A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5-8.
Backed by an influential corporation, the Starfinder Society has begun development on a new generation starship. The PCs are tasked with making the final important decisions on the prototype vessel, before heading out into the Vast to perform a series of tests. During this shakedown mission, the Starfinders quickly learn about a new threat in the Vast and must intercede before innocent lives are lost!
The Vast Experiment is an ongoing series of adventures set in the Year of Exploration's Edge. These mid-level adventures are the perfect starting point for any new Starfinder character, and can be integrated into almost any ongoing campaign with little extra effort. The adventures in The Vast Experiment series can be played in any order.
Written by: Kyle Elzy
Scenario tags: Starship
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
This scenario will be a treat for starship combat fans. The opportunity to make some selections for your ship - including those not usually available in Society play - and then take your design into two different combats (one with fast drones, then another against a larger bruiser), and the "crew" of the enemy ship is a lot of fun to GM.
That is, until the one character-scale battle at the end. The enemy has three features that result in an unfair fight. It's hard to imagine winning unless you are specifically kitted out for these specific foes. My group only avoided a TPK because one character ran during the first round.
As a starship fan I really loved what this scenario did. It gave us a chance to play with starship toys from the Starship Operations Manual, plus two separate starship combats. This does require that GMs feel comfortable about starship combat, and do a lot of advanced prep so that they have copies of the starship sheet with all the goodies pulled out, plus present some information about the various SOM toys so that players can make informed decisions. My players chose to go without shields, give their ship DR, do the ramming prow... and it made for a lively and fun combat.
If you are looking to run this as a GM, please note that Pirate Rob put together some lovely ship sheets on PFS Prep, which saved me a ton of time as a GM. I should also note that I'm a starship combat geek. A GM should not run this scenario unless they've run starship combat a few times elsewhere. The scenario lost a star from me for requiring above normal prep and expertise. But I still loved the chance to dive deep into the Starship Operations Manual and have a pretty good story too.
Kudos to the author for putting together something fun and challenging, and for coming up with a way to quickly build a prototype ship without dithering about build points. I'm a fan!
If you are going to build a scenario around testing out new starship toys, why not make them good ones? All of the options presented are less optimal than the standard ones, and the ship you are asked to test is laughably inferior to the drake for combat purposes.
I don't know if starships combats are supposed to take multiple hours to resolve but in about half of the starship combats I have played, the GM has had to handwave them for time. That percentage goes close to 100 when the PCs aren't allowed to use the drake. I do not understand why it has taken the designers so long to figure out that whatever this is, it doesn't work in society play. It's not fun, most people are stuck taking the same minimally impactful action each round, and it takes forever.
Spoiler:
In this scenario I spent most of my time doing nothing. Then, at the end, when there is some action, everyone was frustrated because of how long it took to run the scenario, so the actual interesting part of the scenario was rushed. At least put one of the starship combats at the end so it is easier to skip, which as I said before, is usually what happens.
Well this scenario is just tedious.
I very much like the idea of "building" a starship to use (and the showcase of new starship mechanics (+1 Star in the rating) the rest of this is just BAD.
Our table played lowtier and after 3 turns of the first starshipencounter everyone HATED the ship, that was shooting worse than a pegasus, had the limited fire issues of the drake and was slow as the Gorgon.
The ship had no damage (not really fixable as we had the highest DPR configuration) and NEEDS to be in close range to do it (while being slow and not very maneuverable. (It could be somehow fixable if the Turret gets a LONG RANGE heavy weapon and the point defense in NOT IN THE AFT but in the Turret)
It does not help that the first combat is
Spoiler:
against 2 highly manouverable drones with speed 12 (perfect), which hardcounter the ship if the GM does not softball.
These are also illegally built as they should not be able to carry their heavy weapons.
The second encounter is ok-ish, as the enemy wanting to go close solves the issues of that catastrophe of a ship.
The one ground encounter is not better as it uses the age olf mummy problem that should be known to cause wonky math, as using 5 overlapping auras WILL disable players no matter how low the DC is.
Spoiler:
(At least the PCs are immune after the first save) And the Boss having Wis-Drain on a multiattack is exremely nasty especially as it should get 1-2 turns of free acting as everyone is confused (3 of 5 players after LOTs of rerolls at our table)
The 2 Stars are ONLY for trying out the new systems which were fresh, if not for that it would be a 1 Star scenario.
And including this many new options at once will lead to option paralysis for every player not very into starshipcombat.
Alex, can you pass a message to Kyle Elzy? I really love how this scenario dived deep into the Starship Operations Manual. It was great fun, and I want to thank the author.
