What I found surprised me. The "conversations" were hardly that, they were poorly-designed exposition dumps with no real choices or input from the players. In fact, reading over the first and second adventures I was not impressed by the quality of the adventure design at all. So I decided that I would write up how the adventure goes, and my thoughts on what's wrong, right, and what I'd change - just as a thought experiment on adventure design. So here goes.
Now, I'm going to quote some sections of the module directly, so there will be spoilers, but I'll try to minimize them and point out what sections could give any key plot details away. To start though I'm going to look at the very first scene, the opening encounter in what will be the first of six adventures in this campaign.
So how does the adventure start? Like this...
PART 1:
ABSALOM GANG WAR
The Dead Suns Adventure Path starts on Absalom Station, the gigantic space station that occupies the former orbit of the sun’s now-vanished third planet, Golarion. Absalom Station is the administrative and cultural center of the Pact Worlds, and now serves as the system’s primary home of humanity. The player characters should have some sort of connection with the Starfinder Society, either as new members or as prospective applicants (at the very least, the PCs should have a good reason to ally themselves with the Society), and have come to Absalom Station to find work.
The PCs don’t need to be acquainted with one another yet; they’ve all made arrangements to meet a dwarven Starfinder named Duravor Kreel in Docking Bay 94. Kreel has promised to show them around the station, help them get settled, and facilitate their membership into the Starfinder Society. The adventure assumes that the PCs are all passengers on the shuttle Okimoro, which has just arrived at Absalom Station, landing in Docking Bay 94. If any characters are natives of Absalom Station, they can be either returning to the station after a short time away or present in the docking bay awaiting the shuttle’s arrival. Adjust the first encounter as necessary to account for any PCs that are not passengers on the shuttle. The players should take a few moments to make introductions and describe their characters to each other before moving on to the first encounter, Caught in the Crossfire, on the next page.
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE (CR 2 OR 4)
The Okimoro has just landed in Docking Bay 94, one of scores of docking bays occupying the starlike arms that encircle Absalom Station’s equator. Final docking procedures take a few minutes, at which point the cabin attendant welcomes the shuttle’s passengers to Absalom Station, and the PCs can disembark from the Okimoro onto the floor of Docking Bay 94.
To set the scene and get the adventure started, read or paraphrase the following.
The brightly lit docks of Absalom Station are abuzz with activity as travelers bustle by, preparing to board or disembarking from starships bound to or from any of dozens of worlds. Brash and swaggering starpilots, scurrying ysoki mechanics, and expectant colonists mingle with enigmatic kasatha mystics, hard-faced asteroid miners, imposing vesk mercenaries, and more, creating a microcosm of the abundance and variety of life in the Pact Worlds. New arrivals meet friends, loved ones, or business contacts, and are whisked away into the humming activity of daily life on the vast space station. Beyond them, ground crews tend to the docked ships, and dockworkers in mechanized cargo lifters load and unload freight and baggage. A sharp tang of ozone hangs in the air—a byproduct of electrical discharges from the docked ships—but underneath, the station’s atmosphere has a slightly used aroma. The docking bay’s deck plates thrum beneath your feet, though whether it’s from the passage of innumerable feet or the vibrations of the station’s power conduits and air recycling systems is impossible to say.
Creatures: The PCs’ Starfinder contact, Duravor Kreel (LN male dwarf), is awaiting their arrival in the docking bay, but two other groups—members of a pair of rival Absalom Station street gangs, the Downside Kings and the Level 21 Crew—are moving stealthily into the docking bay at the same time. The two gangs have been adversaries for years, but their animosity toward each other has flared in recent days, as each gang has been hired by one of the factions currently competing over the fate of the Acreon and the Drift Rock: Astral Extractions and the Hardscrabble Collective. Astral Extractions has ordered the Kings to intimidate the Collective’s members and keep any other faction (such as the Starfinders) from intervening in the dispute. The Level 21 Crew, hired for protection by the Hardscrabble Collective, got wind of the Kings’ activities and headed to Docking Bay 94 to confront their rivals.
When all the PCs have set foot in the docking bay, allow them to attempt Perception checks. Any PC who succeeds at a DC 5 Perception check sees Kreel waiting for them in the middle of the docking bay. Any PC who succeeds at a DC 15 Perception check also notices the two groups of people on the fringes of the docking bay furtively taking up defensive positions among stacks of cargo crates and machinery.
