Fear and Sunburn in the Pact Worlds

Thursday, December 21, 2017

The Organized Play team is quite excited to showcase the release of this month's Starfinder Society scenario: Starfinder Society #1-07: The Solar Sortie by Paizo freelance veteran, Jenny Jarzabski. I've known Jenny for years, and she's made numerous contributions to the Pathfinder line. She's worked on printed projects like Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Heaven Unleashed and Pathfinder Player Companion: Paths of the Righteous, as well as on Pathfinder Society projects like Pathfinder Society Quests: Honor's Echo and Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-05: Ungrounded but Unbroken.

I always get the chance to meet-up with Jenny at Gen Con, and knew before this year's convention that I wanted to give her a chance to write a Starfinder Society scenario. When we inevitably met up at the convention, I posed an open-ended question about what Jenny would like to do with a scenario along with some rough guidelines of certain tags she had to conform to. By the end of the convention, Jenny blindsided me with a fantastic pitch: "I want the PCs to have to manage and impress a rich socialite."

Taking some story cues from Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-19: The Night March of Kalkamedes, this month's Starfinder Society scenario requires a group of dedicated PCs help the Dataphiles faction leader, Historia-7. As the last faction to get a faction-tagged scenario, the Dataphiles haven't been idle, and Historia-7 has uncovered hints of a wider conspiracy arrayed against the Society. Her data leads her to Brilliance station, a space station orbiting the Pact Worlds' sun. The Society may not be in a position to break in and forcefully take the data they need, but Historia-7's found a weakness in the station's hierarchy: the reputed "king of selfies," Envar Tamm.

Illustrations by Benjamin Widdowson

I suspect that Envar Tamm is going to be one of those NPCs that players just love to hate. Exactly why this is the case, is something I'm going to wait until players get a chance to try out the scenario. I will say, the art for Envar (displayed below) is spot on, and he's likely exactly the type of NPC you assume him to be from first glance. Jenny did a phenomenal job at showcasing a very different style of scenario than we're used to seeing in Starfinder Society. She's combined the high-stakes element of an infiltration mission alongside a cast of characters that are both ridiculous and completely plausible. In reading the turnover text for this scenario, I went into three separate laughing fits from some of the presented scenes*. So, it's safe to say that The Solar Sortie should be a memorable experience for characters and—while still a high stakes endeavor—an event that can bring some much needed levity around the holiday season.

This scenario uses the Faction (Dataphiles) and Starship scenario tags.

As a heads up, due to some space gremlins getting into the works, we're going to be swapping the order of our next two announced scenarios. This is to help alleviate some development burdens, and smooth the transition to some other (as of yet unannounced) initiatives that we'll be sharing in the coming weeks. So, expect to hear more about Starfinder Society #1-08: Sanctuary of Drowned Delight in my next scenario preview blog. This upcoming scenario is set to bring the Wayfinders faction back into the spotlight.

Happy Holidays!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

*Sorry Jenny, I just don't think most PCs would take Profession (Sommelier), so I had to take that line out.