It may be a little bit too soon to start this thread, which mirrors the various 'What AP would you like to see next' threads in the PF sections, since we know next to nothing about the setting.
But I thought to start early would give the developers the chance to see where our interests lie.
So, please, suggest what you want to see in the first Starfinder APs
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A pirate galleon from Shackles gets sucked into a time-space continuum vortex and crash-lands on the Absalom station. A bunch of CN drunk pirates (the PCs) either go and try to find out what happened to Golarion, or just get more drunk and laser punch the hell out of a tavern.
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Rise of Runelords.... IN SPACE!
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A new crew with a ship going on first hyperspace jaunt. Each adventure is a different world in a different part of space, but some threat/issue that ties them together - effectively each issue is a Star Trek episode - away team on planet for personal level, and ship combat as well.
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GALT!!!!!!!!!!
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I'd like to see something similar to Aliens or Doom, where the players are part of a crew that go to investigate what has been happening to a distant colony that they've lost contact with, and then they find everyone is missing. Slowly they find the answers of the terrible things that have been unleashed
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GALT!!!!!!!!!!
that took longer than expected
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I got it in in less then five hours, i consider that a win.
My only regret is that gustavo beat me to IN SPACE!!!!!
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GALT!!!!!!!!!!
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Fair enough.
The SS GALT!!!!!!
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Fair enough.
The SS GALT!!!!!!
In space, no one can hear you revolt.
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Excellent!
That means they'll never see us coming!
Mwahahahaha!!!
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Excellent!
That means they'll never see us coming!
Mwahahahaha!!!
Oh, they can see you just fine. The slogan chanting lacks a bit though. And people get confused about whether, when you declare a 'revolution', you're trying to overthrown the existing political order or just orbiting. Why must one word mean more than one thing?!
I hope for an AP with a Captain Future feel. (The Anime, not the novels)
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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A new crew with a ship going on first hyperspace jaunt. Each adventure is a different world in a different part of space, but some threat/issue that ties them together - effectively each issue is a Star Trek episode - away team on planet for personal level, and ship combat as well.
I think that this format would work with lots of Starfinder APs.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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I'd like the first AP to chip away at the core mystery of the gap and finding new information about what happened. Obviously it wouldn't answer the big mystery of what happened to Golarion, but getting a layer of the onion peeled off would be cool. Finding a planet/system that has the oldest records ever discovered into the missing time of the gap would be cool.
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I'd like the first AP to chip away at the core mystery of the gap and finding new information about what happened. Obviously it wouldn't answer the big mystery of what happened to Golarion, but getting a layer of the onion peeled off would be cool. Finding a planet/system that has the oldest records ever discovered into the missing time of the gap would be cool.
I second this.
Some species of exploration AP. Since Starfinder is getting JUST APs and a core book, I'd like the first AP to delineate the sandbox a little bit, and the best way to do that is by going out and having a look.
Some species of exploration AP. Since Starfinder is getting JUST APs and a core book, I'd like the first AP to delineate the sandbox a little bit, and the best way to do that is by going out and having a look.
Agreed. A tour of important locations would be appreciated to introduce us to the setting.
A new crew with a ship going on first hyperspace jaunt. Each adventure is a different world in a different part of space, but some threat/issue that ties them together - effectively each issue is a Star Trek episode - away team on planet for personal level, and ship combat as well.I think that this format would work with lots of Starfinder APs.
Agreed. I just don't want the first AP to stay in the system for very long (no more than the first adventure) - I want to get out into the galaxy.
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The most important thing about Starfinder is its AP.
Frankly. I don't much CARE about the system. I know it will be mostly familiar and it will have some cool things and some not-so-cool things. Ooooh; Aaaaaah. Whatever. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll enjoy most of it. But it isn't all that important in the final analysis.
There have been literally DOZENS and DOZENS of SF RPGs in the past 40 years. People buy them. Most people don't end up actually playing them. Those who do play them tend not to have long campaigns with any of these systems. For the most part, SF systems have a role in gaming groups: they are filler RPGs. They are the games that are played for some limited period of time in beteween D&D or Pathfinder campaigns. Yes, all of them.
