Starfinder Society Scenario #1-09: Live Exploration Extreme!

NO SPOILERS

I ran this at Subtier 1-2 using the four-player adjustment. Live Exploration Extreme! was a blast to play, with lots of natural laughs provided by clever in-game elements. One of the things I liked best is that the scenario takes advantage of modern technology and culture to tell a story that would be impossible to replicate in traditional sword-and-sorcery fantasy. It has surprising depth, however, and unlocks an intriguing setting for countless scenarios in the future. If I had a complaint, it's that the combat encounters were too easy. Still, this is one of the best and most memorable scenarios of the season to date.

SPOILERS

The scenario starts in a very different way to most, and it was a fun and refreshing change. Instead of the standard mission briefing, the PCs are escorted aboard a luxury cruise ship orbiting the "false moon" Salvation's End from the very first Starfinder Society scenario (# 1-00 "Claim to Salvation"). There, they see a holocam (television) studio has been set up with room for a live audience. The First Seeker is present, as is Zo!, the famous media mogul and reality t.v. show host who just so happens to be undead (in nice foreshadowing, Zo! was first introduced in # 1-05 "The First Mandate"). The PCs learn that after the Scoured Stars incident, one of the few ways Luwazi could raise money to rebuild the Society was to accept funding and investments from outside sources--including Zo! The two had made a deal that Zo! would fund several initial expeditions of interesting sites if the SFS would give him the rights to film any subsequent exploration. So, to make a long-story short, the PCs are about to become reality show stars! They'll be followed on their exploration of the tunnels in the false moon by a film crew documenting their every move for a live broadcast.

The underlying premise is fantastic fun, and it's implemented really well. The camera crew sometimes gets in the way of the action during battles, there are audience "insta-polls" giving opinions on what the PCs should do, and even "The Booth" where, periodically through the scenario, a PC is taken aside for a direct interview to give their true opinions on their companions and what's been happening. All of it ties together into a metric of how well each PCs plays to their established holocam persona and (ultimately) their favourability rating with the audience. In the session I ran, the players found great joy in dishing dirt in The Booth, asking what the audience thought they should do next in the insta-polls, and reading the "twitter feed" equivalent comments about them.

As for the adventure itself, the party's expedition into the tunnels soon leads them into a battle against some goblins and an interesting new monster whose iridescent hide can blind opponents if they shoot laser weapons at it. The goblins have just blasted a hole into a new chamber, and further exploration leads the PCs to a very strange sight: dwarves dressed in archaic armor and wielding archaic weapons. The dwarves don't speak Common, which is a really nice touch that made for a surprisingly important element in what happened in my session. Only one of the PCs (not one with much skill in Diplomacy) could communicate with the dwarves and was unable to persuade them that the PCs were friendly, so a fight broke out. I like to see languages, which usually are mostly forgotten about on a character sheet, make a difference.

One way or another, the PCs can follow the dwarves or their their tracks back to their camp where people are in a panic because a fissure has just opened up and part of the cavern ceiling has collapsed, trapping their priest inside the tribe's temple. Assuming the party is willing to help out, they have a battle against some mysterious synthetic oozes that seem to be leaking from a high-tech pipe that was burst in the collapse. The oddity of the dwarves' "Pathfinder-era" level of technology is exacerbated when the PCs have time for a full conversation with them and learn that they've been (or at least think they've been) on a millennia-long Quest for Sky as mandated by their god Torag (a deity known to have disappeared in the Gap) and that they think space goblins (whom they've clashed with recently) are their legendary enemies the orcs! Here's where there could be a lot of speculation about what's going on. Have the dwarves been kidnapped and brainwashed? Are they robots? Are they really remnants of missing Golarion somehow transported to Salvation's End? It's a great mystery hook. It fell flat in the game I ran because most of my players hadn't heard of the Quest for Sky, Torag's disappearance, etc., but in a game with players steeped in Pathfinder/Starfinder world lore, it should be really effective.

The rescued dwarf priest believes that his people have nearly achieved their Quest for Sky, but that their further passage is blocked by a cloud of poisonous gas in the tunnel above. Assuming the PCs assist him, they fight another encounter with space goblins, with this one featuring a fun boss with rocket-jets in his powered armor. They then come across a mysterious door and, on the other side, realize the stunning truth: the dwarves' "Quest for Sky" is an experiment/simulation that mechanically reproduced Golarion's Darklands (with live, unknowing participants), and that there are countless other simulations of different types operating in countless other chambers within Salvation's End! It's a great "what the heck!?!" twist ending that should get your players talking.

So overall, I thought the story for Live Exploration Extreme! was fantastic, and the reality show premise was implemented in a really clever way. The combats were a bit of a let-down as, frankly, space goblins just aren't very dangerous. The ease of the encounters was the one complaint voiced by my players. I'll also note that for the first couple of encounters, it's confusing to figure out where the PCs start on the map and there's not really room (or line of sight) for everything that's described in the set-up. On the whole though, this is a scenario to be savored and sets up a host of possibilities for future exploration of Salvation's End with (hopefully) more reality-show fun.

Hearing a lot of mixed reviews about Starfinder as a whole, but one thing I stand by is that the adventures thus far pretty innovative and garner some great role-playing at the table. Played this with my icon and had a terrific time!

I have to admit, I went in knowing the premise of the scenario and thinking I would own it, yet once in, this adventure was NOT what I expected. Kudos for surprising me, Paizo.

I hope to write a more in-depth review in the not-too-distant future, but the title of my review will stand on its own for the time being.

Players - you are in for a real treat if your GM is prepared!

GMs - I found this scenario took a little bit longer to prep than previous Starfinder Society offerings. If you have the time to invest in a few sound bytes (even if it's just a short youtube playlist queued up on your phone), you can draw your players in even more! (Personal favorite for "Showtime" fanfare - Sure Promise from The Big O).

Again - absolutely amazingly fun. I would GM this every week if given the opportunity!

I enjoy a good roleplaying scenario but the party felt it was more forced than genuine. The big brother feel appeals to those who are into that genre. The scenario is well paced and filled with decent encounters.

This scenario has an interesting story, engaging NPCs and interesting interactions with the lore of the world. That alone would normally be enough to earn it a thoroughly good rating - however, it also has an extremely entertaining premise that continues throughout the scenario, which elevates it to certainly 5 stars territory!