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I think it was the kaynote where Mona said that APs for SF were originally bi-monthly, but were switched to monthly out of demand. But I think that's created different issues (for example, I can't finish APs fast enough even playing weekly) with variety of class options, etc. I really like the idea of modules and one-shots coming back, and as long as I'm able to read something monthly I'm happy!

I strongly agree (even though I've GM'd and played fewer APs than you Steel Wind) that this is the best AP so far! Maybe it's just that I have better reference points from scifi media (than things like hanging out in the sun ala Dawn of Flame), or my players actually feel like they're making real moral decisions as a crew? But overall I think they've done such a great job to introduce multiple layers (the kalistocrats, the golden league, the rival crew) early without adding to the complexity. Most important/impressive is that each of these elements is revisited through the AP so it feels cohesive (at least on reading).

There is also something so wonderful about being a regular joe in this setting. I much prefer APs to homebrew campaigns but have always loved the inherent sense of humility that you end up getting from most homebrew campaigns I've played. The stakes are high because you might lose your contract, your ship, or your life - not because Absalom Station is going to explore, or that we're "finally" uncovering secrets of the gap.

I'd love to run a completely different group through this AP just to see how different it might be (like playing Starwars KOTOR, but GOOD this time).

Sorry to go on and on here, but I just wanted to strongly agree with you and thank the Paizo crew. I really think the theme is accessible and the execution has been great (there are still problems, but nothing the inherent creativity of the medium can't solve).

I really like how punchy the APs feel and I don't mind them being shorter. It lets me add starship combats, or other encounters.

Starfinder is the first RPG that I follow actively, I've quit playing videogames and I just prep or play regularly instead. It's the first time I've ever been able to play weekly because of the online options. To me, they should be doubling down on the "tired parent" market who would otherwise play console games after 9pm on weekdays for two or three hours.

But I completely agree that the class options and weapons are somehow lacklustre. I love Starfinder in spite of this, but I wonder how much longer my group and I will keep loving it without relief.

For me, it's partially due to the approach to releasing class/weapon content in APs. This is fine for pen and paper players, but most people (I assume, especially in the last year) are using online third-party options like Roll20 and Hero Lab - and they aren't up to date with Paizo's latest. Hero Lab Online for example still doesn't have a lot of the subclasses or weapons that are in the APs that I'm running/playing (Threefold and Fly Free).

I'd love to see the market data on this, but it really seems that Starfinder is squeezing both ends of a bell-curve instead of focusing on what is a bit more universal. My players want Magus-like class options such as Spell Sergeant. My operative is tired of making sniper trick attacks. They want options for what they already have, they don't care about mechs (yet).

We're halfway through Book 3 (went to 3h biweekly sessions in Sep so we are going slooooowly). We have an Envoy, Soldier, Operative, and Solarian so no spellcasting to speak of. Envoy focuses on engineering, Operative on computers - both have been invaluable. I can honestly say we have not yet cast a spell, and they've been able to proceed just fine. Just make sure your skills are covered with the longterm intention of covering starship roles.

On the question of Unseen knowledge, I say less is more. I like the approach above from SpiderOrc with "current threats". In my game, I think of the party as a "weapon X" of the greys to combat the reptoids - but that's part of what they are figuring out. Players should think it's a regular AP and they play a story where they slowly realize they actually ARE the unseen. I think that's what the AP is really about.

Would love to see a campaign journal from you! I'm thinking I'll start mine back up from Book 3 start.

We are halfway into Book3 but our group wants to take the game to 20 and I’ve come up with a way to frame the Reptoids as allies, or scouts of the Siivs in Devastation Ark.

Our threefold game includes one PC who has the transplanted soul of an ancient reptoid that was infiltrating civilizations during the Kish-Siiv conflict. This is said to be occurring in golarian’s Stone Age, but I’ve hand waved a bunch of timeline things to essentially make this character an Osirian Pharoah. I’ve implied through visions and other story points that the golarion races are a grey experiment, and then once this reptoid took over the pharaohs, he built a pyramid spaceship (which will end up being a reskinned version of the Worldseed in book 1 of devastation ark). Reptoids are said in the supplementary chapters to serve a higher but invisible threat, and to me it makes sense that hey would have a religious compulsion to infiltrate entire worlds to prepare a kind of “second coming” of their masters after the events of Kishalee-Siiv.

I’ve decided to make our threefold game much more about prophecy, with stronger connections to government officials and cultural icons than implied in the books. For example, Erem ends up being a reptoid version of our Human Envoy that has been working up the political ladder. I have a player playing Obozaya (yes the iconic) and it turns out she is a very popular brutaris sportscaster (discovered on Voidcrier when Pike plays the brutaris match), and our Kasathan Solarian is actually the BBBEG of the Kasathan chief inspector in book4. For me, I’ve decided to focus on the final twist that the greys were cloning these NPCs for noble purposes rather than (just) nefarious reasons. But they would find that out until book6.

A lot can still happen between book3 and 6 but that’s the direction I’m going to join the two books.

If anyone is interested, I’m still working though a guide that makes the backgrounds from book1 more meaningful with recommendations for how to attach to npcs in the story if others are interested.

Interesting, Nullpunkt. In my game they handily dispatched every physical encounter but now that I think of it, it's because they have a soldier, solarian, operative, and envoy so their frontline was always well-protected. Can't wait to hear the ending!

This is great so far thanks for the journal updates! Keep it up.
In my experience so far there is no such thing as too obvious until that final scene of book1!

I like your idea, and I think it fits much more with the story arc as written than what I’ve gotten myself into.

I’ve just done this for the android in our party last week, and called it Project Omicron.
If you think seriously about Zaxo’s motivations, he is kindof a weird Grey mad scientist who is willing to do anything to overcome the reptoid threat. So what if the Greys abducted a reptoid at some point, even a dead body, and used it or its soul to increase the statistical likelihood of Project Chimera? This hasn’t been fully fleshed out for me yet, but I think there is a lot of possibility. It also feeds into the Grey’s love and interest in experimentation.

I re-skinned the B2 room and made the vending machine a kind of bacta-tank and replaced it with this:

SOBEK is a play on the ancient Egyptian god of crocodiles, and Ill likely roll it into some Osirian lore that implies the war between reptoids and greys has spanned a very long time to spice up later books. But only if the PCs dig. If your SRO looks at the tank, perhaps it recalls the lizard person as extremely familiar, or that its name and skills are similar.

The downside of this approach is how grandiose it becomes. But it might make for an interesting post-AP home brew for later levels, I wonder if you could adapt Mummy’s Mask??

Anyway, the point is that I think this resolves the problem of androids and SROs having a believable and meaningful reason for being part of the party, AND it’s a reasonably consistent way of explaining the secrecy of this facility, the whacky experiments therein, and why this hidden outpost is being attacked by Reptoids. It also allows for interesting story differences between your PC clones and android/SROs.

I’m still not sue what you mean by target machine, would the vending machine work?

So the party is just about to leave Centre A of Omicron Outpost, and I'm prepping for this week's game. I had this crazy idea for how to introduce the android operative's history as being separate from the rest of the party.

This player is a huge fan of David Bowie and his character is based off of the Major Tom persona. It's really his first TTRPG character, and he just wanted to learn the system and how to play - and true to new players, he made this epic backstory out of surviving (but not knowing the cause of) the Gap. I figured this was fine, because in the AP, players can't actually really interact with the world until level 6 or 7.

In thinking what kind of twists I'd like to make for his characters and given the twist of the AP, I was searching Bowie personas and found this from The Man Who Fell to Earth and it hit me:

While it's a little over the top, I think this AP needs to be plugged into a grander story are between the two hidden factions. It outlines a broader motivation for secret war, and gives more reason for the players to cut their ties after completing Book 6. Any thoughts on how I could roll Project Omicron into Book 4 & 5 Dycepskian story line to tie it together a bit more? I still plan on having all other players see themselves, and Book 6 will culminate as written to uncovering Erem, and the battle with Zaxo.

I’m curious about this too.

I just finished Book 1 with my group and am prepping up to end of Book 3 now to where the group really gets to become themselves. I think Books 3, 4, and 5 are trying to establish more of reptoid presence and threat in the Pact Worlds as a kindof backdrop to the PCs learning/relearning who and what they are. Erem and the association with the party in my view is just an example of how intense the threat has become - but I agree that it causes a problem for one player’s story over the others.

I wonder if there’s opportunity to incorporate others into the Book 6 reptoids? Like push a PC to become a dwarf and then reveal them as Stormhammer? I’ve been thinking of re-skinning these final reptoids as the PCs, but it seems like a shame to waste the art assets.

Another option might be to incorporate the other PCs into Books 4 and 5 and big bads. And alternatively the remaining non-Erem PCs into future books at high level like Devastation Ark.

Book 1 finale!

Because they were so fixated on it, when the pirate attack occurred they raced up the hidden compartment to the bridge - perception checks confirmed there was no one above. Bridge alerts showed the Chimera was being boarded, but when they looked out the window all they saw was the empty Drift.

Moving to through the upper deck, perception checks in the hallway revealed movement and gunfire downstairs. The Operative went ahead to scout, and found the pirates barricaded themselves in the Starboard hallway, and blocked off the Port-side completely. Dispatching them quickly, when walking past the gym the Fake First Mate event occurred to delighted jeers. This was solved by a player identifying something only the real Lozu would have recalled from the Jincheroga fight. Wem's holographic clone made this a really tough fight (I rolled max images). After defeating Wem, the Lozu interaction here is very important. Give the PCs time to piece together what Lozu saw, and have them break the news about the real captain.

Moving on to the starboard cargohold, I played up the final confrontation with Yox and drew at least one PC in close as they rolled a 1 on sense motive. After a few rounds of combat breakout and a few human pirates appear in the north airlock door, they call for a ceasefire - giving time to explain about the pirate plot, in an attempt to cut a deal with the PCs. My group goes for it, they'll let Yox live if they can keep the ship and the relic. The relic sequence is what really starts the process of blowing the minds for your group. I recommend planning the relic note to be readable by your PCs (ie. make sure a PC with linguistics reads it, or it is written in a strange language that one PC knows). I let my group sit in the moment of confusion, without saying anything... and as soon as someone wanted to make a roll I started the "massive explosions rock the Chimera... A computerized voice chimes in over the intercom, calmly stating, Hull breach detected. Abandon ship. Repeat, abandon ship. Please proceed to the escape pods in a calm and orderly fashion." and ensure the PCs go by every other NPC that they've met to show the resolution.

I was slowly dropping hints of all the other characters being somehow tied to the Scoured Stars Incident several years ago, where the Vesk was a mercenary, Kastha was a Wayfinder ground troop, (I'm still not sure how to incorporate the Android quite yet) and the Human was the captain of a minor transport. This was based on the assumed attack made by Jadnura on Agillae-5 in AG316 attack, which is the Starship Graveyard encounter in SF 01-99 Scoured Stars Invasion society scenario.

When they each look from their escape pods they see the Chimera's exterior is painted Wayfinder green and the callsign reads "Pegasus" (from Magnus' back story). The session ends when the Roll20 setting is finally changed (for the first time in nearly 10 sessions) to Centre A's map from Book 2 and all each PC sees is the glowing light of a sterile labratory-like room, with text flashing "Test #467 complete, please wait for assistance" above the door. 
Another explosion shakes the facility, and you hear impact sounds of metal and rock. What do you do!?

This was precisely when one of my players, an avid Paranoia fan, screamed "Oh my god we're clones!"

Finale post coming this week, but wanted to help answer this question:

Nitpick question.

Reading book 1 has me a bit troubled with “Song”. Yes, each sapient is their own being, and not the “stereotype” but he breaks the mold to the point of contradiction...

If I were to run this, I could easily explain it away or just ignore it, but Im wondering if this was an oversight, intentional, or telling me “repeat to yourself its just a show, I should really just relax.”

Thoughts?

I plan on making a larger post about this, but I think it's exactly the kindof thing that improves the ending for players. Song SHOULD break the stereotype to try and emphasize that something's not quite right about it. I hand-waved these issues, and played it off like it was strange - happy to have the players thing I was a bit inept, or maybe that the AP isn't well-written. I made a list of these small issues, and took a few minutes at the end of the book 1 finale to cover them (ie. bulkhead off-colour, crew not knowing why they were near the guest quarters, the pirate ship boarding didn't appear on scanners or out the bridge window) while not giving away where they are now... or who they are.

This book has made me re-think what it means to be a GM. I've never run the Shackles AP in PF, but imagine these kinds of mysteries do that to you. As a GM you should be willing to look like a complete idiot if it means that you have to bluff your players, and I think this Song issue you bring up is a great example of that.

We're nearing the end of Book1 now! This session started right where we left off, with the confrontation with the Captain. The party was positive of the captain's smuggler history, and did several checks around the captains chair to discover the secret passage way listed in the Bridge description. Some interactions with Lozu, and the Captain allowed them to actually catch up on some of the Questioning and Following Up talking points. They only really challenged the captain on what Jincheroga was after, and asked what her dying words meant.

While the party talked to the Captain, I had Lozu call for all crew members to report to the bridge to clear bodies and keep the ruse of "keeping the guests comfortable", she also jumped to the conclusion that Jincheroga must be the source of the engine sabotage. This also gave them an opportunity to break it to the crew that Song had been killed. A few PCs help take the bodies to the incinerator. The party did things like checked the crew & passenger manifests. The Captain retired to his room, and cleared the bridge. The party was left suspicious but hellbent on trying to find a way into the smuggler's hold (especially if Kiiv was busy cleaning up the bridge and the Dining Hall).

I have been pushing them VERY hard (without being direct or overt) to search rooms, but they are not taking the bait. The group was really taking their time searching the mid-level of the ship, whether escape pods had been used, etc. In the spirit of the "hints of reality" sidebar, i hinted that something seemed off about the rear airlock door and when they hacked it, the door read back that it had never been used. That it was as if it was set to some sort of factory default setting (this will play in to my idea that the ship was repurposed by the Grays as a testing ground for clones to seek and destroy shapeshifters, and they set the ship to factory default each time they ran the hundreds of tests that the party has been through over the years - but this is the only one they'll remember). The really dangerous part was that the Android wanted to open the rear hatch to search for bodies, thinking that this was a murder scene. The party decided otherwise (thank goodness... how could I have faked zero G?)

Searching every room of the engineering deck, the party discovered that Kiiv was indeed repairing the engines but there were multiple sites of sabotage. Rolling poorly the entire time (under 10 to find the secret door), I had them spin their wheels for a while in engineering. I eventually forced the encounter when Trostinek came down to check on the hold. The party rolled very well and moved into position to surprise him, killing him in the first round with an excellent crit by Obozaya. They discover that Trostinek is an Astrazoan and that they are "too late" to do anything about their attack. I read the "Attack on Chimera" intro and they're SO pumped for next week!

One great note is that a longtime Pathfinder player has been messaging me all day today that "something seems weird" about the whole book, and I've been asking him what makes him think that. When I do a full recap, I'll list some of the elements that have given him that 'creepy' feeling and report back.

I plan on writing up a bit of a Guide to this one in future, because it has been so much fun to run and I would have definitely appreciated some additional pointers before running it. The exciting conclusion is next week!

These types of books are done. Paizo seems to be focusing on smaller hardcovers, individual modules and the adventure path books from now on.

I love them too! They are great for filling in side quests, as you stated.

Cheers, thanks for the info. Shame really!

My group has a homebrew setting that we rely heavily on APs and modules. I used Mother Comfort and Poor Eledia as a mini-dungeon between Crypt of the Everflame and Mask of the Living God (in our setting, water travel is highly dangerous, so it didn't make sense to travel by barge). The group wanted to setup a homebase while they were scouting Tamran and spying on the cult.

I LOVE these unleashed books (Dragons, Undead, Hell, Heaven) as a no-prep options when goes on sidequests. Temples/Dungeons of Golarion are also helpful, but less so because they aren't as fleshed out (often only having one level). But I had a thought - is this what the Unleashed line is used for? Or is it really intended to kickstart a GM's imagination?

Also, what is the status of this type of publication on the horizon? Are there plans to continue it, or do they exist under a different name? Does Society overlap with this? Would appreciate any info, or if someone could point me to an announcement or blog I'd really appreciate it.

Still actively playing our rotation of 1e APs: started with Runelords in 2014 and our group has taking turns GMing, switch APs at the end of each book. We’re presently back to Book4 it runelords, my Gnome Arcane Trickter just died, but I’ve taken on a Human Cavalier with the swashbuckler archetype. I have GMd two books of Kingmaker, adjusted to a home brew setting, and a third in our party runs Jade Regent in the same home brew setting. In that one I play a Human Paladin / Samurai. Between kids being born and lives changing we’ve switched up the order of play a few times.

Since quarantine I’ve started GMing two weekly online games. The first is 1e Crypt of the Everflame module, and we’ve moved on the Masks of the Living God. This is adapted as a prequel to my Kingmaker campaign in our own setting. I’m also GMing a Starfinder game weekly. We did the beginner box and moved on to Threefold and I’m REALLY enjoying it.

Quarantine has been really interesting for gaming. I’ve basically quit videogames and only TTRPG now. I’ve figured out how to create weekly 2.5 hour sessions that pack a huge punch with Roll20 and Herolab. It’s forced me to really tighten up and focus on getting through material, rather than just stumbling around the APs. I plan on continuing at least one of these weekly games in perpetuity. It’s actually made me more interested in Paizo products because they solve the problem of providing interesting and compelling plots for me, and I want to keep up now with Starfinder APs as they come out.

I’m interested in PF2 but honestly, we just learned Starfinder (and like it) and I don’t see much need to switch systems until we’re finished these rotating APs in... like 4 more years? But I and several others are certainly 2e curious.

Almost purely combat this session when Jincheroga's plan hatched. I placed some refuse and barriers in the corridors and dining hall to emphasize the tactical abilities of these goblins. The party was level 2 already, which made things go quickly - but I threw in an option where a goblin takes Song hostage and kills him unless the party stands down (he died!), and then had the remaining two goblins run back upstairs to pincer the group when/if the barghest fight starts.

I whipped up a very crude map for the goblins and shared it via Google drawing with the group and it was a big hit.

When the bridge door opened, I had planned to give the group a strong option to "get out of the way" or the goblin takeover, but alas they just started shooting. Had a great fight drawing the melee fighters in and then using dimension door to get behind the backline envoy and operative. All-in-all it was pretty by-the-book and enjoyable.

One tip is to end combat on the first floor, and stop turn order saying the goblins got away (if they run). I didn't do this, and lost the surprise round where Jincheroga is meant to take a bite attack on her captives.

Great idea, could have used this a few weeks ago!
I found my players hadn't really met everyone on the first day aboard, so this would be a great handout for everyone to have an overview of the "cast".

I'm totally going to steal the idea for GM cheatsheet like this in future with voice and other info. Maybe add statblock too where relevant. Thanks!

Biggest lessons learned so far nearing the end of Part 2: emphasize the social aspects more, have the party overhear crew interactions, and give them more of a sense that they aren't just chasing whatever issue comes up infront of them. It may be my players, but it really feels like a Sherlock-Murder-Hobo mystery.

The party has really been motivated by Brodynt's story, but I think it is also important that they feel ownership over the security of the ship. I think the "Jincheroga in a towel" really had them questioning whether the goblins are 'good or bad' and I think this should be standard in the adventure. But I also think I should have had Pahir request the party (or maybe just one PC) to be a deputized security officer. Developing individual relationships for each PC is something I wish I focused on from the first or second session. The PC that likes to drink gets to know Grath, the most military-like character gets to know Lozu. A lot of it depends on dice, but I found this Song relationship with Bowie, and Magnus with Brodynt made it feel like they had a specific role. It's also a great way to pull out your quieter players.

The only other risk I think is worth putting work into is creating an encounter (preferably combat-related) that interrupts the party from doing things like searching for the smuggler's cargo hold. This goes along with the Gray's puppetmastery, and something like Jincheroga and Lozu fighting over playing dice in a hallway (to corroborate her gambling problem), or that Kiiv is drunk trying to repair the ship and that leads to his background.

Lastly, the party missed out on finding the shapeshifter mucus in the vents of Algiata's room. I would either make this more prominent and easy to find, or fit it in somewhere else. I'm planning on the Captain shapeshifting while leaving the bridge at the transition from Part2 to 3.

All in all, this is probably one of the most fun and interesting books I've ever run. It's so nice to have the confinement of the space, and the party really feels like they are working a complicated mystery.

Taking a break next week because of family holiday, but will update more mid-July.

Great session last night again and the party really started to make progress.

It's the second afternoon/evening in the Drift and they check in on Jincheroga and the goblins in their room planning the bridge takeover. Unbeknownst to the party, they interrupt the planning and goblins bluff to pretend they’re watching a sporting event on the holovision. Bowie, the Operative identifies the goblins babbling incoherently about how great a draft pick is, but knows there is no draft for this wrestling event. They know that something is amiss. They see a writing or drawing on a pillow case (the map they will find later to the smuggler hold), and there are weapons and armour around the room as if they are gearing up. A failed sense motive on Jincheroga has the party guessing whether they are on the defensive or offensive now that Algiada is missing.

Magnus the Envoy decides they should check out the rec room to see if they were indeed planning something and discovered some kind of extra room between the cargo holds (high engineering and perceptions) that they know they cannot enter.

The party continues below to check for the lower hold and Magnus rolls a low engineering check to follow the chute to the lower deck (the book highly recommends that you DO NOT allow PCs to sniff around down here, and I was preparing to pull the trigger on Event 6 as my backup). They ask Kiiv for a schematic of the ship, and “What do you think we are? The Stewards? You paid 1,000 credits each to get to Absallom and you’re sleeping in a double bed. There are sacrifices we’ve had to make to keep costs that low.” (This was played up early when the ship was introduced on Roll20 with dynamic lighting ON (and the forward cargo and smuggler’s holds hidden) as a “s#!~ty workplace orientation video” tour of the starship model (ie. “Welcome to the <<cHimERa>>, we hope you enjoy your trip to <<absOLlom sTATion>>”). The lower deck is described as “frankensteined” together with various discoloured bulkheads. Magnus identifies the central engineering section would have been manned in situations where the ship is used for troop transport (because in fact it’s his ship from 3 years ago, he just doesn’t remember because conspiracy). Exhausted most of Kiiv’s talking points from Questioning and Following Up sections (except they forgot to ask him about sneaking around).

The party goes to the upper deck to search for where the smuggler’s cove might be, and with a high engineering check they identify it follows to the Bridge. They listen in on the bridge with a high perception check and they hear Pahir and Rameem talking about how it’s impossible for the Infosphere to have such limited information in the Drift (sidebar p.12) and it sounds as if they are legitimately concerned and confused about that (which is true), but they seem to be doing actual diagnostics and work on the ship to try and get it functioning again.

The party drinks with Grath, and exhaust his Asking Around talking points and I emphasize more of the smuggling and crew cohesion to corroborate the story.

