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Starfinder Adventure Path #1: Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6)

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Starfinder Adventure Path #1: Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6)
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A Ship Without a Crew

When a brutal gang war breaks out on a docking bay in Absalom Station, the player characters are recruited by the Starfinder Society to investigate the unexpected bloodshed. Delving into the station’s seedy Spike neighborhoods, the heroes confront the gangs and discover that both were paid to start the riot and that the true conflict is between two rival mining companies battling over a new arrival in orbit around the station: a mysteriously deserted ship and the strange asteroid it recovered from the Drift. To head off further violence, the heroes are asked to investigate the ship and discover what happened to its crew, as well as the nature of the asteroid it tows. But what the players find there will set in motion events that could threaten the entirety of the Pact Worlds and change the face of the galaxy forever...

This volume of Starfinder Adventure Path launches the Dead Suns Adventure Path and includes:

  • "Incident at Absalom Station," a Starfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by Robert G. McCreary.
  • A gazetteer of Absalom Station, by James L. Sutter.
  • Magical relics inspired by the lost planet Golarion, by Owen K.C. Stephens.
  • An archive of new alien creatures, by Jason Keeley and Robert G. McCreary.
  • Statistics and deck plans for a new starship designed just for the player characters, plus details on a new planet in the Codex of Worlds, by Robert G. McCreary.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-961-5

The Dead Suns Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (1.7 MB PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

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A serviceable start

3/5 —

There's been a lot of words written about the Dead Suns AP as a whole. I don't want to rehash what other people have written, but here are my thoughts:

1. Requires buy-in from the players, no players guide - As it starts out almost as abruptly as Abomination Vaults for PF2. You're here to meet a dwarf about joining the SF Society, he gets murked, you get drawn into a conspiracy. If the players are disinterested, then no amount of begging by the Shirren SF Society contact is going to make them care.

2. Red Herrings - There's several red herrings floating around involving corporate bureaucratic infighting between a mining guild and a corporation over who gets to claim the Drift Rock that's never really elaborated upon and is honestly just a time-waster as there's no payoff for the group at all. I think it's better to excise this part entirely.

3. Another Red Herring - There's a character that you meet who basically disappears and is never mentioned again, except that your choice to complete the job or not complete the job may affect whether you get somebody's away message in the third AP. Was kind of disappointed.

4. The Ship Is A Deathtrap - Part 2 takes place on a derelict. Really cool, really spooky, except the players are marooned on this ship with no choice but to go forward. Good to chase the players up a tree, bad in that they probably were not prepared for this. My suggestion? Have an unethical space goblin/Wytchwyrd merchant dock with the derelict and offer medical services or consumables to the group. They will need them, if most peoples accounts of playing this AP are to be believed.

Disappointing

2/5 —

NO SPOILERS

Ok, here we go! The first adventure path for Starfinder, Dead Suns. I got to play it in a campaign that took a couple of years of biweekly sessions. My starting PC was a hyper-caffienated energy drink loving barathu envoy, B'rll'blub. He was great fun to play, but proved startlingly ineffective in combat and died later in the campaign--but it was through his eyes I first experienced what I'm reviewing today, Chapter 1: Incident at Absalom Station. In the flagged section below, I discuss the adventure in detail. My general thoughts might be summed up as: it's okay, but nothing spectacular, and with some encounters that aren't really fair to the PCs. Here in the "No Spoilers" section, however, I'm going to discuss everything in volume one that's not part of the adventure--the front and back matter.

[Cut for space: my hatred of the cover, and my description of the inside front and back covers and the author's foreword.]

