Cosmic Crit is a Starfinder Actual Play Podcast, following the story of Paizo's "Dead Suns" adventure path, with varying amounts of homebrew content interspersed between the prewritten adventures. Starring several members of the podcast "The More You Nerd", it tacks between comedy, drama and action.
The Players and their characters are:
- Drew, playing Gnak Sizrak, an Ysoki Envoy
- Gibert, playing ANDIS-147, an Android Mechanic
- Myles, playing Rami, a human Technomancer
- Rebecca, playing Alyndra Vallis, a Lashunta Solarian
- Tyler, playing Edrass Veranis, a Vesk Soldier
The show has been going since mid 2017, and can be found here
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Cosmic Crit contains examples of:
- Ace Custom: The Drift Rider, formerly the Sunset Maiden, was a 100 year old ship the crew found on a mysterious asteroid. Previously belonging to a famous missing explorer, they retrofit it multiple times to their needs.
- Ace Pilot: Rami pilots the Drift Rider, having learned to pilot spacecraft on his homeworld of Verces. Mechanically, he also has the Ace Pilot Theme.
- Adventurer Archaeologist: The crew take on this role exploring the lost Temple of the Twelve on the jungle continent of Yucalan. They even have the journal of another Adventurer Archaeologist with slightly less competence and knowledge to guide them.
- AI Is A Crap Shoot: So far averted. The Drift Rider's artificial intelligence has so far not attemped anything untoward towards the crew.
- Androids Are People, Too: Various characters are Androids, including ANDIS-147. They are fully sapient, and explicitly have souls. This doesn't stop some from using them as slaves, of course.
- Back from the Dead: Ralkawli is brought back to life by the Church of Sarenrae in exchange for Edrass's conversion to Sarenrae worship
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The big bad for book 3, Zera Vesh, had brainwashed Rami's family into causing a genocide through weapons testing
- Break Out the Museum Piece: ANDIS is gifted a truly ancient Kish weapon, an advanced weapon from a destroyed civilisation. It still hits harder then anything else ANDIS has at the time.
- Combat Medic: Andis is trained in medicine and can treat wounds given time. Gnak on the other hand can restore the others stamina using his Inspiring Boost ability.
- Con Man: Gnak is introduced swindling a Contemplative into purchasing a trash compactor that he claims is beach front property. Impressive when one remembers that Contemplatives can read minds.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Astral Extractions definitely count. So are the Quindarr family, as Rami later reveals. Clan Feldspar also become this in episode 35, but for them, it's a step up.
- Defector from Decadence: Rami left his home and family when he learned they had initiated a genocide at colony world they were administrated. He publicly revealed their crimes and went on the run
- Easy Evangelism: Edrass agrees to be baptised into the Sarenrite faith in exchange for Ralkawli's resurrection as well as learning that his former pirate symbol was a copy of one used by a great champion of Sarenrae in the past. He embraces the religion wholeheartedly in order to understand his new life.
- Fire Purifies: Edrass's baptism as a Sarenrite involves being literally set on fire with a special oil to symbolically burn away past sins.
- Gadgeteer Genius: ANDIS-147, as a Mechanic, is this by default.
- Gravity Master: One of the Alyndra's powers is the ability to manipulate Gravity, increasing her skill at climbing, as well as giving her the ability to form a miniature black hole that pulls enemies towards her
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Alyndra, along with many female Lashunta, fits this trope.
- Hollywood Acid: Edrass takes a dip in this at one point. Rami can also generate it and use it offensively with his Caustic Conversion spell
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: ANDIS-147 enters a portion of his mind that houses all of his previous incarnations, going all the way back to ANDIS-1
- Libation for the Dead: The crew and their Starfinder contact pour one out for their dead recruiter.
- Long Lost Sibling: Alyndra learns in the dreaming pool that she has a sister she never knew, who may be only in her brain. It's currently unclear
- Magitek: Rami's class, the Technomancer, merges technology and magic to create powerful effects
- The Mafia: Clan Feldspar, till They go legit in episode 35
- Mob War: The Crew end up caught up in one of these early on in the campaign.
- Musical Episode: Episode 100 includes one filk song from each cast member.
- Our Goblins Are Different: The crew pick a pair of goblins who belonged to a sect of philosopher goblins after their leader was eaten by an Akata. They are...helpful?
- Poor Communication Kills: Due to their inability to speak to the native Kish in their language, the crew are forced to kill some members of the tribe in self-defense.
- Playing with Fire: Alyndra's Solarian abilities can manifest in the form of wreathing herself in fire before launching herself at the enemy, leaving trails of fire behind her or just exploding.
- The Prophecy: The philosopher goblins leader had a vision of the 5 characters coming together in order to prevent a great evil.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Despite being abandoned for centuries, possibly for millenia, the facilities and buildings of the Ancient Kish are in pretty good shape, with several machines that work, even if they're glitching a bit. ANDIS-147's body is apparently millenia old, predating the Reign of Stars on Old Golarion.
- Running Gag: Monsters that inject their young into you, and Edrass becoming "Pregnant"
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Goblins prophecy only seems to be fulfilled because the goblins manipulated the Starfinder Society into putting them all on a team together.
- Shock and Awe: Several of Rami's spells deal Electricity damage, from Jolting Surge to the more powerful Arcing Surge he learns later.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: ANDIS takes the opportunity to brutally, immediately kill the man who had enslaved him and many other androids, torturing them for his own sick amusement. by book five, he's back from the dead, commanding a space ship trying to stop the Crew.
- Space Pirates: Edrass used to be one, before his crew mutinied and abandoned him. The crew run into some in episode 30 ANDIS-145, a previous incarnation of Gibert's character, was one, complete with a robo-peg leg
- Technopathy: Andis-147 has the ability to mentally hack into computers and robots with their Exocortex.
- That Man Is Dead: When rejoining Clan Feldspar, Gnak chooses not to return to his name of Zek, saying that Zek is who he was, but Gnak is who he has become
- The Captain: Edrass used to be this to his pirate crew. After the groups first ship is lost, Edrass refuses to captain again till he gets his original ship back. Alyndra becomes the Captain going forward.
- Weapon Specialization: Edrass's primary weapon is his Doshko, a vesk weapon somewhere between an axe and a spiked hammer. Then he upgrades it to a Flame Doshko, which has fire jets where the spikes were.
- You All Meet in an Inn: The first time the Crew all meet is in the HUD bar on Absalom Station.
- Your Days Are Numbered: ANDIS-147 is reaching the end of their life cycle, when their soul will depart their body and be replaced.
