Honor Demands It

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

We're approaching the end of a glorious Starfinder Society year, and we wanted to make sure we ended December with a narrative bang. It's amazing to look back at everything we've accomplished. Not only did 2018 kick off with our introduction to morlamaws (yes, it's really only been a year), but it's also featured reality television events, much-anticipated pop concerts, and wildlife benefit fundraisers. We also saw the return of an ancient starship from Pathfinder Society, debuted Starfinder Society's first multi-table interactive special, and scaled up to two scenarios a month. Needless to say, it's been a busy year, and that calls for some more fun adventures.

Hailing from the Tier 1-4 corner of the galaxy is Starfinder Society Scenario #1-28: It Rests Beneath by Paizo editor Jason Tondro. When Thursty and I brainstorm scenario concepts, we often look at what themes we've featured recently to include lots of variety, and we've had a fair number of "Meet aliens, study aliens' culture, potentially fight aliens" scenarios. These are good fun, yet we realized we hadn't really let the Starfinders escape into the unexplored wilds to study geographic features and planetary anomalies—in this case a strange mesa that occupies around 85,000 square miles! You'll be teaming up with the solitary research outpost (including Dr. Mora Motressi, illustrated here by William Martin) and roving the rocky surface in exploration buggies in order to perform some honest-to-goodness science—it makes my archaeologist heart so proud. This scenario has the Faction (Wayfinders) and Vehicle tag.

Just don't expect this trip to be without its dangers! As a hint of what's to come, I'll point out that this scenario has a cheat sheet detailing the basics of vehicle combat for those who like that sort of thing, including how to adjudicate landing your truck on top of an enemy creature. Also, inspired by a conversation I had with a player at Origins, this scenario doesn't just let you play around in borrowed exploration buggies; if you want to bring your own Large vehicle to test out its engine on a distant world, you're welcome to do so! Get out there and explore!

Speaking of exploring new territory, Thurston Hillman's here to tell us about the campaign's first ever Tier 7-10 scenario.

Starfinder Society #1-29: Honorbound Emissaries is something of an all-star special event, which is perfect for our first Tier 7-10 scenario. Beginning with a meeting of several prominent NPCs, including two vesks from very different backgrounds and an android we're still not quite sure of the whole story about, this scenario brings the PCs into the aftermath of recent events in the Scoured Stars. This confluence of major story and major NPCs was a perfect mix of content to pass on to veteran author Jenny Jarzabski. Jenny is known in Starfinder Society circles for the introduction of a particular NPC that players love to hate or hate to love from Starfinder Society #1-07: The Solar Sortie, and that talent of making memorable NPCs really shone through in her turnover. Luckily, I managed to beg some of Jenny's freelance time shortly after her work on her most recent release, the second adventure in the (soon to be sanctioned) Signal of Screams adventure path!

While I don't want to spoil too much about this scenario, let's just say that it sets the stage for our remaining Season 1 scenarios and sets us on a path for a climactic event in our eventual closing interactive special for Starfinder Society's inaugural season. OK, maybe I'll share one more thing: a piece of artwork that I think GMs looking to run or re-run a certain early season scenario might find very useful! For players out there, you may want to play this scenario if you haven't got the chance yet… it might be useful!

This scenario has the Faction (Second Seekers [Luwazi Elsebo]) tag.

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer