Skitter Shot is an enjoyable short adventure. I recently ran it with
four friends playing only the included characters, and it was a
success. The exciting plot propelled the game forward quickly, and the
some of the encounters posed real challenges. Overall, it’s a
well-written, carefully detailed and self-contained module that is
definitely worth more than its $0.00 price tag. I absolutely recommend
running this game if you’re in search of a good Starfinder one-shot, and kudos to Paizo for making available at no cost!
A few quibbles and thoughts on the module:
The plot plays to the helpful, nature of the skittermanders, but
otherwise provides limited material for a “skittermander game”. Unlike
Paizo’s goblin campaigns, Skitter Shot basically sticks some
skittermanders in a normal Starfinder adventure. This is fine, but
doesn’t develop the race’s character or culture much. The campaign
comes with a “10 facts about skittermanders” page and some
“skittermander slang” infoboxes. This is nice, but, without any
skittermander NPCs, it’s up to the players to make use of these
details. Mine ignored them.
The pregenerated party is well-balanced, but the mystic Dakoyo seems
totally unsuited for the adventure. He’s a capable healer, but his
weapons (needler pistol and battle staff) are inadequate, his major
damage-dealing spell (mind thrust) is useless against the game’s
construct enemies, and he has no skills relevant to starship combat.
In my game, Dakoyo spent 90% of his combat time hurling debris with
Telekinetic Projectile, but, due to his low stats and all-kinetic
attacks, had a pretty hard time hitting anything. I would advise a
player to make their own mystic rather than play Dakoyo.
SPOILERS BELOW
The micrometeoroid storm was punishing for one character (15 damage,
taking out all of their SP) and wallpaper for the rest. Since it’s not
important to the plot and can hobble the party “out of the gate”, I’d
recommend dropping it.
It’s a short adventure, but it’s disappointing that large chunks of
the Emerald Empyrean are mostly empty. In particular, the casino and
cabin areas seem like missed opportunities, and you may want to add
something to these areas.
Another reviewer mentioned the difficulty of solving the observation
deck encounter without someone with a strong Mysticism check. This
wasn’t a problem with my party, but Nako did choose to try to smash
one of the pedestals—which I allowed her to do, after coming up with
some item stats. It might take a while, but this brute-force solution
seems reasonable for a mysticism-challenged party.
My players opted out of the Pirate Attack! section of the module,
which made the ending a little anticlimactic. There’s an option for a
short version of the starship battle (namely to have the pirate flee
after taking HP damage), which I’d recommend over dropping the battle
entirely.
