Starfinder Society Scenario #2-03: The Withering World

It's alright, but the pacing could have been much better. While each quest is connected, they somehow still feel a bit loose.

It has a very interesting concept to it, the planet that should not exist! It just feels like it's missing something. It's not bad, but there's something not there that prevents this from being great. Can't really point it out.

The combats are pretty straightforward, skill challenge sections are alright, the starship combat section is fun (surprising I know!) and there's some good roleplay facilitation thanks to one of the NPCs.

I will grant that the constituent parts are all competently done and three out of five of them are even compelling, but they don't fit together very well at all, the quest plot structure did not fit very well for this particular story and would have been much better suited to serve as a standard adventure.

There are two particular areas where this falls short even without the quest structures failure to mesh well with the overall plot arc.

Overall, I would prefer if when we turn things into quest packs that they have a plot structure that is 4-5 discreet adventures instead of a normal adventure hacked to pieces like this.

I have GM'd this quest pack twice, once on roll20 and once IRL. I have yet to play it, but I look forward to doing so.

This review will go over my impressions on each quest as individuals, as well as my impression on the quest arc as a whole, and then the experiences I had while GM'ing, finishing with how I feel about it as a quest pack for new players.

Contact is a fun introduction, but is weighed down by the problem that a lot of quests have had: pacing. There's little time or space to establish the enemies properly without inserting a lot of additional elaboration, and the shift can be somewhat jarring, especially for new players that don't know about the Devourer.

Marker is fun and interesting, but is bogged down by an abundance of poetically descriptive language that seems to exist just to fill wordcount.

Ingredient is enjoyable, and I have no real problems with it.

Messenger is fun and includes some good social interaction, and the starship combat is good for beginners while still having a new gimmick for experienced players.

Ritual is well-written and exciting, and I have no real problems with it.

As a whole, however, Withering World struggles. The wildly different writing styles and tones across each quest, ranging from silly in Messenger to poetic in Marker and a more traditional mix in Ritual hampers its cohesion.

When I GM'd this scenario on roll20, we had six players. We had fun, and enjoyed the strangeness presented in some encounters. When I GM'd this scenario at a game store IRL, we had seven players, three fairly experienced and four who were on their first, second, or fourth Starfinder Society game ever. We had a lot of fun, and because I tend to run fairly quickly, we finished all five quests in three hours of actual play, after starting fifteen minutes late while waiting for a player and with three short bio-breaks interspersed throughout.

As a quest pack for new players, I feel like The Withering World is a success, but in an unexpected way. The newer players had fun and felt it was a nice introduction to how Society works. The more experienced players were fairly convinced that it wasn't designed with new players in mind, and felt it was a good anthology but fumbled in introducing concepts. However, I don't believe that every quest pack needs to introduce every major mechanic of the game. The fact that the new players found it a fun intro and the experienced members of the Starfinder Society felt it was good as a scenario in general means that I feel that this scenario is surprisingly well-written for appeal.

In total, I am rating this scenario 4 stars. I want to rate 5, but the stylistic dissonance between quests was jarring enough to bring it down.

Thank you to all the great people who worked on this quest arc!

This scenario was a joy to play. A unique wrinkle in the starship combat encounter made it both more flavorful AND more harrowing. The NPCs stood out as memorable, lovable goofballs. Plus, there was a hilarious bit with some frogs. Play it—you'll see.