My group recently concluded our first ongoing Starfinder campaign and I’d like to share my thoughts. We began the day Starfinder officially launched and ended on 10/15/18. We went homebrew because the players didn’t want me, the GM, to spend two weeks prepping before starting play. Therefore, our first session was born improvisation style on day one.
The Campaign
To make the first session easier, I proposed that the PCs work for a bounty hunting organization. The players liked the idea and built accordingly. Over time, the monster-of-the-week episodes evolved, taking the players from planet to planet in the Pact Worlds, to near space, to the Vast, and Hell thrice. Overall, the campaign lacked a single overarching thread like those common in APs, but the end of the campaign tied back into events that took place in the first few sessions, bringing the PCs full circle.
The Feel of Starfinder
I’ve mostly run games in published settings, my favorite being Planescape from D&D 2e. I loved that no matter how weird and out there the setting, situation, plot, etc. the players were along for the ride, as that fit the feel of Planescape. The Starfinder setting reminds of that feeling due to the marriage of science and fantasy. I find it liberating and very accommodating to the types of stories I want to tell.
Car chases through tube shaped freeways. Starfinder.
Space pirates led by a popular android synth musician who lives in a flying hover-coach. Starfinder.
Mech battles in the streets of the Spike. Starfinder.
A planet made of worms. Starfinder.
A hurricane of super-concentrated dish soap unleashed on Castrovel. Starfinder.
An artificial moon inhabited by people made of soul imbued nanobots overlaid with holograms. Starfinder.
On and on. The more weird and out there the more we loved it.
An Awesome Hook
The first time I called for a Drift Mishap roll, the players rolled a 001. To determine which Outer Plane the PCs encountered, I rolled a die, which resulted in the Lower Planes, and then rolled another die, which resulted in Hell. This created a cascading series of unplanned, organically evolving events, that reverberated through the entire year long campaign. Awesome.
Low Level to High Level
We had occasional guest stars, but the core group of PCs consisted of a ysoki ghost operative, an android drone mechanic, a contemplative technomancer, and a grey star shaman mystic. The mystic joined after the technomancer was killed in combat.
In the beginning the operative was stealing the show skill-wise and combat-wise, but over time the drone mechanic caught up to and surpassed the operative’s damage output, I’d say around level 13. Although the technomancer was very effective until it died, the grey mystic was quite a force to reckon with, especially when he could see the stars. I asked the players in the end how they felt about high level play in Starfinder versus Pathfinder, and they all agreed that the game system feels much tighter, and enemies remained threatening even at level 20. The final battle was a nail biter CR 24 encounter in the caldera of a volcano against a colossal red cyber-dragon and two of its minions. Epic.
From My Side of the Screen
I feel like the PCs made most of their skill checks in the skills they chose to focus on. In the end they were easily hitting 50+ on their checks. This did make certain checks all but a formality, but I was able to create situations that still held tension with each roll. Additionally, I feel like my monsters/aliens/NPCs made their saving throws more than half the time. Less so in the beginning, more so near the end, but the PCs were usually able to work around it.
Starship combat is awesome, we love it, but I think it has to be used carefully. It can become sluggish in certain matchups. I feel starship encounters play best when there are time limits, unique locations, space hazards, several ships involved, and other unique factors that add to the tension. We had maybe twelve starship encounters, and that felt right. I'd love this aspect of the game to receive more expansion in the future.
Alien Archive
I stopped using creatures from the Alien Archive when the PCs were around level 8. After that, all the enemies were my creation, using the NPC creation rules in Alien Archive. It's such a breeze. Thanks to sfrpgtools.com for making home creations even easier and quicker to build!
In Conclusion
Our adventures in Starfinder have been memorable and among our most beloved as a group. I've been a GM for over 20 years, and this game and setting ranks up there with my all-time favorites. Without question, this campaign has been my favorite science fantasy campaign and favorite science-fantasy game system. Thank you, Paizo! Keep it coming!
What's Next?
Against the Aeon Throne.
If anyone has any questions, or if you want more details, let me know.
