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

Paizo is making a huge leap into the future with the Starfinder science fantasy setting. It combines high-tech and swords and sorcery. A new event called the Drift Crisis will drastically change the landscape of its entire universe. This product range includes a sourcebook, two elaborate Adventure Path campaigns and an additional storyline that progresses through Starfinder Society’s organized-play program. Polygon is privy to a preview of this yearlong event from its creators.

Science fiction is littered with many different interpretations of faster-than-light travel. True faster-than light technology exists in the Starfinder universe. However, it is extremely rare and costly to maintain. The universe instead relies on interdimensional travel that is inexpensive.

Ships slip first into an alternate dimension called the Drift, before being translated back into the material plane. The Drift allows them to cover enormous distances without having to achieve high speeds. It sounds a bit like how space travel works in Warhammer 40,000, but there’s a catch. The Drift was discovered by a powerful AI known as Triune. Triune shared the secrets of Drift-based travel and the Starfinder universe sentient races with Triune. It is Triune that protects and polices space for travellers to safely navigate across the stars.

Image: Laslo Ludrovan/Paizo

The Drift Crisis starts when Triune suddenly stops talking. So, too, do the Drift-based communications systems used to send messages across galaxies. In that instant, every spacecraft traveling through the Drift is violently ejected back into the material plane. Whole fleets are lost in the Drift, without hope for rescue or return. Some ships vanish completely, leaving behind their passengers and crews. Even worse is the fact that those who attempt to get into the Drift again find it no longer tranquil and esoteric, but a dangerous maw, from which there is no escape.

“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 do indeed have planes capable of flying, however it is extremely turbulent during Drift Crisis. One of the four engines you have no longer functions. 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.”

The uncertainty caused by drift travel creates incredible disruption across the Starfinder universe. A sourcebook, called Starfinder Drift Crisis, will include 20 different detailed story seeds that game masters (GMs) will be able to choose from to use in their homebrew campaigns. Millions of Starfinder Galaxy refugees start to arrive at Absalom station, which is a pan-galactic meltingpot and largest city. GMs could choose to have their players clear out its ancient Ghost Levels, making them safe havens for the unhoused masses. The reptilian Vesk continue to work on an alternative means of transport, so players might be required to risk the Drift and bring their top scientists back to the table in order to finish the project.

These aren’t finalized arcs with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, they are detailed scenarios, starting points for open-ended, player-led adventures. The story is up to the players at the table, so Paizo will not be making any decisions for them.

“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. It’s fine to not write every aspect of these adventures. Either one’s fine.”

In addition to 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. The first, titled Drift Crashers, kicks off in June and will take characters from first all the way up to seventh level. Across three 64-page modules, players will explore the Drift Crisis from the inside, traveling not only through the chaotic and dangerous dimension, but also time itself.

Image: Paizo

“It’s one part Lost in Space, one part Quantum Leap, one part Sliders,” Compton said.

Later, in October, the Drift Hackers Adventure Path will provide the canonical conclusion to the Drift Crisis, taking characters from level seven through level 13. At the same time, the Starfinder Society organized-play program will also be running its own parallel adventures that will touch on similar events and themes.

The most interesting thing about the Paizo Drift Crisis is that it is narratively compatible with the Starfinder catalog. Starfinder Drift Crisis will include ways to include its dramatic events for every single previously released set of adventures in the Starfinder catalog.

“This allows us to demonstrate that the setting we have created isn’t static. It is constantly changing and we are capable of making meaningful changes that don’t invalidate any previous work.” 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.”

The Drift Crisis is big enough, Paizo says, that it should leave plenty of room for everyone in the Starfinder community to feel like their characters have had an impact.

” This is an important part of me,” Compton stated. “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. It’s exciting .”

The event kicks off on May 25 with the release of Starfinder Drift Crisis. Expect the first adventure path, Drift Crashers, to begin rolling out in June.