Aaron Shanks Marketing & Media Manager |
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Back cover text:
THE DRIFT IS BROKEN
Galactic disaster strikes just as the crew of the Marata come under attack by pirates in the midst of a solar storm, and the survivors find themselves hurtling through time, space, and the planes! Soon, they're being chased by infernal legions, fleeing the first layer of Hell to parallel dimensions and the distant future. All they want is to get home—but first, they'll have to survive!
This Starfinder Adventure Path volume begins the Drift Crashers Adventure Path and includes:
• “The Perfect Storm,” a Starfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by Jessica Redekop.
• A player's guide for this Adventure Path, with advice on making characters perfect for the Drift Crash and the Drift Crisis that follows, by Joshua Hennington.
• A toolbox featuring planar character options, diabolical fiends, and other creatures, by Joseph Blomquist, Sasha Laranoa Harving, Quinn Murphy, Jessica Redekop, and Isabelle Thorne.
• Statistics and deck plans for the Primorata, a unique vessel created when two starships merged into one, housing an artifact called the Signal Chaos Engine, by Jessica Redekop.
UllarWarlord Contributor |
5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Back cover text:
• A player's guide for this Adventure Path, with advice on making characters perfect for the Drift Crash and the Drift Crisis that follows, by Joshua Hennington.
oh wow who could that be is it me oh gosh
I'm really excited to see the final results of the Player's Guide - I'm hoping you all like the neat ideas and guidance I brought to playing through this AP! I hope it helps, because the ideas on the table for this AP were so WACKY and OFF THE WALL that I couldn't possibly encompass them all. This AP was so cool to witness!!!!
TRDG |
Yep, can't wait to see the players guide and then mod 1 at the end of the month!! Hell I have at least 2 of my SF groups almost begging me to alternate weekly from Vast to this so they can get the Drift Event feel.
Not sure if I'll do that just yet, but I'm thinking about it pretty seriously. Alass though I can bet Roll20 will not have it out and I'll have to hand craft it all in as usual. That can be fun as well but can be a pain in the butt and with no hi res maps :(
Tom
Aaron Shanks Marketing & Media Manager |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Aaron Shanks wrote:Back cover text:
• A player's guide for this Adventure Path, with advice on making characters perfect for the Drift Crash and the Drift Crisis that follows, by Joshua Hennington.
oh wow who could that be is it me oh gosh
I'm really excited to see the final results of the Player's Guide - I'm hoping you all like the neat ideas and guidance I brought to playing through this AP! I hope it helps, because the ideas on the table for this AP were so WACKY and OFF THE WALL that I couldn't possibly encompass them all. This AP was so cool to witness!!!!
It looks really good! Congrats!
Doctor Mono Contributor |
A toolbox featuring planar character options, diabolical fiends, and other creatures, by Joseph Blomquist, Sasha Laranoa Harving, Quinn Murphy, Jessica Redekop, and Isabelle Thorne.
I'm super excited to see this one come out! I loved the work I did for Drift Crashers and my stuff isn't even close to the best part. This team did an amazing job backing up Jess' phenomenal adventure. Cannot wait!
John Mangrum |
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Anyone's got the PDF yet? What are the new creatures in the toolbox?
Player's Guide rules contents:
New creature companion: Rift remora
Theme: Planar traveler
Toolbox contents:
* Several pages of new planar scion options. Ganzis make the jump from PF, and all of the scions in SF (including ganzis) get about three alternate racial/ancestral (whatever term one wishes to use) traits each.
New creatures:
* Cherubic Squire: A suppose one might call it a soul-powered angelic drone
* Devil, Convergent: Devils who arose from the souls of creatures whose quest for personal evolution led them to vile acts. They're crabs. They're all crabs. Maybe you should be a crab too.
* Devil, Erinyes: You know the drill.
* Devil, Lemure: Ditto
* Devil, Sigveir: Aka propaganda devils.
* Liquescence: Predatory oozes -- living pools of murky water, in fact - from the Plane of Water.
