TRDG's page

4 (4.5 is what I would give this if possible) out of 5 Stars (if we would ever get half stars as a rating........ (Please Paizo!!)

I GMed this to completion for a group of 6 players as a lead up to Drift Crashers AP :) It took 3, 3 hour sessions but I emphaze RP to get a group bonding and growing your characters organically during play, and to get this stranger group all on the same page. Not to mention they were all pretty much new to this game system.

And with that out of the way here we go the Positives and negatives of this one shot :)

Positive +

+ One shot intro to an Adventure Path!! Wish we had more of these honestly

+ Lets the party Bond before the AP this is meant for begins (A very big deal if its a newly formed group and/or beginners) Think of this as a long intro scenario where the group can realize their character concepts in game and get used to the rule system of Starfinder. Wat better than the usual and old fashioned "we met at thee Space bar in Absalom Station" scenario YAWN...... Done to death or no intro at all, YIKES!!

+ Interesting way to get the group in a starship (even if its a rental (LOL) and having the Drift Event pre warning echos have a specific effect and having another ship crash into them, good times!!

+ The mystery of exploring the ship that crashed into you as your rental is now trashed and mostly unusable.

+ Nice encounters set up in a variety of ways and situations, the "water room" and the "neg Plane hole/portal" springs to mind

+ Some interesting tidbits of info that can be gathered to set up for the main Adventure path to come is nice to see, that the players would'nt get otherwise if they did not go through this before the Drift Crashers AP

Negatives - (IE Needs work)

- the map of the starship that crashed into you, its useable but not the best, especially if playing in a VTT, the encounters and exploring parts really shine and give that creepy feeling if one has a good/great map to work with, but at 5 buck price point, understandable they did not go all out, though as a lead in to a year long Drift Crisis and 2, 3 part AP's I can't beleave no one on the Starfinder team had a thought to get a way better map in here!!

I bought 4 maps from RPG now to get this up to what I thought it needed myself here to really set the hook for the group I am running this for myself

- No Rental ship map, though one can just theatre of the mind it as well

- IF your group has more than 4 players you will have to add an extra encounter or two, or play with the creature stats or add one or two more to make it compatible. But it is designed for 4 so not a huge thing. I added some Anicite Wingbot Security Drones for an extra hall encounter myself , a 2nd Regular Drift Dead, a Pilot, to the Bridge encounter and added an extra monster each for all the other encounters myself.

- Would have been nice to see someone else they could talk to on the ship but again not a big deal

So in the end if your looking for a one shot to intro a new group into, will be doing Drift Event type game, be it Drift Crashers or a homebrew. I would highly recommend this for a nice easy start for the world of Starfinder.

Cheers

Tom (TRDG)

I have not played this module yet but will be doing shortly in under a week. But I feel it is getting an unfair star rep from that first poster review (and I would'nt even call that a "review" myself!!) so 5 Stars to counter that regardless. Really wish there was a minimal limit one HAS to post in a review, but I digress....

So we launch into The drift crisis with this, first I would recommend starting with the one shot scenario Before the Storm, then this AP. So it warms up the players for what is about to come, but not 100% needed.

Positives +

* The action is fast and furious with no let up thus starting this "Crisis" with a bang and no slow burn here and that as much needed in my humble opinion!!

* Nice to have the players involved with making their own special ship NPC and pick an addition to their ship, really gives the players a feeling of ownership, compared to other Starfinder AP's

* Merging ships is an interesting twist (Double edged sword thing though...)

* Having some of the pirate crew as enemies to kill or befriend is nice to have instead of just lazer blaster fodder, good RP to be had in the spare moment before the action continues

* Reexploring your old/new starship and what popped in there will be quite interesting when the party "cleans house"

* Going to the plane of Hell for the first time in Starfinder, COOL, (but a bit sparse there)

* Meeting your alter ego in another time line might be trite and done to death for some but the reviews need to be done for the average gamer in many regards, not ye old grizzled vet who wants it ONLT their way, no exceptions, LOL I think my crew will have a blast with this in all honesty.

* the Knights of Golarian are a nice touch to get the flavor of them in the Space station

* Then that Dream Station of Desna's should be a hoot for many players, not all but I think a good share

* The Starstone destroyed in this alternate time??!! GULP :)

* Starfinder ship chase!! Need I say more, and not just the average and somewhat boring in my opinion ship to ship slugfest that happens in other AP's

NEEDS WORK -

- Granted Starfinder AP page counts are much smaller that Pf I and II's AP's but it would have been nice to explore the plane of Hell a bit more, be they combat encounters, skill check challenges or "local' NPC interactions...