The party checks in with Song because they have identified tensions with Algiada and Song simply reinforces to Bowie the android operative that he likes working on the ship because it allows him access to androids who might be mistreated (a side-story to plant the AAF motivation of our Android).

At this point, the party is ready to go speak with the captain and bed down for their meeting tomorrow. They know that Algiada has completely disappeared and suspects she is in some kind of secret cargohold. They suspect the Captain on board is a shapeshifter, well-disguised hologram, or clone because they identified the Idari statue has Kasathan blood and brains on it. They’ve discovered several sideplots with Brodynt, a GM-embellished one with Song, and some of Kiiv’s story, they don’t trust Trostinek but exhausted all of their story points (except about his wife). I really would rather they find more out about the events because I want them to really feel like they are discovering something, but with their cargo hold and fake captain assumption, I've decided to just pull the trigger on moving the story forward. Hoping that they feel some approval for finding these things out!

They wake up to Song screaming into the communicator that he needs help and the goblins are ransacking the diningroom and kitchen. They have barricaded the hallway to bottleneck the party, and will try to kill or hold them off while Jincheroga attacks the bridge!

Things slowed down quite a bit in this week’s session. As mentioned, we have a newbie in the group and he’s been the overzealous type that checks everything, and retries failed skill checks, etc. It’s manageable but now that we’re into session 5 we needed to address it And spent some time discussing expectations.

I threw in an additional incapacitator robot in the Malfunction event this week as the group reached level 2 earlier than anticipated (we did the Beginner box prior to this adventure) and the combat went longer than it should have, but I could tell the group was itching for a fight.

Otherwise, the only other thing the group seems to struggle with is keeping track what the actual mystery is. The bloody statue has thrown this into a full blown murder mystery, trying to identify another Kasatha on board, rather than questioning where Algiada is. So I’m finding most of my discussions blend a lot of Part 1 and 2 discussion, which is fine but could be a lot to juggle for new GMs.

My objective next week is to get as many clues out as possible to resolve the investigation. Next session I’ve set them up to have a drink in Grath’s room to get the Algiada discussions going again, and give them some opportunity to break into the crew rooms (hopefully they captain’s room) as the group has “scheduled” a meeting with the captain tomorrow. However, the goblin attack will occur just before they’re able to meet.

I think it’s better if the group strongly suspects someone before this occurs, so think it’s fine if they have the captain in mind. My only suggestion @jduteau is to really accentuate Jincheroga shapeshifting ability when the party arrives on the bridge with the captain fight. This should confuse them enough to question what role Jincheroga has had in the murder/disappearance. Worst-case, I plan on leaving a “goblin queen plan” datapad journal in her room if they’re still confused. Looking forward to hearing more.

Oh - also, as mentioned above I use roll20 to play and highly recommend the dynamic lighting options. At the beginning, I lit the entire map up (hiding the crew quarters, cargo bays, and the smuggling bay with fog of war) but it gave the group a good idea of ship layout. When the engines are cut and the power outage occurs, I've switched the lighting settings to remove global lighting options and now the ship has gone completely dark the group. And the entire ship is now under low light conditions.

This really set the mood for the group that something was wrong and has made for some awesome situations where they are covering eachother while hacking doors to open them, or even losing eachother while walking down hallways. I highly recommend this as an option if you run this on roll20.

The only risk is that your party is likely to assume combat is imminent and go into fight mode. My group almost stormed the goblins immediately when the lights went off (hence the deescalation mentioned above). So watch out for that.

Had a great second session, and some great roleplaying by our group last night.

One thing that GMs should watch out for is being clear on the first phase of the investigation - finding Algiada. My group immediately wanted to kill the goblins in Event 2, so Jincheroga fled with her food to the recreation room instead. I RP'd that she later answered the rec room door wearing a towel while the goblins ate their breakfast in the hottub to emphasize they were just trying to have a good time and the group backed down. I had Brodynt provide the investigation mission from the dining hall, and added a small opportunity for the Android Operative to make a connection with Song who asked "what service role do you provide to this group?" He'll later ask about the Android Abolitionist Front as my longterm plan is to tie him as a gray replacement of a lieutenant in the AAF.

