I really enjoyed GMing this scenario, it's definitely the kind of scenario where you need to keep things moving and one I wouldn't recommend a GM run without preparation. That said, I really like the plotline that's forming and the story with it, the heist element is great, and the events are fun and keep the PCs on their toes. The exploration and combats later on are also some of the most fun combats I've GMed in Starfinder in quite some time.
Seems to be a good return to form that could lead to some great development.
I have not GM'd this scenario yet, but I have played it and read it in preparation to GM it. When I played it, we had three level 1 characters (storm druid, paladin, illusioist wizard) and two level 2 characters (a liberator, and myself playing an angelic sorcerer). We played with the 6 player adjustment because of our challenge points.
I very much enjoyed the scenario, because even though it was very difficult at times (like in the final combat, which was partially due to some player mistakes), the challenge was welcome. I enjoyed the narrative of finding fallen pathfinders and cultural relics, the things left unknown, the mix of exploration and encounter modes, and the look into a new part of the setting.
The only reason why I can't rate this 5 stars is because, after reading it, the wording surrounding treasure bundles is inconsistent and unintuitive, and I could easily see a less-versed GM struggling with that lack of clarity.
I have GM'd this quest pack twice, once on roll20 and once IRL. I have yet to play it, but I look forward to doing so.
This review will go over my impressions on each quest as individuals, as well as my impression on the quest arc as a whole, and then the experiences I had while GM'ing, finishing with how I feel about it as a quest pack for new players.
Contact is a fun introduction, but is weighed down by the problem that a lot of quests have had: pacing. There's little time or space to establish the enemies properly without inserting a lot of additional elaboration, and the shift can be somewhat jarring, especially for new players that don't know about the Devourer.
Marker is fun and interesting, but is bogged down by an abundance of poetically descriptive language that seems to exist just to fill wordcount.
Ingredient is enjoyable, and I have no real problems with it.
Messenger is fun and includes some good social interaction, and the starship combat is good for beginners while still having a new gimmick for experienced players.
Ritual is well-written and exciting, and I have no real problems with it.
As a whole, however, Withering World struggles. The wildly different writing styles and tones across each quest, ranging from silly in Messenger to poetic in Marker and a more traditional mix in Ritual hampers its cohesion.
When I GM'd this scenario on roll20, we had six players. We had fun, and enjoyed the strangeness presented in some encounters. When I GM'd this scenario at a game store IRL, we had seven players, three fairly experienced and four who were on their first, second, or fourth Starfinder Society game ever. We had a lot of fun, and because I tend to run fairly quickly, we finished all five quests in three hours of actual play, after starting fifteen minutes late while waiting for a player and with three short bio-breaks interspersed throughout.
As a quest pack for new players, I feel like The Withering World is a success, but in an unexpected way. The newer players had fun and felt it was a nice introduction to how Society works. The more experienced players were fairly convinced that it wasn't designed with new players in mind, and felt it was a good anthology but fumbled in introducing concepts. However, I don't believe that every quest pack needs to introduce every major mechanic of the game. The fact that the new players found it a fun intro and the experienced members of the Starfinder Society felt it was good as a scenario in general means that I feel that this scenario is surprisingly well-written for appeal.
In total, I am rating this scenario 4 stars. I want to rate 5, but the stylistic dissonance between quests was jarring enough to bring it down.
Thank you to all the great people who worked on this quest arc!
A fantastic product, packing amazing creative punch!
Here’s a new product in the Star_LOG.EM series, detailing a number of new combat feats. It’s a 7 page PDF, 1 page cover, 2 pages intro, 2 page OGL, and 2 pages actual content. While that might seem like there’s not much to discuss, this PDF packs an AMAZING punch!
Adaptive Guard and Defending Counter are both really cool and very welcome, as we really needed more defensively-inclined options.