- The combined ships, NO MAPS, create your own, NOT GOOD

- Partial maps of specific areas, with an AP that focuses on a Starship as their home for the most part Paizo should have really gone full out and perhaps have had a special flip map or flip tile product attached to this!!!

- The lack of downtime and thinking of WFT is going on can be an issue for some players and GM's but I think anyone can make some time as needed, between events

- kinda wish they would have given examples of fun, goofy off the wall NPC companions the players could pick from OR come up with their own, but maybe that's just me??

So in the end I think The perfect storm sets this Drift Crisis up just right, might not be to somes specific tastes but I think many players and GM's will have a great time playing this.

Cheers

Tom

First thing here is that I have played this module as a player with 5 other Players and completed it.

I am currently GMing 3 other groups through this module right now, 2 just starting and one at the tail end of finishing it, so this is no read (not run or play) then post a review ASAP kind of thing. Those leave a lot to be desired I think, for me anyways, or those terrible one liners, "great fun" or "to hard" or one I just saw posted "stay away from".........

With that, I strongly beleave that as Paizo listened to us and gave us our "Kingmaker in Space" AP, it will get a full 5 stars from me (at least this starting module) from the get go, but it might not be for everyone, depending on the group and the GM specifically.

Positive +

* 1st Starfinder hexploration AP!!

* 25 named and interesting NPC Colonists to get some fun RP and interaction with

* Interesting events/encounters inside your Colony and out in the alien hex wilds the players will have to run into/deal with

* Building your very own space Colony subsystem`

* Multiple Factions that also have charters on this new world besides yours and you can choose from a list of official sponsors for your own Admin group

* Nice and colorfull Hex map

* A large variety of situations one can run into, not always solved by a laser blast :)

Needs work -

- Instead of a session 0 to just talk and make mechanical decisions with no player agency or NPC interactions, a much more organic approach would have worked much better. I had the party start in their nice Colony exploration ship in their bunks sleeping just before hitting orbit (nice to use maps provided in the AP is'nt it).

Then a couple of the named colonists woke 2 of them up with some hard won pointers. Then tipped off a meeting is to be held by their sponsor rep in an hour so get the other Admins up and have it all set up to score some points with this person from the get go. Worked wonders for character intro (as they were to busy with prep before hitting dirtside and just knew the other Admins (players) names only.

- The random encounters needed a lot of work to make them interesting, even using GEM was not much help. Elementals were just to bland so to spice it up a LOT more find interesting. Picking interesting creatures, weather effects and colony related encounters (IE a mis drop of supplies to gain resource points and items.

-To many empty hex's for my taste, and the placement seemed pretty strange til I picked up that there was to be an underground river system that was scrapped before final release (Thanks again Hilary for our forum chats!!).

- Admin (Party) motivation can be lacking at times so it takes a strong GM to guide them (ala Ezrand the sponsor rep) to keep them on pace for whats going on, building your colony and so forth.

- Wish there was more contact with other charters as that sets up other modules in the future quite well and not so out of the blue.

- No colony map.

- Credits can be hard to come by so every creature remains could be bought by dear old Ezrend for the parties Sponsor, and he could very well hand out bonus pay for discoveries made. That was a pretty glaring oversight not to have these things spelled out for credits and UPB rewards.

Overall I had a great time as a player in this and I am also having a blast GMing it for other groups. Just know that your GM skills might be put to the test to get the fullest out of this adventure for you and your group.

Great first module in the Horizons of the vast AP, do yourself a favor and pick this up if this theme type interests you and your players. Leaps and bounds above where we started with Dead Suns AP!!

Cheers

Tom (TRDG)

Now this is a great product as it adds that much more to the base Hero Point mechanics to make it almost a must have in my humble opinion.

By themselves Hero Points I have found always seem to be easily forgotten, by the Players and the GM (as in giving them out after the first one at the beginning of the session. I even made Hero Point Cards in Roll20 so they are visible to everyone but we all still seem to only remember them at the end of the session. Then most of the players just burn through them all for any and all checks no matter how trivial and then the hero Points system seems like just an afterthought and quite underwhelming when all is said and done. Unless you use it to get out of the Dying condition that is :)

I think the extra choices on the cards here will really hammer home that players and GM's will remember Hero points much more and gives a player agency to choose using them for just the reroll, bank em for that dying condition or play the specific card and effect.

OUTSTANDING!!

The cards are quite varied and not over or underpowered, specific instances may vary that but it works!!

A big THANKS to Jason Bullmahn and anyone else who conceived this cool product that will get a whole lot of play for my 48+ players!!

5 out of 5 Stars

I did not discuss specific cards as it might be spoilery to some

Cheers

Tom