Unless you're looking at moving the story along quickly, I would put off having the group find the murder weapon. After the engines died, my group went to engineering and immediately found the murder weapon. As well, they rolled high on Life Sciences and found out it was Kasathan blood and brains, so have immediately gone in to murder mystery mode skipping a lot of opportunity to meet the rest of the crew and dive deeper into Algiada. I recommend giving more opportunity earlier in the adventure to meet the entire crew - maybe they come in to pick up dinner during the first night.

This isn't all bad, because they are keeping track of all of their leads, but they just haven't met the Captain or Grath yet, and we're nearly finished Part 1. I can see newer groups having major difficulty keeping everything straight.

Otherwise, this is my first Starfinder adventure and I have to say that I love the reference materials. They allow for so much improvisation and opportunity for really interesting moments to emerge for your group. The pacing in these books is totally different than Pathfinder APs (which I also love. I've run Kingmaker, RotRL, Jade Reagent, and the Crypt of Everflame module) but it just makes the game feel SO different, interesting, and above all else digestible. I'm very impressed with the quality of SF material so far.

The first session went really well, we are almost through Part 1 when the ship’s engines go down.

A note on prep is that it’s essential to give yourself time. I had a week and would have preferred a second. Memorizing the NPC and crew motivations is essential. Because it’s such a small space, I feel more like a stage manager of a play rather than a DM. But it’s made for some very interesting gameplay. The group almost immediately broke in to Tronsinek’s room to find info on the “plan”, and they have already engaged with Brodynt quite a bit and I’ve been playing him as nervous about protecting his relic.

The group is a mix of 2 experienced 5e DM/players, 1 longtime Pathfinder player, and 1 complete newbie. Playing a human xenoarchaeologist envoy, vesk mercenary soldier, kasatha priest solarian, Android mercenary operative respectively. We played the Beginner Box first over two short sessions (playing weekdays 830-110) over Roll20. I was concerned at first that I would have trouble explaining how the group gets from Absalom Spike to Legacy Station in Near Space but realized that everyone was also fine with hand waving their own backstories. I suspect this will be a perfect way to draw them in for the Book1 reveal and will double down on recreating their stories as clones/abductees.

One story I’m very impressed with is the envoy. The player is a 5e DM and did some great research and really committed to a backstory. Magnus grew up with his father on a Wayfinder ship as his mother died when he was young. He worked is way up to flying his own freighter/passenger crew ship for the Wayfinders and they eventually fought together in the Starscour Incident (the Society Scenario three years prior). His father disappeared in the incident, and Magnus was kicked out of the Wayfinders for disobeying orders (another story). He’s been a kindof loner space cowboy ever since, running cons and running bounties since. He’d like to raise the funds to go looking for his father in the Starscour.

My plan is to (by the end of Book3 reveal that his father is alive and a decorated Wayfinder (who is really a Reptoid in disguise) and that Magnus is the one thought to be missing since the incident. When infact, the Grays abducted him and his Wayfinder ship and implanted him with memories of becoming a space cowboy. Is he the real Magnus? Is he a clone? Part of the reveal will start when he discovers the old name of the Chimera was actually the name of his Wayfinder transport.

Would love to hear any thoughts on any of the above, I have plans for each character like this but am most excited for Magnus. More later.

Hi Paizo boards, longtime lurker, first time poster.

I’ll be starting book1 this week and I’m very excited about it. I’ve only run a few session of SF (Beginner Box, into the unknown) but have been playing and GMing Pathfinder for years. I’d love to hear about your group’s experience with the book.

So far, I’ve just been focusing on getting the NPC motivations and character down. Any tips or tricks for running the murder mystery? Any lessons learned?