Well we finished Dead Suns 1 last session. We meet every 2 weeks and it took us 5 sessions. I bought the AP because I wanted to see how the Piazo GM's did an adventure, I have been creating and GM'ing adventures since 1977 and usually do my own, except for a 4 year stint in PF Society. I have 5 male players ages 31 to 70.
I felt the chapter 1 opened extremely good for new players to the game and new characters, it got us into the action right away. I usually go by the written rule book unless they conflict with my campaign concept or common sense, so they got book credits. Most the 5 players were using slug pistols as then didn't want to spend the credits to buy the laser piston, so after the gang fight they looted all the Azimuth laser pistols and batteries right away. Then they began looking for the Starfinder Guild.
I read the SF Society Guide and I personally don't like the Faction set-up where you can join every faction. It's like being a member of every team in a Little League. Sort of like a Nanny State, no matter which team wins you win TOO! If you're gonna have teams pick one, otherwise having "sides" is a waste of time. Anyway I changed where it references SF Society to SF Mercenary Guild and that made the wording in the AP work out fine. I also looked over the characters closer and saw every character had an ODD number in their stats, so I changed Step 4 on page 18 CRB to 11 points to give them a wee bit better character.
Continuing with chapter 1 the players (and GM) had an adventure in the station, they got to know several important NPC contacts and had some more action. I give chapter 1 a 5 STAR rating.
Chapter 2 starts off learning space ships and combat. I GM'd Traveller (all versions) occasionally since 1980 and I like the Starfinder rules much better! In Traveller only the pilot and gunners really had something important to do during combat. I think it is Great that the Captain, Engineer, and Science Officer have meaningful tasks also, and that you can have more than 1 active Engineer and S.O. Our space battle took us 1 entire game session lasting 10 rounds, granted we were slow because we were learning, but it was a battle and not a 1-Hit kill. After they destroyed the Stiletto, my players went after the pilot and captured her alive, getting her to talk after offering her safe passage back to the station. Another 5 STARS for starship combat rules!
Upon exploring the mining ship the party went right into it entering through the Engineering air lock and engaging the 2 monsters in engineering. The Akatas were a good monster but I think a special side note needs to be added regarding their void bite. When you're in an armored space suit you have no body parts exposed (to vacuum). Being a Traveller GM I know this, but a fantasy GM may not. So I imagine many GM's had their players make save vs the disease which cold not reach their skin. Of course the original crew aboard the Acreon were in casual dress, not vacuum tight, and could be exposed. The Goblins and Trapped door were a good touch for variety too. I give the Acreon a 4 STAR rating overall.
Chapter 3, the Drift Asteroid, has some problems however. The map was simple and easy to draw and the Void Zombies were good. I thought about putting another encounter in D1 but could not find anything I liked that could live in a vacuum.
First problem I has was with the Driftdead, an incorporeal creature. Even the new Alien Archive does not have a listing for Incorporeal in the "Universal Creature Rules". So I had to make a few GM decisions. I used the Pathfinder rules for incorporeal so that meant non-magic melee weapons and slug throwers do no damage (of course we had NO magic weapons) I let lasers do 1/2 damage and the TM's Magic Missile do Full of course. After a stirring battle and a magic missile they destroyed it. But incorporeal needs to be defined, at least in any module where it is used.
A second problem we had was the Charge rule (CRB 247). I don't know whether it escaped the editor's attention, is a typo, or some writer at Piazo just had a brain fart, but it lists Charge as -2 ATTACK and -1 AC. For 30+ years it has been +2 Attack. With it as listed there is no point to the Charge action, it is a wasted bit of verb-age in the rule book. I figured it was a typo and could be fixed with a flick of a pen and had my players change it to +2 Attack. (This is not a module problem but a CRB problem of course.)
The security robot was a tough challenge, especially with lasers that do only a D4 damage, they got a couple criticals on it and that made it doable.
The Garaggakal was another matter. A CR5 monster vs level 1 & 2 characters? Either the writer did not read the Designing Encounters section (CRB 388) or he did not understand it! It had 75 Hit Points, with a little statistical math it would take an average of 30 HITS with a D4 weapon to kill this beastie, and most characters would only hit 30-40% of the time with it's EAC, worse vs it's KAC. They do D4 or D6, while it does 2D6+9 and hits 80-90% of the time, or an automatic 5D6 with an FDC for 1/2. To keep from having a TPK (Total Party Kill) I had to Nerf this encounter. So I had it move a lot giving the melee players a lot of Op Atks. Even then I had one character at -2 and another with only 1 HP left at the end.
I like to run a game where the players work their way though an adventure and the campaign, not roll up NEW characters every 3 sessions! An occasional Kill is expected but not a TPK! Because of the problems I had with this chapter I give it only 2 STARS, not that anyone may care.
The important thing I was trying to decide was whether to buy the 2nd book in the Dead Suns series or drop it. With the bad ending in the 3rd chapter I think I'll drop it and create my own adventures in my Regular SF campaign. But I will DEFINITELY keep running my Starfinder campaign, my players all love it!
If Piazo comes out with Starfinder Modules I'll look them over as I like Pathfinder Modules.