Kreel is tall and lanky for a dwarf, with a bristly, iron-gray beard and deep-set eyes beneath bushy eyebrows. With his patched and stained coveralls, the dwarf looks like just another dockworker, but a badge bearing the symbol of the Starfinder Society stands out on his chest. Kreel checks the computer he’s holding and looks up to scan the crowd. When he sees the PCs, he raises a hand in greeting and gives them a friendly smile. Before the PCs can return the greeting, however, the air is suddenly filled with laser blasts as the Kings and the 21 Crew open fire on each other. Bystanders scream and flee in terror, diving for cover or milling about frantically. Kreel freezes, paralyzed with fear.
There are six gang members in total: three Downside Kings and three Level 21 Crew (use the Absalom Station gang member stat block below for members of both gangs). The Downside Kings enter the docking bay from the northeast (see the Directions in Space sidebar) and take up the positions marked G on the right side of the map. The Level 21 Crew enter from the northwest and take up the positions marked G on the left side of the map. Duravor Kreel stands in the middle of the docking bay at the position marked K on the map. The PCs start in the area marked with caution lines in the bottom center of the map.
The first round of combat is a surprise round. Only the gangs and PCs who succeeded at the more difficult Perception check to notice the approaching gang members can act during this round. Have each of the PCs roll 1d6; on a roll of 1, that character is targeted this round by one of the gang members. At the same time, the PCs see a laser beam hit Kreel. The dwarf falls to the floor without a sound and does not move.
Following the surprise round, combat continues as normal. The gangs have no idea who the PCs are, and the scene is utter chaos. Each round, randomly determine whether the individual gang members shoot at the PCs or the other gang. If they can’t get a clear shot at any of the PCs, they fire at the opposing gang. Even though the gangs are shooting at the PCs, it should be clear to them that the gangs’ real targets are each other; the PCs are just caught in the crossfire.
There is plenty of cover available in the docking bay for combatants on all three sides to make use of, from crates and shipping containers to baggage carts, machinery, and even an information booth near the middle of the docking bay. The precise type of cover (partial, normal, improved, or total) these objects provide is left for you to determine, and the PCs (or the gang members) might be able to increase their amount of cover by ducking down or dropping prone behind smaller objects. In any case, both the PCs and gang members would be well advised to take advantage of the opportunities for cover within the docking bay.
Discourage the PCs from engaging both gangs at the same time; that would make this a CR 4 encounter—a challenge of epic difficulty for 1st-level PCs! Instead, let them know it’s better to focus their fire and take out one group of enemies at a time. Neither gang is interested in talking; their blood is up and they just want to hurt their rivals. Once all three members of one gang have been killed, the survivors from the other gang immediately stop fighting and flee the docking bay, disappearing into the depths of the station.
PCs who want to check on Kreel or give him medical aid find that the dwarf is already dead, with a hole burned completely through his neck from the laser beam. No matter what they try, nothing the PCs do can save him. It’s important that Kreel dies before the PCs can do anything about it; their investigation of the dwarf’s death on behalf of the Starfinder Society is the impetus for the following sections of the adventure.
Development: As the battle winds down, station security finally arrives, but too late to join in the fight. Emergency medical services follow a few minutes later to assist the injured. Security personnel question witnesses (including the PCs) and take their statements. Fortunately, the witnesses agree that the PCs didn’t start the fight, so they are free to go. If asked, any of the security officers can identify the two groups involved as two of Absalom Station’s most infamous street gangs: the Downside Kings and the Level 21 Crew.
If necessary, the emergency medics can administer first aid to the PCs or treat deadly wounds (using the Medicine skill). They can also confirm that Kreel is dead and make arrangements for the body. If the PCs search the dwarf’s body, they find little other than his computer, which contains the name and description of each of the PCs, as well as one additional name: Chiskisk, and an address. A PC who succeeds at a DC 15 Culture check to recall knowledge recognizes the name as that of a high-ranking Starfinder on Absalom Station, and the address as that of the Lorespire Complex, the Starfinder Society’s headquarters on the station.
Story Award: If the PCs somehow manage to avoid combat by escaping or sneaking out of the docking bay without engaging either of the gangs, award them 600 XP, as if they had defeated one of the gangs.
