Starfinder Society Scenario #1-03: Yesteryear's Truth

Ran at 1-2 Tier.

Overall I really enjoyed the focus on diplomatic role-play. There is a lot of nuance in guiding how to portray the Ghibrani and can be a lot of fun when you take the time to improv the interactions.

Our group decided to skip the Starship combat altogether as it did shape up to look like a tedious grind like everyone else is saying, and I'm sure my opinion of the scenario would have suffered if we bothered to slog through it.

My one major frustration is that the summary at the beginning of the scenario is referenced multiple times by what the Ghibrani know (or not know) about their planet's past, but the information isn't organized in a clear way so it requires the GM to reread the lore over and over to know who knows what. I felt that this could have been organized better, and that I would've been able to integrate the multiple aspects of the lore into the RP if it was.

This scenario had a perfect premise for the Wayfinders, first contact with a new species. Unfortunately, it is marred by a couple plot points and combat issues.
Played and ran this one in the 1-2 tier.

Combat issues:

Plot points

Very solid and you get a taste of all things Starfinder should be about. Space combat was good, very good RP elements, combat was fine, and loved the dilemma at the end. Very nice boon as well.

Based only on story, this scenario is my favorite SFS scenario that I've ran or played so far (everything up through 1-04). However, some confusing, time-consuming combats make the overall rating suffer a bit (particularly the starship combat).

Starship combat

Terrestrial combat

Story

This evening I had the opportunity to play Yesteryear's Truth for myself, and consider what others had said about it in previous reviews. The title of this review says it all: Yesteryear's Truth has good ideas held back by poor writing and execution and, probably, an under-prepared GM.

Yesteryear's Truth begins with a meeting with a forgettable Venture-Captain who provides pretty minimal information and pushes you on your way. Another VC stops you to give you a tech item which gets invalidated pretty quickly, and honestly seems to be more of a bane than a boon (which is disappointing for an asset).

The scenario has about three combats in it, all of which are flavorless and droll. The starship combat, which I've found to be more a tedious chore than a white-knuckled dogfight, was made interesting by the introduction of multiple enemies, but bad luck and an understaffed ship (we were running with a barely legal table) dragged it out into a tedious grind.

The second and third combats don't pick-up. Enemies have no character, and the second fight even has the gall to take place in a completely empty map. Given how critical cover and elevation is to not getting hit in this game, it seems like an oversight to throw the players into a 24-by-36 space with nothing else to work with.

The story is where this path gets most of its stars from, although even this seemed more interesting in theory. The author did a good job of making the new alien race that inhabited the planet seem, well, alien, complete with missing concepts like "curiosity" and "peace." This actually led to some great moments in conversation where we roleplayed our struggle to communicate our alien concepts to them.

However, as fun as this was, it was all a bit superficial. None of what we did counted for squat, and in the end we would up just walking straight into the one place we were told was taboo to go, with no resistance or threat of punishment.

In reviews I've read of various Starfinder scenarios, authors compare the themes in the scenario to popular TV shows. "Fugitive of the Red Planet" was compared to Firefly. This one was compared to "Star Trek." Heck, that conversation happened at our table, too.

The reason I bring this up is because it seems to me as if Starfinder Scenarios are too preoccupied with evoking the particular media that inspired them, and not demonstrating enough ownership over the in-game universe and it's lore. In some regards, I understand that. This is a very new product, and authors are still finding their voice within the setting without wanting to rock the boat too hard. But that trepidation is holding back what could be some great stories.

Hopefully moving forward, scenario authors can be more comfortable crafting stories with actual consequences. Stories that are more than toothless evocations of particular shows, and more narratives that present the questions and themes that have defined the Sci-Fi genre.

One last gripe about the scenario, since I must get it off my chest. The scenario is too reliant on its own unspoken internal logic when passing out rewards. We wound-up missing a reward, simply because the idea of doing what we needed to get it never occurred to us. Heck, there weren't even any context clues to tell us about the valuables.