Starfinder Bounty #2: Test Flight

In Test Flight, a shirren starship manufacturer named United Interfaith Engineering (nicely incorporated from the Starship Operations Manual) has developed a new Grimshaw design meant to be robust but affordable for adventurers and explorers. The PCs are hired by one of the company’s project managers to conduct a test flight from Absalom Station to a small moon orbiting Liavara. The project manager, a shirren named J’scib, has awesome artwork (love the suitcoat and bowtie!) and the description of his office is great fun. I’d happily see more of him. There’s also a fun little bit when J’scib is leading the PCs to the hangar where he asks one PC for the names of their parents or first pet, and if they answer, he mocks them for lacking the common sense not to give away valuable clues to hackers. I appreciate the humour early in the adventure.

The Grimshaw basically looks like a house fly, and is unlike any Starfinder ship I’ve ever seen before. Once in space, the PCs’ main goal is to test out its various systems. This is done by each PC making two skill checks, but they get to choose whether to make easy (low DC) checks or hard (high DC) checks. The harder the checks, the more “Data Points” they’ll accumulate, but each PC only gets to make two checks in total. I liked the risk-reward mechanic here. The checks themselves are pretty pedestrian, but a good GM might be able to add some flavour to make things more interesting.

The encounter in the Bounty is with a pair of adolescent voraijas (essentially, space whales). The adventure gives PCs the option to engage in starship combat with them, or to use skill checks to lure them back to their home. Regardless of what happens, a Xenowarden ship shows up after 4 rounds to solve the problem, which is one of those “no matter what, everything’s going to be fine and you can’t really fail” plot elements I always hate in RPGs. Decisions without consequences are poor story design.

Once the PCs arrive at Liavra, they’re paid off and receive an extra reward if they’ve accumulated enough Data Points (with, oddly enough, big bonuses to Data Points if they peacefully drove off the Liavra and deductions if they killed them). And that’s that!

In my very first review of a Starfinder adventure almost six years ago now, I complained about its “Space Disney” feel. I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that that’s mostly what Starfinder is, and this Bounty definitely fits into that mould.