Ring Side Report: RPG Review of Starfinder Society Scenario #2-01: The First Cut

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Product– Starfinder Society Scenario #2-01: The First Cut

System– Starfinder 2nd Ed 

Producer– Paizo

Price– $5.99 here https://store.paizo.com/starfinder-society-scenario-2-01-the-first-cut/ ! 

TL; DR– A crazy good start to a new season.  97%

Basics: Ah, a nice normal day  WHAT IN THE SARENRAE!  Balls of blood appear around Absolom station and pop out monsters made out of blood that attack everyone.  Can you save them all?  

Mechanics or Crunch: This scenario is combat-heavy with a bit of skill-based challenges where you attempt to stop all the violence.  It’s combat heavy, so a social character will be a bit out of sorts.  So will exploration-based characters.  Skill characters will have things to do.  It’s not bad, but you can’t do everything in 3 hours.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff– Bad stuff happens, and you stop it.  That’s the theme, and it does that well.  It’s a solid year intro adventure.  The story is light, but you are rushing between different issues to try to save as many people as possible.  That’s a fun ton of problems to solve.  5/5

Execution: There are new monsters and enough pictures in this one.  The monsters have pictures for you to include in the adventure, along with stats for them.  There is enough new here that you don’t have to consult too many outside sources to play this one.  It also reads quickly and requires only two maps to run.  Good old Paizo polish.  5/5

Summary: I like what’s here.  It can’t be everything to everyone, but it’s fun.  You kill bad things, save people, and stop the problems.  All in a day’s work for the Starfinders.  It’s also well written and well laid out, so you can read this fast and easily.  A good start to a new season.  97%

Ring Side Report: RPG Review of Chrysalis

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Product– Chrysalis

System– ALIEN RPG Evolved Edition 

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– Coming soon! 

TL; DR– Good, but pricey 87%

Basics: Time for a fresh start on a new planet.  Wait, what did they just load into the hold?  Chrysalis is a one- to two-hour demo adventure for Alien RPG Evovled edition.  It’s got pregens and maps with some horror-based fun along the way.

Mechanics or Crunch: This adventure has all the pieces for a good intro to the mechanics of Alien.  You have a time crunch that illustrates how long actions take. You also have a little combat and a little skill-based checks and a tad bit of panic in there.  All the basics are covered to learn this system quickly and well.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– I don’t hate the theme here, but I do think the story needs a bit more direct suggestions.  The game has a short intro, but most of the plot takes place aboard a crashed ship.  The ship has horror things in it, but you also have to put them where you feel they fit.  That’s good, but for a new GM, I’d directly say “put this here” and “do this there”.  Also, I like the combat, but I feel it doesn’t belong as much, say, in other events.  Honestly, I want more direct Alien corporate evil than the random evil that happens on this adventure.  Not bad, but not as Alien as I would have hoped. 4/5

Execution: This is well done, but doesn’t belong as a separate thing.  There are maps, pregens, and pieces to help the players really learn this system.  But, this honestly belongs at the back of the base book.  The base book missed an adventure, and this was it.  Also, at GenCon, this was over $ 10.  This is a one- to two-hour intro adventure.  That is WAY too much for this.  It’s good, but that’s too much.  4/5

Summary: This is a great intro adventure.  At GenCon, this was being run in the Free League room every other hour.  And, this adventure did exactly what it’s supposed to do-it entertains and teaches the basics.  I love that.  The theme is a bit off, with the Alien being more of a random problem and less about corporate machinations, but that’s ok. The big issue is price.  It’s pretty expensive for what you get.  It’s good, but it should be a free PDF and given out when you get the main book.  87%