A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.
Time is running short as the nefarious Order of Dawning Fate turns their experimental doomsday weapon upon a defenseless metropolis in the Vast! With millions of lives in danger, it’s up to the Starfinder Society to navigate the streets of the crumbling city, locate and destroy the doomsday weapon, and save the city from destruction! Yet, fate is not on the Society’s side as Kebzec, a founder of the Order of Dawning Fate, oversees the weapon’s deployment and defenses. Will the Starfinders emerge victorious, or will they meet their end at the hands of the Order of Dawning Fate?
I wound up at a table running this scenario on a whim and didn't know what to expect. I'd never played SF1 before, and thus was completely green when it came to navigating my character sheet. However, I had a really good time! The adventure moved at a fast clip, had some great setpieces, and even the callbacks to previous adventures were clear and light enough that I didn't feel overwhelmed as a newcomer. It ran a bit long--I think a couple scenes could be cut without really losing anything--and the final confrontation was brutal, but not impossible.
One thing that turned me off about it was that it highlighted how easy it is for operatives to outshine other party members and essentially solo entire modules. It just so happened that all the skills and combat proficiencies necessary to make the adventure happen were the ones my character--a pregenerated Iseph--was the uncontested best at. It felt like I was unwillingly being dragged into the spotlight while all the other, more experienced players were left to find things to do around the periphery. This was super awkward for me and unfair for everyone else. Despite this, however, I still think most scenes were well-designed and well-paced.
Shoutout to the SFS community for being so fun and welcoming, by the way. I really enjoyed spending time with you guys.
Its hard to rate hard scenarios and even more so doing so late
I was planning to rate this back in march when I run the scenario, but kinda forgot huh. Either way lot of year 6 Order Founder scenarios have really hard combat in scenarios that tend to easily run long time either due to amount of combat or roleplaying stuff.
This one has one:
"automatic surprise round and enemies have aoes"
which is both fun explosive challenge, but legitimately kinda hard to respond to lot of parties :'D Thus its kinda hard to consider how that translates to score since it can be legit like "our party had no chance" and "wow, they played dirty, I love that!". I just like that all founder fights I've run have been difficult tactical challenges in different ways.
I do remember this one having some kinda open questions like "wait, why are they doing this like this in character" but none of them bothered my immersion and I liked the latest version of ethical dilemma here even if I think paizo had already chosen which one they want to go with for rest of year at least. Either way, its kinda hard to rate scenario months later, but I decided on score based on how positive I feel afterwards. Its probably not most objective score, but I think I was informative enough here on what stuck out to my memory months later at least.
The module has a very hard start and tries to play sandbox by letting the players explore a city and the inhabitants. The module tries to set the setting of a world of panic but its very dependent on players asking specific questions to even start the mod.
Several challenges are dependent on computers; if you have a team without computers you get locked out of the first third of the module. It is bad game design as you have no other option but computers and if you don't have it their is no alternative.
Bunch of mini-games which are like the traditional skill spams in Starfinder. They are neat encounters but easy to miss as they feel like just exposition and not true encounters.
The Chase scene is fun, narratively, but it is written so only the pilot does anything. Its disappointing as you have 5 people just chilling while 1 person engages with the story. Unlike most chase scenes that let you use a lot of different skills to try and engage with the story you are extremely limited here (combat or piloting, that's about it) and it just sucks.
Big Spoiler: Starfinder loves beating a dead horse. You will know when you run into it. . . .Some things never die.
Their are also a few editing errors that made it hard for the GM to respond quickly.
Once more my observations of season 6 is that the story is great but the game mechanics are not very good. Almost as if they had someone write a very good story and then tried to shoe horn it into the Starfinder system. Its another disappointment among season 6.
I'm slightly concerned that this scenario is overlooking a distinct third possibility of what PCs will do about a certain NPC...
I think they are doing that on purpose because they already had that choice in special plus let's face it cold blooded execution is always kinda no no socially :p
(also let's face it, if that was option, it would just be repeat of "you didn't think I wouldn't have death man's switch?")
I get that, but the thumb on the scale's a little too obvious for me this time. Particularly since SFS has taken "the third option" into account before -- both with this specific NPC and with an associate.
We all know players are unpredictable and will zag instead of zigging at the strangest times, so based off personal experience, there's two ways I can see this encounter going that the scenario doesn't take into account:
The Third Path:
GM: Sitting at a desk in front of a computer, you see a familiar face: Datc-
Player: I shoot her in the head.
GM: Wait, are you sure? She might have infor-
Player: I don't care-
GM: This is murder, you'd take a point of Infam-
Player: Also, I have the Double Tap feat.
The Fourth Path:
GM (as Datch): So, you see, your options are clear. Take me in, and get nothing, or let me work - and let me escape - and you get everything.
Player: Guys, you keep going. I'm staying here to guard her.
GM: Wait, you want to split the party?
Player: Absolutely. Also, if she tries to get away, please note that I have the Double Tap feat.
How previous scenarios handled this:
Spoiler:
Hira Lanzio: If PCs kill Hira in 1-14, they learn in 1-33 that he was (assumedly) such a vital source of intel that Historia-7/Celita had him resurrected.
Datch herself: In 3-00, Datch presents the PCs with the choice overlooked here: Kill her, or take her in. It's possible -- not likely, I imagine, but possible -- that PCs who chose to spare Datch in 3-00 could encounter her again, now, after she's been back at work for her mass-murdering allies for yet another full year, and they might not make the same decision this time.
Either way, I think its kinda one of those "you kinda have to handle it with out of table talk" especially because the previous scenarios didn't let players know it was abduction and not rescue with certainty.
Because I do agree with not having death be option this time, but it does result in that if pcs would do that, then it would default "voting" to "they got away, but pcs didn't willingly take package" I guess?
