 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. I have GMed this, but yet to play it. Coming from a GM who has extensive experience in Shadowrun (and other sneaky type games), this is probably the first true Starfinder scenario that feels like a Shadowrun-ish scenario. Why is that important for me to say that? Simple, though going to go ‘vague’ descriptions when I talk about this scenario, so not to spoil. One, this scenario should never be ran cold, as it does require a lot of ‘sandbox’ at the beginning for the GM to allow the Players to walk through the steps to figure things out on how to actually ‘do’ the scenario, and running cold will likely not allow the GM to think and see all the ways you can help—or throw fun/amusing/problematic wrenches into their plans. Two, you have to have players who want to think on how to set up something like an Oceans 11 type of plans. If you have those two things down…the scenario runs well. Three, the GM should be willing to let things go ‘off the rails’ for a little, and be able to semi-makeup quick DCs for things….which the writer did give lots of ‘generic’ DC numbers to quickly use, though sometimes not in the exact order or placement when the Players think of using those skills in planning. I would love to see more of these scenarios. They allow players who don’t like the typical formulaic scenarios (i.e. 1-4 quick skill checks to find out things/influence, then 3 fights and a trap), to shine. This scenario has some of that…the last part of this scenario felt like it could honestly have been a 2nd scenario almost…but you have to have something or the Obozaya’s of the game to enjoy. Too long, don't care about analysis review:
There be real spoilers ahead, beware.:
Ranking Story 2/5 I won’t exactly call it a political scenario. There was literally no politic/diplomacy involved. Sorry…the only real politics was the 'oh you are in our “space territory", prepared to be boarded or destroyed'. And if you beat the enemy vessel the 'oh, you won, but we will be back' trope. I would honestly give it a lower ranking on story (probably a true 2), but I did like the bit about the previous empire that the ruins we were exploring. Too bad that by the time that started to get interested, I realized that it was a “standard” dungeon crawl. Setting 2/5
Role-play-ability 1/5
Combat 5/5
Done a few PFS reviews (probably should do more with the lack of free time I have), but this is my first SFS review. I will promise myself to get SFS reviews done though! Too long, don't care about analysis review:
It also helped that CanisDirus ran it. His ability to prep, and tell a good story helped, especially when we go slightly off script :-) With that said, semi spoiler (and longer review) below under the spoiler tag. Now for full review::
Ranking Story 5/5 At first I thought the story was going to be straight forward. Kinda a partial "first contact" scenario with most of the hard part done--i.e. trying to communicate. When we landed (which BTW luckily we had not space combat--none of us were pilots, though some of us had decent piloting scores) safely, we were met by a Coral type creatures. Since we all were more interested to learn about them, we decided to follow their lead (which we found out helped in game, great writing for the writer for that). The story seemed to be kinda what we were expecting...a new race wanting protectorate status because of the distance it is from anywhere deemed "safe", and an unusual power/item source of their tech. What we didn't expect was the actual history involved in how this power source was first seen as, and how it developed, and now how it was being mined into extinction (again, great writing!). After looking at a few of the places that the local exploration team looked at, we went right into an area our Triune priest was designed for. We were able to activate <3 (less than 3....heart references were made...) and the priest and my augmented nuar were going to have none of this, and worried that they would kill/steal <3 smuggled him out (again...great writing on actually figuring people would want to do that). As we started to get worried that the government (and possibly our exploration copaxi "allies") seemed to be doing some kind of cover up, we were starting to wonder what all was being held. We kinda figured out about 90% of the "what happened" by the time we befriended our copaxi ally and it revealed itself and told the rest that we hadn't figured out. All in all...it had a story that was gripping, and well thought out. Setting 5/5
Role-play-ability 5/5
Combat 3.5/5
Over all. I give a 5/5 for this scenario--even with the lower combat issue. This is because it was a scenario I wanted...lower combat with a great story. I haven't ran it yet (will be doing so sometime soonish), but I can also see a decent amount of prep for the roleplaying and telling of the history/story to keep the players engaged. Played this a couple of nights ago, and I can say this....this scenario doesn't pull punches. Too long, don't care about analysis review:
Great story, great location descriptions, powerful encounters. Good game for people who like story, fights and searching. If you are a combat monkey and only that, maybe not a game for you...or at least not you and 5 other combat monkeys only. Need some skills, and a good head on the players for thinking sometimes out of the box. GM's do a lot of prep work for this scenario. It is a must. Now for full review:
Ranking Story 5/5
Setting 5/5
Role-play-ability 5/5
Combat 4.75/5
Over all, I give a 5/5 for this scenario. With the caveat that if as a GM you are going to run this, do a LOT of preparation, and be willing to read a few back scenarios and THEN be willing to explain in mechanic terms how things work. You can not go into this scenario only semi prepared. That will only lead to frustration on the players part, and likely irritation and anger about this scenario.
