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Starfinder One-Shot #4: Before the Storm

4.70/5 (based on 3 ratings)
Starfinder One-Shot #4: Before the Storm

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During a routine shuttle trip through the Drift, a group of heroes come across another vessel attempting to outrun a mysterious shockwave. Following a devastating impact, both ships are cast adrift but the heroes can't signal for help! With no other option but to board the other drifting vessel to send a distress signal, the heroes quickly find themselves contending with all manner of strange creatures and events. Yet, the deeper the heroes journey, the more they learn about the very beginnings of an event that will change the Starfinder setting!

This short Starfinder adventure written by Jason Tondro is intended to be completed in a single session and is intended for a group of four 1st-level characters. For ease of play, it includes four optional 1st-level pregenerated characters that can be used. This adventure can be used as a prequel to the Starfinder Drift Crashers Adventure Path, leading directly into the events of the first adventure of that series. Alternatively, this adventure can also be used as a starting point for any Starfinder Drift Crisis campaign!

Pregenerated characters for this adventure are available as a free download.

"Before the Storm" is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure and Chronicle Sheet are available as a free download (5.2 MB PDF).



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4.70/5 (based on 3 ratings)

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Dunno if this really fits the "oneshot" brand but its great

5/5 —

So this one doesn't come with unique pregens, just four iconics, but its more or less a drift crisis prequel you can use at start of any drift crisis campaign(including drift crashers) with your table's own party so that makes sense.

The adventure itself is great mystery/foreshadowing/survival situation and I love how its foreshadows and hints at true cause of the drift crisis and tells that story to players :D

A great start if your running Drift Crashers or anything related to the Drift Cr

4/5 —

4 (4.5 is what I would give this if possible) out of 5 Stars (if we would ever get half stars as a rating........ (Please Paizo!!)

I GMed this to completion for a group of 6 players as a lead up to Drift Crashers AP :) It took 3, 3 hour sessions but I emphaze RP to get a group bonding and growing your characters organically during play, and to get this stranger group all on the same page. Not to mention they were all pretty much new to this game system.

And with that out of the way here we go the Positives and negatives of this one shot :)

Positive +

+ One shot intro to an Adventure Path!! Wish we had more of these honestly

+ Lets the party Bond before the AP this is meant for begins (A very big deal if its a newly formed group and/or beginners) Think of this as a long intro scenario where the group can realize their character concepts in game and get used to the rule system of Starfinder. Wat better than the usual and old fashioned "we met at thee Space bar in Absalom Station" scenario YAWN...... Done to death or no intro at all, YIKES!!

+ Interesting way to get the group in a starship (even if its a rental (LOL) and having the Drift Event pre warning echos have a specific effect and having another ship crash into them, good times!!

+ The mystery of exploring the ship that crashed into you as your rental is now trashed and mostly unusable.

+ Nice encounters set up in a variety of ways and situations, the "water room" and the "neg Plane hole/portal" springs to mind

+ Some interesting tidbits of info that can be gathered to set up for the main Adventure path to come is nice to see, that the players would'nt get otherwise if they did not go through this before the Drift Crashers AP

Negatives - (IE Needs work)

- the map of the starship that crashed into you, its useable but not the best, especially if playing in a VTT, the encounters and exploring parts really shine and give that creepy feeling if one has a good/great map to work with, but at 5 buck price point, understandable they did not go all out, though as a lead in to a year long Drift Crisis and 2, 3 part AP's I can't beleave no one on the Starfinder team had a thought to get a way better map in here!!

I bought 4 maps from RPG now to get this up to what I thought it needed myself here to really set the hook for the group I am running this for myself

- No Rental ship map, though one can just theatre of the mind it as well

- IF your group has more than 4 players you will have to add an extra encounter or two, or play with the creature stats or add one or two more to make it compatible. But it is designed for 4 so not a huge thing. I added some Anicite Wingbot Security Drones for an extra hall encounter myself , a 2nd Regular Drift Dead, a Pilot, to the Bridge encounter and added an extra monster each for all the other encounters myself.

- Would have been nice to see someone else they could talk to on the ship but again not a big deal

So in the end if your looking for a one shot to intro a new group into, will be doing Drift Event type game, be it Drift Crashers or a homebrew. I would highly recommend this for a nice easy start for the world of Starfinder.

Cheers

Tom (TRDG)

An Excellent Oneshot that left players hungry for more

5/5 —

A really solid oneshot- I gmed for 3 players, without adjustments and it made for a very tense and fun oneshot. I think the mix of combats were a lot of fun, and the final encounters setup made for a suitably dramatic conclusion.

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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Ooooo, nice! A parting gift from Jake!
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

What's the release date on this?
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

June 1.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Thank you!
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Kind of a bummer that the pregens are the iconics and not more original, but, we can fix that. :D
Paizo Employee Digital Developer
7 people marked this as a favorite.
Castrin wrote:
Kind of a bummer that the pregens are the iconics and not more original, but, we can fix that. :D

The intent here is to encourage people to play their own characters, and use the iconics as pregens only when needed. Unlike other one-shots, this adventure is meant to be used by people wanting to play their own PCs. In fact, it actually works as an intentional prequel to a Drift Crisis campaign, including direct tie-ins to the Drift Crashers adventure path!

