A series of four Starfinder Quests designed for levels 1-4.
The Starfinder Society pursues the dream visions of a Liavaran dreamer, seeking information lost in a time before the Gap. Three broken fragments form the key to a forgotten repository of knowledge hidden within the Pact Worlds. It's up to the PCs to find these missing fragments and brave the dangerous reliquary to secure a new source of prescient knowledge for the Society.
Dreaming of the Future includes four, 1-hour adventures that take the PCs into the asteroid field of the Diaspora and across the Pact Worlds of Aballon, Liavara and Verces.
Written by Natalie Kertzner, Nate Wright, Sasha Lindley Hall, and Tineke Bolleman.
TL; DR-Good introduction to the world of Starfinder Society. 92%
Basics- Starfinder! Society calls! New Starfinders are needed to help find the pieces of an old tablet that will open a long lost vault in the stars. This adventure is four short scenes that are all tied together in one adventure.
Mechanics or Crunch-This is a good introductory adventure that has some exploration, combat, space combat, and a bit of social interaction. The only downside is the pieces may be a bit easy for most players. Even pregens have an easy go of this one. But it’s fun nonetheless. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff- This adventure is four short adventures that all tie together. It’s a bit rough between the pieces, but the goal of this one is to be more an intro to the world, Starfinder Society, and the system. It does a solid enough job with a decent story providing the basics of the world and story of it. 4.5/5
Execution- PDF? Yes. Hyperlinked? Yes. Good layout, handout, and all the other basics make this a solid adventure. The pieces I don’t like are the maps that you have to buy because the maps are marked up. I understand why, but it's still annoying. That's the worst part of the execution, so that is not bad at all. 4.75/5
Summary-. Dreaming of the Future is a solid introduction with a few rough parts. The rough parts are all due to the episodic nature of this one. The pieces are short but that helps with new players learning the system. If you want a fun quick adventure for a new group of Starfinders, you would have a hard time finding a better one than this one. 92%
Based on my experiences running and playing at my local gaming store…
Since it’s been 10 months since my last SFS review (of 1-15), there’s been plenty of time for other great reviewers to capture all of the finer details of 1-16. I’ll be brief, but the short version is that this was a decent, engaging quest series, even if the motivations and “connective tissue” of the scenario left something to be desired. The last fight was the highlight, and excellent for a low-level party.
Megaplex
Spoiler:
Fairly forgettable. Finding the android didn’t seem to be affected by skill checks, and a more complicated-than-it-needed-to-be backstory ended in a typical fight in the street. Not much more to be said here.
River Rat
Spoiler:
The one cool thing about this quest was the embedded turrets, which were taken care of rather easily by the ship’s science officer. The actual starship combat was okay.
Bad Chameleon
Spoiler:
The best of the first three quests. The stealth/subterfuge of sneaking into the club and some environmental effects make for a cool series of encounters. One of the PCs in a game I was running exclaimed that there was no way the fire escape should be locked if the building was up to code, which I got a laugh out of having read that it explicitly broke fire code on page 18. Unfortunately, some “Pathfinder”-isms snuck into this one. First, Bogdin placed an alarm spell on the control panel, which doesn’t exist in Starfinder. Second, the theatrical smoke acts “as obscuring mist” which also doesn’t exist in Starfinder (fog cloud was probably the spell the author was looking for).
Nightmare
Spoiler:
The best of these four quests. Cool skill checks to deal with the terrain and environmental effects, then a cool BBEG dragon for the low-level PCs to face off against. The last fight really helps make this scenario.
Overall, a decent series of quests that gets much stronger in quest 3 and 4. Still probably my pick when we have to play a low-level repeatable scenario even in April 2019.
This Quest works great as an introductory adventure for new players and GMs. It has lots of helpful hints throughout it, some fun player handouts, and is a real tour de force of the different kinds of scenarios you might play in the Starfinder Society. The first three quests can be completed in any order, although the fourth quest is the culmination of the previous three and should be done last.
The first Quest is entitled ‘Megaplex’ and is set in the Towershadow region of the Megaplex settlement of ‘Striving’ on Aballon. This is a pretty straightforward Quest which involves a battle in and around cramped spaces, and some negotiation. It’s quite brief in feel, and was probably the Quest I enjoyed least. That being said, it’s also the easiest of the Quests to run and play through, so if you’re a new GM or player I highly recommend starting with this one!
The second Quest is entitled ‘River Rat’ and is set in the asteroid belt known as the Diaspora. It features a very strategic, unique starship combat which I rather enjoyed. There’s some great opening social interactions you can engage in with your opponents before the battle. It was lovely to see!
The third Quest is entitled ‘Bad Chameleon’ and takes place in the sector of Verces’ Ring of Nations known as Vanos. This area is known for it’s high-end nightlife. In this scenario you’ll need to blend in among the wealthy clientele of this neighbourhood, and perform a heist. It’s very free-form, and really allows players to be creative. It has some fun social encounters and a delightfully foul enemy, with some creepy artwork which really made it memorable. I really enjoyed this quest.
