I have been playing TTRPGs for nearly 30 years, and if there’s one constant in that time, it’s a ceaseless effort to bring concepts from books and movies and games to the table. It makes sense. The original TTRPGs were heavily influenced by the likes of JRR Tolkien and so many other writers of the era, but this is also true of sci-fi games. Today, the folks behind the popular free game Warframe have announced a partnership with Starfinder to release an adventure bringing the two games together called Operation: Orias.
Before fans of either franchise start dreaming of a world where you’ll be able to wield your favorite Frames to spectacularly devastating effect across the Desna’s Path galaxy, Operation: Orias takes place quite far away from the Starfinder story as you know it today. Instead, this module takes place in the Origin System, and the Protoframes you have access to in this adventure won’t play exactly the same as the online game. That said, if you’re a fan of either or both games you are in for an absolute treat.
Without spoiling too much about the adventure itself, Operation: Orias gives a game master everything they need to send four players as the Hex syndicate against familiar adversaries like Infested, Corpus and Grineer in a 4-6 hour adventure. While this leans heavily on Warframe: 1999 for the details, in a brief interview with Pathfinder Creative Director Luis Loza it became clear a lot of work went into balancing the frenetic Warframe experience in TTRPG form. When asked about this effort, Loza highlighted efforts to account for the speed and constant action of a video game.
“I tried to make sure that I was able to translate as much of the intense feel of the game as possible with abilities that sold the idea of speed and intensity, even when moving at the turn-based pace of a TTRPG. Characters have the ability to leap great distances in a single movement and offensive abilities that help them attack multiple enemies en masse. The enemies are also a bit on the weaker side, so players can take them out quickly, which helps get the power from the video game across.”
Starfinder x Warframe: Operation Orias is available now at Paizo for $9 if you want the PDF version or $13 for the full color 20-page booklet. If you’ve never played Starfinder before or if it’s been a minute, you will need the Second Edition Core Rulebook to play this adventure which will run you an additional $20 for the PDF version or $70 for the print version. For you dice goblins out there, the Warframe store has a beautiful 7-piece dice set with a matching dark blue tray themed for this adventure you can pre-order for $40. And for those who love playing online, this whole experience can be enjoyed via Roll20 with ease.