Barreling Momentum and Cleaving Lunge are AMAZINGLY well-designed. While there are many examples of archetypal feat tree from Pathfinder 1st Edition, which traditionally required a "tax" of other feats that don't really do much for what they were being used to meet the prerequisites, that was intentionally largely avoided in Starfinder. These two feats combine existing feats in an amazingly well-planned way, doing more than just increasing a bonus. They are elegantly simple, exactly complex enough, and a brilliant example of what can be done to expand the design space without breaking it.
Burst Fire, Explosive Leap, Flurry of Swings, Improved Suppressive Fire, Select Autofire, and Slamming Strike are all fantastic. They give additional options in combat to make the way characters approach battle SO MUCH MORE than just hitting things in the face repeatedly.
Grazing Critical is a really cool and fairly-balanced way to make critical hits more effective without being reliant on critical hit effects.
Hammer the Gap is a well-balanced (because of the Resolve expenditure) and completely logical extension of the Penetrating Strike feat, reminiscent of Clustered Shots from Pathfinder 1st Edition while also being open to melee and range alike, a design paradigm I’ve loved seeing in Starfinder as a whole.
Merciful Strike is simple but elegant and very flavorful, although I wonder if it would also apply its benefits to attempting to deal lethal damage with a nonlethal weapon. While it doesn’t make the most sense with the current flavor as presented, I feel that it would make sense in the hands of a character who wants to pick their battles.
Prone Shooter is a really nice way to make the idea of a sniper lying in wait practical, while being open to more than just sniper rifles. An AMAZING bit of appreciation for having a mechanical effect that makes a lot of sense with the flavor, as taking time to steady yourself and line up a shot shouldn’t make you more likely to hit if you can’t aim worth a damn, it should give you more chances to put your skill to the test.
Snap Shot is also fairly simple, but is elegantly balanced against the Starfinder paradigm. Making the prerequisites BAB +4 because BAB +6 doesn’t mean much (as wildly opposed to Pathfinder 1st Edition with iterative attacks) is very fitting with the design ideas of Starfinder, and is a natural inclusion in a game where melee is no longer the default.
Tumbling Targeteer is a really interestingly-designed feat and I’m genuinely surprised I haven’t seen anything like it for Pathfinder 1st Edition. The fact that tumbling to avoid attacks of opportunity for movement has been a thing for so long but nobody thought to make a feat letting you apply that idea to other actions that provoke boggles my mind.
I have two main concerns. One is that Defending Counter, Hammer the Gap, Merciful Strike, and Prone Shooter all lack the (Combat) tag, despite this being a book designed specifically for combat feats.
The other concern is that Cleaving Lunge does not have any measures in place when it come to creatures with a reach (either naturally or through a reach weapon) other than 5 feet, and it actually uses an explicitly different wording than either Cleave or Lunge themselves; and while Flurry of Swings mentions natural reach, the use of said term when determining range with regards to melee means that reach weapons will find minimal use for it,
Over all, this book is AMAZINGLY well-designed, with every single feat feeling like a natural extension of the system, with the ideas and executions tying together fantastically. While the frustrations with the wording on Cleaving Lunge and Flurry of Swings are annoying, it’s also entirely probable that I was only so attentive to them because I’ve been playing reach-based characters in Starfinder for entirely too long. My rating, therefore, is absolutely that this is a 5 star product, and I would be absolutely remiss to ignore it in any of my home games. My hat is off to Blaine Bass for such a well-written work.
So this is a scenario that I played yesterday and am preparing to GM in a couple weeks. We played in the 5-6 subtier with a five-player party consisting of: my solarian 3/soldier 2, one soldier 5, one solarian 5, one operative 5, and one mystic (healer) 7.
Starting with a strong premise, continuing on with interesting combats, challenging hazards that make you think, and a devastating final battle, this is honestly the best example I've seen of how to balance a scenario at the 5-8 tier. Rushing in and blowing s&!@ up shouldn't be enough to cut it, so I'm glad that we were challenged. Taking 45 damage in the first round of combat as a character that hadn't been into HP in several sessions was amazing.
Congratulations to Natalie for writing a difficult and fascinating scenario, congratulations to Thurston for developing it, and congratulations to everyone else involved. I loved it.