Okay, so I hate pretty much everything about this opening. I'm going to go over all my objections one by one, and discuss my adventure design philosophy for each point. Then in the comments section below you can tell me why I'm wrong :)
1 - Getting The PCs Together
The very first and most fundamental thing a beginning adventure has to do is get the party together. How and why the PCs meet sets the stage for all the PC interactions to follow. A party of mercenaries has a much different feel than a group of friends. And those PC-to-PC relationships can have consequences for the campaign's plot. A group of mercenaries might have to worry about one of their own betraying them, but that's not a big concern for a group of friends.
So how does this adventure get the party together? Well, they are all strangers who want to join the Starfinder Society.
Okay, I don't really have a big deal with this, but I don't like to have a party of strangers. I really prefer a game like Fate where each party member has to have a tie to at least one other party member. Frankly I hate inter-party conflict. In my experience it's all too easy for groups to start squabbling among themselves and that can bleed over into real-life conflict. I think that the adventure should be hard enough so that the party has to work together. Now I'll concede that is a personal thing, so this is not a gripe against the designers but rather my reaction. I would have the party know each other instead.
My real gripe is with the Starfinder Society. All the PCs want to join the Society, that's the only thing bringing them together. So my big question is why? Why would anybody want to be a Starfinder? What good is that? This irks me from a storytelling standpoint, just handing the characters their motivation seems kinda high-handed. But it really upsets me from a game designer standpoint because while everybody talks about the Starfinder Society in the adventure and the Core Rulebook - it is never described in any detail, nor are any of the membership requirements or benefits. And Starfinder was built on top of Pathfinder, which has rules for designing an organization. They are clearly listed in Ultimate Intrigue, but they've also popped up in a few other places, and there is a whole book of Pathfinder organizations (the Adventurer's Guide). So why the hell did the crew at Paizo forget that they had rules to actually talk about groups and group membership? Having those rules would help me give an actual reason and benefit to the PCs joining the Society. Instead I have to make it up myself, or being a member is something that has no impact and no benefit and thus should just be dropped from the campaign.
2 - The Fight's Location
My next problem is with the choice of venue for the fight: where the hell are we? We're in a big room with scattered boxes where a bunch of ships land? So we are literally meeting on the tarmac? There are baggage handlers driving vehicles around and parked starships behind us? What the hell kind of place is that for an airport?
This ties into a big, big, big problem I have with Starfinder in general. While it is supposedly a science-fiction setting, it is actually just a fantasy setting. It's space opera. At just how many airports on Earth do all the passengers get off on the landing field and mill around with the flight crews and cargo handlers and the risks of all that machinery and humanity moving in the same space? It's a recipe for disaster (accidents do happen after all). Are people picking up their luggage too? What the hell kind of place is this? At the airports I've been to the passengers get off at one specific place, and the airplanes and cargo are dealt with in another place. With the layout described, how does the station handle anything that needs to be quarantined? How do they prevent accidents? How do they prevent deliberate sabotage? This is a big question, and a huge plot hole in my opinion. When you have a world where wizards can make machines move in unexpected directions with a mumbled word and wave of a hand, or hackers can remotely access machinery, exposing all those cargo loaders to the passengers is stupid. Face-palm stupid. Also, where is customs? The adventure does not say that the PCs have ever been checked for weapons (or even fruit or infectious diseases). So this airport just lets heavily armed individuals and robots with automatic weapons, or explosives, wizards (who are two-legged weapons of mass destruction) walk about with no supervision? What the hell kind of sense does that make? Sure, in an ancient fantasy setting it's every man for himself, but with technology, and the social development and specialization that comes with it, we all have roles. The role of an individual is not to be a police officer, carrying a gun all the time, that job/role is reserved for the police. Which is why walking around with a weapon is illegal (or at least frowned upon) in pretty much every city on the planet. And heck, just having a picture of a gun on your shirt is enough to get you pulled aside by the TSA here in the States (at least, it has happened). Yet, in this far-future setting apparently the government does not care in the slightest about the health and safety of the station's inhabitants. Remember, we're in a space station, a really big box, so anything that gets out of hand can spread and kill every living thing on the station - and most living things can't survive in space, so there is nowhere to run or escape from danger. Does that sound like the kind of place that logically would be lax about security?
So we have this boarding area with, according to the description, no guards, no automated security system/robots/remotes, no cameras, no station employees (forming lines, checking passports, or anything other than moving cargo), no alarms or alarm system, and heavy machinery moving people's personal belongings and even heavier machinery in the form of starships, all in one giant room. I consider myself a fan of science-fiction and fantasy, I've read a lot of both, and this does not sound like a science fiction setting at all.
