Greetings, players! In today’s blog we’d like to take a moment to recognize our talented freelance authors who contributed to the final batch of Starfinder Society (First Edition) scenarios. Some of these authors have been writing for us for years, while others saw their names in print for the very first time! No matter what, this era of Starfinder might be ending, but I’m sure it won’t be the final time you see their names.
Jenny Jarzabski (she/her/xe)
SFS1 #7-02: Zo! vs. Zo
This adventure started out as a conversation in Starfinder team chat. We knew we wanted to create an adventure starring Zo!, so we started brainstorming potential themes and hooks. My colleague Dustin has always wondered about a specific detail of the Starfinder setting: Why does the undead celebrity Zo! share a name with the magnificent Triaxian port city of Zo? Is it coincidence, or some deeper lore? This question was on his mind as we tossed out weird ideas for another televised adventure.
Eventually, he brought it up.
And the rest is history.
Beyond this wacky conversation, my inspiration for Zo! vs. Zo included too many hours of Judge Judy, listening to a friend’s retellings of Ace Attorney games, and simply imagining what a TV court drama would look like on a planet with real dragons and semi-legal combat between residents. Triaxus (the planet) has lots of high fantasy themes, so I started thinking about what a typical fantasy concept like trial by combat would be like in Starfinder. I decided literal legal battles would probably be fought by combat lawyers hired to represent their clients. From that, another idea formed: What if the player characters act as Zo!’s combat lawyers in his legal case against the city? I thought that sounded truly outrageous, so that’s how I designed the adventure. If you’d like to experience more of my work, my favorites are Mechageddon!, a Starfinder First Edition Adventure Path about playing a squad of mech pilots defending their home world from kaiju, and A Cosmic Birthday, a Starfinder Second Edition adventure about surviving a disaster on Absalom Station. You can also check out Starfinder Second Edition, launching now with StarfinderGalaxy Guide!
Katrina Hennessy (she/they)
SFS1 #7-06: Archives of Eternity
I am thrilled to have once again contributed to Starfinder Society adventures with 7-06:Archives of Eternity. I am also, as ever, grateful for the wonderful team who took my submission and improved it in so many ways. It is always amazing to see the art that is produced, as well as what the development and editing teams contribute. This was my first time designing a map, and the difference between what I submitted and the full art version was astounding. Metaplot adventures have their own challenges and bring their own joys. It is fun to be part of a bigger storyline while also writing a complete and independent adventure. Trying to think like and design for an alien culture that I don’t know or understand pushed my creativity. I look forward to the possibility of contributing to the new campaign when the time is right. Happy gaming everyone.
Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her)
SFS1 #7-08: Envar’s Awesome Rescue
Hello, all! I’m Kendra Leigh Speedling, frequent contributor to Paizo. For Starfinder Society this year, I got to return to everyone’s favorite(?) disaster influencer, Envar Tamm, in SFS #7-08: Envar’s Awesome Rescue! Envar’s been plaguingdelighting the Society for a while; my first outing with him was in 5-12: Envar’s Expeditions, and it was fun to see how he’s grown (or not, sometimes!) over the years. I do have a soft spot for the guy, even when his judgment is questionable. My favorite parts of Envar’s Awesome Rescue are 1) Envar critiquing the kidnappers’ ransom note and 2) a certain encounter where the scenario’s villain goes old school damsel-tied-to-railroad-tracks on Envar’s poor body double. The scenario was a blast to work on, and I hope you all have enjoyed playing it as much as I did writing it.
I also got to co-write 7-11: Breaking the Crucible, where Starfinder agents have to stop a group of Hellknights from carrying out terrible experiments against a captive population, which brought back some familiar faces as well! Finally, I helped out with development on 7-09 through 7-14, and it was fun to work on things from the dev side for once. The authors for those all did a fantastic job, giving First Edition Starfinder Society a fitting sendoff!
If you’re interested in seeing more about my upcoming projects (and sometimes cat photos), you can follow me on BlueSky @kendrarara.bsky.social.
