it DID have some good moments - the sharpshooter in the reclining Buddha-inspired statue being a particular favorite memory of my group, as I basically ran it narratively and if the group was taking too long to approach I'd play the sound of a Barrett .50 cal being fired out of my laptop speakers and roll a d20 behind the screen. There was a lot of very sharp thinking utilized for that encounter by the players.
Similarly my envoy was very disappointed there seemed to be no way to talk the Undead Elf bound to the site into not attacking the group.
Although my view is an outlier according to the Paizo forums, I thought Chapter Two of Dead Suns was the best of the whole AP. My barathu envoy PC had a blast connecting with the NPCs and background of the chapter, and although admittedly that may have just been a fluke, I do think the adventure is put together and that good use is made of the setting. It's still an adventure that is very much on rails, but the writer has hidden it here better than in other chapters. I was also impressed that the adventure made great use of some resource limitations that players often skip over but that well-prepared players are rewarded for thinking about. Anyway, more on that later. Here, in the "no spoilers" section of the review, I'll cover everything except the adventure.
First up, it's a cool cover image both in the foreground and the background. I'm still not a fan of the overall design aesthetic, but I think this one works a lot better than the cover for Chapter One did. The inside-front and inside-back covers are stats, background, and interior layout for a new bad guy ship that appears in the adventure and could easily be re-used by a GM in other contexts.
The back matter starts with a ten-page gazetteer of the planet Castrovel. Castrovel has four large continents, three of which are ruled (respectively) by lashuntas, ant-like formians, and xenophobic elves, while the fourth continent is a sort of agreed "no-go" jungle wilderness full of megafauna and exotic plants. The section starts with a handsome two-page map spread of the planet and then goes into an overview of each of the four continents. It's a well-written and interesting overview, though not as self-consciously full of adventure hooks as some RPG gazetteers are. A couple of bits I liked is the idea of Mountainheart Cities (cities built to be retractable into subterranean chambers in times of war) and a "portal grove" owned by a green dragon who sometimes hires adventures to explore their myriad destinations. I should note that a quick skim of the Pact Worlds hardcover shows that its entry for Castrovel is largely a reproduction of the text in this AP volume.
Next up is an eight-page overview of the Cult of the Devourer, a chaotic evil movement devoted to anarchy, destruction, and bringing about the end of the universe. The entry quite cleverly and persuasively discusses how a group devoted to anarchy and chaos could also form an "organisation", and there's an excellent description of how they recruit from the dissatisfied elements of society. I like the distinction between "wall breakers" (the visible berserker thugs the pubic is cared about) and the "hidden ones" (devotees who live "normal" lives but are secretly gathering information, sabotaging defenses, spreading rumors, etc.). The Devourer is a god, and sometimes it sends representatives called atrocites to help particular cells of the cult. The scariest part of the cult are "feaster cells" that are like the reavers from Firefly: they will happily spend their time making sure an unconscious foe is dead and start engaging in cannibalism rather than do the (tactically smarter) thing of moving on to the next active threat. The section includes a new mystic connection ("Devastator") that is really powerful compared to most. It also includes some new gear, such as disintegrator weapons (used by one of my later PCs).
The "Alien Archives" section of this issue introduces seven new creatures. Two of them are playable races: "ferrans" (squat humanoids from Ratheren, the high-grav world detailed at the end of the issue) and "woioko" (watery humanoids from the planet introduced at the end of the last issue). Other creatures include "kaukariki" (super annoying monkeys), "lore guardians" (essentially golems, but with enough differences to warrant a separate entry), "whiskered renkrodas" (standard predatory dinosaur), "sky fishers" (aerial threats with handy camouflage), and "yaruks" (trampling herd animals).
The new planet on the "Codex of Worlds" page is Ratheren. To be precise, Ratheren is a moon that once orbited a planet that was sucked into a mysterious black hole-like space anomaly! Those who reacted to the threat quickly enough built a shielded city on the moon, but no one knows what happened to the planet itself. It's a solid SF hook and perfect for a GM to use their imagination with.
Overall, an excellent selection of supplementary material.
