Starfinder Society Scenario #4-08: Precious Cargo

I have to give this one top marks. I think it's my favorite SF Society scenario out of 2 years of playing these. It's memorable, and just as moving and heartfelt as some other reviewers have praised it for. I teared up a bit. Interestingly, I played in a party where there was some arguing about how to resolve the conflict, since not all characters were as swayed as I was about the life form we encountered. ;) So be prepared for some debate, potentially.

This was my first Starfinder Society Scenario I ran as a GM after several levels of playing, and even after having played and ran more missions, this is still one of the best. Maybe a contender for the best 1-4 tier mission available.

The objective starts off fairly straightforward, at least so it seems, but then it becomes apparent that more is at play. This scenario really feels less like a mission and more like a decision, an actual choice and dilemma for players to come to grips with what their characters would do in this situation.

A big big ask on this one for the GM is the portrayal of the main character the party interacts with. Hitting the right emotional tone when depicting them is essential to making the character believable and relatable. The GM has to strike a balance between obsession, fear, and vulnerability that you don't often see in Starfinder Society missions. Players who aren't as interested in role-play, or GMs that struggle to find their voice might not find this one as engaging.

One downside to this scenario is that, if there's at least 1 reasonable and decent person in the party who can make some skill checks, then almost all combat goes out the window after the midway point. For those who get engaged in the story and want to feel like their choices matter, that can be a good thing, but that can leave the second half of the story a bit unstructured. Especially for those more martial-oriented characters who just want to smash and shoot.

The final message is incredibly heartfelt and gorgeous. Diego Valdez and Jenny Jarzabski really knocked this one out of the park. Play and run this scenario, you will not regret it.

This was an interesting investigation into the future - a good use of speculative fiction as roleplaying fodder.

It is difficult to get into specifics without spoiling the whole thing but the writer did a magnificent job using the atmosphere of the locale for this investigation to perfection and creating the situation necessary to have a truly compelling roleplaying experience.

The combats were a bit uninspired, but its a 1-4 you're not gonna get compelling mechanics and they really weren't the point of this one.

I ran this for 3 players last night in high tier. Many of Kaushal Avan Spellfire's comments are spot on (having DCs for the ability to disable some of the items would be nice), but it was definitely a fun scenario. Due to a variety of factors, my table started almost an hour after the slot started, and we still finished 30 minutes before the end of the slot.

The last handout made my wife cry with how poignantly and hopefully written it was. Bravo.

Too hard to review without spoilers...but...

Hard to run 'on the fly', you'll need to read it, then read it again.

I produced a simple schematic of the ship to aid understanding.

The mechanical parts can be a bit janky, and people can get hung up on self inflicted red herrings.

***

With that said, excellent and unique adventure - totally recommend.