The first piece of proper back matter is a twelve-page gazetteer of Absalom Station, the center for humanity in the Pact Worlds solar system (the main campaign setting for Starfinder). An interesting history is provided for the station, and I like how it cleverly integrates some concepts from Pathfinder (like the Starstone, some neighborhood names) while making it its own thing. Absalom Station is perhaps the most important location in the setting, as it holds the headquarters for the Pact Worlds government, the Starfinder Society, the Stalwarts (intergalactic peacekeepers), and more. It also serves as a natural starting location for adventures, and a probable home for PCs since it's a pretty multicultural place--a bit like Babylon 5. Although much of this information is probably replicated in the Pact Worlds hardcover, the gazetteer does a good job describing the different areas of the station and leaves a lot of room for GMs to customise as necessary for the adventure they want to tell. There are some "feel and flavour" elements that I think are missing--how do people get around (elevators? trams? vehicles?); what's it like for newcomers when they arrive (visas? security inspections? customs taxes?); and what laws are in place regarding weapons (frowned upon? side-arms only? everyone's got a rocket launcher?). This last issue in particular has proven problematic for a lot of gamers as it goes to varying real-world conceptions of what's normal for urban communities. As a complete aside, I can't help but note that the artwork of the dude on page 43 is *clearly* an intentional likeness of Jon Bernthal from Netflix's The Punisher!

Next up is "Relics of Golarion", a four-page-long collection of new magical items that have historical links to the now-missing planet. The writer clearly knew their Pathfinder lore, as there's a rich evocation of setting elements in the backstory to each item. In terms of actual usefulness, many of the items are too expensive or too high-level to be useful for most PCs, but I liked the falcon boots (allowing a PC to make a sort of personal gravity field so they can walk on walls or ceilings, even in Zero-G) and the (perhaps overpowered) chained weapon fusion which gives any melee weapon the reach property! I liked the section, though as a timing matter I think it was probably too soon and the space should have been devoted to making Starfinder more its own thing instead of tying it so closely to Pathfinder. New readers can be turned off if they feel they can't get the full story without playing an entirely different game.

A bestiary-style "Alien Archives" introduces 7 new creatures, with each receiving a page. The line-up is: akatas, bone troopers, driftdead, garaggakal, rauzhant, vracinea, and void zombies. The artwork is really strong here, though I don't see much in the way of creative ideas here (and a couple of just updates of Pathfinder monsters). Five of the seven appear in the adventure proper, which is a nice way to save word count there.

Finally, there's the "Codex of Worlds", a one-page description of a planet ripe for adventure that's located somewhere outside of the Pact Worlds system. This issue's entry is "Heicoron IV", an ocean planet with rival civilizations. Although they share a common ancestry, one has adopted to living on floating cities while the other has made the depths their home. There's a "first/early contact" situation for explorers. A classic SF concept that could have appeared (budget-willing) on Star Trek. It's not easy to design a world in one-page, but I liked what I saw with Heicoron IV.

The pattern established in this first issue of the AP persists in subsequent issues, with each including a setting element, a bestiary section, some player-facing character options, and a one-page new world. It's worth noting these volumes are also much shorter (just 64 pages each) compared to first edition Pathfinder APs, making them less of a value for the budget-conscious.

SPOILERS! (for the whole AP):

On to the adventure! This starts with a two-page campaign outline that offers the GM a rough idea of what's in store for the entire AP. In short, Dead Suns is going to be a planet-hopping adventure. The PCs start on Absalom Station in Chapter 1, head to Castrovel in Chapter 2, on to the Diaspora in Chapter 3, a gas giant in the Vast in Chapter 4, an artificial moon in Chapter 5, and then a massive Corpse Fleet flagship in Chapter 6. This is an AP meant to show off themes of space travel and exploration, not one about laying down roots or deep involvement with NPCs and communities. The plot itself concerns the lurking danger of an epic superweapon called the Death St--I mean, the Stellar Degenerator--capable of destroying entire worlds. I'll get more into that in reviews of later chapters.

Part 1 of Incident at Absalom Station is "Absalom Gang War." All of the PCs are meant to be new (or returning) visitors to Absalom Station interested in joining the Starfinder Society (an organisation devoted to exploration, scholarship, and first contact). That's a reasonable premise, but I *really* wish Starfinder did AP Player's Guides like Pathfinder does--they make great advertising tools and help players better immerse themselves in a campaign's premise.