The final Quest is entitled ‘Nightmare,’ and is a lovely little delve into a ruin where you can utilize your tablet pieces and achieve your goals. If you can get past the obstacles contained within! Nightmare takes place on Praehan, one of the moons of Liavara. In addition to being a ‘dungeon delve’ style of adventure, it also features a bunch of awesome environmental hazards. You’ll have to deal with weather, atmosphere, gravity, and attempt to swim through liquid methane (which is much harder than it sounds). It has an exciting enemy with a great premise, stats, and art which serves as a wonderful climax to this adventure. Plenty of the story regarding this encounter isn't explained or revealed to PCs, though, which is really unfortunate. A good GM can tidy that up without too much trouble.
My major issue with this scenario is that, as with many quests, it feels disjointed.
Dreaming of the Future is a tidy collection of four quests that work excellently as a full 4-part scenario. The set up is fairly mundane: go find three MacGuffins that'll take you to the final MacGuffin, but the individual quests are interesting and engaging (Particularly 'Bad Chameleon' and 'Nightmare'), and you forget about the mundane structure soon enough. The writing talent behind these quests is really strong, and they manage to get a lot of engaging content squeezed into very few pages!
Of course, that doesn't mean that they're flawless. I have some issues with the first quest ('Megaplex') and there's a disappointing number of errors or flaws that could have been caught in editing throughout. Furthermore, the final conclusion is very weak (almost missing entirely), and desperately needs a GM to flesh it out into something more satisfying.
Overall though, some really awesome elements in here, and I'd definitely recommend this set of quests to any group, new or experienced with Starfinder.
Some Negatives (spoilers):
The Megaplex quest suffers from being nonsensical in setup: 'All we know is there's an android in legal trouble somewhere in this general region of this planet, go find them'. Players were confused and taken out of the story.
Megaplex also lacks basic detail required to explain why the events are occurring: What do the PCs learn that reveals Lerecti's location to them? Why do they find them at a convenience store? What other options do they have for getting the tablet? Etc etc.
Megaplex's organization leaves the GM bouncing around the section to try to figure out character motivations.
Megaplex's setup and story suggest that multiple approaches might be reasonable, but the adventure forces a non-intuitive series of events, where skill checks have little to no visible effect for the PCs.
River Rat's rules for keeping Mr Smiles talking are unclear, as are the rules for identifying the turrets.
In Nightmare, the first battery of skill checks to cover the external hike are almost impossible to fail. Additionally, it was difficult to explain why being good at balancing was helping the whole team avoid being blown away in the icestorm.
In Nightmare, nothing pressing seems to stop the PCs from taking 8 hours to recover from any fatigue, nor does the sickened condition from the missile trap seem to have any effect. This makes all the skill checks at least somewhat meaningless.
In Nightmare, the time to enter and leave the moon is undefined by the scenario. My PCs really wanted to know these things because they were concerned about the limited environmental seal uptime on their armor!
---
More generally, the combats, barring the last one, were far too easy. These are 1/day encounters where parties have full resources and could stand to be more challenging.
The River Rat encounter, particularly if the turrets are dealt with, is very easy, but rather time consuming. Little tension or engagement.
The use of 'key tablets' as a MacGuffin was rather uninspired, considering the theming of the overall mission. Additionally, the final reward of vaguely defined 'dreaming tools' was a real loss of potential lore and engagement! The ending in general is extremely abrupt and unsatisfying.
Some Positives (spoilers):
The River Rat's turret mechanics and terrain-filled arena both made sense for the scenario and added an extra dimension to the combat! I was very impressed that a simple, introductory starship combat was given cool gimmicks this way. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the combat was a bit too easy despite these bits.
Everything in Bad Chameleon was awesome. From the descriptions of the streets of Vanos, to the freeform structure of investigating the club, to the various options for influencing the final encounter with Bogdin. Androids in my group loved the chance to free some fellow androids! And some very simple things (like the two bartender androids being named after the club rather than anything else) really made the setting hit home. There's a lot of juicy detail in very few pages! (Though the fight vs. Bogdin and his bouncers could stand to be harder, considering how many advantages the PCs can accrue).
While I wasn't sold on the mechanics behind traversing the moon, Preahan, my players liked the atmosphere and presentation.
The whole Nightmare Dragon concept was unexpected and well received by my group. The dragonblood-theme character was psyched to get some use out of their theme feature.
The fight with Kanavu's shade is suitably epic for a low level encounter and a cool way to cap things off.
Even better, quests involving Liavara: the Dreamer and Brethedan culture! Oh, and look Tineke and my friend Nate (aka Rosc) are credited here. Nate and Tineke, is this your first SFS credit?
I also want to note that I approve of the size — 4 quests works great in a 4 hour convention slot.
Even better, quests involving Liavara: the Dreamer and Brethedan culture! Oh, and look Tineke and my friend Nate (aka Rosc) are credited here. Nate and Tineke, is this your first SFS credit?