* Planar Scion, Ganzi: See above. Planar scions touched by the Maelstrom.
* Varratana: New trimorphic PC species from a world where the wild winds are infused with chaotic energies. As often happens with PC species introduced in adventures, however, we don't get vital statistics (age, height, weight, etc.).
Sasha Laranoa Harving |
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(...)
* Devil, Convergent: Devils who arose from the souls of creatures whose quest for personal evolution led them to vile acts. They're crabs. They're all crabs. Maybe you should be a crab too.(...)
* Varratana: New trimorphic PC species from a world where the wild winds are infused with chaotic energies. As often happens with PC species introduced in adventures, however, we don't get vital statistics (age, height, weight, etc.).
I hope y'all enjoy my delightful windkids and horrible crabs.
Leon Aquilla |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Quote:Just picturing G.E.R.T.Y. from the movie Moon but with cherub wings instead of a rail he moves around on* Cherubic Squire: A suppose one might call it a soul-powered angelic drone
I was pretty close!
To whomever created the Battletune - thank you. THANK YOU. Now I can mazecore a Battletune & Chordpocalypse together and create the ultimate heavy metal Bard.
Leon Aquilla |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I will say this: This is a very good AP for chaotic characters or manic no-time-to-stop-and-smell-the-roses games. There are no merchants or settlements you visit. You have to build your own stuff with UPB's.
For some, that's kind of a negative.
The biggest example I can think of is that the AP says you're stranded on the plane of Hell - this is true,
I think some people saw that and were like "Wait, what?!". If you read the Alien Archive section, it's mostly devils. So you would have expected more. I was certainly hoping for more extraplanar stuff.
John Mangrum |
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It's an episodic "road trip" campaign where the PCs will be constantly moving on to new locations, new NPCs, and new situations, never returning to old haunts. But a few recurring foes down the line, possibly. The only recurring friendly NPCs, it seems, will be the ones the PCs choose to bring along with them.
Leon Aquilla |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I find myself preferring AP's where you could plausibly step away from the main plot for a second but this one doesn't seem like it will be so forgiving.
So some people might say "This AP is a railroad" -- but the existence of a plot does not mean you're being railroaded.
Just let your players know what they're getting into up front, this is definitely not Fly Free Or Die.
captain yesterday |
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Any particular standouts on why it’s “worthless”?
It would give too much away. I'm not a fan of the themes used in the adventure so it all depends on how you feel. But for me it's a huge miss.
But I've been subscribed to starfinder from the very beginning and that's not going to change any time soon.
captain yesterday |
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Can ye say if its because plot content itself(like you don't like what its about), encounters(so something mechanically you don't like) or story structure to yourself(like pacing is off or its extremely fast or feels disconnected, etc)?
That would be correct, I don't like anything about the plot, I had a big long thing in spoilers but the website didn't post it and I've been working outside building two sets of steps in 96 degree temperatures all day and I don't have the energy to repost it.
Edit: And I do love the adventure toolbox, especially more love given to planar scions, and especially having Ganzi established in Starfinder.
I felt the themes used were all overdone recently by other media and had some adventure cliches that paizo has been relying entirely too much lately (like fighting mirror images of the PCs).
Leon Aquilla |
Can ye say if its because plot content itself(like you don't like what its about), encounters(so something mechanically you don't like) or story structure to yourself(like pacing is off or its extremely fast or feels disconnected, etc)?
If I had to guess, it's because:
In Part 2 you go to an alternate universe. In Part 3 you go to a "possible" future that the rest of the AP is set up to basically negate.
So other than being famous for Wicked Witch'ing your ship into Hell, there's nothing you do that alters anything in the world of Starfinder.
captain yesterday |
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CorvusMask wrote:Can ye say if its because plot content itself(like you don't like what its about), encounters(so something mechanically you don't like) or story structure to yourself(like pacing is off or its extremely fast or feels disconnected, etc)?If I had to guess, it's because:
** spoiler omitted **
That's part of it,
There are also numerous choices the writer of the adventure uses that I don't agree with or are ridiculous because they needed everything to unfold in a certain way.