It's degrees of difficulty with all SF based RPGs. These are inherently difficult games to run. If you run an improv game, the scope of a single planet it usually too big to "wing it", let alone a galaxy -- for all but the most Iron of GMS. The options are unlimited and the available material is always too thin. Even if it's the Spinward Marches.
In the whole HISTORY of SF games, the only thing that comes CLOSE to a series of good interlinked adventures on which to build a lengthy SF campaign was a 3rd party product for Traveller, FASA's Sky Raiders campaign. (Legend of the Sky Raiders, Trail of the Sky Raiders and Fate of the Sky Raiders by the Keith brothers).
Written for Traveller in the early 80s, Sky Raiders tried to do for Traveller what GDQ1-7 did for AD&D. A valiant attempt, but Sky Raiders was still modest in scope and size and it lacked nearly all of the details that we would think essential for a "real" AP by today's standards. Still, it was a worthy attempt. Raiders of the Lost Ark in space, essentially.
That's IT. In forty YEARS -- that is IT.
I suppose you could point to WotC's Web Only Dawn of Defiance campaign for SW:Saga Ed too. DoD meant well -- but lets face it, it was severely limited by a non-existent budget. It had its moments, but it was simply not a serious professionally produced product.
So why all of this gushing about this that and the other rules aspect of Starfinder may be of interest to some -- I don't care. I DO very much care about the AP though. That is going to make or break this game.
And the fact that Paizo is doing it fills me with hope and, at the same time, sadness. Think about how many awesome Star Wars APs we would already have if Paizo had got that license instead of FFG. *sigh*
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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The most important thing about Starfinder is its AP.
Frankly. I don't much CARE about the system. I know it will be mostly familiar and it will have some cool things and some not-so-cool things. Ooooh; Aaaaaah. Whatever. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll enjoy most of it. But it isn't all that important in the final analysis.
There have been literally DOZENS and DOZENS of SF RPGs in the past 40 years. People buy them. Most people don't end up actually playing them. Those who do play them tend not to have long campaigns with any of these systems. For the most part, SF systems have a role in gaming groups: they are filler RPGs. They are the games that are played for some limited period of time in beteween D&D or Pathfinder campaigns. Yes, all of them.
It's degrees of difficulty with all SF based RPGs. These are inherently difficult games to run. If you run an improv game, the scope of a single planet it usually too big to "wing it", let alone a galaxy -- for all but the most Iron of GMS. The options are unlimited and the available material is always too thin. Even if it's the Spinward Marches.
In the whole HISTORY of SF games, the only thing that comes CLOSE to a series of good interlinked adventures on which to build a lengthy SF campaign was a 3rd party product for Traveller, FASA's Sky Raiders campaign. (Legend of the Sky Raiders, Trail of the Sky Raiders and Fate of the Sky Raiders by the Keith brothers).
Written for Traveller in the early 80s, Sky Raiders tried to do for Traveller what GDQ1-7 did for AD&D. A valiant attempt, but Sky Raiders was still modest in scope and size and it lacked nearly all of the details that we would think essential for a "real" AP by today's standards. Still, it was a worthy attempt. Raiders of the Lost Ark in space, essentially.
That's IT. In forty YEARS -- that is IT.
I suppose you could point to WotC's Web Only Dawn of Defiance campaign for SW:Saga Ed too. DoD meant well -- but lets face it, it was severely...
While I agree with your main point, that lack of adventures, in particular campaigns is one of the biggest hurdles most SF games have faced, there is another example:
Star Frontiers had the trilogy of adventures Crash on Volturnus, Volturnus, Planet of Mystery, and Starspawn of Volturnus, and the Knight Hawks trilogy of Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes, Face of the Enemy, and The War Machine.
In the whole HISTORY of SF games, the only thing that comes CLOSE to a series of good interlinked adventures on which to build a lengthy SF campaign was a 3rd party product for Traveller, FASA's Sky Raiders campaign. (Legend of the Sky Raiders, Trail of the Sky Raiders and Fate of the Sky Raiders by the Keith brothers).
That will change soon for Traveller. Mind you, it will still be 3rd party support, but it will be a proper AP.
