A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4.
An important data package requires that the PCs travel in person to secure it. When the simple mission goes awry, the PCs find themselves trapped in a high security corporate office. With no way of contacting the outside, the PCs must make their way through the complex, avoiding the activated security systems and the agents of those responsible for the sudden office lockdown!
I ran Bluerise Breakout at low subtier for five players via play-by-post. It has an interesting (perhaps even unique) concept. Although there's not a lot of role-playing (especially after the beginning), there's also not a ton of combat. It's a scenario that rewards groups that can think carefully and deliberately about how to proceed step-by-step to get themselves out of a difficult situation. It's a challenging one to GM because it requires keeping track of multiple moving parts behind-the-scenes and paying very close attention to exactly where everyone is at all times. The story has some nice connections to early SFS scenarios, and continues the Season Two metaplot. Overall, it's not a scenario I have super strong feelings about--I'd just suggest going into it with an open mind.
SPOILERS!:
Bluerise Breakout begins with the PCs being instructed by Venture-Captain Arvin that they need to run a simple fetch job to pick up a datastick from an AbadarCorp office in Bluerise Tower (Absalom Station's apparently semi-sovereign corporate building). What Arvin doesn't know, because even he's out of the loop, is that Celita of the Dataphiles has arranged the pick-up of crucial information about a conspiracy she's been investigating for months (even years) involving corporate malfeasance, price-fixing in the pharmaceutical industry, corruption, and more. The story here follows the subplot began in # 1-07 (The Solar Sortie) and # 1-33 (Data Breach), and ties in cleverly to the very first SFS scenario, # 1-01 (The Commencement) because the hacker Ceren helped discover the information. What even Celita doesn't know, however, is that Datch (the villain of Season Two) has long ago hacked into SFS computers and knows the information is about to leak--so she's prepared a very lethal plan to stop the datastick from ever leaving Bluerise Tower!
When the PCs arrive at Bluerise Tower, they're given a tour of the AbadarCorp floor by a cute brenneri named Bordle. Bordle's a chatter-box, and players who listen closely will learn a lot about the security arrangements in place on the floor--something that will become very crucial very shortly. The PCs have to turn over all of their weapons (or smuggle them in), something that makes perfect sense in this sort of situation (and I always like it when PCs have to improvise without their favourite toys). As the PCs are talking to Director Ebaki about the datastick, suddenly the lights go out, screams are heard all around, and then everything is silent. An exciting beginning!
What's happened is that Datch has hacked into the floor's security AI (Argent) and had it activate the shock grids of every computer terminal, instantly electrocuting almost everyone on the floor. Simultaneously, Argent locked the exits, activated motion detectors, set robot guardians (cleverly named "Abadarmors") to patrol and kill intruders, and even released dangerous experimental "ferrofluid oozes" from containment. The PCs are trapped, and getting themselves out of it won't be easy!
This is the bulk of the scenario, and it's where everything has to be articulated very carefully. The players are given one map of the floor and the GM has a second map that shows the scope of all the motion detectors, the coverage of the shock grids (that Argent can activate if a PC steps on one), the starting locations of the Abadarmors (which patrol clockwise), etc. The PCs need to move very carefully and deliberately to avoid Argent or the Abadarmors spotting them--because if they do get into a fight, they won't have any weapons to defend themselves with! (It's a nice reward for solarians, spellcasters, natural-weapon warriors, and others that don't need manufactured weapons to fight with). The GM needs to keep track of exactly where each PC is standing at every moment, the round-by-round movements of the Abadarmors and the oozes, and Director Ebaki's actions. Fortunately for the PCs, they have a chance to get their weapons back if they head for the security office, and there's also a chance they can rescue Bordle (though they might get some radiation poisoning in the process).
Escaping the floor requires passage through a multi-part security trap called the Smoker and then fending off a surprise attack by assassins at the elevator. My group had no trouble with the Smoker for some reason, but barely managed it past the assassins. One PC died early in the scenario (from massive damage from a crit, if I recall correctly). Anyway, it should be a harrowing experience but a good challenge is needed from time to time to keep things interesting. Assuming the PCs survive and escape Bluerise Tower, a well-written epilogue should make them really hate Datch, which is a perfect result for this stage in the season's meta-plot.
I had an absolute blast (pun intended, I blew up a few times).
