Starfinder Adventure Path #35: Merchants of the Void (Fly Free or Die 2 of 6)

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Starfinder Adventure Path #35: Merchants of the Void (Fly Free or Die 2 of 6)
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The crew of the Oliphaunt have earned the freedom to go where they please, but they've still got bills to pay and old enemies hot on their tail! The Fly Free or Die Adventure Path continues, as the player characters travel to the Veskarium, an interplanetary empire ruled by the militant and lizard-like Vesk, where the crew must become smugglers and bounty hunters, capturing illegal resources in the turbulent storms of a gas giant! But along the way, they're forced to make some tough decisions that will come back to haunt them later, attracting the anger of the Vesk military itself. Can the player characters keep running forever, or will they eventually turn, stand, and fight for their lives?

"Merchants of the Void" is a Starfinder adventure for four 3rd-level characters. This adventure continues the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path, a six-part monthly campaign in which players take on the role of a merchant crew with an experimental starship, trying to get rich, escape interplanetary assassins, and outwit their rivals. This volume also details a crew of smugglers who cross the players at every turn, their starship, a collection of alien threats, a mysterious tropical paradise planet, and a series of “Side Jobs”—short mini-adventures the GM can insert into the campaign at any time.

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-13: 978-1-64078-291-4

Merchants of the Void is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheets are available as a free download (5.3 MB PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Starfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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Like a stone skipping across a pond

3/5

Merchants of the Void sends the PCs on a smattering of smaller deliveries and missions of pretty uneven quality, then builds up to a bewildering finale that left me scratching my head more than enjoying myself. There's not much of a through line here, with unrelated mishaps and challenges showing up at every turn and with a consistency and density that feels unrealistic. The PCs can't turn around without hitting someone or something trying to kill them.

The strongest elements here are some of the fun individual NPCs and missions, like the skittermander ranch, or the vesk black ops group and their above-board counterpart. These bits were great fun for both roleplay and gameplay. Unfortunately, none stuck around for very long, so I was left somewhat unsatisfied. Uncovering the vesk secret organization in particular left me wanting more, as there seemed like there should be so much more to explore and learn, but the mission ended before even scratching the surface.

The worst part was probably the ending, which had some of the worst bits of "fantasy-logical friction" I've experienced recently in a TTRPG. The vesk secret society is back, and rather than trying to get revenge on the PCs directly, they start kidnapping random people the PCs have met and sending them to a secret reeducation camp. The PCs are expected to A) Care enough to do something about it, and B) Be willing to jump into an obvious trap from a giant secret organization that spans the entire vesk government and which is in charge of various false flag incidents, C) Break into and out of a prison as 4th level characters. Simply put, this was difficult for our group to swallow for a variety of reasons and we were left spinning our wheels for a while until GM just gave it to us straight that we were supposed to go there to finish the book.

As a final note, this serves as the introduction to the (unfortunately) forgettable rival crew, who are as a whole neither developed enough to be interesting, nor antagonistic enough to be good villains, nor friendly enough to be fun allies. The way they are jammed into this book and the next feels entirely superfluous.

Overall, this book has some fun to be had and some minor moral decisions to discuss with your party, but many of its actual mini-adventures are unsatisfying short and poorly thought out, at least for our particular table.


Confusing Plot and Villains

2/5

Spoilers (I'll try to keep them vague):

There is no through line or consistent plot that connects the various episodes of this adventure. The main plot doesn't surface in any way until the 3rd section of this book.

The villains steal something to create a deadly bio-weapon. Then this never comes up again. Instead they set their dastardly plot aside to obsessively stalk the PC's, kidnapping everyone they've ever met in a highly confusing attempt to learn more about them. Why they would do this rather than attacking the PC's directly or even ignoring the PC's is beyond me. It makes for an unsatisfying conclusion and scattered feeling throughout the story. I gutted the plot of this book and introduced new home brew elements to create a through line. Ironically it's the most fun we've ever had playing a campaign since the home brew elements have gone over so well.

There are also tangential issues throughout the story. The exact plan of the villain of the first section is never explained, luckily my PC's weren't interested in it. Why the client of this sections wants the cargo is also not really explained. In the second section nanobots that cause animals to just explode feel disturbing and like they rob agency from the players. Furthermore the nanobots should also have infected the PC's since they go through the same area. But I guess they're protected by the same plot armor that stops a space ship from imploding when several explosions break out inside its hull. And for some reason many of the enemies throughout this adventure have AC's of around 11 which is almost impossible for a well built character to miss, as well as low hp and low damage. I've had to buff nearly every encounter and most of them still ended up feeling easy.

