It would be a *really* great way to do an X-Com style campaign, though, with the PCs shuttling in as defense squads taking on Swarm infiltrators into Szandite space, since they’re all relatively pacifistic.

Next up is the Swarm, and who doesn’t love stomping bugs! Well, these bugs, anyway. I think the Szandite Collective setting is a good one to explore this aspect of storytelling, & I’m wondering how many adventures we will get set against the swarm when we already have the “Attack of the Swarm” AP.

There’s a comment that one of the leaders in the Gideron Authority, Coordinator Tegren Metrid, might be able to cut off support for the MR from the Pact Worlds, and I’m *extra* curious to hear how that McGuffin might work!

It provides a more palatable (for most players) host organization in the Marixah Republic, but I could see someone taking the chance in the new edition to poke holes in that perception.

The next section is about the Marixah Republic and the Gideron Authority. I do appreciate that this is a relatively limited-scale interstellar war, compared to the fight between the Veskarium and the Azlanti Star Empire.

…spaces against overwhelming brute force from either of the main parties. Got a lot of ideas percolating there, not sure how to pull it off well, though 😅

I’m really curious how we’ll see this play out in adventures. Most players, I would assume, are not interested in fighting on behalf of either the Veskarium or the Azlanti, so I’m guessing worlds that get caught in the middle, and having to make hard choices about how to effect a defense of those…

I am curious about this note on page 49 about her reign not lasting “nearly as long as her ambitions demand” - after she’s done all this work, are we going to see the Empress deposed? Are we going to see an unholy war between Damoritosh and Lissala? Time will tell!

…flooded with Vesk starships and mechs, both used by the Veskarium and cobbled together from busted up remnants for piracy and other smaller-scale warmongers.

The change in leadership in the Veskarium doesn’t sound a lot better, either, although the art for Empress Vindaskayo is amazing. As the first imperial ruler in 30 years, she’s turning the entire Veskarium into even more of a war machine, so I can picture a future of the setting that is…

At least Ishmerai Ophir, the newly self-appointed regent of the Star Empire, is pretty obviously a fascist asshole. That’ll let me keep painting with my broad brush strokes.

But maybe I’ve missed storylines in recent years that highlight their actions in a more positive light, every Azlanti I’ve seen published has been a fascist asshole 😆

…experiencing *huge* changes in power dynamics for who is in charge.

The one thing I wasn’t expecting was feeling … a little sad (?) For the Ixomander twins. I’ve been painting all Azlanti with a broad brush in my games, and they are depicted here as being (for Azlanti) somewhat progressive.

After the Fantasy adventure we have the EXCELLENT (having just come off of watching Andor S2) chapter on War-Torn Adventures. I am excited to see how the Azlanti Star Empire and the Veskarium are pitted against each other in the coming adventures we play, especially as both are suddenly…

- Vesk-8 is an interesting setting, and I’m not sure yet where the change to Shimmerstone is going to go, long term. “Everyone hates being there but it someone is making money off of the prison labor there” sure sucks but could turn into a good prison break story.

- This write up about how Dragonborn came to be on Triaxus is quite lovely in its way, just hoping it’s accurate and not draconic propaganda

- Tabrid Minor’s ecological collapse storylines hit close to home, that’ll be interesting to explore as our biosphere gets ready to overheat us all.

Ok some rapid fire takes as I catch up on my read through:

- CityMcCityface on Triaxus is a solid gold idea and I look forward to adventuring there in at least 5 Starfinder society scenarios

- I really want to run a Skyfire legion squad module sometime

Ugh, I’m so far behind on continuing my read-through 😆