Starfinder is a new science fantasy role-playing game from Paizo, creators of Pathfinder, and it’s about to blow your mind. The first bimonthly adventure path for the game is Dead Suns, and it’s first adventure, Incident at Absalom Station is a great introduction to what Starfinder is going to be.

We here at Geek & Sundry have been lucky enough to get a sneak peek into both Starfinder and Dead Suns. It is our happy duty to tell all the eager and yearning gamers of the world that both are tremendously awesome. Why?

The Starfinder rules set successfully translates the Pathfinder system into a science fantasy setting. Been playing Pathfinder for years? Slain liches? Gotten dragon-meat stuck in your teeth? Well guess what? Learn a few new rules, and you’ll spend the next decade piloting ships between stars, avoiding assassins, and even becoming a stone cold interstellar celebrity.

Incident at Absalom Station was written by an RPG superstar who writes game like Shakespeare wrote plays, Robert McCreary. On writing the first adventure for Starfinder‘s first adventure path, McCreary said, “It was challenging at times, since I had to do a lot of the writing before all of the Starfinder rules were finalized, but I’m really happy with the end result, and I hope the fans will be too!”

The Dead Suns adventure path starts out with Incident at Absalom Station. The players arrive at Absalom Station, a massive space station which occupies the orbit where a planet named Golarion used to be. Players disembark at Docking Bay 94 into the middle of a gang war. After some investigating, they discover the fighting came about because a derelict vessel, the Acreon, drifted back to the station with all hands aboard dead, but dragging behind it a massive hunk of rock. The ship has been quarantined, along with the rock. Yet a corporation, a collective, and a few other groups with even more secret agendas, are all vying for control of the Acreon and its rocky cargo. Who best to investigate the death ship and mysterious rock? Why the players of course!

Writing a good first level adventure may be one of the most difficult lifts in all of role-playing. A good first level adventure should be easy enough for new players to successfully run it, while at the same time offering something new for players who’ve been gaming since the Carter administration. Absalom succeeds on both fronts.

This first adventure may justly be described as “Pathfinder in Spaaaaaaaace!!!!!” which I mean as a compliment. There is combat, investigation, exploration, and space ships. For just one specific example of the brilliance of the translation of Pathfinder to a science fantasy setting, let us look at the space goblins.

That’s right. There are space goblins.

Goblins have long been the trademark monster of the Pathfinder setting. Suicidal, pyromaniacal, and devoted to wanton destruction even at the cost of life and limb, Pathfinder’s take on the goblin showed a low-level opponent could be more than just a grind on the way to 2nd level. Pathfinder goblins have character — as do space goblins.

Robert McCreary said adapting goblins to Starfinder was “Simple—just give them bubble helmets and junk lasers and push ’em out the airlock! Really, it was more a matter of adapting them to the science fantasy setting of Starfinder. In Pathfinder, goblins love fire and their weapons can break in combat, so in Starfinder, we gave space goblins lasers that may blow up in their faces! In Incident at Absalom Station, it was simply a question of how they got to here they are in the adventure. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but suffice to say that the goblins engaged in some very gobliny shenanigans to get where they needed to be.”

So strap on a laser, get on your ship, and make way for Absalom Station, because there is work to be had out there in the great dark.

Why do you enjoy science fantasy settings? Let us know in the comments below!



Feature image courtesy: Paizo Publishing

All other images courtesy: Paizo Publishing

Ben Riggs speaks five languages and has lived in four countries on three continents, but still manages to lose his keys in the bathroom. A friend to man, animal, and werewolf alike, you can discover more of Ben’s thoughts on game, the universe, and everything on Twitter, or on the Plot Points podcast. He is also the liberal voice on Across the Aisle, a podcast where a liberal and conservative work together to solve the 21st century’s problems.