A large corporation has lost a priceless magical artifact to a rogue android. Shortly after escaping to FTL, the android's ship was found abducted by an alien race on tenuous terms of peace with the rest of the galactic community. Your crew has been contracted to recover this artifact discretely, lest you incite a diplomatic incident (which would be bad for business).
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The Quest for Earth: Although the Gap has erased or scrambled information about Golarion's fate and the events leading to the founding of Absalom Station, some legends from earlier times have survived. One of these describes a time when Golarion was threatened with terminal refrigeration, and a quest by a band of heroes to save Golarion from this fate that led them to another world inhabited by Humans, but with technology already quite advanced for the time, despite the nearly complete lack of magic. The Starfinder Society feels that contact with this legendary world, known as Earth, may reveal what happened in the Gap, or that if Earth has perished or even suffered the same fate as Golarion, this may reveal clues as to Golarion's fate.
While not something I'd like to see in the FIRST AP, I'd like APs to take us to Androffa/Droffa, Kasath, and Earth.
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I would love to see a Babylon 5-esque Adventure path that winds across the galaxy with normal races eventually realising they are pawns in uber races.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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While I agree with your main point, that lack of adventures, in particular campaigns is one of the biggest hurdles most SF games have faced, there is another example:
Star Frontiers had the trilogy of adventures Crash on Volturnus, Volturnus, Planet of Mystery, and Starspawn of Volturnus, and the Knight Hawks trilogy of Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes, Face of the Enemy, and The War Machine.
Star Frontiers was my first RPG, and while I agree that these are linked adventures, I'd hesitate to call the Volturnus trilogy "good." The first adventure is especially problematic, in that it strips much of the PC's equipment away, and has sections which are statistically improbable to survive - win 10+ consecutive ability checks or die falling into lava, for example.
The Knight Hawks trilogy was much better, IIRC.
Dawn of Defiance for SW:Saga was pretty good in general, but did have it's wtf? moments. I remember a pretty good adventure on a speeding hover train being attacked by terrorists.
West End d6 Star Wars had the Darkstryder campaign of linked adventures. It looks cool but I've never run it.
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My pick would be something having to do with searching for Kasath, following little breadcrumbs from different communities within the solar system that lead them to other points in the galaxy, either at the behest of a Kasatha leader or a corporation looking to break into that untapped market or what have you. I just think it'd be really cool to see that sort of thing now that we have the technology to finally discover their ancestral home that they lost and make it possible for them to make pilgrimages their or what not. Unless Kasath has already joined the community in Golarion's solar system, that is...
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I think one of the principle questions in any Starfinder AP which is vastly more important than any specific plots or locations concerns the FEEL of the adventure and its impact on the "head space" taken up by game in the minds of its players, namely:
1 - Is this Pathfinder(D&D) in SPACE?; or
2 - Is this Star Wars by other means? or
3 - Something Else?
One of these has a decidedly FRPG feel to it. The other feels like a Science Fiction game with fantastical elements. That is a crucial difference in how the game will be approached by its players.
I think the decision to remove clerics from the game and instead leave them as mystical agents speaks towards Paizo's intended direction. This is NOT going to be D&D in SPAAAAAAACE.
Aspects of this impact will grow out of the Art style of the game. In this sense, the overall Art Direction is probably more important that many of us realize. There are a number of directions that Paizo can take with this, and yes, I really do think that it will have as large an impact on the viability of the game as much as any mechanical design element to the game.
Star Wars? Star Trek? Warhammer 40K, Lynch's Baroque designs in Dune? Stargatesque Egyptian feel? Firefly's "Space Western"? Dark Matter? Killjoys? Yadda yadda yadda. I could go on and on (and on).
Early indications suggest a Firefly / Killjoys approach. I think this the most likely, tbh.
There are many directions that this can all go in. It's touch feely nebulous and difficult to summarize or encapsulate absent the finished product -- but we'll know when it is in our hands what kind of feel the artistic direction in the game and its adventures and maps points us toward. Together with the tone of the adventure path itself, that will set the tone of Starfinder going forward in ways it may be difficult to change in the minds of the players.