SPOILERS!:
The backstory to the adventure concerns the Temple of the Twelve, a sort of monastery/observatory on Castrovel constructed by ancient elven scholar-priests. The temple’s builders had observed a strange ring of twelve stars in the sky, which their research and divinations indicated was of great cosmic significance. When they had learned as much as they could on Castrovel, the temple’s builders departed for parts unknown, leaving the building to gradually fall to ruin in the jungles around it. Centuries passed until, shortly after the Gap, an explorer named Halkueem Zan braved the interior of Ukulam (the wilderness continent) and located the Temple of the Twelve, narrowly escaping with his life and enough notes from his journey to become famous.
Part 1 of the adventure starts off right where Chapter One left off. As the PCs fly their new ship off the Drift Rock and back toward Absalom Station, it’s attacked by a Corpse Fleet ship called the Iron Rictus. Essentially, it’s the required starship combat because otherwise the chapter doesn’t have any. And an annoying trend continues: whether the PCs win or lose the starship combat doesn’t matter, as the story proceeds exactly the same either way.
On Absalom Station, there’s no more intrigue or adventure to be had with resolving the conflicts between Astral Extractions and the Hardscrabble Collective. Instead, Chiskisk of the Starfinder Society tells the PCs that the symbols they found on the Drift Rock are similar to those found in the diaries of Halkueem Zan stored in the Qabarat University of Xenoarchaeology and Xenoanthropology on Castrovel. Obviously, the connection needs to be investigated, so the PCs are about to go planet-hopping!
As an aside, the chapter goes to great lengths to establish how reckless, unprofessional, and irresponsible Halkueem Zan was as an archaeologist—he’s portrayed as very much an Indiana Jones-type rather than a serious, careful scholar. But my PC loved the stories of Halkueem Zan and tried to imitate him as much as possible, which was great fun.
When the PCs reach the university, they get caught up in a “pulled from the headlines” situation. One of the professors on campus has unwittingly said something perhaps factually true but nonetheless incredibly offensive, and activists have called for his resignation. The professor, however, doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong and is upset that he’s been suspended by the university. The adventure only presents one solution, which is to persuade the professor to apologise. A one-sided and simplistic answer to a complex problem is the sign of poor writing, and I’m not impressed with how it’s handled here.
Anyway, once the PCs get access to the office of the scholar they need to speak to in order to see Halkueem Zan’s notes, they quickly figure out she’s been kidnapped! To be precise, the PCs could miss every single one of the many clues in her office, but a police detective will then arrive and find everything they missed and explain it all to them. Examples abound of why people complain that Dead Suns is an adventure on the rails. Fortunately, I guess, my group did things very conventionally in Chapter Two and railroading wasn’t as visible a problem as it would be for us later.
In Part 2, the PCs have taken a magical gate to a coastal staging area on Ukulam in order to follow the trail of the kidnapped academic. This part of the adventure requires some heavy wilderness travel, and really takes advantage of things like rations, heat endurance/armor environmental seal charges, ammo reserves, etc. In short, all those things that lazy players neglect come into the foreground here, and I loved it! This part includes a really exciting, well-handled chase sequence as the PCs have to escape from an angry herd of beasts. Other problems include natural hazards, memorably annoying poisonous monkey-creatures, and the first signs of who’s responsible for the kidnapping: the Cult of the Devourer! It seems the Starfinder Society isn’t the only group to put two and two together and realise the Drift Rock could connect to the Temple of the Twelve. There’s a long-range sniper encounter (always good to make weapon range increments significant), an interesting encounter with a diseased cultist left for dead, and then great set-piece battle in, on, and around a giant statue of a reclining elf (good staging makes all the difference!). The artwork and maps help make everything clearer.
In Part 3, the PCs reach the Temple of the Twelve. To get inside, they have to get past an ancient guardian who is one tough dude! The temple itself is full of interesting lore and very flavourful. The first hints may come to the players that the Drift Rock is actually a small part of an ancient sun-destroying weapon called the stellar degenerator (“It’s not a copy of the death star, you see, because it like, brings death to the stars!”) The rest of the cultists are here, but they’ve already transmitted their findings to a mysterious location in the asteroid diaspora and set up the next chapter of the AP.
Overall, there are definitely some flaws in Chapter Two, but they’re much more noticeable on reading it afterwards than on the first instance. I had a great time in this part of the adventure, and it remains probably some of my favourite Starfinder gaming to date.
...forgotten details of what I particularly disliked or liked about specific encounters in the book since been while since I run this.