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I really hope Paizo goes ahead and releases a seperate player's guide for the Drift Crashers adventure path. It's a little annoying that we need to wait until the first Drift Crashers book releases in order to run this as a prequel for that.
Marketing & Media Manager
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Serpentk1ng wrote:
I really hope Paizo goes ahead and releases a seperate player's guide for the Drift Crashers adventure path. It's a little annoying that we need to wait until the first Drift Crashers book releases in order to run this as a prequel for that.

There should also be a Player’s Guide. I’ll check next week. :)

Thanks Aaron :)

Tom
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Oh right forgot this was released :O

LOL (WINK)

Hoping to review this after I get my crew through this in session 2 :)

Tom
Thurston Hillman wrote:
Castrin wrote:
Kind of a bummer that the pregens are the iconics and not more original, but, we can fix that. :D
The intent here is to encourage people to play their own characters, and use the iconics as pregens only when needed. Unlike other one-shots, this adventure is meant to be used by people wanting to play their own PCs. In fact, it actually works as an intentional prequel to a Drift Crisis campaign, including direct tie-ins to the Drift Crashers adventure path!

That's nice but you don't really play your own SFS character in campaign mode. I even had one player character when things got rough say I don't care if I die it's not my character when he was supposedly playing his own character. He knew it would have no impact on his real SFS character.

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I think they meant "own character" in sense of "Your own created character" ^_^;

Oneshots aren't really SFS products, they have sanctioned bonus chronicle for SFS players yeah, but they aren't created as scenarios.
Acquisitives
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I really like this idea. I'd actually be pretty happy w/ 'insert one shot' adventures, which might be stuck between the books of particular adventure paths (or not!)
Marketing & Media Manager
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Yakman wrote:
I really like this idea. I'd actually be pretty happy w/ 'insert one shot' adventures, which might be stuck between the books of particular adventure paths (or not!)

From the Department of Expectation Management: We have no more Pathfinder or Starfinder One-Shots on the schedule. You may recall that Thurston Hillman was our non-Organized Play adventure developer. He has been promoted to Starfinder Managing Creative Director. Pathfinder and Starfinder Bounties will continue, however, as will standalone Adventures, and Adventure Paths. Look to Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite programs for more in-setting adventure content.

Band on the Run and the Great Grav train were superb, that they will not be seeing sequels is disappointing.
Dark Archive
2 people marked this as a favorite.

I definitely preferred One shots to Bounties.

Okay, so my first question to those who have run this, OR to the writer/editors:

Water:
When you open the door to the crew quarters, and a seemingly endless supply of water begins gushing through, would it not be more accurate that it begins turning to ice almost immediately? I feel like I have read so much lore, did I miss that the Drift is a room temp vacuum?

We paused our session before my players went through the doorway, but as they did the scans of the ship, they know it's full of water. One of them mentioned it would freeze, so here I am. I love when players throw things like that out there, and expect me to already know it lol they completely think I planned for them to get ice-cycled!

Will be back with more as we explore the Third Gate!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
garsceg wrote:

Okay, so my first question to those who have run this, OR to the writer/editors:

** spoiler omitted **

Will be back with more as we explore the Third Gate!

I'm pretty sure water in a vacuum would actually boil!

https://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/ask/244-What-would-happen-if-you-pour-w ater-into-space-#:~:text=Water%20poured%20into%20space%20(outside,it%20does %20at%20sea%20level.
Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

More than you ever wanted to know: Boiling Point :-)
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Ya know, lot of people probably have overlooked this one, but its really really good short adventure to introduce drift crisis and foreshadow it :'D
Dataphiles

I think I've found a mistake in the PDF at least. (on page 8)
listed under spoiler incase anybody doesn't want to know infomation of one of the rooms. It's "minor" but there.

Description of one of the rooms:

A6. Engineering
The PCs likely access this area by taking the ladder from area A5;
however, doing so exposes this room to vacuum, activating red
emergency lighting and a voice that repeats “depressurization
warning” until the hatch is closed and a character presses a button
on the hatch to seal it and repressurized the room.
This room contains the Third Gate’s power core, thrusters, and
Drift engine. All appear undamaged. One hatch leads down to area
A5 and another up to area A6.

The issue is, if we're already in A6 should this read one hatch leads down to a5, and up to a7?
camberme wrote:

I think I've found a mistake in the PDF at least. (on page 8)

listed under spoiler incase anybody doesn't want to know infomation of one of the rooms. It's "minor" but there.
** spoiler omitted **

Descriptions are generally from the center of the room/area being described. So, the description quoted is likely correct.

Just finished this with my 2nd party run of 6 new SF players for this, they had a blast, can't recommend this enough. Though you might want to find some better ship maps for a better visual experience (WINK)

Tom
Dataphiles
GM Numbat wrote:
camberme wrote:

I think I've found a mistake in the PDF at least. (on page 8)

listed under spoiler incase anybody doesn't want to know infomation of one of the rooms. It's "minor" but there.
** spoiler omitted **
Descriptions are generally from the center of the room/area being described. So, the description quoted is likely correct.

but it's not... at the beginning of the description it says you climb up from 5,to 6... if you're in 6, why would it say one down to 5 and one up to 6. when you should be going up to 7. And on the map that comes with the adventure, theres only one hatch shown.

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