And yet, changing up the art style from AP to AP may allow Paizo to cultivate a number of sub--genres within the "SF" sub-brands that Paizo can run with in the future.
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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The Quest for Earth: Although the Gap has erased or scrambled information about Golarion's fate and the events leading to the founding of Absalom Station, some legends from earlier times have survived. One of these describes a time when Golarion was threatened with terminal refrigeration, and a quest by a band of heroes to save Golarion from this fate that led them to another world inhabited by Humans, but with technology already quite advanced for the time, despite the nearly complete lack of magic. The Starfinder Society feels that contact with this legendary world, known as Earth, may reveal what happened in the Gap, or that if Earth has perished or even suffered the same fate as Golarion, this may reveal clues as to Golarion's fate.
Would they be chased by Cylo....robots the entire way? :)
I would love to see a Babylon 5-esque Adventure path that winds across the galaxy with normal races eventually realising they are pawns in uber races.
And one could start finding breadcrumbs to the discovery that the deities of Pathfinder time are actually just WAY up in the food chain of pawnmasters . . . After all, the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods are already known to be that way, and the Outer Gods exceed most of the Golarion deities in power.
Would they be chased by Cylo....robots the entire way? :)The Quest for Earth: Although the Gap has erased or scrambled information about Golarion's fate and the events leading to the founding of Absalom Station, some legends from earlier times have survived. One of these describes a time when Golarion was threatened with terminal refrigeration, and a quest by a band of heroes to save Golarion from this fate that led them to another world inhabited by Humans, but with technology already quite advanced for the time, despite the nearly complete lack of magic. The Starfinder Society feels that contact with this legendary world, known as Earth, may reveal what happened in the Gap, or that if Earth has perished or even suffered the same fate as Golarion, this may reveal clues as to Golarion's fate.
That comes later, when you're trying to get back. Or maybe starts as an ambush right when you get there.
I want to see a rogue planet, ruled by an evil emperor, but balkanized into a dozen or so kingdoms. Said rogue planet is being steered into the Golarion system, causing unprecedented quakes and tidal events.
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Hmm what would I want from Pathfinder in space? I mean Starfinder...
Well first things first, I'd like to feel like I'm in space, so some kind of interplanetary travel at the very least, but preferable some kind of system where I can find/buy/modify a spaceship. I'd like to build a crew, or more than likely fill in the gaps in the crew that the PCs don't already occupy.
As a plot, perhaps discover the remains of ancient race that had its fingerprints in some of the civilizations found on Golarion (full disclosure: I'm not sure how Osirion is explained in Pathfinder lore, but think ancient race comes and build pyramids then leaves without a trace), and now also crops up on some of these unexplored planets. Maybe by tracking members of this ancient race down the PCs might be able to unlock some clue as to the fate of Golarion.
I'd also like to see a mix of both primitive and advanced races to fight, with terrifying megafauna ready to swallow me whole one second, and an all powerful technomancer ready to obliterate me the next.
Settling and establishing a colony on an unexplored planet would be cool, like something in the vain of Kingmaker but with more aliens. But that would be a separate AP.
Those are just some ideas I'd like to see.
Osirion is just a civilization set up by the same gods that set up Egypt, nothing too special.
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A free one!
J/K
Something that leads to the players getting their ship would be cool.
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Actually, I'd like an exploration/introduction AP that gives us not only good setting material, but also fleshing out NPCs and giving different dimensions to the game, such as the Star Wars Outer Rim and the Inner Rim. I'd like contrasting worlds and conflicting interplanetary politics resulting in high tension and small skirmishes.
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The PCs are hired by the galactic federation to travel to a remote jungle planet to find out why they have lost communications. The planet has a small colony of scientists who conduct research and maintain a sophisticated communication tower that relays messages between different star systems.
The first part of the mission is getting there, which would involve crossing hostile alien space, so there is a chance for a space battle or two.