But main problemo I remember having was that players kinda consistently forgot WHY they were exactly heading into jungle or going to the university and such. I think part of it is self motivating factor of the ap, part of it is that first four books of the ap is essentially very linear "follow clues to actually get to good part" build up and part of it was that it was unclear of who the mysterious group was until they run into them and they didn't find them "that" compelling villains yet at least.(I do like the cultists in the book, but I do admit that Tahomen's group isn't as compelling quirky group as the Desperate Hunger ones.)
Still, I think the book had plenty of nice encounters. Party recruited Ralkawi as intern of sorts, sniper encounter was fun and they did manage with luck not kill certain solarion ;D I do think professor they were looking for was bit underutilized and was bit sad my party wasn't too engaged by university shenanigans. (I do find it funny how ap assumes starfinders are actually fitting in academic settings, my society experience tells me they are more of black ops members ;P Well joking aside) I do like the university scene, but players didn't seem too engaged in the drama and again they kept forgetting what for they were there for.
(still I personally enjoyed the university section and find idea of following phony archaeologist's notes amusing)
One mechanical issue I do remember is that book is actually pretty unclear about how long it takes to reach their destination and mechanics for traveling faster is pretty confusing as result. I don't recall details of why yet though, but might update the review if I start recalling what I had problems with
As a Game Master I loved Castrovel, my players not so much.. I cannot understand how the author missed a great opportunity here, to give us an hexagon map for the jungle instead of a series of scripted encounters. This module had so much potential as a sort of open world map full of great things to discover in a alien world. Not bad, just not as good as the first one.
Only two levels in the whole first AP volume? That's going to be an interesting readjustment... I hope this doesn't turn out to be standard for the adventures.
I kinda like that characters only advance 1 level in book 1 and that spellcasters now only have 6 spell-levels.
In my over 30 years of roleplaying, higher level play is mostly not as good as lower level play and it becomes a nightmare to game-master.
That being said, maybe only the first AP is taking it slow (players would finish the AP at level 11 or 12 if this advancement-speed would continue) and the second one is a direct follow-up?
Only two levels in the whole first AP volume? That's going to be an interesting readjustment... I hope this doesn't turn out to be standard for the adventures.
Remember, Council of Thieves was pretty low level AP as well, so I imagine that Dead Suns, being a fellow first AP for a new system, might also be a bit more low level than usual.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Shisumo wrote:
Only two levels in the whole first AP volume? That's going to be an interesting readjustment... I hope this doesn't turn out to be standard for the adventures.
We don't even know enough to really make assumptions like this. Maybe Starfinder works differently from Pathfinder, maybe it only goes to 12th level, for example.
Also, note that these AP volumes are only 64 pages, so it might very well be that the adventures are shorter than typical Parhfinder AP adventures.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
The product description mentions two articles of backmatter plus the bestiary, so I think it's a reasonable guess to say that we're going to see 32 pages of adventure and 32 pages of backmatter (as Pathfinder APs similarly have two articles plus bestiary and have 32 pages of backmatter). This would, by necessity, limit the amount of adventure content. If each AP does only 2 levels, that ends up at level 12. I think it's likely that a couple of them would give 3 levels, so my guess is that this AP will wrap up around level 14-15.
Anyway, no one is curious to know who is the Devourer? What if it is one of the new Core Deities? Or maybe something else from the dark corners of the universe...
Anyway, no one is curious to know who is the Devourer? What if it is one of the new Core Deities? Or maybe something else from the dark corners of the universe...
I would be rad if Nocticula is in the core pantheon as a CN goddess
So, spoilers to people who don't read up on the lore of Pathfinder.
Castrovel is Golarion, it is named Cage everywhere else because it houses the imprisoned god Rovagug. And I'm willing to bet money that the devourer is the god sealed inside the planet, Rovagug.
So, spoilers to people who don't read up on the lore of Pathfinder.
Castrovel is Golarion, it is named Cage everywhere else because it houses the imprisoned god Rovagug. And I'm willing to bet money that the devourer is the god sealed inside the planet, Rovagug.
Errr, Golarion and Castrovel are very different planets, with Castrovel being the planet next closest to the Sun.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
John Compton wrote:
GwentheGeemer wrote:
So, spoilers to people who don't read up on the lore of Pathfinder.