Anyway, I think starting a campaign off with some drama and action is a wise choice, and that's what we get here, because the moment the PCs step off their shuttle and into the docking bay, they're caught in a firefight between two rival gangs! The Starfinder agent meant to show the group around (a dwarf named Duravor Kreel) is killed in the crossfire. I joked with my GM for months after because this is done in a heavy-handed way. Instead of Kreel being killed in the opening descriptive text (before the PCs can do anything), he's required to be killed in the first round of Initiative (no matter what the PCs do, and with no attack or damage roll required). But my PC had a rescue plan! Oh well . . .

With Kreel dead and the gang members dispatched (or fled), the PCs will eventually come into contact with the shirren Chiskisk, a higher-ranking member of the Starfinder Society. Chiskisk is concerned that perhaps Kreel's death wasn't simply a "wrong place at the wrong time" situation, and asks the group to investigate his death as a sort of audition to become members of the group. The investigation aspect is handled pretty well, I think, with five different columns for Gather Information results on different topics and lots of room for creative GMs to flavour how (or from whom) the PCs are getting the info. The PCs will quickly understand that the two gangs fighting in the docking bay (the "Downside Kings" and the "Level 21 Crew") were essentially proxies hired by two rival mining companies (the "Hardscrabble Collective" and "Astral Extractions"). The mining companies are enmeshed in a legal dispute over who gets to claim ownership of an asteroid-sized chunk of rock found in the Drift that had been towed back to Absalom Station by a mining survey ship named the Acreon. As all of the crew of the ship were dead on arrival, Absalom Station's authorities have placed the ship and the Drift rock into quarantine some distance from the station.

That info reveals what the gangs (and their mining company employers) were fighting over, but it doesn't yet explain the nature of Duravor Kreel's death. To get more answers, the PCs need to visit each gang's headquarters and see their leader. The adventure handles this part well, with diplomatic and violent approaches accounted for, and some good characterisation of the NPCs. Busting up gang members isn't exactly intergalactic SF action, but every Starfinder has to start somewhere! Assuming their investigation goes well, the PCs should learn that, in fact, Kreel was an intended victim by one of the gangs--he was a board member of the Hardscrabble Collective and so a hit was put out on him by Astral Extractions out of fear he would also get the Starfinder Society involved in the legal dispute. It's a mystery that has a satisfying conclusion, and gives the PCs an early sense of accomplishment.

Part 2 is "Ghost Ship." The PCs have a few days of downtime to explore and establish themselves on Absalom Station--something that's good for role-playing, even if the GM knows they won't be staying there long. They're then invited to a meeting with Ambassador Gevalarsk Nor, the necrovite (a type of undead) ambassador from Eox! Friendly chatting with evil undead is something some players will have difficulty swallowing, but the premise of Starfinder is that Eox is a full member of the Pact Worlds and that although some people find them distasteful or suspicious, they're generally treated decently. It definitely makes for an interesting meeting, as the PCs learn that the ambassador has an offer for them: he wants them to investigate the Acreon and the Drift rock, and report what they find. It turns out that Ambassador Nor is the mediator between the ongoing dispute over who should get to claim the rock. He's willing to pay well, and he offers additional payment if the PCs bring back to him personally a particular container in the ship's hold--though he won't reveal what's in it! I can't argue with a "What's in the box? Don't open the box!" mystery.

Assuming the PCs agree, they'll get their first taste of the game's starship combat rules. The shuttle they've been loaned is attacked by a single-seat interceptor piloted by an android assassin (hired by whichever mining company the PCs seemed most adverse to). I'm on the record as loathing starship combat in Starfinder, but at least this one is quick and easy, and serves as a straightforward introduction of the rules to players new to the game. As is often the case, I am annoyed that whether the PCs win or lose this starship combat, there are no real consequences, as the adventure assumes that the PCs take lifeboats to get on to the Drift rock (I have no idea why this "professional assassin" wouldn't just shoot down their lifeboats, and the adventure provides no explanation either).

