In a catastrophic instant, travel through the faster-than-light Drift realm failed, with travelers vanishing in mid-flight, communications scrambling, and the Drift's progenitor god Triune falling mysteriously silent. In the aftermath, empires cling to far-flung holdings, opportunists exploit the chaos, and everyone demands to know what triggered this Drift Crisis and how they can solve it.
The Drift Crisis hardcover rulebook and setting guide details this massive galaxy-wide event, introducing a vast array of new conflicts, opportunities, and stories. Equip your characters with the latest technologies and techniques for surviving the upheaval, with new gear and character options. Discover the influential factions that are restoring order, profiting on the wreckage, or perpetuating the pandemonium. And experience the Drift Crisis with 20 detailed adventure seeds that range from survival to saving the galaxy!
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-419-2
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
It may not be to everyone's taste or appetite but,
For me, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet of brain food.
It's a hard book to describe. I think some of the criticism about it being over-hyped is might be misplaced, that much of the hype is not just for the book, but for the year-long Drift Crisis event that includes around a dozen different products.
It doesn't have a lot of new mechanics. I think that might be a good thing for this book. It makes it easy to use in any past, current, or future adventure.
It does give new life to content from older books like the alternative faster than light drives in the starship operations manual. It sets the foundation for future mechanics like drift lanes. It creates variations for running old APs with a new twist. It's a book that turns drift travel from this is how we travel in Starfinder into the drift being one of the coolest features of Starfinder. It's the book that suggests the drift can be hacked. If you can hack the drift the possibilities are unlimited.
It's not a book for everyone. It's not a reference book you need at the table every game. It's good for players who want a character with a background connected to the drift. It's good for GMs who like the extra flexibility or variation it creates in the story, or are looking for 20 new adventure seeds. I think it's also meant for the developers of Starfinder as a foundation for the future.
I like that Piazo is willing to try something completely different, not every book can be this outside the box, but once in a while, it's a great way to keep the game fresh.
The Drift crisis doesn't seem to bring in that many new mechanics, and it also feels completely over-hyped. The art styles in the book are also less consistent than previous Starfinder books. Some of the art looks like it was made using traditional mediums, while some of the art looks like it was made using only digital tools. Neither are "better" than the other, but it just feels inconsistent.
Just an incredible shake up and so many opportunities to play with this event - it really feels like whether in home games, APs, or Society this year we will all be talking about the Drift Crisis.
The adventure hooks are varied and pretty deep - they allow more flesh to be added to the bone of what had previously been 1 dimensional archetypes for the Azlanti, the Vesk, the anacites, everyone.
My only complaint is that this maybe wasn't quite ambitious *enough* because I feel like it could have set up a whole new status quo for the setting and instead seems to be temporary.
Can your really think of anything specific going on in akiton or such?
Akiton is struggling from an economic depression by having their thasteron market crash with the advent of drift travel and... you know, being a frozen desert planet. With non drift travel being a thing again I'd imagine their economy can pick up a bit.
Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
The Thasteron market
spoiler:
gets a boost, but there are other supply chain and food shortages on Akiton during the crisis.
At first, I thought this would have a negative impact on running Junkers Delight, but the shortages just made salvaging junk more profitable, if not necessary.
I know a character who would like a Thasteron Garnade or 2. Love that they even went as far in the book as to use the term Thasternpunk.
The Thasteron market ** spoiler omitted ** At first, I thought this would have a negative impact on running Junkers Delight, but the shortages just made salvaging junk more profitable, if not necessary.
I know a character who would like a Thasteron Garnade or 2. Love that they even went as far in the book as to use the term Thasternpunk.
Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Speaking of Vin Thasteron, all ways thought Akikton would be a great place for some vehicle chase/race/combat adventures. I'm a bit surprised the Akikton pickers show hasn't gone to Junkers Delight yet, to buy old Thasteron fule station signs.
I love the canon reason behind drift crisis x'D It makes funny amount of sense
Anyway I'm curious to see what of the possible post campaign consequences will be canon for default setting since the book is vague about it.(none of them are exclusive of contradictory so it could be anything from one of them to all of them. I guess also none of them if they want to preserve status quo perfectly)
Having read it, and seeing all the sorts of things out there, my only concern (esp. in Org Play) is that it'll be "Hey, Drift is Dangerous"! Like it was supposed to be all along and then aside from certain adventures it'll quickly get forgotten again because ain' nobody got time to write up a half-dozen 'wandering encounters' for every module/scenario....
For anyone with the same questions I had, the canonical cause of the crash is identified, and one of the (many) adventure seeds gives you everything you need to involve your players directly in the resolution of the crisis, including key figures, their motivations and backgrounds. If you choose to have your table's canon be different, there's stacks of material for that. And the canonical final state of the drift seems ultimately both more functional and more interesting to write for, especially in terms of politics, empire building and warfighting.
If I haven't sold you yet, it also has the PKE meter, slime blowers and ghost traps from Ghostbusters.
Nah Triune is just having outage. Remember to turn off wait 10 seconds and turn it on again
That's what happens when you sub-contract your transit overhead with Spectrum Interstellar! Nothing but outages and relentless subscription calls from here on out.
That's why you should always go with Interstellar Spectrum. They are SO much more reliable and only cost twice as much.