I would like to state at the start that this is probably not a scenario to run at a con or other time limited event. 5 hours is probably the absolute minimum you need...probably closer to 6. With that said, I played it at a con. The GM who ran it probably was one of the best GM's I know to run this, and I could tell the strain on him. This is a scenario I think that could use a "sub-GM"...kinda like how I think EotT 1, in one scenario really could use one. Just to track turns, effects going on and mooks. Rankings Story 5/5
Setting 5/5
Role-play-ability 4.5/5
Combat 5+/5
First off...I want to say thank you for having more to do in Tian Xia. I think there needs to be more scenarios/modules/quests in this part of the world. With that said, here are my thoughts (TL:DR is at the bottom with rankings) I have to say that I found this so far the most enjoyable set of quests I have ran (haven't played this set yet..but it just came out, so I am certain I will be playing it soon). The way the 5 quests are linked feels like a story line more than 5 individual quests, giving a good story for the players to feel they are participating in. It is awesome that at level 1 it is replayable (so kinda an evergreen), and that the way gold is given out for the higher level characters is tiered per level. My only slight issues is that since these are quests...it means players probably will know to go all out on the one "big bad" fight in each quest. So...that means that the fight can last 1 round--or less--depending on what kind of power the PC's have. Especially for the higher tier fight...if the fight only has 1 creature in it a level 5 character could easily one shot it before anybody else has a chance. But saying that....the lower tier fight could easily be challenging for a group of level 1's. I got the chance to see how this set works for both tiers this weekend (ran a tier 4-5 with 4 level 5's and 2 level 4's, and a tier 1-2 with 5 level 1's (all squeaky new characters) and a single level 2. The tier 4-5 was mostly a cake walk for the fights--though with good roleplay and banter with NPC's and each other it seemed that it was fun for all at the table. The tier 1-2 a couple of fights got tricky as the players had little resources to heal and dice were cold for the PC's. Again, the roleplay was great. Finally, this set of quests could easily be put into any other world besides Golarion (or with a bit of thinking/tinkering modify into a side quest in something like a Jade Regent one off/sidequest), with just a little modification. This point is something I consider a plus for scenarios/quests. If nothing else, it might give a creative jolt to come up with side quests in your campaign. TL:DR So....with that said Rankings/Reasonings: **Story 4.5/5 **
I am writing this up as a player, not as a GM. I hope to run this sometime in the near future. Overall 4.5/5: This was a fun scenario with lots of skill and role playing. I highly enjoy those scenarios. I know that people who want to do a lot of killing might not like those, but this game looks like it can be done either way. Note: I played this online, and higher tier (with 4 player adjustment). I also played the scenario with Spaarky Rankings: Story 4.5/5: Though I only played it, it looked like the scenario was well put together, with a good storyline and explanation of what you are supposed to do. I think the reason I didn’t give it a 5/5 is that a couple of areas felt a bit of a railroaded. But only slightly. Setting 4.75/5: Going up into Irrisen was very nice change of pace. Except for an adventure path I don’t think this part of the world has been explored much. Role-play-ability 4.75/5: Lots of good role-playing. As I mentioned above, a little felt a bit railroaded…but I think that is mainly so you can get more of the exposure of what Irrisen and their surrounding neighbors are going through. Combat 3.5/5: If you want to murder-hobo your way through, I am guessing this could also be a good fight scenario…though since we seemed to talk our way out of at least 2-3 possible fights, the ones we did get into were tough, but not substantially. If we had went down the murder-hobo route, I am certain the combat and role-play-ability rankings would have been reversed. Finally, I would love to see more of these types of scenarios (help gain allies and gain friends), and I would like to see more from this author. Long and short, I thought this might be as good as Way of the Kirin, but that was likely because I thought the fights would go over better. So, maybe this is one of those scenarios that would be better if the group was only 4-5 people, and the group was of level to play up. The first two fights would likely have been harder at least. Spoiler:
The team I had was six players with 3 pregens, all at level 3-4, so they played down, but with 3 pregens I was hoping it would be at least a little challenge. The first fight the players did a run around on the three bad guys and was able to basically destroy with little issues--though the bad guys do hit like a ton of bricks (if they hit). Second fight was easily dealt with--needed to have more HP. I was hopeful that with the third fight that she would get a couple of good spells off, but no avail. Last fight was just a mop up action with the only saving grace was me getting flanking and a critical on one person....sigh. Ranking Story 2.5/5
To be fair, this was my first 7-11 in PFS. So take what I say with that in mind. I am going to attempt to get through this without any major spoilers (or even minors if I can veil them enough). I did prepare this scenario pretty well, and planned how each of the 2 "guaranteed" fights I thought were going to be played out—either if the players played up or played down in this scenario. So I knew the special powers of both types pretty well and knew how to play them "smart".
Ranking Story 4/5
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