Exploring the Acreon plays up to the classic science fiction "ghost ship" trope. The crew are either dead or vanished, and the PCs need to figure out what happened to them. Their investigation is hampered by the fact that some space goblins from Absalom Station broke into the quarantined ship earlier; I like how they can be simple foes to neutralize or made short-term hirelings (my group chose the latter option, because we needed all the help we could get!). The answer to what befell the ship's crew comes pretty quickly: the movie Alien. Here, they're "akatas", but they look and act very similar to Ripley's foes, complete with the egg-laying-in-human-host bit. Frankly, I wouldn't have minded an answer that was more creative and original. On the other hand, the "what's in the box?!" mystery has a great reveal. When I played, our group didn't open it because the Ambassador said not to and we wanted to get paid. But if a group does, they see there's a dead body inside--and the body opens its eyes and speaks! In short, the container contains an undead "bone trooper" who was being smuggled into Absalom Station by Ambassador Nor. This can turn into a combat or a role-playing encounter, but either way I think it's a creepy-fun answer.

Part 3 is "Phantoms of the Drift" and sees the PCs exploring the Drift rock itself. A well-concealed cave leads to a hidden complex of chambers with technology far in advance of what the Pact Worlds has. The PCs won't know this now (and even as a player, I never realised it until preparing this review), but the Drift rock is actually a small sheared-off portion of the Stellar Degenerator itself! While exploring, the PCs have to survive the android assassin who comes after them in person, some zombies (crew members from the Acreon infected by the akatas), a security robot, and more. They'll also be attacked by a driftdead (a new creature from the back matter's bestiary) that was once a space explorer named Moriko Nash--who died 75 years ago! It turns out Nash was the captain of a starship called the Sunrise Maiden that encountered the Drift rock decades before the Acreon. In a touching bit, the PCs find Nash's last recording that details her fate and gives an ominous warning that something is hunting her.

The PCs probably won't have realised it, but once they landed on the Drift rock and started exploring, their shuttle is remotely activated and flies back to Absalom Station, leading them stranded. This is a contrived (and to my mind execrable) excuse to force the PCs to find another way home. Of course, they'll find the Sunrise Maiden in a hangar bay, the ship intended to be their real home for the rest of the campaign (and the subject of the inside front and back cover). But first, they have to deal with what killed the ship's former captain.

The big boss of Incident at Absalom Station is a new monster called a garaggakal. It's a CR5 monster with a bite attack that does 2d6+9 damage, a special "Leech Life" attack that it can use (a limited number of times per day) to instantly do 5d6 damage that it then gains as temporary hit points, and an EAC/KAC high enough that PCs will probably hit it only 25% of the time. Oh, and if PCs barricade themselves in a room somewhere to rest and heal, it can pass through walls to get them! In short, it's a TPK waiting to happen, as evidenced by several posts in the forum. My experience as a player was exactly the same, although the GM took pity on us and had it act in ways that allowed us to eventually beat it. Frankly, I'd rather suffer a TPK than get a pity win. But in any event, placing the garaggakal there was a terrible decision idea by the adventure writer. I guess I can chalk it up to the difficulties with appropriately scaling difficulty in a brand new game, but I feel like just eyeballing what it can do versus what four average Level 2 PCs can do shows it's likely to be a big problem that leaves a sour taste in the mouth moving forward. And that's where the adventure concludes--there's not an epilogue, because the action starts up immediately in the next volume of the AP, right when the PCs leave the Drift rock.

Overall, both as a player and a reader, I felt some disappointment with Incident at Absalom Station. There were some bits I really enjoyed (the investigation and dealing with the ambassador, for example), but the plot afterwards was pretty basic: a ghost ship followed by a space-dungeon crawl that I've seen a million times, in Starfinder Society scenarios and elsewhere. I was hoping that the first AP for the game would really hit things out of the park (like Rise of the Runelords) did for Pathfinder, but that just isn't the case. And the big boss encounter made it clear that the writers' expectations of what an average group can do is not realistic.

Good starting adventure, but not that good intro

3/5 —

So I'm having bit of problem with these reviews because I'm doing them while running the final book, so by now players' reactions and such isn't super fresh in my mind :p But at least my impressions have had time to age.