Zaister |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
CorvusMask wrote:Well I'm curious of what this book is like since by now people should have the book :OTerrible. Hand's down the worst adventure I've gotten from Paizo.
Ymmv, but for me, the adventure portion is absolutely worthless. The bestiary portion however is absolutely top notch!
Mileage varies wildly here. I think it's by far the best start into any Starfinder AP ever. I love the Sliders-like setup.
Leon Aquilla |
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I'm only 1/3rd of the way through but so far I'd rate it a 3.5/5 if the system would let me.
It really hinges on having the right characters. My group is a Knight of Golarion, a Hellknight, a Desnan Paladin-esque Lunar Solarian, and a pirate/raider type so it aligns very well with the content.
Driftbourne |
James Martin wrote:I always thought the Drift was an underused concept. I want there to be floating chunks of other planes - bits of Heaven and Hell, abyssal dreadnoughts, devil-whales, chaos smurfs, a bit of everything in there. Society travel tends to be very quiet; I want the travel to be the adventure. I hope this moves in that direction.to your point though, the fact that the drift is pretty quiet permits you to have all kinds of society adventures at the destinations and not bog down the session in the travel
That's the beauty of how Drift Crisis is written, there's no set time or place for it to happen it only bogs things down when the GM needs/wants/feels like them to. The Event's in an AP or scenario as written might be less flexible.
John Mangrum |
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Errata note on the erinyes: Its stats include the following:
Weakness: good 5
This is Pathfinder 2nd Edition terminology that Starfinder doesn't use.
I confess I'm not well versed in PF2E, but I believe the equivalent in PF1E and SF would be "DR 5/good" - which is already included in the stat block.
John Mangrum |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Having read through this now, the adventure feels really constrained by hard limits on its budgets for space, both in terms of page count and XP. It's the first time I found myself really pining for the extra room Pathfinder APs enjoy, down to not getting art for all of the named NPCs the PCs will encounter and only getting a map for a literal sliver of a space station the PCs will visit.
The adventure is basically a framework begging to be extensively fleshed out by individual GMs. Personally, I'd strongly recommend using milestone XP or, even better, XP and loot based on the organized play system: PCs get a lump sum of credits when they hit milestones; any loot they've picked up along the way must be "paid for" out of that total or discarded (with the assumption that it's been sold, tossed aside, or handed down to the key NPCs). This will allow GMs the breathing room they need to let the PCs stretch their legs in Hell and actually explore the parallel worlds they visit.
Leon Aquilla |
It must be opposite day, I'm here defending the writers when I'm usually the one critiquing. Unbelievable!
This will allow GMs the breathing room they need to let the PCs stretch their legs in Hell and actually explore the parallel worlds they visit.
Did we read the same AP? Not trying to insult you or anything but I thought it was abundantly clear from the text if you stay one minute later than you should in Avernus
Would I have liked for it to focus more on Hell? Yes. But given that they haven't, I think you're asking too much from an AP for that level of improv.
The adventure is basically a framework begging to be extensively fleshed out by individual GMs
This is not a stop-and-smell-the-roses-and-hear-peoples-life-story AP, or an AP that rewards a too-clever-by-half player who wants to zig when the story says you should zag. To quote the immortal words I hear in almost every single one -- "that's beyond the scope of this adventure".
Some may call that railroading. I've consistently pushed back against that definition -- the existence of a plot does not mean you're being railroaded -- but this sounds more like a difference in expectations and desires rather than something it needs to be critiqued about.
As for missing art assets -- I had to improv half the places my group went in Quest for the Frozen Flame and Fly Free Or Die. that's what flipmats and r/battlemaps is for.
John Mangrum |
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Did we read the same AP? Not trying to insult you or anything but I thought it was abundantly clear from the text if you stay one minute later than you should in Avernus
** spoiler omitted **
That's only because the adventure doesn't have the page count to offer a short scout around, so it jumps straight to the next chunk of meat (same with the next two stops). There's no inherent reason why [redacted] happens at any particular moment; Hell is big. The big encounter occurs when the GM deems it so; adding some flavor encounters wouldn't damage anything.
