A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4.
Recovering from its recent trials in the Scoured Stars, the Starfinder Society finds itself the target of a vicious media smear campaign. To combat this unexpected threat, the Society sends a group of agents to build up some standing in the Pact Worlds by taking part in a series of televised events orchestrated by the undead media mogul, Zo!. What these heroic agents don't know, is that their competition is willing to do whatever it takes to stop them from restoring the Society's tattered image.
Content in Pact World Warriors begins the Year of a Thousand Bites storyline.
This was an even better scenario that last season's Zo! mission. Everyone at our table enjoyed the different competitions, with plenty of opportunities to contribute. They were all very creative ideas and the time limits seemed about right, for the in-game combat rounds.
The only downside was it being very difficult to complete in the normal 5 hour time slot.
Looking forward to a future scenario with a Zo! game show involving starship combat, or maybe some vehicle chases.
Regarding this scenario, I am a little bit of a divided opinion. The most obvious point which has been pointed out many times now is the length of the scenario: We needed more than 7 hours to complete it, and we still had to rush in the last encounter. But lets go over it section-wise.
First Event: Obstacle Course
Spoiler:
Good: This was really fun! There were quite a few different challenges, and a really interesting setup, which kept me very entertained. The time limit of 15 rounds is appropriate, not too easy and not too hard to manage. Only one of my six-character-party did not make it to the end.
Bad: Most of the challenges are based on Acrobatics and Athletics, none of which my character (Pregen Raia, but level 2) is good or even decent at. Meaning, most of the time I was a dead weight for my party, and had to be rescued from the quicksand, and then again helped over the lava. It was so bad that the combat with the factory slime was already over before I managed to climb the cliff... A bit more balance regarding the challenges would have been appreciated. Maybe a little puzzle or something like that.
Ugly: As other before me have said, many of the encounters of the obstacle course are very deadly for level 1 characters, and still very dangerous on level 2. Three of our six-character-party (2 level 1s, 4 level 2s) barely made it out alive. While this keeps the spirit of the "Pact World Warriors"-Show, it still is quite hard. And with only a short break after the Obstacle Course and not many healing options, this made us all worry for our characters.
Second Event: Combat Cooking
Spoiler:
Good: I was quite excited for this event. I mean, how often does one get to cook in battle? Sadly, the idea was a lot better than the actual Event.
Bad: Basically, this Event burned down to "kill three monsters, make some checks, then do a teensy bit of RP". It was a little bit of a let-down. Why not find some herbs or fruit, with a few checks to identify them, or climb up a tree, or something like that, just to make it less combatty. Or choose creatures with a little more flavour or very different skill sets. Except for the Akata, which would have been very frustrating without the special knife from the box, the monsters were boring. The cooking itself could have been designed better: maybe some acrobatics to impress the judges, maybe some knowledge checks to cook something in a special way, not just engineering to use the kitchen and some sabotage.
Ugly: Nothing was exceptionally bad here. Well, except the Akata without the special Adamant-cutting knife :)
Third Event: Kill Count
Spoiler:
Good: Again, the idea was a good one. Having the Skeletons arrive in waves and not too close to the party was also a very good call.
Bad: The damage reduction was too high for this Subtier. Or the number of hit points, this depends on your view. In our party of six, the only ones to do any damage at all were me, with my very last spell slot, and one other character after we found the grenades. With a different party this probably would have gone differently.
Ugly: Most of the grenades were uselesse, doing not enough damage to even dent the skeletons. Only the fire grenades were useful. So, all in all, this Event felt very grindy, frustrating, and also a little boring. This was the Event which I would have cut from the scenario if I had the choice.
Fourth Event: Capture the Flag
Spoiler:
Good: I love the concept of this. Running around in an unfamiliar Starship, looking for treasure (aka the two flags), basically having a paintball-fight (with the non-deadly weapons). For the first time, our party was able to strategise a little (how to protect our flag, how to find the neutral flag, how to decimate the other team, which of the ones should we prioritise, etc). I wished the scenario had just give everyone a "paintball-gun" and said "two hits and you're out" or something like that.
Bad: Instead, this "non-deadly" rule just crippled all spellcasters. They could not cast any damage spells. And in zero gravity, none of the other spells to hinder opponents (e.g. entangle, grease) have no effect. (Its not like we had many spell slots left... all in all maybe 2 in the whole team) And of course, the other team was cheating, using spells with no visual effect to down us lethally, with no penalty! I think our GM was very friendly regarding movement in zero gravity, but we did not have as much problems with this as suggested in other reviews. Still, it was quite annoying.
Ugly: Nothing.