The adventures premise of "your contact got killed that ropes you into plot between two factions competing for same thing" and gags involved in it IS interesting.... But have no relevance to rest of the plot at all, so it all feels kind of... Irrelevant?

If Dead Suns is structured like a scifi action adventure movie, this book is essentially pre credit roll intro thing. Like Indiana Jones stea- err finding that golden idol and having it stolen by his evil counterpart. Except instead of lasting 5-10 minutes, it lasts for one sixth of the story.

(that said, actual adventure is fun, I like use of akata and stuff in the drift rock in itself, but its weak overall plotwise when you look at the ap as whole. It does have interesting stuff like potential enemy you can turn to friend and I do like idea of drift rock's discovery setting you up on grand journey. Though this book has several moments of straight up railroading that feels unnecessary or like if it could have been written around differently)

P.S. Gevalarsk Nor is the best npc of this ap. I do find it bit of mixed bag in how its kept secret for gm what his subplot is actually about, but I do like it you can reasonable figure it out by paying close attention through entire ap.

I expected so much more from Paizo then this...

2/5 —

While I generally do not play published adventures, Incident at Absalom Station is exactly WHY I don't play published adventures.

Without spoiling too much of the plot, IaAS is a railroady, contrived adventure that tries to be a murder-mystery but was written by someone who clearly had no idea how to write a murder-mystery.

The book kicks off with the players being newly recruited Starfinder Society members that arrive only to see their Society contact get gunned down in front of them. What follows is a paint-by-numbers story of corporate intrigue that drags on for much longer then it needs to be. Five minutes of dice rolling and roleplaying, and most intelligent players will have found both the main suspect and the motive. But because the writing is contrived, the party still has to trudge through largely pointless filler and no, you cannot call on the Starfinder Society to help speed things up (remind me why we joined these guys again?)

After the initial mystery resolves itself with an unsatisfying bit of Deus Ex Machina, we get to the second half of the adventure, a fairly standard dungeon crawl. Other then the fact that the encounters as written are not balanced for a standard party of four level two adventurers, this actually isn't all that bad. And yes, there is errata available that makes the dungeon encounters more manageable. That one was on us.

I will not elaborate on the ending other then it is fittingly unsatisfying for an adventure that had little player agency and was horribly contrived almost from the get-go. For a company that had been writing adventures for 14 years before Dead Suns dropped, Paizo's first outing into the Pact Worlds should have been better then this.

Amazing adventure for starting a campaign

5/5 —

My party and I really loved this module, so far, the best in all the campaign!

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Vic Wertz wrote:
We have not announced an Organized Play component for Starfinder.

UPDATE: Now they have.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
1 person marked this as a favorite.
dragonvan wrote:
How many hours it usually took to finish a volume?

There's no good answer to that question—it's going to be very group-dependent, and since nobody in the general public has ever played through a Starfinder AP volume yet, we really can't even estimate the range at this time.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Akatas!!!! *Hides in the cupboard.*

Vic Wertz wrote:
We have not announced an Organized Play component for Starfinder.

Except you did.

Liberty's Edge
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber
IonutRO wrote:

Akatas!!!! *Hides in the cupboard.*

Vic Wertz wrote:
We have not announced an Organized Play component for Starfinder.
Except you did.

Slightly over a week after that post by Vic.(March 8th vs Feb 28th)

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Is the Codex of Worlds a section in the Core Rulebook, and if so, will each AP introduce a completely new world or expand on ones introduced in the Core Rulebook? I ask because I'm trying to get an idea about how much setting detail we're going to get on planets and locations off the bat.

Neat. Nice to have it ready for preordering.
Sovereign Court Senior Developer, Starfinder Team
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Opsylum wrote:
Is the Codex of Worlds a section in the Core Rulebook, and if so, will each AP introduce a completely new world or expand on ones introduced in the Core Rulebook? I ask because I'm trying to get an idea about how much setting detail we're going to get on planets and locations off the bat.