This same problem of being fake SF is throughout the game, not just the adventure. What if one of my players wants to use his computer skill and wireless rig (which I believe all Engineers have as a class ability and anybody can buy) to set off an alarm? Or turn off the lights (hoping the gangs will stop shooting if they cant see each other)? Or trigger the fire sprinklers (assuming the station uses water for fire suppression) to again hopefully convince the gangs to stop fighting? What is the DC for that? Can it even be done? I don't remember either the Core Rulebook or this adventure giving me the answers to any of those questions.
3 - The Actions Of The NPCs
From the non-living setting, let's talk about the living things in this scenario: the NPCs. We have several groups at play here, which I want to go through one by one.
First, the gangs having their little shootout. We have two gangs, each working at the behest of another organization. You have the Downside Kings hired by Astral Extractions and The Level 21 Crew hired by The Hardscrabble Collective. The Kings were hired to "intimidate" the Collective and prevent any other groups, like the Starfinders, from getting involved with their dispute. So the Kings are here because of the PCs Dwarf contact, who is a Starfinder. And they decided the best way to keep the Starfinders from getting involved was to kill them.
W. T. F...?
How does this make any sense? Okay, AE doesn't want to get caught, so they hire a gang, I get that. But they hire a gang that murders people? That seems real subtle. Again, in a fantasy setting with no police than maybe that would go unnoticed - but in a science fiction setting with police investigators and cameras and things like that, hiring someone to commit murder is not a very smart thing to do. It's pretty much a guarantee to get people looking at the thing that supposedly you are trying to hide.
But, I hear you say, maybe they didn't go there to kill him. Maybe they just started firing when they saw their hated gang rivals and he was an unexpected and unfortunate casualty? Yeah, maybe. That sucks too. His scripted death is the worst kind of plot device. First, he must have been a level one adventurer and hit with a natural 20 by someone who rolled maximum damage for him to be instantly dead and gone. The odds of that are pretty damn low, so it's obvious that he was killed as a part of a cutscene. Which removes all importance from his death. Remember, the players - not the PCs, the players - don't know this guy. So when he's killed without the ability for them to save him, and by a fluke chance/ plot contrivance, it robs his death of all meaning. So what? Bummer he's dead, not like we care. Does anybody remember his name? I'll address the plot points later, but I really hate how this portrays the Bad Guys (who so far are AE, not that the players know that yet) as being idiots. Killing him, or hiring someone incompetent enough to kill him, makes the Bad Guys look weak. This move in no way helps them out. How do you intimidate another group, like the Starfinders, when that group is just going to get the police involved who will investigate and may find the connection to you and come down hard on you for premeditated murder? Are there no laws, no police, no jails or courts in the future? At least arrange an accident, have the ship the dwarf is on blow up, something that can be plausibly denied as terrorism or something.
Second, the other gang, the 21s, have the brilliant plan of opening fire in a crowded room of civilians to protect their employers interests - or they are stupid enough to just start opening fire in a room full of civilians and the police apparently don't exist or don't care. A lot of big intellects at work here.
Third, apparently there are security of some kind, because the adventure says that they will arrive too late. Yeah, it's scripted that "station security finally arrives, but too late to join in the fight." So if the PCs do nothing, the GM rolls crap to hit for the gangs, and it takes 30 turns for enough gangbangers to get killed, the police still won't show up in time to do anything.
W!!! T!!! F!!!
Again, lazy plot contrivance. Why not say the police show up after 3 rounds? Or 1d6 rounds? Why aren't there any guards there already? Why aren't there any kinds of automated defenses with non-lethal weapons build into the station to stop terrorists or madmen? (like a security Rigger from Shadowrun - an actual science fiction game with magic) Why is there no security whatsoever? This is the future right? It's not a Wild West train station we're at, is it? Hell, even that would have a chance of having a Pinkerton nearby. What kind of logic is there to having no security at an airport? How did someone not drive a starship into the station and blow the whole place up long before now?
Fourth, the other passengers. So the gangs start shooting, people's lives are at risk, this is a giant room full of people with no security whatsoever - and the PCs are the only ones armed in the whole place?
AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will someone please stop the stupid train and let me off, I'm sick of this ride.