This was an ex-fil worthy of Shadowrun. Our team was suitably paranoid, and it helped that our GM had run it before so had a good grasp of all the things that might/could happen.
I can imagine with it being quite a sandbox, players can really surprise you.
Playing online with dynamic lightning really added to the atmosphere as well!
Many Paizo scenarios play at a particular trope, but don't go all-in. Bluerise Breakout is an exception--this is an infiltration (okay, technically exfiltration) adventure, and it goes all-in on the concept. For a party of players who are familiar with the sub-genre, it's relatively simple and straightforward, and the difficulty is about what you'd expect. If you have a party of players unfamiliar with the trope (or who don't, for whatever reason, recognize it), or a group of PCs who are ill-suited for it, it seems like it can go south really quickly.
I had a lot of fun running this one:
First, it's an interesting spin on the infiltration (or shadowrun) trope.
Second, it broadcasts the various dangers fairly well.
Perhaps most impressively, its main NPC turns this into an escort mission--but he's got skills, and the escort mission is handled in a way that nobody complained about it! That's a rarity.
I also wanted to add some props for the detail that went into the building: I found it to (generally) be statted out quite well. Contrary to some other reviews, there absolutely are stats for the cubicle walls, and you can definitely take cover from the sensors--hell, the chairs are even specifically noted as providing cover! You're not expected to barbarian-trapfind your way through the room--those traps are supposed to hurt!
An important thing to keep in mind is that there wasn't really a clock here--the PCs can take their time since the AI has limited tools for tracking them down. I'm glad the author and developer didn't give in to the temptation to add to the drama with a timer or clock here.
I also appreciated that bringing the Director out of the building had immediate, tangible effects in that he pays for healing and condition removal. That was a very nice touch.
That said, I've got some complaints--some of which have been noted by previous reviewers and some of which have not:
First, the difficulty--the enemies are a little rough. If you go in with a team that is incapable of functioning without weapons, life is going to be hard. And if you haven't gotten your weapons by the time the oozes get to you, you're going to have a really bad time. I think the scenario benefits immeasurably from having the oozes lurk in the southwest corner and slowly approach the east side, rather than sprinting there in one round. I'm also not sure what the radiation trap adds--I think there may have been better ways to add some varied challenges into the scenario than adding radiation sickness.
Second, the mismatch between player expectations and scenario expectations is a problem. This really expects a careful, considered approach with characters who have some infiltration skills. If you aren't careful--if you don't pay attention--you're going to have a bad time. If you don't have infiltration skills, you're going to have a bad time.
Third, there's a lot going on here for a 1-4, and if you as a GM aren't on top of your game, your players won't have fun. The sensors are supposed to be tricked; you can harvest weapons from the abadarmors, plus some radiation shielding mods; the doors can be hacked through (although not those blast doors); the chairs can be pulled around with you for cover; the cubicle walls can be damaged and/or cut through. These elements all work, but the GM has to be aware of them, and it's a lot to keep track of for a 1-4.
Fourth, the GM difficulties are made substantially worse by some real rough spots in the scenario. The map doesn't line up with the descriptions in a few places--like what's going on with the lab? The text description can't be right, but the map is also clearly not right. I ended up photoshopping a new glass-walled enclosure into the lab map. DCs for hiding from the sensors are missing--I ran it as anyone taking a stealth check could successfully hide from the sensors, but I'm pretty sure there was supposed to be a DC involved somewhere. The corpses of Abadarcorp employees are a critical part of the puzzle, but they aren't included on the map. A prepared GM will add them onto the map themselves, but it's going to make life harder for the more inexperienced or underprepped GMs. The last encounter fits awkwardly into the area at best. I think I ran it as intended, but it's really hard to tell.
And that map, by the lock and key! The map provided for the GM is a hot, hot mess. Taking a moment to gripe from a display of information perspective: you can't indicate multiple areas, all next to each other, using only dotted lines as outlines--you just can't! When a GM looks at those lines it's nearly impossible to tell at a glance which side of the line is supposed to be "hot"--and sometimes it's both sides at once! (/gripe) I suspect the challenge here was that there are two overlapping area maps, one for the sensors, and another for the shock grids, and it's really hard to get that right while also letting the map underneath be visible. When I prepped my own version of this map I found that a strategy using overlapping transparent area fills (with a bit of an opaque outline for good measure) was also suboptimal, but it really, really helped and worked a lot better when compared to the plain opaque outline approach.
