Starfinder Society Special #4-99: A Time of Crisis

As the title hints at, A Time of Crisis officially introduces the Drift Crisis event to Starfinder Society. I'm not a big fan of the Drift Crisis concept, but it works out in a cool way here as the Special starts with the PCs aboard a ship about to crash planetside! I have long advocated for some different and more original ways for scenarios to start (instead of the traditional exposition- and question- heavy briefing), and we certainly get that here. The premise is that the PCs are aboard a ship that's part of a fleet under the command of a veteran Starfinder named Bennock Gunstrel. The fleet is on its way toward a planned archaeological dig in the Vast, but when the Drift Crisis occurs, it shunts the fleet out of the Drift and towards a crash landing. In essence, the fleet is stranded on an unknown planet in the uncharted Rucabi system and the Starfinders have to survive for as long as they can until (hopefully) help arrives.

Unlike many past Specials, there aren't set Mustering activities--just role-playing as people get seated.

In Part 1, the adventure itself really kicks off with everyone planetside and Gunstrel handing out tasks the survivors of the crash need to complete urgently. These are called "Recovery Missions", and there are four of them. If a table finishes one before it's time to transition to Part 2, they can move on to another one. The missions include "We're Going Down" (trying to keep a freighter with a decaying orbit from crashing hard; essentially a very easy skill challenge with no actual danger); "What's Out There" (a basic combat against a "dromaeosaurid" on the verdant planet the fleet crashed on), "Stuck and Sinking" (a more intensive mission to rescue the crew of a ship sinking in thick mud--again, no real danger), and "We're Not Alone" (the longest mission, involving exploration of a crashed ship that is not one of the Starfinder fleet!).

Part 2 starts after an hour, and assumes the Starfinders have weathered the immediate crisis, established a base camp, and have spent some days getting to know their local area. The premise of this part is that the PCs need to improve their camp and secure it for the long haul. These are called "Build Missions", and there are six options. "Improve the Camp" is very open form, and allows PCs to use pretty much any skill they can justify. "Gather Supplies" has a battle with the multi-armed monsters on the cover, "hepongols". "Transport Materials" has the PCs sent out to gather a mineral called mekerite (something that can be processed into fuel) but attacked by crest-eaters. "Guard Duty" has the PCs manning fixed turret emplacements (fun!) during an attack by ravenous drakes. "Repair Work" has the PCs trying to scale communication towers to fix them but having to fend off aerial devils at the same time (the complications of three-dimensional combat likely arises here). "Making Friends" is the role-playing mission of the bunch, as the mysterious crashed ship from Part I turns out to be a Weydanite ship, and the survivors are located and can be interacted with for help.

Part 3 is "Defend the Camp!" The "Defend" missions are premised on the idea that the buildup of planar energy on the planet's crust from the Drift Crisis manifests as openings to the Plane of Elemental Earth, spilling forth threats like "earthtouched hepongols" ("Defend Mission # 1: Intruders!"), earth elementals ("Defend Mission # 2: Planar Incursion"), and thoqquas ("Defend Mission # 3: Good Neighbors").

100 minutes after Part 3 begins, the Special ends with a Conclusion that has a rescue fleet arrive to take everyone back to the Pact Worlds. There's thus no big "boss battle" like in most previous Specials, and so the ending might feel a little anti-climactic. Because the transitions between each Part occur based on (real-world) time even if no missions are completed successfully, there are really no consequences for failure, either. It would be interesting to see a Special with very real stakes, where future storylines really do depend on how events are resolved. All in all though, I think A Time of Crisis was a fun, solid experience and especially well-suited for players who are new or unfamiliar with the history of the Starfinder Society.