Exclusive first details on Starfinder’s Drift Crisis, a year-long event

Paizo’s newest role-playing franchise, the Starfinder science-fantasy setting that mixes high tech with swords and sorcery, is taking a big step into the future this summer. New event, the Drift Crisis, will change the entire world. It includes an updated sourcebook as well as two complex Adventure Path campaigns. The storyline is also advancing in the Starfinder Society organised-play program. Polygon can get an exclusive peek at the entire year-long event straight from its designers.

Many interpretations of faster than light travel are available in science fiction. In the Starfinder universe, true faster-than-light technology — Star Trek warp drives and Star Wars hyperdrives — exists, but is exceedingly rare and expensive to maintain. The universe instead relies on an affordable form of interdimensional transport.

First, ships slip into an alternate dimension called the Drift. Then they transform back into the physical plane. They can travel great distances at low speeds thanks to the Drift. It sounds a bit like how space travel works in Warhammer 40,000, but there’s a catch. Triune was a strong AI that discovered the Drift. Triune shared the secrets of Drift-based travel and other sentient races in the Starfinder universe with Triune. It is Triune who polices space and protects Drift travelers so they can safely cross the stars.

Image: Laslo Ludrovan/Paizo

Triune becomes silent without warning and the Drift Crisis starts. Drift-based communications systems are used to transmit messages across galaxies. Every spacecraft that travels through the Drift will be violently ejected into the material plane. Whole fleets are lost in the Drift, without hope for rescue or return. Some ships are lost entirely and their crews or passengers vanish forever. The Drift is not a peaceful, serene, or even esoteric place. It is a terrifying maw where escape is impossible.

“I’d say that on a scale of functionality where one is absolutely not [functional] and 10 is it’s working completely as intended, Drift Crisis brings it to about a four,” said senior developer John Compton. “We sure do have planes that fly, but during the Drift crisis it’s really turbulent weather. Your fourth engine is no longer working. So you can probably get to where you need to go, but it has a much bigger question mark on it and a lot more people are doubting whether or not to even try.”

Starfinder is a Starfinder Universe where Drift travel can cause great disruption. A sourcebook, called Starfinder Drift CrisisThis book contains 20 detailed story seeds which game masters (GMs), will be able choose from in order to help them with their homebrew campaigns. Millionen of refugees flood into Absalom Station every day, the Starfinder galaxy’s largest city and pan-galactic melting point. The GM could ask their players to clear the Ghost Levels from Absalom Station, which is a safe refuge for unhoused people. The Reptilian Vesk have been working to develop an alternative means of transport, and players may be requested to take on the Drift’s dangers to help bring the top scientists to the table.

These aren’t finalized arcs with a beginning, middle, and end. They are instead detailed scenarios that can serve as starting points to open-ended and player-led adventures. It’s up to those at the table to make their own decisions on where the story goes, and Paizo won’t be making it easy.

“A lot of the Drift Crisis storylines really thrive on at least a hint of that moral ambiguity, because a lot of this has no right answer at the time,” Compton said. “One of the benefits of not scripting every element of these adventures out is that it leaves that point in the continuum for the GM and the players to decide how much [they]You might be interested in exploring some of these philosophical puzzles. […]What is the cost? [they]Just want to get in there and shoot aliens. Either one’s fine.”

The other important aspects of the Starfinder Drift Crisis, which will be available as a hardcover book or a PDF, Paizo will also publish two Adventure Paths — fully formed campaign arcs that will be released episodically. First, the title Drift CrashersThe game will be available to all levels of characters starting in June. Players will be exploring the Drift Crisis inside through three 64-page modules. They’ll travel not only through the dangerous and chaotic dimension but also through time.

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“It’s one part Lost in SpacePart Quantum LeapOne part Sliders,” Compton said.

In October, it will be the turn of the Drift HackersAdventure Path, which will take characters of levels seven to 13, will be the definitive conclusion to the Drift Crisis. Starfinder Society’s organized-play program, however, will run its own parallel adventures touching on similar themes.

What is most striking is that Paizo has made the Drift Crisis narratively forward compatible. Starfinder Drift Crisis It will be possible to add its dramatic events to every previously published set of Starfinder adventures.

“It allows us an opportunity to show that our setting is not static, that it is evolving, and that we can do so in ways that are presenting meaningful changes without substantially invalidating any of the things that we wrote before,” said Compton. “People playing through this can have this comic-book-event-style situation where they all get to participate in a big thing and feel like they are part of the plotline.”

Paizo states that the Drift Crisis is large enough to allow everyone within Starfinder to feel their character has had an impact.

“This is an important thing for me,” Compton said. “Being able to have big things happen, and have it reflected in our ongoing setting, as opposed to saying ‘Somebody saved the world over in this corner! Nobody ever talk about it again.’ I don’t like that sort of thing, and the Drift Crisis is really a different approach to that. I’m excited about it.”

This event will begin on May 25, with the release Starfinder Drift Crisis. Look for the first adventure trail. Drift CrashersTo begin rolling out in June.