Part two, the PCs arrive at the outpost tower to find it abandoned. Diagnostic tests on the communications array and other systems don't reveal any faults. Unbeknownst to the PCs the outpost computer has become sentient and tried to kill the colonists. The colonists fled leaving subtle clues for the PCs to find to explain what happened. No obvious clues remain because the AI found and destroyed those with its maintenance robots. This part would play out like an elaborate futuristic dungeon where the dungeon is hostile and trying to kill the PCs.
Part three, the PCs reprogram the AI and establish communications again. New orders: find the missing colonists. This involves a dangerous trek through the jungle to a cave leading deep underground. As the PCs head underground the realise that there is more living down there than just the colonists. A strange alien intelligence waits for them, and it is not happy that the PCs have reprogrammed its newly acquired communications tower...
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Mining Inc.
The PCs act as scouts, security and overseers for a large robotic mining operation. The mining company has been given the exclusive rights to mine a remote solar system. The PCs travel to each location (planets, moons, asteroids and maybe even ride a comet!) to find likely mineral deposits, negotiate natural hazards and clear away dangerous fauna. All the while fending off space pirates, dealing with faulty mining robots (damn cost cutting) and curious aliens with unknown intentions. And unbeknownst to the PCs there might be a saboteur amongst the human crew. Essentially this could be a series of sandbox scenarios, one for each location.
I would like to see the first AP as the first AP...:P
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Dark Nebula.
A hyperspace jump goes wrong depositing the PCs somewhere inside a huge nebula millions of light years across. This is a particularly dense nebula that significantly reduces the range of the ships scanners. Individual stars cannot be seen beyond their respective solar systems and the rest of the universe has disappeared entirely from view making navigation difficult. An evil presence lurks in these dark nebula between the stars, watching and waiting and the PCs are quickly running out of fuel. Their only chance is to land on an ominous looking half frozen half molten dwarf planet that is tide locked to a giant deep red coloured star. This would be a good setting for a short survivalist/horror adventure module.
^ . . . A world with extensive deserts, no divine access (elemental entities answer calls for divine spells), and lots of psionic inhabitants? I hear you need to be at least 5th level to be just barely capable of surviving there, though.
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Smuggler's Run.
The warm blue water world Haven 5 should be a veritable paradise. Unfortunately a tyrannical government has taken over the only inhabited island continent. Property and other assets have been seized from private citizens and the people survive on the meager rations doled out to them by the authorities. A small resistance group has established a base hidden within a large archipelago about one thousand miles away from the mainland. The PCs have been hired to smuggle weapons, rations and equipment to the brave rebel forces. But when their mission is over what happens next? Do the PCs sympathise with the rebels and join the cause? Do they turn traitor and report their location to the government? What happens if the rebels refuse to let the PCs leave because "it is too risky"? Lots of possibilities.
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Bounty Hunters.
Criminals might think they have gotten away with their crimes once they are off planet, but they haven't reckoned with the PCs who will chase criminals to the literal end of the universe if that is what it takes.
The adventure starts with the characters attending a recent crime scene. The first galactic bank was broken into, the vault door was blown off overnight, security cameras didn't reveal much in what appeared to be a fast, efficient, professional operation. But what was weird is that when the bank staff arrived, after the scene was cleared by police, nothing appeared to have been stolen. Not one bar out of the hundreds stored in the vault was missing, everything was accounted for. Who goes to all the trouble of breaking into a gold vault without stealing the gold? What was their motive? The PCs must investigate and unravel the strangest bank heist in history, which leads to a shadowy interplanetary conspiracy with a bizarre agenda that threatens the entire galaxy.
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^ . . . A world with extensive deserts, no divine access (elemental entities answer calls for divine spells), and lots of psionic inhabitants? I hear you need to be at least 5th level to be just barely capable of surviving there, though.
Given what I think of that setting my response would be
"Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"
As the inaugural AP, Lord Mhoram's first post makes the most sense. I just hope there's a desert planet overridden by Bholes that is also the only place that produces a psychotropic power enhancing drug..
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I think the first AP would be a bit of a grand tour of the Core Worlds, what is being called the Pact Worlds, if I heard that bit right from the Gen Con panel. Since a lot of the setting information is going to be communicated through the backmatter of APs, giving the players a quest that lets them land on all the Pact Worlds at one point or another might be a good option?