(As for XP budget, the adventure handles the entire visit to Hell with a milestone reward anyway.)
This is not a stop-and-smell-the-roses-and-hear-peoples-life-story AP, or an AP that rewards a too-clever-by-half player who wants to zig when the story says you should zag. To quote the immortal words I hear in almost every single one -- "that's beyond the scope of this adventure".
Some may call that railroading. I've consistently pushed back against that definition -- the existence of a plot does not mean you're being railroaded -- but this sounds more like a difference in expectations and desires rather than something it needs to be critiqued about.
The vast scope of what's beyond the scope of this adventure is precisely what I'm getting at. And if you look closely, you'll see the adventure even acknowledges that PCs will want to explore their new reality - "While exploring what remains of... [redacted]." It's just that all of that exploring is left to the GM.
As for missing art assets -- I had to improv half the places my group went in Quest for the Frozen Flame and Fly Free Or Die. that's what flipmats and r/battlemaps is for.
Sure. But if the GM says "the elevator opens into a rounded hallway that curves away to the left and to the right. There are doors in both directions. You can go either way you want. Just... uh... don't go more than 20 feet in either direction." -- you're butting against some hard limits.
Leon Aquilla |
That's only because the adventure doesn't have the page count to offer a short scout around, so it jumps straight to the next chunk of meat (same with the next two stops). There's no inherent reason why [redacted] happens at any particular moment; Hell is big. The big encounter occurs when the GM deems it so; adding some flavor encounters wouldn't damage anything.
I'm not sure what the critique here is, though other than "it ought to be longer". Which I've already concurred, it's a short AP! I'm unclear on why it feels so short, maybe it's because of the reasons I articulated above, but either way, the structure is what it is. I've already said that that part of the AP feels like you're only there for a New York minute -- while a gazeteer on Avernus might have been nice, "I wish there was more" is kind of an impossibel ask. This feels to me like if someone said "Sure Agents of Edgewatch says it takes place in Absalom City but my players wanted to go to Aroden's Sacred Hot Dog Stand and no description was in there, 1/5"
And if you look closely, you'll see the adventure even acknowledges that PCs will want to explore their new reality - "While exploring what remains of... [redacted]." It's just that all of that exploring is left to the GM.
Your navigation options are fairly limited at that point. Even if we interpreted that clause liberally, that would only extend to the star system the group finds itself in, and as the text also explains, everything is basically boned. If I had some too-clever-by-half players who wanted to jet around every destination they could think of it would just be nothing but bombed out ruins and charred hellish landscape until they finally got the friggin' point.
It also provides a table of random encounters you can find which I think emphasize the whole "things are very very bad" mood. I maintain that holding out for more than this is an unreasonable ask.
John Mangrum |
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"Only the star system the group finds itself in" is a big patch of ground to explore.
I don't really understand what the argument is here, frankly. You and I agree that the AP is short; I'm saying GMs should expand it and offered some extremely basic tips on how to do so. The counterargument seems to be "You can't expand it, it's short!"
Leon Aquilla |
Any GM can do whatever improv they want with the product they purchased. But you're criticizing it for not having improv tools, which is a bit like asking if this is really sushi grade tuna you got at the supermarket, why doesn't it have any octopus limbs.
Not every speck of sand in the Katapesh desert has to be accounted for, and I similarly don't know why
needs a gazetteer either.
John Mangrum |
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I don't think I did criticize it for not having improv tools; in fact, the adventure pauses twice to explain the "state of the current universe" to the GM. I do criticize it for not having the physical space to map out an entire short hallway that PCs are expected to explore.
I do in fact have some criticisms regarding the content of the adventure itself, but I didn't even touch on them. I'm literally saying "This adventure needs room to breathe, here's an idea on how to do it without breaking the expected XP or loot totals."
John Mangrum |
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I quite like that...
Hilary Moon Murphy Contributor |