A Starfinder Second Edition Playtest adventure designed for 5th-level characters.
Countless derelict and abandoned starships litter space—some damaged beyond repair, some containing valuable cargo, and others empty save for the dead. The Xenowarden starship Bloom is one such ship. During a routine survey mission to a newly discovered dwarf planet in the Vast, the crew of the Bloom collected a variety of biological and environmental samples, secured the samples for further study, and departed, plotting a course through the Drift to a mobile research laboratory in the Pact Worlds.
The Bloom that emerged in Pact Worlds’ space was much changed—unresponsive, careening out of control, and with no sign of the ship’s crew. Explore the biomechanical corridors of the Bloom to uncover the fate of its missing crew and face off against a dangerous, alien predator that can’t be allowed to survive.
The Bloom is haunted. That’s the least of your problems.
Welcome to the Starfinder Playtest! You can directly shape the future of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game by participating in a fun and rigorous playtest period using the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook and one of several playtest adventures—including Starfinder Playtest Scenarios! Each Starfinder Playtest Scenario is a short, single-session adventure designed to be played in 2–3 hours and written by a member of the Starfinder Team.
Written by: Jessica Catalan
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
I GMed this adventure for six close friends as a Halloween treat. Star rating is based on the product as-is and not the modifications I made to it.
This is a very obvious Alien pastiche with a fantasy twist. And you know what? I love it for that. Atmospherically, this adventure rocks. The Bloom makes for a fantastic hostile environment--you can do so much with a living starship, and Catalan happily delivers while still leaving room to add your own material--and the antagonist is both conceptually frightening and mechanically well-designed.
However, this module has two flaws that keep it from being a five star adventure for me personally. The first is that it requires the party to fully commit to the premise--the Bloom is their problem alone, and they're going to have to put themselves in harm's way to solve it--or else the GM will have to improvise reasons and twists that force them to stay aboard and complete the mission. You might have to do a little railroading to make sure the climactic confrontation at the end actually takes place, or build your own using the presented materials as a base. Granted, this is a problem with a lot of horror modules with somewhat scripted endings--anyone who's ran Call of Cthulu or Delta Green will be all too familiar with the issue--but it's a curveball that can catch less experienced GMs off-guard. So, read the whole thing in advance and get ready to adapt if the party does the unexpected.
The second flaw is more of a personal taste thing, but I don't think this adventure is brutal enough to really deliver on its harrowing premise. I felt the need to punch up a few encounters and add some hazards of my own, even after following the guidelines for larger parties. However, my friends and I have been playing PF2 together for years (and plenty of sci-fi RPGs on the side), so we might be too sweaty for our own good/more mechanically experienced and genre-savvy than the intended audience. So, keep an eye on how your party's doing and hit the gas/pump the breaks as needed.
Despite this flaws, I am overall quite satisfied with this adventure and had a blast running it.
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Playtest Scenario #2: It Came from th
Basics- In space, no one can hear how good this is. It Came from the Vast! is the second Starfinder playtest scenario. In it, space truckers find an abandoned ship, decide to make money on it, and find it is much more than they originally thought. This time for level five characters!
Mechanics or Crunch- So far so solid! The mechanics on display for the 5th level pregens and the five level adventure all work well. There is a variety of things here that the characters encounter, from monsters to haunts to skill checks. It’s just a solid experience for two hours. 5/5
Theme or Fluff- You've heard the beats before, but this song is still different enough to be fun. I too love me some Alien, but this one gets elements of The Thing involved as well. Solid fun all around, and different enough that my players and I all had a blast, even though we knew what was going to happen after we read the adventure description. 5/5
Execution- I liked this adventure, but it’s missing a few pieces. The standard layout of the PFS adventures with pictures at the end are not here. It has a good layout and is easy to read, but the pictures help me show players the monsters and other creatures involved. Also, I like the stat blocks to be separate. These are small things, but it hurts the presentation a bit. This is exactly the same as what I said for scenario one, and I still stand by that. 4.5/5
Summary- This is exactly what I want to see in a Science-Fantasy space horror. You got monsters, you got areas dripping with goo, you got space horrors and discovery, you got magic plant ships, you got ghosts of the dead. This is a fantastic short adventure that is easy to run, and fun for all. Give me back some of the older layout and this would be perfect. 97%
I always wanted to see more use of the living starships in Society play. Not the way I expected to explore one, but I'll take it. Poor thing must be terrified with its crew dead and some nasty creature stalking about.
There is a lot of loot, so I made cheat sheets. The loot is color-coded by room so that you can cut it up as strips to hand it to players as they find stuff, and to help you sort the loot back afterwards.
I'm hoping that all of you find this helpful as we're diving into this new ruleset!
There is a lot of loot, so I made cheat sheets. The loot is color-coded by room so that you can cut it up as strips to hand it to players as they find stuff, and to help you sort the loot back afterwards.
I'm hoping that all of you find this helpful as we're diving into this new ruleset!
Hugs,
Hmm
Oh that’s brilliant thank you, I put my hand up to GM this scenario so these will come in so handy, really enjoyed the handouts from Hidden Current too
There is a lot of loot, so I made cheat sheets. The loot is color-coded by room so that you can cut it up as strips to hand it to players as they find stuff, and to help you sort the loot back afterwards.
I'm hoping that all of you find this helpful as we're diving into this new ruleset!
Exploring a derelict hulk is one of my favorite scifi tropes. I hope this can eventually find it's way to print, maybe in some physical compilation down the line.
There is a lot of loot, so I made cheat sheets. The loot is color-coded by room so that you can cut it up as strips to hand it to players as they find stuff, and to help you sort the loot back afterwards.
I'm hoping that all of you find this helpful as we're diving into this new ruleset!
Hugs,
Hmm
I do not have an in-person game scheduled but these are great, thank you for taking the time to share them with all of us.
Contributor