Overall: like so many scenarios before it, this was an ambitious attempt to do something really fun and flavorful. A lot of it is done really well, but there are some rough spots that have the potential to significantly hamper the implementation. If the GM takes their time prepping this, works through the issues in advance, and lets the players know in advance to bring some infiltration skills? Then this can be a lot of fun. I wouldn't run it cold, though, and I wouldn't run it for a group of low-level ranged fighters with no sleight-of-hand. A bit of genre-savvy would also be a big help.
I played a Shock and Awe Soldier in this nightmare of a scenario. If you read any prior reviews, you can probably guess how that went.
Not only are there lethal traps and overclocked monsters almost everywhere you go, the scenarios takes it one step further by FORCING you to surrender your weapons before the thing starts. Practically every fight was on the edge of a TPK.
If we didn't have a biohacker with 14(!) health serums and a witchwarper who had some good rolls with Electric jolt, we would've been toast on the first encounter. As it was, we burned through nearly all those serums and still each had about 1 resolve left.
If you designed a character to play Metal Gear Solid and get a like-minded party, you might like this scenario. But for everyone else, this is way too lethal for a 1-4 tier. I gave it two stars because the core idea is cool, but I might be too generous. I still had some fun, but it was mostly in spite of the scenario.
Others have said it before here. Even the most positive reviews admit it. This is an entirely too lethal of a scenario, especially a tier 1-4. I agree with the reviews saying that this a wonderful idea for a scenario and I will go as far as to say I want to see this sort of run attempted again, but this needs to be set aside and reviewed. Use this adventure to figure out what to do better next time.
This adventure legitimately tries to punish any mistake by the PCs with death and that is far too aggressive for what this adventure is trying to do. This adventure likely would have been a lot better if it didn't go to such lengths to spell out every detail on the trials this adventure puts out. It removes a lot of freedom from the GM to reward creative tactics and ingenuity. What is spelled out in the adventure it seems clear that the author has exactly one way they plan for the PCs to prevail in this because of the lack of party weaponry.
Spoiler:
The scenario expects the party to go recover their weapons avoiding all of the sensor grids as long as possible. During this they will run into one of the animated guards and forced to defend while continuing to the door and recovering their gear and fight and destroy the two animated guards.
From here the party the party goes to the opposite side of the building in order to rescue one of the other survivors. The open the door to the room. While it isn't apparent, the room is filled with lethal radiation and the party should avoid entering it.
The party then moves to the exit, disabling several layers of traps, and then fights another difficult encounter before escaping.
If the scenario isn't done in that precise way then encounters will combine and likely force the party into more high lethality traps. The party might have more options depending on their character race or other combat abilities they can use while unarmed.
There are other minor errors in here as well, but nothing that does compare to the very real risk of TPK throughout this adventure and this adventure hasn't earned that at all by actually being a fun play through.
I can't recommend this adventure for any consideration for any game group. This is too deadly and not interesting to play in.
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Thursty said on Know Direction that it will feel like a Shadowrun mission, so perhaps it will be Faction (Ares Macrotechnology) or Faction (Aztechnology). I am very excited for this one!
I believe, and Thursty will come on here to correct me if I am wrong, that this scenario actually has no tags. There's one big custom map.
This scenario was a challenge to write; it's very different than other scenarios, and poses some really interesting obstacles for PCs. The Shadowrun feel is absolutely intended. I think you'll like it!
Was this intended to be unavoidable instant death for low level characters? because Medium Radiation is a CON poison, and so it deals 7HP dmg/round whether of not the PC succeeds on the save. That's instant death for a 1st level Ysoki Technomancer, and the scenario gives no indication that its there before you hit it, so if a has to end their turn inside the area, they take 14 damage, which is enough to kill any level 1 character and most level 2's.
Because telling a player "Sorry your character just died to something you had no chance of detecting" is a good way to never see that player again.
** spoiler omitted **
Because telling a player "Sorry your character just died to something you had no chance of detecting" is a good way to never see that player again.
Umm, don't all player armors have environmental protection by default that lasts days or at least hours?
** spoiler omitted **
Because telling a player "Sorry your character just died to something you had no chance of detecting" is a good way to never see that player again.
Umm, don't all player armors have environmental protection by default that lasts days or at least hours?
Environmental protections only give a +4 bonus against that particular save.
