Hello again my lovelies and welcome back to another PAIZO PRODUCT REVIEW! We’re still doing a bit of catch-up, and this edition is continuing from our previous review with the Devastation Ark Adventure Path. Today we’ll be digging into part 2 of 3: Starfinder Adventure Path #32: The Starstone Blockade!
The Starstone Blockade picks up as your characters finish recovering and relaxing from their ordeal on Jedarat. They’re off to the Citadel to brief the Council on the coming invasion of the Rea- no, wait, that’s something else. Anyway, your intrepid heroes are the only people who have the right information thanks to their recent excursion in an ancient ruin made by a long-dead advanced civilization. So let’s go talk to the Directorate!
The Starstone Blockade picks up as your characters finish recovering and relaxing from their ordeal on Jedarat. They’re off to the Citadel to brief the Council on the coming invasion of the Rea- no, wait, that’s something else. Anyway, your intrepid heroes are the only people who have the right information thanks to their recent excursion in an ancient ruin made by a long-dead advanced civilization. So let’s go talk to the Directorate!
PART 1: CONTACT IMMINENT
As mentioned above, your heroes are making their way back to Absalom Station at the request of their AbadarCorp contact Eisyfina Nott to help with the imminent arrival of a massive, hostile ship on collision course with the station. It’s up to your characters to make sure the Directorate of Absalon Station can handle the battle to come. And now, spoilers aho!This section starts off a little odd – I hardly think a banking executive would tell a bunch of high-priced mercenaries to “name their price” for just a sit-down-and-hear-me-out meeting, especially when they later make that very nebulous number into a very specific one million credits. As an aside, what a way to know you’re in the late stage of the game, eh? How often do you see a million credits all in the same place? The introductory conversations in general feel a little insubstantial, but they’re important to help steer the players into the real meat of this section, so read them over, get what you need, and move on.
Speaking of the meat of this section, I haven’t seen a better pure social or skill-based encounter in a hot minute. The layout is a bit confusing, as there’s actually three separate but connected challenges for your characters to face. First, there’s the social phase, assessing and charming the members of the directorate. Second, there’s resource shuffling, using what the characters have learned and achieved in the social phase. Finally, the final phase is what will dictate how difficult the rest of the adventure will be. Make sure you read through this section thoroughly, as the final checks will likely be pretty difficult even with high-level skill check bonuses, and you’ll want all the circumstance help from the previous phases. Also, they’re secret checks! I do love a good high-stakes secret check.
High skill check DCs, big payouts – the third and best indicator this adventure is meant to push high-level PCs to their limits is the sidebar that says “there are no breaks”. Once the PCs start Part 2, there’s very little time for breaks, and in fact there’s likely not enough time to finish everything in the adventure without spending resources you may otherwise want to hold onto. I really have to commend the authors of this adventure and the last for playing all cards that can properly challenge a high-level party.
Speaking of the meat of this section, I haven’t seen a better pure social or skill-based encounter in a hot minute. The layout is a bit confusing, as there’s actually three separate but connected challenges for your characters to face. First, there’s the social phase, assessing and charming the members of the directorate. Second, there’s resource shuffling, using what the characters have learned and achieved in the social phase. Finally, the final phase is what will dictate how difficult the rest of the adventure will be. Make sure you read through this section thoroughly, as the final checks will likely be pretty difficult even with high-level skill check bonuses, and you’ll want all the circumstance help from the previous phases. Also, they’re secret checks! I do love a good high-stakes secret check.
High skill check DCs, big payouts – the third and best indicator this adventure is meant to push high-level PCs to their limits is the sidebar that says “there are no breaks”. Once the PCs start Part 2, there’s very little time for breaks, and in fact there’s likely not enough time to finish everything in the adventure without spending resources you may otherwise want to hold onto. I really have to commend the authors of this adventure and the last for playing all cards that can properly challenge a high-level party.
PART 2: INCIDENTS AT ABSALOM STATION
Now that the chips are down and the die is cast (hah!), it’s time to start dealing with all the ways everything can go wrong. Big bad alien space ships have a way of starting all kinds of fires that are hard to put out and get worse quickly. Maybe you’ll even put most of them out. But, anything more is a spoiler! More after the jump.This section kicks off with Christmas come early for your heroes – not only do they get some government-funded starship upgrades, but AbadarCorp is generous enough to offer your party a big ol’ goody bag of free high-level toys. Now, the flavor text implies that AbadarCorp is gonna make you pay for them later, but as far as I could see? Go in with both hands.
Part 2 is broken into four small encounters, all of which are made more complicated by the numerous and rapidly-deteriorating issues caused by the arrival of Ark Prime and its subsequent attack on the Starstone at the heart of Absalom Station. Your heroes are actually supposed to be plugged in to a live feed of all the emergencies going on in the station, but they’re only supposed to be taking on the most dire of circumstances. That distinction is pretty important, and it’s up to the GM to keep the party steered in the right direction – some of the “filler” includes things like “infectious disease labs are losing power and warming up” and “all the atmosphere-retaining force fields are deactivated and lots of people are getting spaced”.