No, the Codex of Worlds is a section in the Adventure Path, though it does reflect the way planets are presented in the Core Rulebook. There was only so much space for new planets in the Core Rulebook, however, so the plan is for the AP to introduce new planets to gradually expand the setting and provide more worlds for GMs to add to their own games.

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Are there any plans to provide something akin to a Players Guide for the Starfinder APs?
Sovereign Court Senior Developer, Starfinder Team
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zag01 wrote:
Are there any plans to provide something akin to a Players Guide for the Starfinder APs?

There are no plans at this point for Player's Guides for the Starfinder APs. One of the main reasons for Pathfinder AP Player's Guides is to highlight some of the options for players from a wide variety of Paizo products. Since Starfinder itself is brand new, all of the player options are right there in the Core Rulebook, making a Player's Guide significantly less useful.

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Robert G. McCreary wrote:
zag01 wrote:
Are there any plans to provide something akin to a Players Guide for the Starfinder APs?
There are no plans at this point for Player's Guides for the Starfinder APs. One of the main reasons for Pathfinder AP Player's Guides is to highlight some of the options for players from a wide variety of Paizo products. Since Starfinder itself is brand new, all of the player options are right there in the Core Rulebook, making a Player's Guide significantly less useful.

I think it'd be worth doing a Player's Guide, even if only as a blog post like James Jacobs did for the hardcover Curse of the Crimson Throne. Player's Guides are a great thing to circulate to potential players to get them interested in an adventure path, and they (ideally) give a concise overview of the setting and the general types of adventures that players can expect. Plus, it's always cool to have a couple of traits (or the Starfinder equivalent) that are available *only* to characters in that adventure path--a kind of special bonus. And as (hopefully) the years go by and more Starfinder APs come out, groups trying to decide which one to play may base their decisions on the Player's Guides because they know there won't be spoilers in them. That's my 2 space credits anyways . . .

Liberty's Edge
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it's possible that traits themselves won't have much role to play in Starfinder, with that design space now being occupied by themes.

That said, I also like Player's Guides as player-aimed "expectation management" documents and ways to bring characters into the story beyond "You all meet in the (weird alien filled) cantina."
Dark Archive
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A free 10-20 pages "Players Guide" is a great way to introduce people to Starfinder.
Include a pre-gen (iconic?) for every character class and explain the setting on one page and why the characters are on Absalom Station in the first place and you have a great way of getting into the game for players without having to read anything in the Core Rules before.
The GM can fill in the blanks and explain the rules further during the game.

This is much better than having every player read the CRB before, something that´s not going to happen with a lot of people anyway in my experience. ;-)

Hey, I think they updated the picture. I like that picture of them, wonder if Keskodai is projecting that field around them.

Akatas. Why did it have to be akatas?
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

I agree with the fact that a small player guide would be nice. I know it's a tool that really make it easier for character information when I pass it to my players. The core book will be something that I will probably still be going through to help prepare the first game.

At worst, all that we need is a 1 page or 2 to help create their background. Some basic history and information about the "world", general info about the races and classes, and the basic gear. most of it could be a copy/paste from the core book and the adventure path. Heck, I'd even be willing to pay 5$ for a pdf version if it makes my job easier at character creation.

Something to think about...
Iobaria Jones wrote:
Akatas. Why did it have to be akatas?

The moonflowers were busy two systems over.

Scarab Sages
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

Can we add this our subscriptions yet?

I am really fine with the release schedule. One part every 2 month is great.

Usually my group and i meet 2-3 times a month and an Pathfinder Adventure Path Part takes 5-7 gaming sessions so we usually play a bit more than one year on a whole path.

It always bothers me that there are so many great stories but less time to play them all. With one path for one full year its much better.

The only problem now is that we do not have enough time to play Starfinder AND Pathfinder :-)

I do not like the reduction regarding content. Shorten it from 96 to 64 pages means either the adventure itself is way shorter or the additional informations were cut out.
Exspecially the latter ones were very nice. When i need additional stuff and informations i do not have to read a lot of books first or search the books while players are waiting. I have all in one book. I know there are enough source books out there but when we meet not everybody has all the books with them anytime.