So nobody else has a gun? Really? Hell, since this place has no security it would be pretty stupid to visit someplace where you have to protect yourself while unarmed. Also, there are no spell casters in the room? Not a pointy hat or pipe in sight that might warm up a fireball for the ruffians disturbing their reunion with Aunt Petunia? Nobody else does anything else for the entirety of the fight? The PCs are the only living beings on the station that give a damn that people are shooting? Well, I guess they should be - after all, only the PCs are at risk (dwarf guy was scripted to die, so he's not at risk, he's a cardboard cutout). Only the PCs have a random chance to be shot at, not a single bystander will be hurt at all. Again, the PCs could sit and do nothing for 30 rounds and not a single NPC will be hurt (aside from the gangbangers). Again, how logical. Gunfights in public places never hurt innocent people.
I can not find a single redeeming thing about the NPCs in this scene, this is all just poorly written crap. I expect more thought and better quality from a paid product and professional game developers. This is the kind of scene I would expect a first-time GM to come up with: sounds cool in your head but makes no sense when you think about it.
4 - Nature Of The Challenge
Okay, so from the game world in the location, to the other actors in the NPCs, let's move on to looking at this from the PCs perspective. Namely, what is this scene for? Well, according to the adventure...
PCs who want to check on Kreel or give him medical aid find that the dwarf is already dead, with a hole burned completely through his neck from the laser beam. No matter what they try, nothing the PCs do can save him. It’s important that Kreel dies before the PCs can do anything about it; their investigation of the dwarf’s death on behalf of the Starfinder Society is the impetus for the following sections of the adventure.
?!?!?!
What? So this campaign is a murder mystery and we need the victim to die? Umm... no, no it isn't. Actually (spoiler-free) the campaign is about finding an ancient device, and this adventure is about finding the first piece of that device. Not a murder mystery. And the dead dwarf has no tie to the device. He's a Strafinder, and the Starfinders are interested in the device, once they figure out it exists - actually Astral Idiots and Hard-luck-hobos are the ones fighting over the device piece and right now neither side knows anything about it. This, this whole "must-have" murder mystery, is a crappy way to indirectly introduce the secondary players in the side plot and completely waste time for the actual adventure and the real campaign. This is a cutscene that sets up the side quest. There is nothing important here at all that could not be given as an exposition dump (which the campaign will do plenty of later).
Alright, well there is shooting here, right, it's a combat and players love combat. Umm.... well, but the adventure says this...
Discourage the PCs from engaging both gangs at the same time; that would make this a CR 4 encounter—a challenge of epic difficulty for 1st-level PCs! Instead, let them know it’s better to focus their fire and take out one group of enemies at a time.
Oh, so shoot but be careful that you don't shoot too much. Okay. How does that work exactly? I mean, the only thing it says about PCs being shot is to roll a d6. So if the PCs shoot an NPC will that NPC stop shooting at the other NPCs (that ostensibly he/she/it wants to kill) and shoots at the PCs instead? But what if an NPC and the PCs are both shooting at the same NPC, should you roll even/odds to see who the NPC will return fire at? How is this supposed to play out?
Wait though, don't forget...
If the PCs somehow manage to avoid combat by escaping or sneaking out of the docking bay without engaging either of the gangs, award them 600 XP, as if they had defeated one of the gangs.
Hang on a minute. Two problems here. First, what reason do the PCs have to shoot back, I mean beyond the players' love of combat, what reason do the PCs have? They are not police. The might be stupid enough to believe that police exist and will show up and do something (the idiots). They are not members of a rival gang to either of the rival gangs. Honestly, what intelligent reason do the PCs have at all for getting involved? No NPC can be harmed, except deadmeat, who already went down. Hiding and waiting is the only smart thing to do. Not like you can save anybody by getting involved.
Second problem - what the hell is the XP reward for if you hide and do nothing? That makes no sense to me. What is the reward? What was the challenge? What was the point at all? Yeah, I sat in a corner and did nothing and I went up a level - how heroic.
Okay, a rapid-fire of some more things I hate...
This line...
Neither gang is interested in talking; their blood is up and they just want to hurt their rivals.
This is crap encounter design. It's making a fight for the hell of making a fight. You don't know what kind of bizarre-yet-clever scheme your PCs might come up with. There should almost always be a chance to talk or get out of an encounter in more than one way. You stifle your player's creativity if every challenge has only one solution.