I’m incredibly impressed that most of the encounters the party is sent to deal with can ideally be resolved with a bit of luck and a very smooth talker. You better bring your A game because the deck starts out stacked pretty hard against you, and the longer you take the worse your hand gets. Indeed, things are meant to escalate faster than the heroes can react, and even traveling across Absalom Station will take long enough that you won’t be able to handle everything before they get kicked into Part 3. Each encounter also comes with its own “It Gets Worse” sidebar, detailing the various ways that delay on the part of the heroes means an increase of difficulty and a limiting of their options when dealing with each encounter.
Part 2 is broken into four small encounters, all of which are made more complicated by the numerous and rapidly-deteriorating issues caused by the arrival of Ark Prime and its subsequent attack on the Starstone at the heart of Absalom Station. Your heroes are actually supposed to be plugged in to a live feed of all the emergencies going on in the station, but they’re only supposed to be taking on the most dire of circumstances. That distinction is pretty important, and it’s up to the GM to keep the party steered in the right direction – some of the “filler” includes things like “infectious disease labs are losing power and warming up” and “all the atmosphere-retaining force fields are deactivated and lots of people are getting spaced”.
I’m incredibly impressed that most of the encounters the party is sent to deal with can ideally be resolved with a bit of luck and a very smooth talker. You better bring your A game because the deck starts out stacked pretty hard against you, and the longer you take the worse your hand gets. Indeed, things are meant to escalate faster than the heroes can react, and even traveling across Absalom Station will take long enough that you won’t be able to handle everything before they get kicked into Part 3. Each encounter also comes with its own “It Gets Worse” sidebar, detailing the various ways that delay on the part of the heroes means an increase of difficulty and a limiting of their options when dealing with each encounter.
PART 3: THE REACTOR
Putting out fires is one thing, but now it’s time for the characters to re-establish a foundation on Absalom Station before the big bad alien ship arrives. The Starstone is the heart of Absalom Station, and there’s all sorts of opportunists heading there to make your life difficult.Part 3 is a relatively straightforward dungeon crawl – a handful of rooms, and a few baddies per room to make things exciting. It’s a grab bag of some of the high-end critters that don’t see a lot of sunlight in the typical Starfinder game, as well as a few custom creatures and hazards to keep things tasty. You’re going to continue to get a lot of mileage out of whoever you brought that is the face of your party. There’s also a sneaky little sidebar to throw the party a bone if needed – after all, if the Starstone is this reality-bending artifact no one understands, who’s to say it can’t bend in your favor once in a while?
The “boss fight” for this part deftly shows off some real design chops – not only can you handle it with a well-rolled skill check, but the actual monster has a handful of VERY clever abilities that break the rules in snazzy boss-monster ways. Giving itself two turns per round? Dangerous. Making its adversaries declare their actions beforehand? Diabolical. Have fun with this one, GMs! And, on top of everything else, Part 3 gives some bonus experience for rescuing civilians. You are heroes, after all.
The “boss fight” for this part deftly shows off some real design chops – not only can you handle it with a well-rolled skill check, but the actual monster has a handful of VERY clever abilities that break the rules in snazzy boss-monster ways. Giving itself two turns per round? Dangerous. Making its adversaries declare their actions beforehand? Diabolical. Have fun with this one, GMs! And, on top of everything else, Part 3 gives some bonus experience for rescuing civilians. You are heroes, after all.
PART 4: SIEGE FOR TOMORROW
All your chickens (wait, this is Starfinder, so space-chickens?) have come home to roost and it’s time for a GREAT BIG SPACE BATTLE!! Not only are you responsible for keeping your own hides intact, but you decide the fate of every fleet defending Absalom station. How, you ask? That’d be telling!Okay, I’ll tell. All the fleet assignments you made in Part 1, and the results of the corresponding secret skill checks, now affect the resources you have to deal with not only Ark Prime but also its support contingent of drone fighters and destroyers. This takes the form of an additional phase during the starship combat phase, with bonuses to your rolls based on the number of fleets assigned to the different objectives. I strongly recommend GMs make an easy-to-follow cheat sheet for keeping track of the phases and the narration needed to convey progress or regress depending on the checks.
All that space combat gets the party to the surface of the Citadel, where they make their way towards the great big Reaper guarding the – no, no, hold on, let me check my notes. Your heroes make their way along Ark Prime towards the great big void dragon – thaaaaat’s it – guarding the way in to the massive space station. A bit more evidence here that the designers have experience dealing with high-level parties: flight and teleportation are limited, and the final lock requires an Athletics check! Lockpicking with your muscles, how novel. Once inside, there’s a great big suspicious nothing, and that’s it! A cliffhanger!
All that space combat gets the party to the surface of the Citadel, where they make their way towards the great big Reaper guarding the – no, no, hold on, let me check my notes. Your heroes make their way along Ark Prime towards the great big void dragon – thaaaaat’s it – guarding the way in to the massive space station. A bit more evidence here that the designers have experience dealing with high-level parties: flight and teleportation are limited, and the final lock requires an Athletics check! Lockpicking with your muscles, how novel. Once inside, there’s a great big suspicious nothing, and that’s it! A cliffhanger!
