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:
Nice adventure, if you set aside the fact that level 1 PCs are recruted for this crucial task.
The end is the weak part. It's a space dungeon. Fine with that. But it's horribly designed, as if casting aside decades of dungeon design. The rooms are barren, minuscule (go fit a sniper in a 25' room!), and often bypassable. Also, it's just fight after fight with no interesting way to affect them - eventhough some are ripe for social, mystical or technical interaction; would have been a good way to mitigate their difficulty.
Also, as usual, zero effort put to mitigate repeated rests. There's basically nothing that prevents the heroes from sleeping it out after each encounter.
Loot is also very weird. There's salvageable stuff in unexpected places (e.g. a bar), and none in others (a filled cargo hold).
Incident at Absalom Station can best be summed up as serviceable but dry. All the necessary bits and pieces are in place and the adventure does a good job of providing a variety of both combat and skill challenges. But the adventure as written lacks the vibrant characters, varied combat scenarios and absorbing plots that I've come to appreciate and expect from Paizo's Pathfinder AP line.
Some Negatives (includes spoilers):
Poor motivation in-character: PCs are often doing things for purely mercenary reasons rather than in response to a dramatic event that motivates them both in and out of character. PCs have no attachment to Duravor (he dies before they know him), subsequent events are all just 'jobs' the party agrees to do. Relies heavily on PCs wanting to join the Starfinder Society in part 1, but the Society is hardly involved in parts 2 and 3. It also does a poor job of showing in-setting why it would be worth joining the Society.
No Player Guide means poor context: Without a Player's Guide, Player Characters are not well integrated into the setting. Players don't have background knowledge/context necessary to interact richly with the melting pot that is Absalom Station. This is a new setting and one without traditional fantasy elements to fall back on to do the heavy lifting. It REALLY needs to provide background info to the players so that they know what is and isn't normal (and what options might be out there).
Lack of depth to Non-player characters: Most Pathfinder APs have some NPCs that are richly fleshed out in the book, are given enough of a background that the GM can breathe life into them with ease. In Dead Suns, none of the NPCs are given that kind of write-up. The GM has no context for why the Ambassador is doing what he's doing, or why Eskolar is where she is, or what kind of person Chiskisk is. The shorter length to the book is certainly partly to blame, but it also suffers from having to carry a lot of Absalom Station background instead of adventure-specific background.
The adventure doesn't stand on its own: The players tackle disparate tasks that lead them to discovering that the drift rock has mysterious alien technology inside. The discovery plays no role in the resolution of the adventure, its effectively just there for flavor. As a result, there isn't much of an arc to the story here and there's no big villain. The players are left with a few mysteries, but very little to engage with until Book 2.
The combats are dry: There are many encounters in this book, but almost all of them are straight-forward brawls: PCs and one to two enemies in an empty room or hallway, trading blows until one of them falls. The enemies fought are all simple (and most are unintelligent), with a single attack and very basic tactics. The environments are not conducive to interesting movement or positioning either.
Some Positives (Includes spoilers):
As an intro to the Starfinder system, its a good package. A simple adventure that manages to hit a broad assortment of the system's mechanics. Zero-G combat, starship combat, skill challenges, ranged and melee combat, diseases, etc. It covers a lot of ground!
Laying the groundwork well. It does a good job of setting up the core concerns of the AP, though PCs probably won't realize it for a while. The Eoxian role in things, the corpse fleet, the Stellar Degenerator. All of these are teased or interacted with in this adventure.
A good intro to the Setting: It keeps things basic, but provides the GM with enough useful information about Absalom Station to flesh out the world.
I am absolutely unable to understand why this adventure has such a low rating. Of course, there are a lot of clichés of science fiction and space horror, but, in fact, what did you expect? Personally, I have received only pleasure while recognised in various scenes familiar moments, clearly inspired by favorite classic books and movies (I would say that there is "Blade Runner" or "Total Recall" meets "Aliens"). The plot, as in all parts of the "Alien" movies is fairly predictable, but again it's a such genre. I put a solid 5 and be happy to play on!
I like this adventure a lot.
It starts in media res, and with a bang.
Goes on to have a very rich investigation and interaction part, where you get to discover Absalom Station, the Startfinder Society and the world of the game.
Then things get spooky and spookier and harder and harder!
You get some space combat, so fighting in 0 G etc..
A bit of everything, but with a nice storyline, that keeps you interested as things get harder and harder!
Stellar Introduction to Starfinder: Don't Listen to the Naysayers
Wow, I'm really blown away by the negative reviews of this adventure. I've run it twice now as the GM, and everyone -- players and GM alike -- had a great time. And both groups approached the adventure in different ways. I really agree with the other reviewer who said that it's well structured. It's a fun introduction to the new mechanics of the Starfinder game as well as to the flavor and backstory of the game world, starting with the "Grand Central Station" of the Starfinder universe.
If you're going to be a player, avoid reading:
Spoiler:
The adventure was well structured into 5 parts: (2) start off with a bang in a combat with two evil sets of gang members, (2) murder mystery while getting to know the space station, (3) small, introductory spaceship battle, (4) explore the derelict spaceship, then (5) explore the mysterious "asteroid." One negative review said this adventure was a "dungeon crawl" but that ignores 60% of the adventure because, if anything, only parts 4 and 5 could possibly feel like a dungeon crawl.
I thought it was really smart to start with a chaotic battle, then quickly shift to a murder mystery requiring ROLE PLAYING. To the negative reviewer complaining that no one in the party had ranks in Diplomacy, you get no sympathy here. RPGs are not just about shooting aliens. The GM definitely should read up on the gazetteer in the back of the book about Absalom Station, and let the players explore the space station. After the first fight, the players just kept investigating and exploring Absalom Station. For instance at one point, the "xenoseeker" insisted on going into a nightclub and just chatting up aliens. I pulled out the Alien Archive and described for the PCs skittermanders dancing it up, a shobhad lurking in a corner, the alien guys who have 7 sexes, etc. etc.
One suggestion for GMs in the first fight: I just said each gang accidentally shot one PC: that way the PCs could feel motivated to attack one or both sides, shrug it off as merely inadvertent and try to take cover, focus on helping the dwarf, focus on helping innocent bystanders, etc. In one of my games, the lashunta used his detect thoughts racial power to figure out which gang was "more evil" and then the PCs focused on killing them.
One negative reviewer said there is no villain on the asteroid, which I really don't understand. There are two key villains: a big nasty monster (BBEG) lurking in the cave complex, and the assassin against whom they had a space battle prior to landing on the asteroid. If the PCs win the space battle, the assassin crash lands on the asteroid to hunt them down. If the PCs lose the space battle (unlikely) they can still limp to the spaceship and asteroid, and the assassin still can track them down to get them. I liked how the adventure left how you ran the assassin pretty open-ended because, hey, she isn't even straight up evil.
I listened to the Roll for Combat podcast too. They're playing the whole adventure, and I learned some tips and insights from that too.
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.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path 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.
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.
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.
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 . . .
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."
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. ;-)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, 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.
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.
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?
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.
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 ...
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, 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 ...
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.
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.