Maybe its not necessary for Starfinder but i wished it would not have been let out. I will buy the other books nevertheless but have it handy all in one would have been great.

Also i am really disappointed that there is no players guide. A players guide provides a lot of informations for the atmosphere in a compact way. For me a players guide was always a GM tool to get the main informations shortened in one small book. I do not have to search a lot of campaign settings or whatever. I can look there if i need additional informations but a short overview is always appreciated.

Exspecially in Starfinder where is not so much source books and informations available yet i would have seen a short information about the campaign background. I would have been a great tool to copy single pages to give them to the players and have an easy tool to provide background information every character has already.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

It strikes me that a simple Player's Guide would be a great community peoject to post on the forums once the first AP chapter is published, as an aid to future GMs running it. I might do something like that myself, since I'm probably going to be writing such a thing for my players when it comes out.

I think that campaigns will have different pace-after all,mant things that would be challenge in PF will be trivialized in Starfinder.
Grand Lodge
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I would prefer the name Starfinder Federation as opposed to Starfinder Society personally.
Sovereign Court
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Robert G. McCreary wrote:
zag01 wrote:
Are there any plans to provide something akin to a Players Guide for the Starfinder APs?
There are no plans at this point for Player's Guides for the Starfinder APs. One of the main reasons for Pathfinder AP Player's Guides is to highlight some of the options for players from a wide variety of Paizo products. Since Starfinder itself is brand new, all of the player options are right there in the Core Rulebook, making a Player's Guide significantly less useful.

The first two player's guides were great ways of introducing the setting to new players.

They also served to help make characters that would be motivated to engage with the AP.
Dark Archive

I think everyone would love a Players Guide.

I think it may be a "not enough time to write one for the entire campaign"(part 6 out in april 2018) issue.

None the less, i wish we would get a 10 page introduction pg for book 1 including a map of Absalom at least, so people know roughly what to expect.
Dark Archive

I just pre-ordered the entire first six AP issues at my localk flagstore (along with pretty much every other Starfinder product announced so far).

Now i am wondering what the street date for the august products will be?

I´m guessing wednesday 30th...

August 17th. :-)
Liberty's Edge

I assumed that it was an Android in the cover, but looking closer, It appears to be a human with flayed skin.
Acquisitives
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Sad about the lack of a player's guide. Hopefully there can be like a blog post or something like that to give guidance for someone creating a character for the AP. Nothing fancy, just a few suggestions about character origin and maybe some vague hints about what's to come.

I really like that 2 month scheduling though.
Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager
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Hello, quick update. PZO7201 Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6) is going to be moving from Preorder to Backorder. However, because we are in the midst of generating our orders for August subscriptions, I cannot get the backorder function to work. I will turn on backordering as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.

~sara marie
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Sara Marie wrote:
Hello, quick update. PZO7201 Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6) is going to be moving from Preorder to Backorder.

!!!

But my subscription shipment is good, right.
Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Yup! If you've already subscribed or preordered through paizo.com you should be all set.

Oh yes, I both preordered and subscribed as soon as it was available. :-)
Joana wrote:
Sara Marie wrote:
Hello, quick update. PZO7201 Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6) is going to be moving from Preorder to Backorder.
!!!

Pretty amazing. Hats off to all concerned. :)

I'm so bummed this product has moved to back order. I was just about to order my StarFinder lot with everything... Ugh one day too late it seems.
Dark Archive

I ordered the entire AP one month ago via my local shop.

If i won´t get AP #1 though, my interest will drop very fast...

Odd Question - I've never really done an adventure path before. I love reading rules and world info. If I am playing the adventure - is the non-adventure material with the new world, aliens, Magical relics or the Absalom station info spoil any of the adventure?
Scarab Sages Developer, Starfinder Team
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The monsters in the Alien Archives section of the material in the back could be seen as spoilers for the adventure.
Paizo Employee Pathfinder Society Lead Developer
Lord Mhoram wrote:

Odd Question - I've never really done an adventure path before. I love reading rules and world info. If I am playing the adventure - is the non-adventure material with the new world, aliens, Magical relics or the Absalom station info spoil any of the adventure?