Matt Duval (he/him)
SFS1 #7-09: Clutches of the Vault Lord
Back in 2019 when Thurston asked me to work on Future’s Fall I had no idea it would turn into me writing a multi-adventure tale, and I’m so grateful that he and Jessica let me be a part of it. I have so much admiration for Tom Phillips’ iconic Gloomspires story and this felt like getting to do my own echo of that.
Clutches of the Vault Lord pulls together all the threads and characters of Salvation’s End in one climactic confrontation with the tyrant. There are callbacks to almost every NPC we’ve met along the way, more mishaps and bizarre vault experiments, a singing and dancing living cartoon complete with theme song, and a final(?) clash with the Vault Lord. I hope the adventure captures all the wacky, imaginative sci-fi we’ve come to expect from Salvation’s End while giving the Starfinders a chance to demonstrate their heroism against a classic villain who delights in their own wickedness. And if that villain leaves no trace of a body in their last moment, rest assured the echoing laughter you hear is only in your imagination…
If you’d like to see more of my work, the Pathfinders get to thwart Hellknight schemes this August in Pathfinder Society Intro to the Year of Battle’s Spark—Enough is Enough!
I’m online on Bluesky at sleepyfelixthecat.bsky.social.
Solomon St. John (any)
SFS1 #7-10: Rasheen’s Requiem
Howdy folks. The name’s Solomon St. John—Sol to my friends, any pronouns are fine—and, in addition to being Paizo’s editing lead for both Starfinder and Pathfinder Society, this season I got to write Starfinder Society Scenario 7-10: Rasheen’s Requiem. Helping wrap up a storyline that’s been running since season one felt like a satisfying send-off to the first edition, even though there were half-a-dozen scenarios to edit between it and the true finale.
I’m always excited when I get to use my obscure master’s degree (in “Northern Studies,” a multidisciplinary cultural studies program from the University of Alaska) on the job, which I got with 7-10—the frontier settlement of Requiem Falls is essentially a sci-fi twist on Alaskan bush communities. The NPCs you meet there, Elarora and Naeyri, are likewise amalgamations of a few people I knew while living in Fairbanks, with some science-fantasy twists. The “razor roc” on the cover, meanwhile, is only loosely based on the birds up there, who will fight you but are thankfully much smaller.
My next adventure, Starfinder Society Scenario #1-02: Mystery of the Frozen Moon premiers at GenCon at the end of July with the rest of the Starfinder Society Second Edition kick-off; as you can probably guess from the name, that one also takes some cues from my degree, but you’ll have to wait to find out exactly what.
For more of my upcoming and personal work (and photos of my three cats), you can find me on BlueSky @stjohnsol.bsky.social.
Brent Bowser (he/they)
SFS1 #7-12: Those Who Call
Writing the finale to the season 7 metaplot, #7-12: Those Who Call, was exciting and flattering, but also stressful because I knew I had to really stick the landing. Sarmak, Kinpopo, and Hope-01 have been active participants in the players adventures, more so than the usual quest giver or escort NPC, so I wanted to make them feel like a part of the story while not taking spotlight and agency away from the players.
I wrote Those Who Call to be like a multitable special. I wanted players to choose their adventure and feel the impact of the other team of Starfinders on the mission. I also wanted it to feel like an action movie with a high sense of urgency and mustache-twirling evil villains melodramatically monologuing.
My favorite part of the scenario was designing the factory itself. They say write what you know, so I may have brought a sense of soullessness to a corporate military industrial complex. It’s fine. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I’m fine. Hopefully the setting reinforced just how evil the First Ones are. If you’ve not played yet, I recommend tackling the Logistics and Planning room.
When I’m not writing for Starfinder or managing IT projects, I perform stand-up and improv comedy. My debut stand up special, I Think I Get It Now, is on my youtube channel @BrentBowser1337. And let me know what you think of The Swarm in Starfinder Alien Core.