A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1-4.
A missing Starfinder ship's distress signal would have gone unnoticed were it not for a passerby detecting it and selling the information to the Society. The PCs are to travel to the crippled starship, and once aboard, reach the bridge in order to piece together the tragic story of the vessel's lost crew. Only by unraveling the mysteries of the drifting starship can the PCs hope to uncover information critical to the Exo-Guardians future operations.
Content in Cries From the Drift also contributes to the ongoing goals of the Exo-Guardians faction.
Written by Joe Pasini.
Scenario Tags: Faction (Exo-Guardians), Starship
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Well, Starfinder society seems to be running the gamut of sci-fi tropes in a good way (lots of homages). 1-02 has a little 'Firefly' in it, 1-03 is reminiscent of original series Star Trek, and now we have some sort of Dead Space kind of vibe.
The scenario starts off with a space combat that is different than every other space combat so far, in that it's not super high stakes, but is still fun and interesting (that's in addition to the rather unique environmental hazard.) Then you board a derelict ship with some damage and a dark history. If properly GMed you have a super creepy haunted ship with a mystery to solve and some mild puzzle elements. Tough fights, good role-play opportunities, oozing with atmosphere. Plus it plays into the season-long story arc and has a lot of tie-ins to other season 1 scenarios, so there's a great feeling of continuity.
It really only looses a star because the space combat is kinda forced, and while fun, it doesn't fit the tone with the rest of the scenario. Additionally, one of the fights can be real tough if your party goes straight to it, as some of the pregens are completely incapable of dealing with it. Half of our party just stood around and did nothing while it just tore into the rest of our party, which was not fun for either side.
This adventure, when I played it, was completely boring.
I played it in Starfinder and there is such a high emphasis on Engineering and Computers that I just didn't have. As a Solarian I felt completely worthless and useless in this game. The Space Combat was interesting, everything else was a complete snooze. I seriously felt like I could have left the table and had no impact on the game. That is bad adventure design.
There should always be significant things for any type of character. Not just those who chose to be "Skill Monkeys" which we had. So the rest of us sat back useless as one character had a +10 to +12 in every skill. It was not fun and I just wanted it to end.
Sorry you felt that way. There are fewer skills in Starfinder, and some classes (like the Operative) that gets so many skill points and inherent bonuses to skills that it is easy for them to be good at pretty much everything. Still, that being said, I've run this adventure and there's lot of role-playing to be had in figuring out what to do next (and how to do it), not to mention some really exciting combats.
Sorry you felt that way. There are fewer skills in Starfinder, and some classes (like the Operative) that gets so many skill points and inherent bonuses to skills that it is easy for them to be good at pretty much everything. Still, that being said, I've run this adventure and there's lot of role-playing to be had in figuring out what to do next (and how to do it), not to mention some really exciting combats.
The fight against the "big threat" lasted 1 round. Literally it died before acting.
The other one took 3 rounds.
There wasn't much room for roleplaying because the skill monkeys just rolled to know *everything* and thus... Well aside from the brief conversation with the Vesk... Nothing for me to do.
My recommendations would be for there to have been damaged portions of the ship where physical things such as Strength checks and Athletics checks would have been useful.
Maybe have a tear in the hull, or something where characters have to jump it? Or a door that can only be opened via strength? Something so more physical characters don't go for 2+ hours without being able to do any rolls aside from "assist" all the time.