General comments:
Good: I loved the introduction of *insert very season-plot-relevant, important NPC here*. At first she seemed nice, if a bit random. And then, at the end of the scenario, totally creepy, in this deeply bone-chilling way. Really great! And of course we were all quite happy with the return of ZO! and the PCs-in-a-game-show-scenario.
Bad: This scenario was way too long. Two, maybe three of the Events would have sufficed. I also think this is what made Events 2 and 3 suffer a little bit, the ideas good but not fleshed out enough, with no enough room to roleplay. Also, Event 1 was maybe a little bit too deadly. Generally, a little bit of healing between the Events would have been nice. Or one long break between Events 2 and 3, to recover spell slots.
Ugly: Have I mentioned that this scenario was way too long?
Have you even playtested this scenario before publication?! And with first level pregenerated characters and players not knowing the script?! Forthcoming comments based on APL 1 party (subtier 1-2) playing this worst game-designed SFS scenario (and I have not GMed only ## 1-33, 1-37, 2-02)
Obstacle Course:
Spoiler:
Fun idea, colorful map, great opportunity for GM and players to mock and show off, but - mechanical difficulties!
Do you now of Game Mastering section of Core Rulebook and how it recommends building an encounter?
This is one single 15 rounds encounter with CR_1 trap\monster (ooze) (400XP) + CR_3 trap (electrogrid) (800XP) + CR_2 trap (force punch) (600XP) + CR_1 trap (laser blast) (400XP) = 2200 XP budget, almost CR 6 (and this is not considering heat elevator trap encounter + water drown encounter + cliff fall encounter + lava drop encounter). For APL 1 there is Epic difficulty (APL+3 CR) = 4 = 1200XP encounter budget. What are the chances to overcome CR 6 encounter for APL 1 party? In this not bad game design, especially for introductory scenario for new season?
Combat Cooking:
Spoiler:
Another fun idea, but despite different pictures monsters are the same here - no fun and different attacks or qualities, except akata`s affliction and vulnerability. So fighting them is boring. Cooking section is nice.
Kill Count:
Spoiler:
Most (and only) spectacular part of the encounter is randomized (1 on d6 for damaging explosion of skeleton and 6 on d6 for fireworks explosion), monsters are the same. Boring, especially in second wave.
Capture the Flag:
Spoiler:
Great map, fun idea of capturing flags, different opponents. But APL 1 party has little to no chance against moving in zero-g DC 20 checks to climb by the wall or to shook off off-kilter. So the see almost no of that map because simply can not move far enough!
And my personal grudge - not placing garrote on Chronicle Sheet is such a tease
All in all: plenty of good ideas worth almost two scenarios of time - and totally thrown to dumpster by too high DCs (in two parts of four) and boring placeholding monsters (in two parts of four).
You could have made it two scenarios: slightly longer part one, with crossing paths with second team and more scripted (written in scenario) speeches of hosts and crowd - and parts two-three-four as different scenario.
This is a fun scenario that has it all (well almost)! From the poc-marked surface of Eox to the deck of a mighty starship, this scenario will have your players racing against the clock. You'll need no less than three flip-mats
spoiler:
jungle, asteroid, and ghost ship
and a custom map. The custom map can be drawn by hand or handed out as a player handout.
There are effectively four sections to this scenario; with several challenges in each. Overall, the challenges are meaningful, well-designed, and have some great role-play aspects to them.
There's a lot of discussion on the duration of this scenario and the reviews will vary based on that. In my three runs, the first was 5.5hrs and the second two came in at just under 4hrs. It can be done; but GMs will need to pay close attention to the time and push players along if they get stuck.
Overall, this is a really great scenario for new players, has a variety of combat and skill challenges, and drops some interest plot-hooks for the upcoming season. Each of my three tables really enjoyed this scenario immensely and would play it again if they could.
Great Content, but far too much to cram into a 5 hour slot
So, of course its grand to come back to ZO and revisit the reality television concept but it seems to me that they took ideas, two of which at least could have been fine entire scenario length concepts (thinking the American Gladiators and Chopped segments), added two superfluous underdeveloped ideas (Capture the Flag and Whack-a-Ghoul) and then ALSO tried to seed some very important plot developments.
It's just way too much and in trying to fit all of it into one 5 hour slot(that Starfinder players are frankly used to ending in closer to 3 especially at this tier) means not fully getting to ENJOY or SAVOR much of this high quality content. You're just rushing from plot beat to plot beat trying to get everyone home to supper on time.
This is especially disappointing because Pact World Warriors could have easily been one of the perfect recruitment drive adventures and as it is now I cannot really use it in that capacity at all.
They wrote a sequel to the best Starfinder Scenario?
