After reviewing this adventure, I have significant concerns about its alignment with the themes and tone of Starfinder. The mission involves boarding a living starship, fighting off intelligent creatures that have clearly evolved beyond their initial form, and ultimately destroying the ship and its inhabitants—including an entirely new species.
This approach feels out of step with what Starfinder typically represents. The game often emphasizes exploration, discovery, and the possibility of diplomatic or peaceful resolutions, especially when encountering new species. In this case, the creatures we’re asked to eliminate have evolved intelligence, can empathically bond with their environment, and may even have the potential to communicate. Labeling them as "Sample 62" and treating them as little more than a hazard undermines their complexity. It's no longer just a "sample"—it's a living, thinking being.
Furthermore, the mission lacks alternative win conditions. There's no option to search for survivors or to explore other ways of dealing with the situation, such as communication, containment, or quarantine. The only solution presented is destruction, which doesn't sit well in a system that generally encourages creative problem-solving and respect for life.
Because of this, I don't believe this adventure fits the spirit of Starfinder. The mission leans heavily into morally troubling territory, with no opportunity for negotiation or understanding, which makes it unlikely to be something I’d feel comfortable running at my table.
A "living, thinking being" that is fundamentally hostile and an existential threat to both the PCs and potentially an entire world if the ship reaches its destination.
This is pretty typical sci-fi horror stuff, with a nice dungeon crawling angle that seems very on point for creating a simple, straight forward, and fairly interesting adventure.
Like it's clearly leaning on Alien and etc for inspiration. "Why can't you just negotiate with it" is asking for a completely different genre of adventure.
|
Alien was the first thing I thought of when seeing the cover and reading the description of It Came From The Vast. So I wasn't expecting any diplomacy.
This is a playtest I imagine It came from the Vast is written to test a certain type of play or aspect of the new rules. From the looks of it that would be haunts/hazards and combat, so appears to be a space horror-themed mission. Could be a good mission to save to play around Halloween.
Personally, I feel if all missions had the same options for resolution things would get too predictable, but I do think it's good that most but not all have non or less-violent options. If you have a PC that wants to try diplomacy when it isn't an option, I see no reason to not let them try even if it will fail, at least that way they know they tried.
For what you are looking for is getting tested in Shards of the Glass Planet has some encounters that have very interesting ways to avoid or end combat early, as well as some good skill-check exploration which I think were really well designed to allow everyone in the party to have something to do.