A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
For months, citizens of the kasathan colony ship, Idari, have vanished without a trace, disappearing from the idyllic Sea of Grass for a fate unknown. As the number of missing increases, all eyes turn to the nearby Red Corridors, a subterranean neighborhood home to anarchists, malcontents, criminals, and other kasathas looking to flout the deeply ingrained traditions of modern kasathan society. Representatives from the Red Corridors vehemently deny any involvement in the abductions, but rising tensions and the desperation of those who have lost are primed to spark violence. With citizens of both the Sea of Grass and the Red Corridors distrustful of the ruling Doyenate and refusing to cooperate with ship security, the captain of the Idari calls for help from an old friend: Ehu Hadif, current First Seeker of the Starfinder Society.
Depart for the Idari to investigate these mysterious disappearances and find the missing, before suspicion tears the Idari apart.
I enjoy mystery and investigation scenarios in Starfinder. This one is pretty solid but I do agree with previous commentary that it would be helpful to have more incentive for players to investigate the Red Corridors. Combat scenarios were very tough and with some unique abilities, and all the players loved the design of the unique big bad.
Played this in high tier; it is not connected to the meta at all and feels like a filler episode for season six. Would have been much better to release this much earlier in the schedule as it just feels out of place this late in the season. This episode suffers from cliché's and bad writing and you have to really suspend your disbelief to make this one work in your mind. It could have been a really good compare and contrast situation very similar to how the Amish or Shakers are presented in the U.S.A. verses the current social media culture but it doesn't go that route and instead devolves into the traditional cliché culture of a "hippy artist commune" vrs the traditional establishment. Its tired and played out. But they don't really establish what the traditional values are for the main group and instead its all left with huge plot holes. It would also be better if they started integrating the new PC speaker instead of promoting the lame duck 1st seeker.
Lots of bad game mechanics by design. They lock you into just one skill you need to capitalize on and if your party doesn't have that skill you are out of luck. Terrible design for a pick up game as you can never tell what skills you have. Ouch.
(The story also feels like a bad B-movie version of Romeo and Juliet - in space. And a lot of the items they present to you, that should be clues according to basic writing troupes, are nothing. Not even red herrings. It is so weird and frustrating. This would have been much better as a line module or a pain train as it just gets all out of order in sandbox mode.)
The scenario has an interesting premise and I was really excited to play this. There is a community of kasathan farmers and a hippie kasathan art commune. That sounds like a cool societal juxtoposition to explore under the pretense of an investigation: how does a highly conservative society forged by a millenia of necessary conservatism in a wagon train through the stars react to individuals stretching the bounds of freedom?
But that concept gets completely bypassed. And Its not something weird our group did, it's by far the most logical action and we were TRYING to stay on the path.
Spoiler:
You know the farmers daughter is missing. Its been a week but hey.. there's still hope. You could spend a week exploring the interesting art commune and not get anywhere...or you could go with the very solid, concrete destination of the person who you know is missing.
Once you do that, they're lost in the woods you track the critters that dragged them off and you find them.
..and the doors. If you have a "door" that is a Dc 35 to open, followed by a barricade that is a DC FIFTY FIVE to get through that is not a door that is a WALL.
Possible tweak:
If the gentleman from the Commune was the one reported missing, and the farmer was not (because she likes to spend a few days in spiritual retreat in the woods) that would get you to interact with the rest of the scenario
Have the gentleman from the hippie commune be the one reported missing and the farmer not reported yet (maybe she spends a few days out there at a time. Not like rain is an issue). Otherwise I can't fathom why the party would not start a very time sensitive investigation with their most solid lead
Be clear on which doors are doors and which doors are actually walls. Its a millenia old starship sections of wall get repurposed over time.
The last mystery with kasatha was also weirdly not mysterious. I have to wonder if kasathans doing seemingly random things for some tradition or another just has them blind to when something weird happens.
"So they cut down a tree brought it inside, decorated it, put a bunch of gifts under it and then threw it outside a month later" ....
My first instinct while reading through this is that I'd want to have the PCs already on board the Idari when "the call" goes out. Interplanetary communication and travel times occasionally get overlooked in these rescue scenarios, I feel (see also the initial hook for The Devastation Ark, a far more extreme case of the same issue).
Specifically, I'd just say
Spoiler:
...Ehu Hadif and the PCs were on the Idari for some minor diplomatic function. That event wrapped up neatly and without much excitement, and the PCs were about to get shipped back home when the captain asks Ehu Hadif to intervene.