The non-existence of all the bystanders is a huge, huge, huge missed opportunity. Drawing the fire to yourself to protect the innocent is a totally Good thing to do - but you would be stupid to do it because the NPCs are never in danger. With the Resolve mechanics Starfinder really dropped the ball on a chance to give out better rewards that just XP. Giving a Resolve point to any Good-aligned character who drew fire would actually be meaningful. Rolling how many NPCs get hit and hurt or killed would reinforce for the PCs that inaction has consequences - it would give a death total to narrate at the end of the fight, trying to generate some emotion aside from the dead dwarf that nobody knew anyways (granted with more people nobody knew, but I'm trying to polish this turd as much as I can).
I already talked about how the environment doesn't exist to hack lights or alarms or anything.
The cutscene dwarf is another missed opportunity. Moving into the line of fire to try to save him could be a meaningful choice for some PCs, and something that the police might comment on (when they finally get back from their doughnut break). He could still be wounded and out of action and his superior could ask you to investigate. He doesn't have to be dead to keep the plot moving, duh.
In this section...
When all the PCs have set foot in the docking bay, allow them to attempt Perception checks. Any PC who succeeds at a DC 5 Perception check sees Kreel waiting for them in the middle of the docking bay. Any PC who succeeds at a DC 15 Perception check also notices the two groups of people on the fringes of the docking bay furtively taking up defensive positions among stacks of cargo crates and machinery.
The second DC to act in the surprise round is meaningful, but the DC to see the dwarf who's going to be killed the next round is so stupid I can't believe it made it past the proofreader (assuming there was one).
The fight ending is way, way too specific...
Once all three members of one gang have been killed, the survivors from the other gang immediately stop fighting and flee the docking bay, disappearing into the depths of the station.
So depending on the the GM rolls - who again may be playing out this fight by himself if the PCs are smart enough to duck and wait - this could go on for that 30 rounds until only one gangbanger makes it out alive? Yeah, I really want this nonsense cutscene to play out that long. And I hope they were wearing masks, oh no, wait, there are no cameras in this science fiction setting so all they have to do is run away, in the box in space, and get away scott free.
During the aftermath we have these gems...
Security personnel question witnesses (including the PCs) and take their statements. Fortunately, the witnesses agree that the PCs didn’t start the fight, so they are free to go.
Again, why don't cameras exist?
If asked, any of the security officers can identify the two groups involved as two of Absalom Station’s most infamous street gangs: the Downside Kings and the Level 21 Crew.
Why would the cops tell civilians this?
If the PCs search the dwarf’s body...
Why would the PCs be allowed to do this in a civilized society and in front of the cops?
...they find little other than his computer, which contains the name and description of each of the PCs, as well as one additional name: Chiskisk, and an address. A PC who succeeds at a DC 15 Culture check to recall knowledge recognizes the name as that of a high-ranking Starfinder on Absalom Station, and the address as that of the Lorespire Complex, the Starfinder Society’s headquarters on the station.
Why the Culture skill check? Why not look this up on the internet? Oh wait, no technology actually exists in this science fiction setting, sorry, I forgot for a moment there.
5 - Connection To The Campaign
I ended up going over this at the beginning of the last section, and boy is this getting way too long. So I'll just recap - this has nothing to do with the real plot. The mystery rock that led to the gang war is the actual point of this first adventure, and the thing it's a part of is the point of the whole campaign, so this is all side-quest. I hate games that waste my time getting to the damn point.
I will say, as a not-quite-but-kinda-spoiler-ish that there is another group searching for the big McGuffin, the Cult Of The Devourer. At least having them kill the dwarf or be behind the attack would tie into the campaign-level plot somewhat (again, turd polishing).
Like I said, I hate this whole scenario. My friend changed a few things, which maybe I'll go over later, because I've been at this for an entire disc of Leverage. But my impression as a player was that this was one big time-wasting side quest. I was also surprised that my Soldier, which is the Fighter class of Starfinder, did not feel like a very good combatant. I actually felt pretty useless in the fight, and worried that I was going to get killed. Most of the other party members were smart enough to just hide and wait - but I was a part of station security, so I felt like it was my duty to try and do something. I was not very good at it though. The low damage and pretty crappy AC of Starfinder made me very ineffective - and yes, I rolled some crap rolls too, which didn't help - but this was literally the first game I've ever played a fighter/soldier and wanted to hide behind the Engineer's robot sidekick. Just one adventure, so maybe that feeling will change over time, but in addition to a poorly-written adventure I think Starfinder has some poorly-written character classes too.
So have you played or run this adventure? What did you think? Did you change anything? Let me know in the comments below - I'm really curious how other people felt about this campaign.