Will we find out Zoe! is the undead form of Grandmaster Torch?
Will these wacky competitions be sabotaged by Aspis Consortium Agent Snidely Whiplash?
All I know is when it comes time for the Confession-Cam, I didn't come here to make FRIENDS!
I have a group of newcomers to the game and we are playing a few scenarios before the special at GenCon. Will playing this beforehand spoil stuff from the special?
I have a group of newcomers to the game and we are playing a few scenarios before the special at GenCon. Will playing this beforehand spoil stuff from the special?
There’s a bit of background in this scenario that’s a very minor spoiler for the special, but overall I feel you’ll be able enjoy this adventure without any significant plot spoilers for #2-00.
Thanks John! They’ve played part of Into the Unknown. But, I thought it would be fun to expose them to some of the other scenarios y’all have done that really highlight that science fantasy encompasses space stations, starships, and aliens. But, it can also encompass reality television, pop stars, and so much more than people default to when they hear sci-fi or fantasy.
Ran this over the weekend, it was awesome! The players all said they loved it and its a nice kick off for the season. Follow it up with 2-02 like we did and it really gets your second season off to a good start. I can't wait to find out what happens in future scenarios!
Just played this yesterday. Everything was great until the final event. Environment slowed everything down to a crawl. Soooo many rounds spent just double moving over and over.
I played this and man is it bad..... written well but bad game mechanics.. our dm refused to do the final fight because it would be a tofal tpk with no chance of survival no clever answer no outside the box thinking just total death if he just did it as written. Even timed portions showed that it was shown to be bad you would need jump jets and it says that it is a level 1 to 4 at level 1 you got nothing.
I played this in my first organized play about three weeks ago. I thought it was a really fun adventure, and I think our gaming group is going to use it this year at our annual getaway [we need to be able to run more than one group at a time, and this scenario is perfect for that as a one shot]. We were able to get through the Zero-G in the last scenario just fine, well, in an awkward, bouncing off the walls kind of fine. I listen to a Starfinder Podcast and they went through a Zero-G scenario as well, and it was Grueling but, to be honest, it is one of the better Zero-G systems I have played. It would be really tough to fight in that environment unless you had specialized gear. I am looking forward to mayhem our two groups are going to have to face this fall.
This Scenario is marked as Repeatable in the reporting section, but dose not have the repeatable tag; obviously one of these is in error; which one is it?
I played this today, and it's poorly game designed. Dc was way too high for level 1 characters and filled with deadly trap that could kill off the level 1 out right. We played this with 3 of level 1 characters which one was pregen, and one level 2(total 4 pc characters). On the first event one of level 1 almost died and one other level 1 actually died, so gm had to stop the party to go further ,because he was afraid that it going to be TPK if we go on with 3pc
This scenario does not have 4 member party adjustment, the traps work like low level meat grinder.(after we failed scenario, we count oddes and rounds to figure out what went wrong and more and more we do math, it seems almost impossible to win the event as level1 characters that can not afford a jump jet)
If your party is mostly new level 1s and under six people party. I highly recommend to not to play this.
I am highly disappointed that this is start of the new season.
I played this today, and it's poorly game designed. Dc was way too high for level 1 characters and filled with deadly trap that could kill off the level 1 out right. We played this with 3 of level 1 characters which one was pregen, and one level 2(total 4 pc characters). On the first event one of level 1 almost died and one other level 1 actually died, so gm had to stop the party to go further ,because he was afraid that it going to be TPK if we go on with 3pc
This scenario does not have 4 member party adjustment, the traps work like low level meat grinder.(after we failed scenario, we count oddes and rounds to figure out what went wrong and more and more we do math, it seems almost impossible to win the event as level1 characters that can not afford a jump jet)
If your party is mostly new level 1s and under six people party. I highly recommend to not to play this.
I am highly disappointed that this is start of the new season.
My experience pretty much mirrored your own
spoilers ahead:
we almost died several times and we only pulled through because my character was 3rd level. There's nothing for a character with no acrobatics, athletics or jumpjets to do in the first and deadliest part. While the scenario provides you with a grappler to get over the first wall, it won't help much when trying to skip over the lava and falling into certain death. The second challenge feels like it could be cut entirely and the last part feels like the adventure is actively cheating as the enemies seem to have gone through the same ordeal as you have but are somehow at full spell/resolve point/HP capacity. They have also bugged your flag and use actual harmful spells on you despite it being against the rules.
Finally, this scenario runs too long! There needs to be a warning prior to it as some people might not have 5-6 hours to spare.
Do not play this scenario without the specific skills it calls out for.
Organized Play Lead Developer
