The monks of the Forever Reliquary send the heroes into a psychic projection of the Swarm's hive mind, a hostile and alien landscape. They must establish a beachhead on this mental front and discover how to empower and use the artifact given to them by their Hylaxian allies. However, this mindscape fights back at every possible turn until the heroes face off against the embodiment of the Swarm's interconnected minds! If they can defeat this entity, it will give the heroes a powerful advantage back in the real world!
"Hive of Minds" is a Starfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for four 9th-level characters. This adventure continues the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes fight back against a ruthless alien invasion. This volume also includes an explanation of the psychic constructs called mindscapes, an exploration of psychic magic, and a selection of new Swarm monsters and other mind-rending threats.
Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in—depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!
ISBN: 978-1-64078-183-2
The Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (1.3 MB PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
At the end of Book 4, the Swarm is breathing down your neck, their monsters are practically at the door, tensions are high -- and then suddenly you get transported into a mindscape where time is dilated and there is no pressure and you gird yourself for a long trip.
The adventure itself is not -bad-, there's nothing particularly bad about it, but the people you meet are mostly inconsequential to the greater story and fade away at the end of the AP -- even the merchants are just there to be merchants -- and you're given imaginary money to spend that stays persistent with you when you leave the mindscape.
Again, none of this on its own is bad, but it felt out of pace as you are nearing the climax of Attack of the Swarm -- the tension should be ratcheted -up-, but the entire AP feels like it moves at its own pace, with occasional segues back into the real world with no real stakes. Playing as Thresher Lords or piloting an enemy ship and assuming direct control of it is not as fun as piloting your -own- ship and doing some real good in the real world.
I'll be honest, I mostly rushed through this just because I felt like it was sucking all of the energy of the campaign. In my opinion this AP works better if done earlier -- perhaps between 2 and 3, as a prelude to finding the crown.
I GMd this over VTT for a home group. It was excellent. I finished every session by saying, "...and next time, it gets even weirder!" and every time we met up again, the adventure did not disappoint.
--- SPOILERS BELOW ---
Any adventure that takes place inside the metaphysical mindscape representation of the hive-mind of a colony of interstellar murderous insects is gonna be bonkers, but the adventure never feels too silly. Highlights of the adventure are when the PCs' minds are shunted into the bodies of high-level Swarm baddies, letting them just smash face (very satisfying and cathartic, after being on the receiving end of the Swarm's attention for four books now!) as well as the PCs accruing "soul bucks" that they can use to barter with The Memories of Mercantilism that are still hanging around in the Swarm's subconsciousness.
My party of five relatively optimised PCs had an easy time with most of the encounters; in my opinion, GMs can crank the difficulty up a bit without much worry. There is a good ratio of exploration, roleplay opportunities, and combat, including some very thematic and visceral "theatre of the mind" encounters where you explore the Swarm's history, memories and motivations; but "funky combat in a mindscape" is the biggest slice of that pie.
The structure of the adventure is fairly linear, with the PCs tasked with taking the McGuffin to significant places to charge up its power, but the novelty and craziness of the setting and the tasks are more than enough to make up for any perceived rail-roading, I think. At no point in our playthrough did anyone at the table think "wait, that's what we have to do next? Sigh, boring, let's do something fun."
My players were feeling the weird mental vibe of the chapter, so I was able to lean into that, and personalise it a bit: instead of fighting representations of the Swarm's Doubts and Hesitations, they fought their own Doubts, Hesitations, and Personal Demons; I also let any PC attempt a Will save to try to impose their will on the Mindscape: with medium DCs for simple things like granting +2/-2 on a roll, getting higher for more complicated things like reproducing spell effects, instantly creating consumable items, and flashier, showier effects. Lastly, I stole the intro to the chapter from the Cosmic Crit podcast, and had each PC start the adventure trapped in their own tiny personal mindscapes, living out pleasant fantasies, and needing to snap out of them. Great for engagement.
Outside of the Attack of the Swarm! Chapter, there's also sections on Mindscapes (including write-ups of some notable ones) and Psychic Magic, with new spells, a new Mystic Connection focusing on shaping matter, and some new Technomancer psychic-y Hacks. Also, a fantastic image of a sullen Bear-ruler dreaming of a forest.
Overall, an great book, and my favourite Adventure Path chapter to date.
This sounds awesome! The way the mindscapes are described really sounds similar to the godmind from Iron Gods. I wonder if this borrowed from that concept at all, and whether we might get some matrix combat rules soon from all this? Regardless, what a fun concept.
On the Discord it's been reported there is a Shaper mystic connection who chooses from half a dozen potential associated skills (you can do computer/engineering now) and these new spells in the psychic magic article:
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Mental Blocks
The heroes have been physically transported to a psychic projection of the Swarm’s hive mind, and must survive this hostile and alien landscape while searching for a way to empower a divine artifact known as the Crown of Hylax. However, this mindscape fights back at every possible turn, eventually manifesting the embodiment of the Swarm’s interconnected minds for an epic battle that will determine the outcome of the war!
This volume of Starfinder Adventure Path continues the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path and includes:
“Hive of Minds,” a Starfinder adventure for 9th-level characters, by Thurston Hillman.
• An examination of the strange and mutable mental landscapes known as mindscapes, by Thurston Hillman.
• An exploration of psychic magic, including new spells and class options, by Hilary Moon Murphy.
• An archive of alien creatures, including nightmarish monsters that feed off fear and insecurity and a multicolored bird that devours arcane energies, by Emily Care Boss, Thurston Hillman, Louis Rezanka, and Gabriel Waluconis.
• Statistics and deck plans for a scientific research vessel, by Kate Baker, plus a glimpse at a fog-drenched world awash in magical radiation, by Louis Rezanka.
Anyone care to explain a bit about the Ego Whip spell and what it does?
It's a variation of the spell as it is in Occult Adventures, except that it affects all mental scores instead of choosing one. Some other details are different, but that's the big one. It also does not have multiple levels.
HTD wrote:
What are the creatures in the Alien Archives (name, type, subtypes, CR and size)?
Oh dear. It's out of phase with the material plane. You should contact the witchwarpers in Customer Service and see if they can help alter the terrain enough for you to receive the PDF!