Castrovel is Golarion, it is named Cage everywhere else because it houses the imprisoned god Rovagug. And I'm willing to bet money that the devourer is the god sealed inside the planet, Rovagug.
Errr, Golarion and Castrovel are very different planets, with Castrovel being the planet next closest to the Sun.
Also, those of us at PaizoCon were straight up told by Rob McCreary at one of the panels that Rovagug and Torag are just gone, period; no where to be found.
To me the race against two evil other groups sounds great.
I'm especially looking forward to Owen's article on the Cult of the Devourer, because his stuff is always so well functioning mechanically.
And i'm also curious about the cult background story-wise.
I'm also curious about how the (assumed 10 page) article on Castrovel updates & expands the original 4 page one from "Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Worlds".
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Will there be any new Player Options in the bestiary? My favorite entries in the Pathfinder Adventure Path bestiaries were when we got to see new Familiars and Animal Companions. Will we get to see new Drone Chassis Types? Or Playable races?
When exactly does this one come out? The store says the PDF comes out on the 18th, but the page said per-order the other day and now it just says add to cart?
Oh, I mean when can I go to my game store and purchase it? I don't see an official release date anywhere. Just trying to judge how many sessions I have to try and squeeze into the AP before the book comes out.
So something I haven't seen anyone mention, this book's bestiary has two creatures with PC racial statblocks included. First one being Ferrans who are also focus of this book's codex of the worlds, while second one is the woiokos mentioned in first book's codex of the worlds.
So something I haven't seen anyone mention, this book's bestiary has two creatures with PC racial statblocks included. First one being Ferrans who are also focus of this book's codex of the worlds, while second one is the woiokos mentioned in first book's codex of the worlds.
Two?! That means this month we go from 13 playable races to 35. Color me excited.
So something I haven't seen anyone mention, this book's bestiary has two creatures with PC racial statblocks included. First one being Ferrans who are also focus of this book's codex of the worlds, while second one is the woiokos mentioned in first book's codex of the worlds.
Two?! That means this month we go from 13 playable races to 35. Color me excited.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Paladinosaur wrote:
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
So something I haven't seen anyone mention, this book's bestiary has two creatures with PC racial statblocks included. First one being Ferrans who are also focus of this book's codex of the worlds, while second one is the woiokos mentioned in first book's codex of the worlds.
Two?! That means this month we go from 13 playable races to 35. Color me excited.
I think it's 37.
Correct. I counted 22 playable races in Alien Archive.
Hmm, I'm in kind of bind here what to do. I feel like I wanna do a review on this book, but I have standard of not reviewing adventures before I have run them. I kind of want to give feedback on the adventure, but I don't want to color other people's opinions before they have had chance to read the adventure .-.
Let's just say that I'm getting increasingly feeling that player's guide for player expectations would have been nice <_< Even if its released after all six parts have been released. I mean, by that time more starfinder core books have been released, so that would be good excuse to do player's guide to mention which of them are suitable.
Ferrans are small humanoid yellow skinned aliens, kind of like yellow hairless dwarves in appearance. Their thing is that their high gravity homeplanet got blackhole'd so they are surviving instead on their moonbase in their homeplanet's moon. They are scientific and agnostic/atheist, sturdy and radiation resistant.
Woioko is race of eel skinned humanoids split into two subspecies when their planet's sea level raised and destroyed their terrestial civilization: floatborn who live in floating cities on the sea divided into dozens of nations and deepborn who modified themselves to be closer to their aquatic ancestors and moved to live under the sea. Deepborn have a lot of domination war with each other for territory. There is no contact between two subspecies since they don't share the same living space.
Well, my group chewed through the first book in two sessions so the last session I ran them through one of the modules. Lets hope the second one lasts a little longer. Hoping to be able to generate some random encounters now that we have the Alien races book. Has anyone posted their own tables yet, both space and ground/station?
Yeah, okay. Too bad that the decision was made to make the first AP for their new product line only go to about level twelve. That makes it an automatic non-buy for me. :/
Yeah, okay. Too bad that the decision was made to make the first AP for their new product line only go to about level twelve. That makes it an automatic non-buy for me. :/
Seriously? Is an adventure only fun if you go to level 17-20? Why? Please enlighten us. (and how many times are you going to post this complaint?)
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