I also want to note that I approve of the size — 4 quests works great in a 4 hour convention slot.
Squeeeee!
Hmm
Yes! Its my first SFS credit and I am pretty nervous :)
Even better, quests involving Liavara: the Dreamer and Brethedan culture! Oh, and look Tineke and my friend Nate (aka Rosc) are credited here. Nate and Tineke, is this your first SFS credit?
I also want to note that I approve of the size — 4 quests works great in a 4 hour convention slot.
Squeeeee!
Hmm
Yes! Its my first SFS credit and I am pretty nervous :)
Even better, quests involving Liavara: the Dreamer and Brethedan culture! Oh, and look Tineke and my friend Nate (aka Rosc) are credited here. Nate and Tineke, is this your first SFS credit?
I also want to note that I approve of the size — 4 quests works great in a 4 hour convention slot.
Squeeeee!
Hmm
Yes! Its my first SFS credit and I am pretty nervous :)
It sounds fun :3
It is! Its super mega awesome and super scary at the same time :)
Even better, quests involving Liavara: the Dreamer and Brethedan culture! Oh, and look Tineke and my friend Nate (aka Rosc) are credited here. Nate and Tineke, is this your first SFS credit?
It sure is! I'm super excited about seeing our hard work come to fruition. Can't wait to run it and play it!
My obvious reasons to like it aside, I'm also super happy that there's more evergreen content coming out. Not only that, but it's a 1-4, so it's way more inclusive to our characters.
Sorry for the previously panicked posting. You had already clarified my question on the blog's comments before I posted this.
Spoiler:
Please, please reverse the statement in this week's blog that this scenario is only Repeatable for 1st level characters! The consistency and simplicity of the Repeatable tag across all tiers for SFS is a selling point for the campaign (as compared to PFS) that should not be sacrificed!
Origins and Gen Con Convention Offerings! Blog from 2018-05-11 wrote:
Thurston finished up development on this adventure this week and from his reactions, players are in for a treat! Besides #1-99, we have two new scenarios debuting at Origins—Starfinder Society Scenario #1-16: Dreaming of the Future is a 4-part quest pack for character levels 1-4 (replayable with 1st level characters) and Starfinder Society Scenario #1-17: Reclaiming the Time-Lost Tear, a continuation of the season metaplot involving the First Seeker [elect] Luwazi Elsebo's mission to return to the Scoured Stars.
You can't report Dead Suns IV-VI yet because they haven't been sanctioned yet / there are no chronicle sheets. It'd be a little weird to have these reported on a character without having the sheet yet. When this is available for download later today, it will already have a chronicle sheet with it. Maybe they should start sending APs with chronicles sheets :)
In the quest Megaplex, encounter A said
** spoiler omitted **
Replying a couple of months late, but I figure others reading this thread may have the same question. In the GM Discussion thread,
Spoiler:
other GMs have noted the problem as well. A couple of different approaches were offered, such as just letting the PCs who succeed on the checks pick where they want to start.
Why aren't boons allowed to be slotted for this adventure? IMO that is really dumb. I finally got a really useful boon, and the next adventure I play after acquiring it won't let me slot it. Why even bother handing them out?
The PCs begin in the first area marked on the map. A PC who
makes a successful DC XX Bluff, Culture, Stealth, or Survival check can get an advantage during the approach
and instead place herself in the second marked area, representing
more efficient approach method
I cannot seem to find anything that marks a second area? Is this suppose to mean near where the verthani and ishketi are? Any help would be appreciated as other gms in my lodge are also confused.
The four player adjustment for low tier in River Rat is no balance adjustment at all. The ship only has one weapon at that tier so loosing a gunner when you have two already is irrelevant.
This was my first ever SFS adventure. I enjoyed the scenario - lots of variety, with different ways to handle the quests. Starship combat was cool too.
Spoiler:
the night club scenario was very cool - with a lot of different ways to pull off the heist. I enjoyed freeing the androids too as a bonus opportunity.
Our ship stayed well clear of the turrets, so we didn't get to see much of what they do.
We took care of the stolen evidence quest pretty quickly with some good diplomacy/intimidate, as well as a few good rolls.
I think this adventure was well written, with a lot of cool scenarios you can run. Our GM was pressed for time, so we had to rush the last encounter a bit (new players - slowly going through the adventure), but overall we had a great time.
The four player adjustment for low tier in River Rat is no balance adjustment at all. The ship only has one weapon at that tier so loosing a gunner when you have two already is irrelevant.
The River Rat still has its main gun, yes, but
Spoiler:
the way I wrote it the River Rat still needs a second gunner to man the turrets.
Does this really grant 4xp or is it 1 xp at the completion of Nightmare? Into the Unknown also initially was stated as having 4 or 5 xp but was corrected to be worth 1 xp with the cumulative goods and credits from all the "legs
" of the scenario collectively. Is this the same?
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