[Free RPG Day 2023] Operation Seaside Park

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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One of the perennial contributors to Free RPG Day is Paizo, Inc., a publisher whose titles for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game have proved popular and often in demand long after the event. Since 2018, with the release of Starfinder: Skitter Shot, these adventures have showcased the adventures of four of the cheerfully manic, gleefully helpful, vibrantly coloured, six-armed and furry creatures known as Skittermanders—Dakoyo, Gazigaz, Nako, and Quonx. For Free RPG Day 2023, Paizo, Inc. introduces new Player Characters and a new situation in the scenario, Operation Seaside Park. The scenario is designed to be played by five Player Characters of Third Level. Five pre-generated Player Characters, none of them diminutive as in prior scenarios for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game released for Free RPG Day. Alternatively, players can create their own characters using the core rulebook for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, the Starfinder Character Operations Manual, and any of the playable options from the various volumes of the Starfinder Alien Archive.

Operation Seaside Park takes place on the hot, humid world of Castrovel. It begins with the Player Characters receiving a message from their employers or patrons, each alerting them to news that an unidentified spaceship has crashed on the world and they have been assigned to investigate. The crash site is a closed down amusement park, which gives the situation a rundown feel and sense of abandonment. Once the Player Characters have introduced themselves, they have to find a way into the amusement park and locate the actual crash site. The one route into the park which is detailed is via the maintenance tunnels under the park, though the Player Characters will find themselves stalked by aliens... Although other means of entry into the amusement park, including scaling the fence or picking the lock on the game, ideally, they should take the route underground since the encounters there add both tension and action in equal measure. If the Player Characters decide not to enter the maintenance tunnels first time, they should be encouraged to do so, possibly by their patrons, in order to deal with the threat at the heart of the scenario.

Once inside the amusement park, the Player Characters soon encounter a variety of different, but somehow connected aliens, which will not hesitate to attack. After that, they will quickly locate the site of the crashed starship. The rest of the scenario takes place aboard this vessel. Consisting of nine locations, the wreck of the starship is nicely detailed and there is a tension to even the exploration of these nine locations! Overall, the scenario focuses on exploration and combat rather than interaction.

Rounding out Operation Seaside Park is a quintet of pre-generated Player Characters. This consists of a robotic Agenda SRO Trooper Soldier, the avian Espraksa Wild Warden Mystic, Morlamaw Icon Envoy (space walrus!), Feychild Gnome Mercenary Operative 3, and a Human Guard Solarian 3. All five are good characters and have enough background for the single scenario that is Operation Seaside Park.

Physically, Operation Seaside Park is well presented. The artwork is good, but the cartography is excellent. In terms of content, the scenario includes a good mix of aliens for the Player Characters to face and provides a good mix of combat and exploration. Overall, Operation Seaside Park is a solid adventure that does a good job of showing off the Starfinder Roleplaying Game.