A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
Under the watchful eye of newly elected First Seeker Sarmak, the Starfinder Society travels to the machine planet of Aballon to undertake an archaeological survey of the ancient city of Eternity. Using a relic known as the Eternity Drive, the Starfinders launch initial explorations, uncover long-forgotten information about the fabled First Ones, and clash with a violent faction of anacite extremists named Those Who Call.
This is the first of three scenarios in the ongoing Year of Era's End metaplot.
This is a fun low-level scenario. It's not especially complicated structurally, but the locations the PCs are exploring are interesting and the lore/discoveries they can piece together as they delve into Eternity are interesting. I also like the different enemies used in (most) of the encounters: mechanically none are that complicated but they certainly feel unusual and cool.
I do wish there was any variability given this is a replayable (maybe there are three locations of which their tasked with two each time?) and wonder if the plot this is setting up is a bit ambitious for a low-level arc with only three parts, but its a solid and fun adventure
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Society Intro: Year of Era's End
Product- Starfinder Society Intro: Year of Era's End
System- Starfinder
Producer- Paizo
Price- $8.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq02ez9?Starfinder-Society-Intro-Year-of-Eras-E nd
TL; DR-The start to the end! 93%
Basics- New boss, new random magic thing, new place, who dis? Year of Era’s End sets out to establish the next and final meta plot for Starfinder Society 1st edition. The Starfinders have made new friends with the Anacites on their barren homeworld. Will the Society understand how the latest found magic item works before evil robots try to kill us all?
Mechanics or Crunch- This adventure is fairly simple and similar to the usual first adventures of a season. You have a few fights, a few social encounters, and a few skill challenges as you explore. It’s not crazy, but it all works well. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff- Much like the mechanics, this adventures is pretty standard for the first adventure of a season. You will meet the new boss, meet some new friends/middle managers of the Starfinder Society, and a new adversary group. The adventure is split in two, with two different goals in each as you try to understand the newly found device. It’s standard, but decently well done. 4.5/5
Execution- Paizo knows adventure production. Layout is good, text is easy to read, and organization is good. The maps are all available, and the monsters and NPCs all have pictures that I don't have to crop myself. I’ve even adjusted to the increase in cost as nine bucks is about the price of a movie and this will take about three to four hours to play. Solid work. 5/5
Summary-It’s the end of the world, and I feel fine! Starfinder Society First Edition is going away, and this honestly is a decent start to that. It’s some simple mini adventures that get a metaplot started, introduce new characters in the lore, and allow for some fun encounters along the way. If all the final adventures work like this, it will be a good send off. 93 %
So I'm in general invested to see where paizo version of Sarmak goes and themes of precursors and mega structures, but I've yesterday played scenario and today run it. My run went under four hours with four players (two level 2s and two level 3 playing higher tier) so while there is lot of material in scenario, its surprisingly speedy one and there are nice amount of alternate options for non engineering/computer party (though this is scenario where you want those, but its good to provide backup options)
I also like how scenario has multiple points where it muddled the occam's razor conclusions pcs could come to by reminding them its too early to make final conclusions. Like, one of locations is obviously munitions factory for massive robots capable of city wide destruction, but mechs exist in setting, and whether the lexicon's foreboding words refer to the robot schematics or to something else or is even inaccurate translation is muddled enough that you can interpret it multiple different ways. And the final reveal is mind boggling since it can be interpreted in so many different ways. I kinda hope it isn't the obvious conclusion most people probably come if they don't read text carefully.
I do feel like there is stuff you can trim from scenario(my biggest nitpick is that final encounter honestly feels like filler, like the climax encounter was before it, but scenario wasn't confident on ending scenario on rather haunting exploration segment so had one more combat in case that falls flat. Or maybe if there were four scenarios in metaplot, this would have been split into two scenarios? Not sure, but yeah, final encounter was fine but unneeded, it would have been fun to end just on the exploration segment), but I feel its very plausible to run in four hours even with how much it has and its exciting start for the metaplot.
Scenario I guess scenario does have bit of frontloaded roleplaying segment with two npcs after intro speech, but its rather quick segment. I also love first meeting with Those Who Call member because there is plenty of fun foreshadowing and roleplaying in that and it ends on haunting note.
Also noticed that three of four combats had all hazard mechanic to them and this time hazards were all simple to run, so they didn't cause me to forget them or slow down combat. So that was fun and creative. But admittedly the random roll based one might make combat really chaotic depending on results and I'm still not sure where to find dc for escaping a grapple from one of effects here.
What else. Well there was short trap segment that is rather easy to solve with just some thinking if rolls don't work out. The skill challenge segment was also rather simple and quick implementation of concept, though I think if character doesn't have acrobatics or athletics, its also confusing how character would escape the grapple that can happen as result of failure since I don't know how party members would have time to help in the scene.
Oh right one more thing: I love that conversation with specific character avoids Q&A format and instead uses "this is what npc talks about and thus what pcs will learn over course of conversation and this is what they only mention if pressed upon) format, its much more easier to have natural conversation AND know what information is considered "plot important" and what is considered "only told if pcs bring conversation to that direction". Q&A format often includes delicious tidbits of information that players never stumble upon because players often don't think of the really specific thing to ask, but this scenario uses format correctly for chit chatting and small talk while having dramatic plot important conversation follow more natural format.
This one drags; they try a new approach to starting it but it feels very rough and unpolished. The first combat is surprising and has some new twists to it. There are a variety of skill checks so you don't get locked behind a skill famine. But if your party does not have computers you are going to be screwed. Still; long winded insufferable NPCs make this a chore to slog through. And it always sucks when you find piles of treasure that you can't use as just plot items. As the story unfolds the stakes get pretty ludicrous, especially for a low level party. And why introduce such complex mechanics for a fight? (You will know it when you see it.) It just feels like between 6-99 and 7-01 the new theme is science fiction horror with astronomical stakes. Not really a fan of it. Furthemore the ending is all set up and no pay off. They are trying to write a story of discovery that will take multiple episodes to resolve and it just leaves this one flat.
(based on 4 ratings)