The articles in the back of Adventure Path volumes often support the adventure in some way, though that's usually a spoiler of an "I guess this adventure will include stone giants and someone who worships Besmara because there are articles about those topics" than it's likely to spoil the plot of the adventure. Each volume's a little different.

Owen, John - thanks for the answers.

And I'll skip the monsters. :)
Sovereign Court

So, I've now purchased this product: eagerly awaiting shipping so I can download and get reading.
Liberty's Edge
Sara Marie wrote:
Yup! If you've already subscribed or preordered through paizo.com you should be all set.

Well, shoot!

I was just about to preorder this :(
Do you have any idea when it will go from 'Backorder' to 'Available again? I assume that really means I'm asking if you know how soon this will be reprinted ...

Thanks!!!
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Marc Radle wrote:
Sara Marie wrote:
Yup! If you've already subscribed or preordered through paizo.com you should be all set.

Well, shoot!

I was just about to preorder this :(
Do you have any idea when it will go from 'Backorder' to 'Available again? I assume that really means I'm asking if you know how soon this will be reprinted ...

Thanks!!!

You may wish to check out this post by Sara Marie:

Sara Marie wrote:

Hello, quick update for anyone who has NOT signed up for a Starfinder Adventure Path subscription and is thinking about it: PZO7201 Incident at Absalom Station (Dead Suns 1 of 6) is going to be moving from Preorder to Backorder on paizo.com.

If you subscribe to the Starfinder Adventure Path before Dead Suns #2 subscription order creation date, Estimated Sept, 28th, and you would like to receive Dead Suns #1 as part of your subscription, you can email customer service and we will add a backordered subscription copy to ship with the first subscription shipment after the product is available.

Realistically, this means that if you choose to subscribe with #2 and get a backordered copy of #1, your copy of #1 may not end up shipping for several months.
Because the free subscription PDF is tied to your subscription product fulfilled in our system, this means you would also not get your free PDF right away.
If you choose to purchase the PDF of #1 when it releases for sale on or after August 17th, you may request a refund in store credit when your backordered physical copy has been processed for shipping.*

*This refund is only available to be processed as store credit, for individuals who:

  • subscribe to the Starfinder Adventure Path line beginning with AP#2
  • opt in (by contacting customer service) to waiting for a backordered subscription copy of SF AP #1 before Sept 28th, 2017
  • have purchased a PDF version of SF AP#1
  • contact us to request a refund at or after their order containing AP#1 is processed for shipping.

If you choose to purchase AP#1 from a retailer other than paizo.com we cannot make that part of your subscription. You will need to purchase the PDF separately.

If you have any questions, just ask: customer.service@paizo.com, 425-250-0800, Customer Service Forum.

ckdragons wrote:

bimothly = 2/month or every 2 months?

Bimonthly is every two months. Biweekly is 2/month.

Liberty's Edge

Does this mean that the AP sold better than paizo expected?
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Paladinosaur wrote:
Does this mean that the AP sold better than paizo expected?

Most likely yes.

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Marc Radle wrote:
Sara Marie wrote:
Yup! If you've already subscribed or preordered through paizo.com you should be all set.

Well, shoot!

I was just about to preorder this :(
Do you have any idea when it will go from 'Backorder' to 'Available again? I assume that really means I'm asking if you know how soon this will be reprinted ...

Thanks!!!

Unsure actually. It appears that it was not as easy as I suspected, we don't usually have backorders on Paizo products that are still in the preorder phase.

Sovereign Court
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I think this deserves a celebratory blog post.
Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager

If you preordered AP #1 and are now (after July 27th) subscribing, ping customer service.

Will there be any copies of AP #1 at the Paizo booth at GenCon for people who are not picking up a pre-order?
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber

Ok, so I need to get Dead Suns 1 from a different source and buy the pdf seperately when its release.

Since I am going all out and getting all subscriptions, how do they know to add the Starfinder Society subscription for free??
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