Starfinder (Drift Crisis)

[EDITORS NOTE: If this is your first experience with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, you may want to consider starting with our previous review of the Core Rulebook. -dc]

I really wanted to get this review out in the summer, but circumstances made that impossible. But here we are, about to embark on what can only be described as the biggest event in TTRPG history. The Drift Crisis is to the universe of Starfinder, what “the snap” was to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It changes EVERYTHING. 

If you’re new to Starfinder, welcome. You’re stepping in at a great time. This is what you need to know. Centuries ago, three deities became one: Triune. Triune sent out The All-Code into the universe as a gift to advanced societies, allowing them to create the technology to enter Driftspace. The Drift, as it’s known, is a separate plane of reality that, through technological means, allows ships to enter and effectively travel faster than light in relation to the Material Plane. This ushered in a new age of intergalactic conflict and commerce; alliances and antagonism prosperity, piracy, and eventually peace. You know, all the fun things you get as any civilization reaches out and encounters other far-off civilizations. The Drift isn’t just empty, however. It is home to all sorts of strange interplanar creatures, and terrestrial outposts. The unique navigational challenges of the Drift make it ideal for pirates to hide, but nearly impossible for them to operate. It is also home to Alluvion, the heart of Triune’s faithful. 

Then, suddenly, the Drift failed. Some travelling ships disappeared, swallowed by the Drift. Others were hurtled randomly into other planes. Those lucky enough to end up back in the Material Plane were often not lucky enough to find themselves years or lifetimes of travel away. Interplanetary trade routes through the Drift were severed, and much slower routes were plotted. Travelling through known space, created opportunities for ambush by pirates. Political alliances became strained or cracked. Colonial contact was severed, giving rise to revolution. Friends and family were gone, opening the door to opportunistic scammers of all sorts. Everything changed. 

Now that you’re more or less caught up, the question for everyone is why did the Drift crash? And so, the adventures begin.

Drift Crisis, the sourcebook, is split into two sections. The first section covers those last two paragraphs in about 50 pages of detail. It’s basically all the player-facing information. There are a ton of new Class options, linked to both the Drift and its absence, plus four new Themes for player characters. Crisis Refugee and Drift Crashed are two sides of the same coin Where the Crisis Refugee found themselves lost, trying to rebuild their lives in a strange new place, the Drift Crashed took their experience as an opportunity or necessity to eschew their old life and embrace this harsh new reality. The Opportunist is exactly what it sounds like. For good or ill, The Drift Crash has opportunities of all sorts. Finally, the Spectra Scion is intrinsically linked to the Drift and the mysterious Scions that dwell there. All of the other Classes and Themes are still around, of course. But circumstances created new Class Options for players to flesh out their characters with.

The last bit of the player-facing section is Gear. Pick any movie or book or whatever, that takes place after some great apocalypse. That is the direction of technology after the Crash. Technology may fuel innovation, but it’s a necessity that is the mother of innovation. Sentient beings will always find a way to commit violence. Take away tanks, and we would go back to a horseback cavalry, take away guns and we would just find ways to make bows more powerful and arrows more lethal. This is basic human nature, and it’s humans who designed and are playing the game.

At this point, the book moves into the GM section, starting with 20 separate adventure seeds. Ranging from levels 1 through 20, from very linear to open ended, standalone and interconnected. These are all designed to allow a GM to design and build their own campaign. Early in the Player’s section, we are given a bunch of potential reasons for the Drift Crash. Sneakily, the True Cause is listed in this section, allowing the GM to play off of the wrong options while moving towards the real one. I think that’s a great little touch to help misdirect players who are honest enough not to read ahead. All of the Adventure seeds are structured roughly the same, with the two most important sections, in my opinion, being the GM Resources and Player Options. The GM Resources is a very well marked sidebar giving not just helpful ideas in developing that adventure, but also where to find that info in the ever-growing library of Starfinder sourcebooks. The Player Options include spells, equipment, items, etc, that the players might want or encounter. Most of these entries are listed in specific adventure seeds but aren’t restricted to those seeds exclusively. GMs can pull them out anytime anywhere that they fit in. 

The third chapter is the traditional Toolbox section. The Drift Crisis event isn’t intended to last forever (although at your table it certainly could) so there is a good chapter on how to wrap up your adventures. It’s worth noting that there are at least two (three-part) Adventure Paths, Drift Crashers and Drift Hackers, a one-shot: Before the Storm, a short adventure: Skitter Warp (that I assume is the Free RPG Day release), PLUS this book has a section on adapting the previous eight Adventure Paths to take place during the Crisis.

The section on Creatures has 20 new and fascinating creatures, including a Protomander which is a drift-merged amalgam of a protean, a skittermander, and a stridermander (the skittermander’s natural predator). While perhaps not the more versatile creature ever created, this chimeric abomination has so much great plot potential that I really hope that it appears in the Skitter Warp adventure. The NPCs all have their own potential, but I would argue none more than Zo!, the undead Eoxian media personality. Just as I pointed out about the media personalities in the Redshift Rally one-shot, the media can appear anywhere, anytime, permitting our very existence. I’d have to go back in and look more carefully, but from memory, it would be comparatively easy to integrate Zo! into that adventure, with or without the Drift Crisis or as a lead into the Drift Crisis event. 

One of the most exciting parts of the Drift Crisis sourcebook is the closing section on adapting existing Adventure Paths into the Drift Crisis. We have previously put out spoiler-free reviews on the first part of half of these APs (Dead Suns, Against the Aeon Throne, Signal of Screams, and Fly Free or Die) and the first of them, Dead Suns, has recently been released as a hardcover collected edition of all six parts. Not included are one-shots or the upcoming Scoured Stars AP hardcover.

One of my oldest and fondest memories of my youth was discovering DC Comic’s Millennium crossover event, well after it was over, but not so far gone as to be impossible to find issues a decent number of back issues. If I think about it, this was very likely the start of my love of expansive serialized worldbuilding. I already loved how Paizo handles their Adventure Path products, but the Drift Crisis event takes it to an entirely new level. I started this review by comparing this to “the snap” in the MCU and the more I look at it the more I believe in that comparison. Some books are must-haves, regardless of what company or game system they come from. The inspiration that reaches out from the beautifully woven ambiguity of the Drift Crisis event makes this a definite candidate for that list. 

There is a Drift Crashers landing page at paizo.com/store/starfinder/adventures/adventurePath/driftCrashers.
As the event moves forward, you can recognize all of our Drift Crisis content by the logo to the right, and click the link to find it all.