All that said, the setting is fun, my group is still having a great time playing it and we're about to start book 3. It has required a lot of home brew from me to fix the issues outline above. It can be made fun and engaging, but I felt anyone considering this adventure should know what they're bargaining for.


Loved it. Ran it pretty much straight through.

5/5

There are a few small things but I don't think they bring the AP down that much.

Oliphaunt isn't rules-legal - I actually turned this into a plot point. The group engineer took one look at the power core and grumbled that "...they were trying to save money by putting in a power core that can't do the job". So the first thing they had to upgrade on the ship was the power core or else the weapons wouldn't work.

Side-Jobs - Loved them. Not much else to say.

Choices - I appreciated that you didn't -have- to get all the BP payouts and that they were on a sliding scale. So screwing up earlier in the AP might mean you have to be a hardass later.

Interesting Encounters - My group especially enjoyed the Defrex herding in part 2 and the Stormdiving in part 3. The only part that I personally felt was underwhelming was the Stridermander encounter at the end of part 2.

Adamant Talon - Vesk Ninjas. What's not to love?


One of the best..it delivers

4/5

But it gets knocked down a star, just due to that the "experimental" Oliphaunt actually has serious build errors, as presented. A power core that can't fit its frame, for starters (Pulse Black for Small, Oliphaunt is Medium). Second, the stat block spends too many Build Points and doesn't have enough Power Core Units to even power *one* of its two weapons, unless you drop shields or defensive countermeasures.

It needed a serious rebuild, and being one of the main foci of the adventure - customizing your ship - it really should've been double checked so the players start with a build that actually works with rules! Calling it "experimental" is no excuse. Only the cargo holds are, which has nothing to do with PCU/BP expenditures.

I hate taking away anything I gave, it just leaves an ugly taste in players mouths. I had to downgrade thrusters and shields. Even though there hasn't been a starship battle yet, it is a big mistake to give out something that you have to later take away. I hope my players understand. I posted alternative, rules-conforming stats in the discussion thread.

That said, this has been a BLAST to GM so far. One grim job, one odd job, one funny job, really just keeps it fresh. It definitely echoes Firefly moments, and is my favorite AP so far. The story parts are original and fascinating, it is excellent gaming, imho.


Great adventure!!

5/5

So, I’m more than a little bit behind in my Starfinder reading, but I’m just going through Merchants of the Void (Leo Glass) and it’s great. Wonderfully fun, funny, clever, and I’m looking forward to running it.

Special shout out to Owen KC Stephens; I read his section on side jobs and loved it so much I went back and checked out who wrote it, which I think I can honestly say has never happened before.

Great adventure!!


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Paizo Employee Webstore Coordinator

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Announced for December! Product image and description are not final and may be subject to change.

Advocates

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps Subscriber

Ooh! Side jobs!


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Am I the only one who looks at the description of the first two books and thinks, "YES! This is what the first AP should have been like!"

Starfinder Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.

I learned to write Starfinder adventures from Dead Suns, so I'm going to take your gracious compliment, Jeff, but also give credit where credit is due. I do think y'all are going to like Fly Free or Die, and please spread the word about it. I would love to get this book in front of some people who are new to Starfinder or maybe have Drifted (!) away from it over the last couple of years.

By the way, anyone curious about Fly Free or Die can Ask Me Anything about it on the PaizoCon Online Discord, which you can find HERE.


Diswho?


Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Jason Tondro wrote:

I learned to write Starfinder adventures from Dead Suns, so I'm going to take your gracious compliment, Jeff, but also give credit where credit is due. I do think y'all are going to like Fly Free or Die, and please spread the word about it. I would love to get this book in front of some people who are new to Starfinder or maybe have Drifted (!) away from it over the last couple of years.

By the way, anyone curious about Fly Free or Die can Ask Me Anything about it on the PaizoCon Online Discord, which you can find HERE.

I might happen to be the world's biggest Firefly fan, so I accept I could be a wee bit biased.

Grand Lodge

:o I WOULD DIE FOR THAT YSOKI

Senior Editor

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Sasha Laranoa Harving wrote:
:o I WOULD DIE FOR THAT YSOKI

Knowing that ysoki, she’d probably be into it.

Hope y’all like this one! It was a hoot to write, even if it probably took a few years off my life.


Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

The PDF of "#35: Merchants of the Void" is suffering from the same issue as #34 and the revised #31, #32 and #33 SF APS. All the images are multi-part images making them mostly unusable.

None of the Pathfinder APs suffer from this issue, nor the latest Alien Archive 4. Could the #31, #32, #33, #34 and #35 Starfinder Adventure Path PDFs be fixed?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I am seriously relieved to hear that the Starfinder AP PDF problem hasn't affected the core rulebooks.


Pathfinder Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Wzrd wrote:
The PDF of "#35: Merchants of the Void" is suffering from the same issue as #34 and the revised #31, #32 and #33 SF APS.

Does the pdf for #35 include the separate map document in the download?

Also, is the file size for this pdf back to below 100mb?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

The PDF for #35 is 29.6 MB, and the download includes a separate Interactive Maps PDF.


Wzrd wrote:

The PDF of "#35: Merchants of the Void" is suffering from the same issue as #34 and the revised #31, #32 and #33 SF APS. All the images are multi-part images making them mostly unusable.

None of the Pathfinder APs suffer from this issue, nor the latest Alien Archive 4. Could the #31, #32, #33, #34 and #35 Starfinder Adventure Path PDFs be fixed?

I agree, these are not very usable for extracting the images and using them with a VTT. I extracted the images from the non-revised (large file size) versions of 31-33 and those are fine, but 34 and 35 have the images embedded in blacked out text with nameplates in the way in front of the pictures. Might as well just grab the images directly from the PDF with Lightscreen or the Snipping Tool.

Maybe they tried flattening or combining layers to reduce the file size? I would definitely like to see the PDF generation method go back to what it was prior to #31 as well.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Lunar Weapon Solarians!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Errors on page 4:

The labels of areas are incorrect:

> Rygan is a cult leader and maker of necrografts operating out of Singularity House (area D);

That’s area B

> The original invite connecting Rygan to the Harlequin’s Prayer can be found in area D1.

Also area B.

> The Drift engine in area C still shows signs of sabotage, and evidence of more of the

Area A

> thermal salve Rygan used appears in Singularity House (in area D7). Tremeshkan’s

B7

> corpse can also be found at the House, stored in a cryogenic locker (area D6). The descriptions for each area detail these clues.

B6

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Toxicsyn wrote:
Lunar Weapon Solarians!

I'mma confused about whether solarian weapon crystals work with lunar weapons


Starfinder Superscriber
Wzrd wrote:

The PDF of "#35: Merchants of the Void" is suffering from the same issue as #34 and the revised #31, #32 and #33 SF APS. All the images are multi-part images making them mostly unusable.

None of the Pathfinder APs suffer from this issue, nor the latest Alien Archive 4. Could the #31, #32, #33, #34 and #35 Starfinder Adventure Path PDFs be fixed?

There's a simple solution to this. Download "TokenTool" go to File > Open PDF and it will separate all the images from the PDF individually.

Then, you can drag-drop them to paint and line them up like a puzzle, easy-peasy.

You're welcome.
- jrock9430

Liberty's Edge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Those of you looking for a rebuild of the Oliphaunt (since its power core is only for small ships, and the Oliphaunt is a medium; plus the overspent PCU/BP problems with all combat systems), I've built one that accurately follows the starship building rules here. The lowered thrusters make sense, imho, as its a cargo hauler.

Oliphaunt (Tier 3)

Medium transport

Speed 8 (M8 Thrusters); Maneuverability average (turn 2); Drift 2

AC 11; TL 13

HP 70; DT n/a; CT 14

Shields Light 80 (forward 20, port 20, starboard 20, aft 20)

Attack (Forward) high explosive missile launcher (4d8, 20 hexes, limited fire 5)

Attack (Turret) chain cannon (6d4, 5 hexes, ripper)

Power Core(s) Arcus Heavy (130 PCU); Drift Engine Signal Booster; Systems budget medium-range sensors, crew quarters (common), mk 1 armor, mk 3 defences, basic computer (tier 1); Expansion Bays arcane laboratory, tech workshop, cargo hold (2)

Modifiers ; Complement 5

Build Points cost 95, max 95 Power Core Units non-essential 121, essential 117, max 130


Is there any official errata on what the Oliphant (3) is supposed to be?


Starfinder Superscriber

It's a Medium transport with a power core that needs to be replaced as soon as possible or the weapons won't work.

Quote:
Complement 5

Max crew on a medium transport is 6.


Any chance there's errata that classifies Underhanded Snare as a combat feat? Asking for a friend...

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